Ding Dong- O’Neill critical of Keane for World Cup walk out
The early days of June 2002 were dominated by updates from Saipan as Keane’s participation in the tournament was thrown into doubt.
After various complaints about the preparation criticising Mick McCarthy and the FAI Keane returned to the UK with the story still dominating headlines 11 years later.
Yesterday O’Neill was introduced to the media by the FAI but it’s the ‘dream-team’ combination of O’Neill and Keane that is under scrutiny rather than the playing squad or hopes for the Euopean Championships in France 2016.
O’Neill rarely gives direct answers but didn’t hang about when asked about his new assistant walking away from the 2002 World Cup Finals.
“If you’re going back to Saipan, way back in that time, I would have to say that my own view at that time, is that I would have disagreed with Roy,” the new Ireland manager said.
“I would have felt that, having qualified for the World Cup, it doesn’t come around too often – for some great players it has never come at all – and here was this opportunity.
“I thought that would have been, regardless of what Roy would have felt about it before, this was a chance to participate in a World Cup and for a great player, even more so, from that viewpoint. So I would have had a disagreement with that.”
Looking at what he can bring to the Irish side O’Neill added: “All you will get from me is ferocious enthusiasm and hopefully a little bit of know-how and we can hope that somewhere along the way we wouldn’t suffer the misfortune that befell the Irish side way back when France qualified. I will give absolutely everything I have, that is all I can promise.”