Mick McCarthy and a mini-bus load of his blazered employees gather in Ghent tomorrow for the draw that will define the fate of Irish soccer international soccer in the near future. With no national soccer stadium yet built, and with the World Cup having withered from being a four-yearly celebration of national hypnosis to the summer's chief televisual distraction, it would be tempting to inspect the glass and pronounce it half empty. Tempting but unfair. For once the blazers deserve their brief junket. If it has always been a truism to say that the Irish management job to get is the one after the one vacated by Jack Charlton, well then at least Mick McCarthy and others have ensured that the lustre of that post grows continually.
Last week's disappointment at the failure of the FAI to lure Bryan Hamilton away from the maw of a couple of personal problems and the comforts of everyday football life should not disguise the excellent and enlightened work being got through at present. The appointment of Hamilton (Packie Bonner now seems the likely favourite for the post) as technical director might at last have satisfactorily filled the gap left by the accomplished Joe McGrath when he headed to New Zealand during the last great FAI heave.
Since then Bernard O'Byrne has brought a quiet assurance to the FAI and at last the association seems to be functioning smoothly at all levels of international endeavour, a welcome change from the iceberg policy of the Charlton era when the portion visible above water was watched carefully and the portion below water was ignored until eventually that carelessness sunk us.
The importance of the development of those players who are somewhere between bouncy castles and regular shaving cannot be emphasised enough. If there is a an investment policy in Irish soccer it comes in the shape of the time and money spent on youth players.
Brian Kerr, the messiah in an anorak who looks after all the players from 18 years of age downwards, remembers a time during his previous involvement at this level, 15 years ago, when Ireland had usually eight or nine players at under-18 level playing in England. These went straight into youth panels by virtue of the fact that they were in England and the remainder of the panel was made up with Irish youngsters hoping to catch the eye. Over the Christmas period Kerr held three separate get-togethers for the players he looks after. Thirty-six under-16s, 36 under17s, and 36 under-18s. Of course, there were a few missing through injury and he only gathered the guys who were home for Christmas. The kids with English accents and Irish passports went home to their Mams and Dads in Kilburn and other immigrant pockets. This teeming abundance of young talent both pleases and worries him. The eruption of money and hype which has changed the topography of the Premiership has also altered football philosophy.
"You don't know how many of them will ever play first-team football. The solution these days in England isn't to give the 18year-old from Galway a run when things get bad, the solution is to throw in a new £5 million Italian."
In the long term, Kerr feels that the whole business of exporting young soccer players on the hoof to England will have to be looked at. Irish resources must be mustered and possibly we must cease looking at England as the first and only destination for young footballers.
"There is a big job to be done and a dramatic change in everyone's thinking to get us where a situation where we can to persuade kids to stay. There is so much media hype about the Premiership. I see parents who live their lives through the idea of their kids getting a trial, or people asking how their kids are doing at such and such a club. It gives the parents respect. Not a lot of realism in that.
"There is a responsibility on us in the FAI to find an alternative for young fellas at 15. I don't want to hear kids anymore feeling that if they haven't got away at 16 or 17 they haven't made it."
All that, the creation of an Irishbased academy of excellence with regional off-shoots and links to European clubs, is some way off. For the meantime, Kerr, Ian Evans and others must work within the constraints of an imperfect system. Players as young as 15 may spend afternoons cleaning boots and washing down dressing-rooms, but overall their development is well monitored.
"My impression of it is that they are quite well treated, clubs are genuine in trying to make them into decent fellas as well. There is an awareness about their overall welfare which wouldn't have always been there in the past. They don't bash them towards the gates of the university, of course, but it's a business thing I suppose. The lads seem to be happy. Treated fairly, and in good spirits.
"The days are long for them and it's easy to see how they could get to be good at snooker or backing horses, but no matter what you say they don't exactly be jumping up and down about the prospect of going to school. Maybe it's a cultural thing. Fellas who play football aren't going to get hundreds of points in the Leaving Cert. Football is the main chance. Not many come through from Foxrock and Shankill and Killiney. The places we get players from are Coolock, Tallaght, Brookfield, those places. They're not worrying about getting on to University Challenge teams. It's worth the risk to them to give it a few years anyway."
There are risks. It's a topsy-turvy world over there.
In the Stadium of Light in Sunderland, two spotty faces belong to a couple of 15-year-olds away from home. Clifford Byrne and Thomas Butler are both injured at the moment, the latter downed by fallen arches which will hold him back for the best part of this season.
Maybe their peers will pass them out, maybe their names won't jump into Peter Reid's mind next time the apprenticeships are being renewed. They are fortunate in that Sunderland have lured Pop Robson away from Manchester United to look after players of this age. Occasionally they get to train and play with the first-team players, mostly the contact with the stars is through running messages for them. They look a little lost padding about inside their tracksuits. In five years time they might be superstars.
Most of the young Irish talent is spread in clusters around a series of clubs. Liverpool, Manchester United, Everton, Forest, Leeds, Wolves, Sunderland, Boro, Newcastle, Arsenal, Tranmere, Blackburn, Scunthorpe, and six more of them up at Celtic in Glasgow.
Well five of them at Celtic, one missing, not in action. He came home for his birthday four months ago and never went back. The club rate him highly enough to wait out his homesickness.
The orientation and emphasis is changing, even in England. A group of clubs have formed a youth Premiership this season and Blackburn, Manchester United and Liverpool look like giving it the final seal of approval next summer by joining it.
Irish players are seen as a good investment.
"It seems to trouble them when they make harsh decisions about Irish fellas," says Kerr. "Scouts and youth officers all talk about the interest the Irish fellas families take in them. They make good leaders.
"Clubs are investing, employing youth staff, building hostels for players to stay in. Leeds have a very disciplined set-up. The lads have been top class, discipline wise. McPhail, Maybury, Lynch, Donnelly. No phonecalls after 10 at night. Well looked after. Great training for them."
It makes a change from being shunted into the spare bedroom of old women running digs. They are reputed always to be mad or deaf or harridans. Padraig Drew, Deane Delaney, Gary Dempsey and Richard Dunne were looking for a move of residence at Everton last time anyone heard from them.
There are problems, but Brian Kerr is pleasantly surprised at how many of the boys have got one foot through the crack in the door towards success. Somebody is doing something right.
