Kerr: What A Scorcher!

TWO GOALS from Big Cas may be all it takes to send George Hamilton into paroxysms of delight but for the more discerning spectator, the Republic's 2-1 victory in Vilnius had a distinctly hollow ring to it. Never mind that it was against a nation whose previous claim to international footballing fame was giving Estonia a spanking - only four days earlier we d seen the Boys In Green go to Iceland and put on their most inept display since that excruciating afternoon in Liechtenstein.
Probing runs from defence, swift passing movements, surging attacks . . . none of those had any part in a game plan that was dictated from the start by Mick McCarthy's team selection. No disrespect to Kevin Kilbane and West Brom, but you don't blood an untested Nationwide Leaguer in a crunch World Cup qualifier when you ve got able-bodied Premiership players on the bench. And as for Gary Kelly suddenly being expected to morph into Andrei Kanchelskis, well, we really were into the realms of Fantasy Football.
I can't remember whether it was the fifth or six time Kilbane lost possession when it was said, but it certainly summed the mood up in The International Bar: Why the fuck can't they play like the Under-20s?
We mustn't get carried away with the superlatives but there were times during Ireland's World Youth Tournament odyssey when, to borrow a phrase from the Oakwell, it was just like watching Brazil. Curiously, the Ireland youths manager Brian Kerr now admits to having had about a 10% expectation of making it out of the qualifying group in the finals.

"That wasnt based on the quality of the talent we had at our disposal," he stresses, "but our preparation which - compared to the countries we were up against - was fairly poor. The Chinese had been in Brazil for two years playing as a team in one of their leagues. The American squad had been together for six months and, in fact, had come here and beaten a National League Under-21 selection 3-1. Then, of course, there was Ghana who were African champions and really like watching Brazil. Add to that the heat and humidity in Malaysia which they, as non-Europeans, would be more used to and, yeah, we were up against it."

CRAFTY PINT

While his C.V. is bereft of cross-channel experience, Brian Kerr is known as a man who can take the most average of League of Ireland teams and, by nurturing the right mix of flair and organisation, turn them into trophy winners. Asked if there were any positives to go with the pre-Malaysia negatives, he immediately mentions the free hand he's been given by the FAI.

"People were surprised I was playing 4-4-2 when Mick was going with 3-5-2 but, as he said to me, 'I may be changing that in six months, so stick to the system that works best for you.' The only thing he directly asked me to do was to make sure that we pass it, which is precisely what I want from the team myself.

"To be honest with you," he confides, "if he had tried to impose tactics on me, I'd have walked - the same way Liam Tuohy did when Jack Charlton came in. He'd been running the youths with myself and Noel O'Reilly for five years and generally done quite well.

"Anyway, it's the home game against Iceland in a competition that had already seen us beat England and draw with Scotland, and Liam invites Jack to come and say a few words beforehand in the dressing-room. He was expecting a 'good luck lads, we'll be keeping an eye on you,' but, instead, Charlton starts dictating the game-plan. Worse still, he came in again at half-time and started having a go at the players for not getting the ball up the pitch fast enough. Having spent five years encouraging them to pass, Liam thought about it and resigned on the way home."

As if to underline the point, a fortysomething businessman walks across the hotel bar we're in and rigorously shaking his hand, thanks Kerr for doing what Jack Charlton never did and playing good football. A bit unduly harsh on Jack, perhaps, but a sentiment that isn't entirely without foundation.

"I'm sorry to say it but while Jack was there, I wouldn't have crossed the road to see the youths. Aesthetically, there was absolutely nothing in it for me and, what's more, I felt the players weren't being treated as Irish people should've been treated in that set-up.

"What do I mean by that? Well, I don t think there was any great fatherly influence in the way the team was being run. I'd also not generally be in favour of digging up players' grannies to see if they have a shamrock tattooed on their chest. I've had a couple of situations where I've had lads say to me, 'If I don't get an England call-up in the next six months, I'll get back to you'
- which to my mind is out of fucking order. They either want to play for Ireland or they don't."

If that sounds like Brian Kerr having an aversion to cockney accents in green shirts, it's not. Tony Cascarino and Andy Townsend are both included in his list of great servants for this country. As it turned out, most of the youngsters he took to Malaysia were Irish-born, and in no need of a patriotic gee-up.

"After the first match, I said, 'I tell you what, that was a fair performance.' Okay, Ghana beat us 2-1 but we played some lovely stuff and were genuinely unlucky not to get a draw. Going into the second game, America were cock-a-hoop at beating China with a goal in the last minute and in their mind's eye they were through to the next stage - which suited us fine. Confidence is a good thing but these guys were being arrogant and I felt a genuine sense of satisfaction when we turned them over.

"After that, it was down to the China match which we needed and got a draw from. I've been asked: was there a particular moment when everything came good? And the answer to that is, no, the confidence and resilience in the squad grew as we went along. I didn't have to patrol the hotel corridors at night, nobody was going to sneak off for a crafty pint. All they did was sleep and eat and play football.

"I'd have been quite happy to settle for top 16 in the world," he admits, "but the lads just kept getting better and better and, in the end, we were disappointed not to go all the way. That said, reaching the semi-finals was an incredible achievement which RTE eventually decided was worthy of coverage. To be fair to them, Eurosport had the rights and the money they were asking for at first was silly."

ROLE MODELS

Which brings us to the nitty gritty of how young Irish talent is best developed. For all of his previous involvement in the Bord Gais League, Kerr concedes that to make the international grade at the moment, players need to go overseas.

"It's important that clubs like Shelbourne, Derry, Sligo and, yeah, St. Pat's get applauded for raising the standard of the domestic game but to take it to the level where one of their players is genuinely able to push for a place in the Irish side, they're going to have to go full-time," he reflects. "I was in Iceland recently - one of the smallest countries in Europe - and all of the managers and coaches in their First Division are working solely at football.

"The basic schoolboy structure in Ireland produces very good competitive players at the expense, I would say, of skill. There's too much interest in winning cups and leagues at the stage when youngsters should be looking to improve their technique, not their physical presence. It's a bit of a cure-all to point at Ajax and say, that's the way to do it - but they keep getting those brilliant 17 and 18-year-olds from somewhere.

"You only have to look at Tony Sheridan and Dessie Baker - both playing now with Shels after being released by their Premiership sides - to see that not all young talent gets the nurturing it needs cross-channel.

"As long as it's got good structure and stable management, I'd prefer to see a fellow go to a First or Second Division club where they've a realistic chance of getting their game every Saturday. I'm not sure if Tony's situation is quite the same but Dessie was sitting there in the Manchester United A team, going further and further down the pecking order as they splashed-out on new players. You ve got a situation now before the season even starts where Premiership managers are deemed to have failed if they haven't made five big signings. That doesn't help our lads one bit."

Kerr cites Martin O'Neill as somebody who refuses to follow that particular trend, a manager who's able to spot talent that others have overlooked and discarded and mould it into part of a winning side.

"They won the Coca-Cola Cup and came ninth in the league on a budget that would buy you one Ravanelli or half-a-Shearer," he enthuses. "If one of my lads had the chance to go to Filbert Street at the moment, I'd nearly drive them there myself. Otherwise, I'd advise them to take a look at clubs like Peterborough United where Barry Fry has a wonderful coaching staff and isn't afraid to put teenagers in the first team. It's a great shop-window for players.

"Tony McDonnell, Aidan Lynch and Mike O'Byrne at UCD. Eddie Gormley, Thomas Morgan and Trevor Molloy at Pat's. The lads we've been talking about and Stephen Geoghan at Shels. There are a lot of fellows playing at home who aren't that far away from making a breakthrough and what we should be doing is developing a masterplan whereby they can go full-time in the League of Ireland and realise their potential."

If role models are required, Brian Kerr reckons we should look at Scandinavian clubs like Gothenburg and Rosenberg, who used to be first-round fodder but now regularly make it through to the final stages of the European competitions.

"In Norway, they won't pick anyone for the international team if they leave the country before they're 18. In other words, they're staying at home, trickling into the first team and after helping their club win a few games in the UEFA Cup or whatever, moving abroad for stg1 million transfers, which are then used to pay the full-time wages of the lads coming up behind them.

"I can understand why the FAI are so set on the idea of a national ground but, to be honest, I'd prefer to see a chunk of that money being pumped into the Bord Gais League, so that clubs can go full-time. As standards improve, so will attendances and once you ve got 10,000 people going to games, the TV companies will start taking an interest. If that sounds fanciful, just consider how far Bran and Brondby have gone in the past 15 years, regularly beating the likes of Liverpool."

WORLD CLASS

While fully accepting its shortcomings, Kerr's hackles are raised when the likes of Eamon Dunphy start describing the LoI as a Mickey Mouse league.

"He didn't call it that when, along with Paddy Mulligan, John Giles and Ray Treacy, he came back from England to play in it," he charges. "They tried to go full-time at Shamrock Rovers which failed because they didn't really understand how the league worked. They'd been away from it too long. You also had the problem of other clubs not rowing in with them. For any meaningful changes to occur, standards have to be raised across the board.

"The obvious reason for Eamon being so dismissive of a revamped League of Ireland is that he's part of the attempt to bring Wimbledon here. I don't see all the lovely positive things coming from it that he does. Anybody who thinks that the Dublin Dons - or whatever they intend calling themselves - will have more Irish players on their books than your Southamptons or your West Ham Uniteds, is being naive."

He may feel it inappropriate to single individuals out for praise but judging by the number of times Damien Duff's name gets namechecked during our conversation, it's obvious that Kerr sees the Blackburn winger going all the way. With the senior Republic side so obviously in need of an overhaul, there's a case for arguing that we'd almost be better off not qualifying for the World Cup.

"What, clear out the old guard and not have to worry about results for a while? Nah, it doesn't work like that. I can't believe that people are criticising Mick McCarthy for not giving youngsters a chance when he's brought David Connolly, Keith O'Neill, Gary Breen and half-a-dozen others into the squad. Whether you think he's wrong or right, he's also been brave enough to go against public opinion and leave out the likes of Paul McGrath and John Alridge.

"In terms of developing players," he proffers, "I'd rather see Ireland go to France and lose all of its matches than stay at home and play meaningless friendlies. To improve, they need that competitive environment."

Far more pertinent to Kerr's role at the moment is whether there'll be an Irish presence at the 2002 World Cup in Japan?

"Because they're Under-20s rather than Under-18s, I think it's safe to say that four or five of the lads I had in Malaysia will go on to become regulars in the senior side and, depending on what path their careers take, a couple could be world class.

"To be honest with you," he concludes, "I'm more interested in the 2006 World Cup and the kids in the schoolboy leagues now that are going to get us there."