No place for nice guys in management

Watching France play Portugal last week in the European Championships should have been a cracker. Two giants of International football, packed with the world’s biggest stars on display.

Knockout football. All the ingredients for a right tussle. Unfortunately the reality couldn’t have been more different. It was another terrible match in what has been a tournament with plenty of them on offer.

To their credit, France did show more ambition, but it was thwarted by a Portugal side tucking in as tight as their border line with Spain. It wasn’t helped, either, with them effectively playing with 10 men for more than 70 minutes.

The man-down in question? One Cristiano Ronaldo. Arguably once the greatest in the world, depending on your opinion, his inclusion in the team is no longer on merit, but down to legacy. Any other player in his boots was getting the curly finger after 60 minutes, so little was his impact as a striker. 

But Portugal clearly lacked a manager with enough bottle to make the call. Roberto Martinez, and everyone else in the world, knows that dropping Ronaldo or even substituting him would most definitely lead to a baby-rolling-around-on-the-floor-style tantrum.

Such is Ronaldo’s influence in the squad, if he is unhappy then it would spell trouble for the man in charge. That’s adversity Martinez wasn’t willing to face. Too weak to make the call, Martinez kept Ronaldo on the field ahead of the likes of Bruno Fernandez, while Diego Jota warmed the bench. 

He scored a penalty in the shootout but did not press, defend or link play and consistently insisted on taking free kicks when his conversion rate was dreadful. Not to mention missing Portugal’s best chance to win the game deep into extra time.

Ronaldo has consistently delivered so much for his country and for Martinez in the past. You can understand his loyalty, to a point. But at that level of football you expect a manager to be able to make ruthless decisions that are ultimately in the best interests of the team. He failed and Portugal were sent packing.

Manchester United manager Eric ten Hag faced the same dilemma in his first year in the biggest and most criticised management job in the world. He put his head on the block and made a hugely difficult decision in dropping Ronaldo. It was, without doubt, the best decision for the team.

Ronaldo threw the toys out of the pram, tried his best to sabotage ten Hag’s job with a poorly received interview conducted under his glorified PR agent, Piers Morgan, but faced spectacular backfire from his once die-hard loyal United supporters. Martinez would have received similar support in Portugal had he done the same but lacked the cutting edge to do it.

I have no doubt the Portugal players wouldn’t have been lining up to support Ronaldo either, despite their respect and admiration for him. Because no one comes before the team. And no one should. But this tournament has shown that Ronaldo and his legacy has.

The situation throws up a wider argument around player-manager loyalty and equally, when legacy blinds rational. We don’t have to look too far in the GAA to see similar situations.Back in 2010 when Mayo suffered a shock defeat to Longford in the Championship there was a similar feeling. Players were hanging on a bit too long.

But it takes a lot of courage for managers to come into a team and drop the experienced and long-standing statesmen. He risks a hell of a lot by doing so. One player can drive disharmony in a dressing room and once that happens, a manager will never recover. James Horan, to his credit, was never afraid to make tough decisions.

He consistently favoured unproven and young players over established names coming to the latter stages of his career. The Ballintubber man upset people along the way but he was fearless and cut-throat in how he handled it. If you weren’t happy, you could leave. 

Kevin McStay is going to have similarly tough decisions coming his way next season. Aidan O’Shea and Cillian O’Connor are not going to be happy sitting on a bench for most of the season but the signs are there from the past two years that one of them will have to. Maybe the two - who knows. But the facts are that both still have a huge amount to offer to Mayo.
And keeping them happy, hungry and motivated is going to be a tough balancing act that will need a lot of rational and strategic thinking from the Mayo management over the next one-two years. 

Loyalty, or an unwillingness to potentially upset the camp, cannot come into the fray, and this columnist doesn’t believe it will. The same happens in every club across the county too. Players will naturally stay involved longer than inter-county football. 

They have built a lot of influence and respect within the team and incoming management teams know that, particularly internal managers. 

Typically they are going to need them at some stage in the season, but probably not all the time. 

Most clubs don’t have huge panels, that’s why they encourage them to stay involved. 

They constantly have to try and keep the players happy, as well as win games. 

But that can backfire when the tough decision needs to be made in the best interest of the team.

And they will, considering there is only 15 lads that can line out. 

Club football is a results based game just like inter-county. 

Management want to, and have to, win. 

When the pressure comes on, these tough decisions become even bigger in magnitude.

And more difficult to make.