Martin O'Neill press conference: report

It was something we hadn’t seen for a long time – an Ireland manager bantering in public with one of his players and charming the metaphorical pants off the assembled press corps.

He hasn’t presided over a single moment of actual football yet but yesterday at his final press conference at The Aviva before the Latvia game, Martin O’Neill exuded both bonhomie and confidence. Check out Graham Keogh's full gallery of photos here.

“I don’t want the players to treat these games like friendlies,” he stressed. “It’s a bit like I treat pre-season. Pre-season with players I knew was a matter of getting fit and doing tactical work. If I was going into a football club for the first time then every game became important because I had to make judgement on players. I feel the same for these matches coming up.

“They may not be competitive in terms of picking up a point or two but they are important,” he continued. “There will be an element of experimentation. I’d like to give those who don’t play tomorrow some time against Poland. I’d like us to press reasonably high up the pitch if we can. We will try to play with a bit of drive, enthusiasm, determination; all the things I’m hoping you would expect from this side.”

What footballing balm that was for our ears!

Reflecting on the potential pitfalls of his new job, O’Neill added: “I’m well aware this is the ten-minute honeymoon period you get. I see this all too often; a new manager comes in and a couple of the players that haven’t participated in recent times say, ‘Life is great again. Absolutely fantastic.’ The same players are in the reserves a fortnight later, so nothing changes.

“I left a club and some player interviewed said, ‘The manager had his favourites.’ Yes, I did. They were generally the best players! Trapattoni did brilliantly; he’s been a great manager all his life. Slightly better than Di Canio. That was just to make you laugh!”

Chuckling along with the rest of us was Robbie Keane who confirmed that contrary to rumours of a Premier League return he’s on the verge of signing a new deal with LA Galaxy – one of the reasons being that he doesn’t think his body can stand the rigours of a full EPL season.

“I want to play as long as I can, but I’m not daft,” he reflected. “If for some reason my legs are gone, I’ll pack it in but if anybody feels I can help them now until the Euros… All I can do is keep playing well and scoring goals.”

There were more laughs when the gaffer chipped in, “I’d love to have a 23-year-old Robbie Keane instead of a 64-year-old Robbie Keane! I’d dissuade him from management. Play as long as you can and then think about management.”

That advice comes too late, with Keane revealing that when the opportunity arises he’ll be taking his coaching badges with a view to one day donning the sheepskin.

Press conference over, it was on to the Aviva pitch for some light training with smiles on everybody’s faces including Roy Keane’s who looked as relaxed as O’Neill. Let’s hope they’re still happy campers come 9.30pm (plus injury time) tonight.

Tickets for tonight’s game, which hotpress.com will be tweeting from, are still available priced €20 for adults and a tenner for children. Check back here tomorrow for a full photo gallery of the action.