Some years ago a late night conversation began over a beer or two at the tail-end of a Soccer Writers awards banquet with the manager of a well known Dublin club - and the opportunity arose to discuss the perils of his chosen profession.

It wasn’t a very positive discussion. We decided, based on both personal experience and hard historical evidence, that one of us was going to get sacked in the near future, most probably the one with the professional coaching licence from UEFA.

We were right. Within six months, my beer buddy was back on the market and he did, as so often is the case when a football manager is sacked, pick up another job fairly quickly.

That position’s gone as well now - as expected in a business where the only certainties are taxes and professional death. So the most recent time we met, as we reminisced on that previous conversation, we changed the subject and started to talk about the idea of bringing League of Ireland football to a county still awaiting a League of Ireland club.

The idea intrigued us both so much that we even began to speculate around home venues, training grounds, staff and players. And we almost fell out over my friend’s potential to be the manager of the first League of Ireland side to represent his native county.

Why? Because I told him, as the notional chairperson of said new club, that he wasn’t going to be appointed manager purely for his own sake, even though he would be the outstanding candidate.

Why you might ask? Because we would have to sack him and he’d probably fall out with me.

Somewhere along the line he would lose a few matches, lose the dressing-room, lose the supporters, lose the investors and the board and lose his job.

So instead of appointing him as manager of this fictional new club, I appointed him as his county’s first Director of Football and handed him the power to sack the manager - a much safer opportunity with far better job security.

It makes sense when you think about it. At most clubs, the sporting director hires and fires without ever coming under the level of scrutiny from so many sources that affects every manager.

Most Sporting Directors will outlive various managers over the course of their careers. They are closeted from the immediate impact of results, they are protected from dressing room squabbles and some of them will have very little inter-action with their club’s fan base.

The life of a Sporting Director is relatively safe. The life of a manager is in permanent danger.

Alan Reynolds will know that much as he prepares to take Bohemians to Dundalk tonight for game 16 of their League of Ireland Premier Division season.

Last weekend, Reynolds was in charge as Bohs drew at home to Derry on the Friday night and at home to Shels on the Bank Holiday Monday.

A point against the Candystripes and a point against the Reds are never points to be sneezed at but that wasn’t much comfort to the Dalymount faithful, some of whom let the world know that they want Rennie out whenever he walked within earshot of the Jodi Stand.

Never mind that Bohs will shortly go into European action and get the chance to annoy Michael O’Leary with airport pints this summer. Never mind that Bohs were top of the league for much of the early part of this season or that Rennie has given Dawson Devoy the freedom to play himself into serious conversations about an Ireland cap.

None of that matters when results go against a manager. They all know that - my friend from that bar and the man in charge of Bohs tonight when the away fans will be only yards behind him at Oriel Park, not the best ground for a visiting manager to run the gauntlet.

Such is the nature of football that the manager’s reign will almost always end in tears. Very few get to leave of their own accord. Managers are never as good as their last result - they’re only as good as their next result as at least one LOI boss will discover again tonight. It is indeed a funny old game.

Damien Duff was waxing lyrically the other night about the great job Keith Andrews is going at Brentford and how impressed he was on a recent visit to the progressive London club.

He rightly praised the way his fellow Dubliner has surprised so many of his pre-season critics with his management skills since he was appointed from within as Thomas Frank’s successor last summer.

Andrews had never managed in his own right before becoming King Bee. Nothing he did under Stephen Kenny’s tutelage with Ireland suggested he would have this club dreaming of Europe this late in the Premier League season.

His initial appointment as a set-piece coach by Frank was probably never deemed a route to the manager’s office by anyone outside of Andrews’ inner circle if truth be told.

Yet Andrews is now doing a very, very admirable job in charge of the team sitting seventh in the Premier League table in the Conference League qualification spot and potentially just one place away from the Champions League depending on how Aston Villa fare in Europe.

The Andrews story, as Duffer acknowledged after his recent visit to Brentford and a behind the scenes look at what makes the team tick under their rookie boss, is to be celebrated.

So too is the fact that Duff left Ireland on his managerial scouting trip. So too is his admission, at last, that he may well indeed need to travel again to kickstart his own desire to return to the dug-out.

When he took Shels and the League of Ireland by storm, Duffer made one very regrettable claim that he could never manage any other team, not just in Ireland but in football.

It was an admirable declaration of love but a naïve one. No club will ever love a manager back in the same way - if he hadn’t transformed things around Tolka Park then the only certainty for club and manager would have been the sack.

As it happened, Duff quit on his own terms. He got out when it suited him. And now, it would appear, he wants back. He has the coaching bug again.

He deserves to be back. He deserves to coach and to manage at a higher level than the League of Ireland, at a higher level than the Ireland Under 17s - unless he takes that on an interim basis for their upcoming World Cup return.

Duffer the manager needs to get abroad. Maybe to England, maybe to the continent like his good friend Robbie Keane.

He needs to work again. Not because he has to but because he wants to - and because he deserves to.

Talking about it on Irish TV is good but it’s not enough. Virgin Media and Premier Sports have never appointed a football club manager. Never. They’ve talked the talk as they should but they have never walked the walk.

What Damien Duff did at Tolka Park was remarkable but it won’t get him a job in England or elsewhere on its own. They won’t be talking about Shels winning the league at Celtic where Duff is 40/1 to get their vacant manager’s job.

He’s 20/1 to take over at his old club Blackburn where they do remember him fondly, marginally ahead of Pep Guardiola to become Chelsea boss at 33/1, the club who idolised him as a player, and 33/1 to take the job at Watford where they throw managers to the wind like confetti. You won’t get short odds on him for any managerial role in England right now.

Duffer needs to follow the Keith Andrews lead now, even if that means taking a coaching role at a big club outside Ireland and working his way into the manager’s office.

It worked for Keith and it can work for Damien. He deserves that recognition. And by the way, he needs to stop saying he fell out with everyone he’s met in football along the way to his success at Shels - that’s part and parcel of the game.

He will fall out with more people in his next big job. The sooner the better.

RTE football pundit Alan Cawley drew some ire in recent days when he raised concerns around the standard of play in the League of Ireland Premier Division this season but there are times when the Sligo man deserves to be taken seriously.

There are other times of course when his opinion is just that - his opinion and only his opinion and not worth commenting on. That’s simply the fate that awaits anyone who comments on football in this world of modern day punditry and keyboard warriors.

I won’t bother reminding you what part of the human anatomy opinions are compared to. I’m sure you’re all well travelled enough to know what I am talking about.

But I will share my opinions with you on some recent Alan Cawley comments. I fully expect you to take them or leave them - and I will respect you and your own opinions whichever way you choose to go.

We will start with his concerns over the standard of play in the Premier Division of the LOI, the top level of football in this country.

Watching the Bohs v Derry City game from the comforts of the Jodi Stand on Friday night there were times when I agreed with Alan’s claim last week that the ‘quality of play’ in the League of Ireland is a ‘little bit concerning’. Many of the restless natives around me were clearly of the same mindset.

Granted, that view would not have held any water during the recent Shamrock Rovers v Bohs game at Tallaght Stadium but such was the stop-start nature of the flow of the football and the standard of passing on Friday night that I did find myself in Cawley’s corner on several occasions.

I was, to use his term, more than a little concerned about the fare offered by two of the teams still ranked as title contenders. Hopefully that concern will ease as the summer arrives and the pitches improve.

Then on Tuesday evening, listening to Alan on RTE’s drivetime sports show as I drove through Wicklow, I was in total agreement with the former Leeds United apprentice as he analysed the latest Ireland squad in the company of Marie Crowe and Keith Treacy.

I agreed when he suggested that Dara O’Shea is an Ireland captain in waiting and deserves the armband as one of the senior players going to Murcia later this week for the training camp and the friendly against Grenada.

And I completely agreed when both Alan and Keith urged us to give the younger players a break in what is essentially an experimental Ireland squad, particularly the Cork-born Benfica winger Jaden Umeh.

Jaden is only 18. He has yet to play for Benfica’s first team. He has yet to establish himself in the Ireland Under 21 squad even though he was one of the stars of Colin Healy’s side at the Under 17 World Cup finals in Qatar last year.

The RTE pundits even reminded us all on Tuesday evening that Jaden’s last game was for the Benfica Under 19 side. They warned that we have placed far too much expectation on young shoulders before with the likes of Troy Parrott and Aaron Connolly.

Thus they urged caution around Umeh and the other uncapped players in what is an Ireland B squad in everything but name, one without any players still involved in league or play-off action in England, Scotland or further afield.

Sure, there are times in life when it is good to throw caution to the wind but this isn’t one of them. Let’s all enjoy Spain for what it is - a training camp and a chance to reset after the disaster that was Prague.

Reading any more than that into what happens to Jaden Umeh and this latest Irish squad over the next two weeks is a waste of time. Jaden’s pace alone will give Heimir Hallgrimsson plenty of food for thought in Murcia but let’s not start picking him to start the Nations League in September just yet.

This week’s Spanish trip is the real start of his international football education. It is not a finishing school.

It’s the Thierry Henry factor that should drive the Arsenal players on tonight, the Arsene Wenger factor that should inspire Mikel Arteta to his finest hour.

The Gunners face Atletico Madrid at the Emirates with their Champions League hopes poised nicely after a 1-1 draw in the Spanish capital last week though the same can be said of .

Chaos has been a word widely used in many debates about the night of the three penalties in that first leg, two of which were converted into goals and one of which was awarded then overturned by our old and unwanted friend VAR.

And chaos is an appropriate word for a game that epitomised just why a place in a Champions League final has to be earned, whether you do it by scoring five goals or four in Paris or by restricting chances to a bare minimum in Madrid.

London provides the stage tonight followed by Munich tomorrow with Budapest the final destination on the last Saturday in May.

Arsenal haven’t been in a Champions League final since 2006 when they were beaten 2-1 by Barcelona at the Stade De France in their only appearance at that stage of the tournament and a game also remembered for the 18th minute dismissal of their goalkeeper Jens Lehmann.

Whilst many Gunners are fixated with the end of their 22-year wait for the Premier League crown, the European Cup remains a holy grail for the club.

To do that, they will need to take inspiration from any quarter they can tonight so let’s start with the history books.

Thierry Henry provided the assist for the Sol Campbell goal in that 2006 decider but his impact on Arsenal’s Champions League record is more far reaching than that. Henry holds two Arsenal CL records - the most appearances at 78 games and the most goals at 35 according to UEFA records.

Arsene Wenger was the coach for that 2006 loss to Barcelona and is the most successful Arsenal manager ever with 17 trophies to his name including three Premier Leagues and seven FA Cups.

What Henry and Wenger lack, what they are certain to have longed for in their impressive Arsenal careers, is a European success with the Gunners. Henry did win the Champions League with Barcelona in 2009 but never with a cannon on his shirt. Wenger managed in two Euro finals, the second being the 2000 UEFA Cup final loss to Galatasaray.

Atletico can point to similar inspirations tonight. The only club to have ever lost three Champions League finals, winning one is the over-riding ambition of their brilliant manager Diego Simeone who has reached four semi-finals but never won one.

So hunger and ambition will be a crucial factor this evening. There is no doubt that both teams possess the skill levels and the ability to win this game but motivation is going to be everything in the white hot intensity of battle at the Emirates.

The Arsenal players can do a Thierry Henry tonight and make it to the final, likewise Arteta can emulate Wenger and steer the Gunners to Budapest.

It’s how much they want to surpass Henry and Wenger’s Arsenal achievements that will really decide how far they go in this season’s Champions League - and the history books.

Victor Ozhianvuna and Dawson Devoy will know exactly where they stand in the international pecking order at the end of next week just by looking at the location of their seat, the faces all around them and the date on their ticket.

On Thursday next, Ireland’s B Specials will fly into Murcia from whatever part of the world they happen to be playing their football in as Heimir Hallgrimsson hosts a training camp in Spain that will include a friendly against Grenada, one of the islands in the West Indies.

The night after Ireland arrive in Spain, Bohemians will make the relatively short journey up the M1 to Dundalk while Shamrock Rovers have a bit of a longer trek West to undertake for their Premier Division fixture away to Galway United.

Coach travel is bound to feature on both days next week - it’s a question of which coach and in which country they sit that will tell us so much about the short term international aspirations of 17-year-old Victor and 24-year-old Dawson.

Their club managers clearly have no doubt that the absence of so many senior players from Heimir’s plans for Murcia - due to club commitments in the likes of the Premier League, the EFL play-offs and the Scottish Prem - should open a Spanish door for two of the best young players in the League of Ireland.

Reynolds has been saying as much for weeks about his creative playmaker Devoy, insisting that he won’t stand in the player’s way if the call does come.

That Reynolds, under pressure after a seven game run without a win after leading the league for so long, is prepared to do without his star man for games against Dundalk and Drogheda makes the gesture all the more worthy.

Likewise, it is clear that Bradley will let Victor go to Spain and miss games against Galway and then Dundalk if it means his teenager, already signed to Arsenal, has a chance of training, never mind playing with the Irish senior squad.

Bradley really talked up Ozhianvuna yesterday, saying that the Tallaght native offers something that no other player in any Irish squad, underage or adult, can offer. And he will know - he sees the youngster in training and on the field most days of every week.

He is also a manager who has worked with some of the best players in the modern Irish game, including current Hoops Jack Byrne and Graham Burke who have played senior international football for Ireland.

Reynolds worked extensively with Devoy when he was assistant manager to Jim Crawford with the Irish Under 21 side that lost out to Israel on penalties in a European Championship play-off so he too knows what makes an international footballer.

There are, of course, many options open to Hallgrimsson when he names his travelling squad on Tuesday and some players from the lower leagues in England that we have probably never heard of yet may make the grade and get to sit a Spanish exam.

That’s fine. The manager is paid to cast his net as far and as wide as he wants to in order to make sure we have the best players possible available for both the upcoming Nations League and the Euro 28 qualifying campaign.

But he should also cast his net close to home every so often. When Bradley criticised elements of the Irish international team set-up in the not too distant past, Hallgrimsson listened. He should listen again now - to Bradley and to Reynolds because Victor Ozhianvuna and Dawson Devoy deserve to fly off to sunny Spain next week.

Y Viva Espana as they say.

There were no such things as rules for what we commonly now call Association Football when Benjamin Franklin famously wrote that in this world nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes.

Mr Franklin penned that famous phrase in a letter, the historical equivalent of an email, back in 1789. He wrote it some 74 years before the first Laws of the Game were published and some 97 years before the establishment of the International Football Association Board to uphold such laws.

The very institution that is IFAB is back in the news this week after recommending to FIFA that players who cover their mouths when confronting opponents at the World Cup this summer should be red carded.

The proposal, adopted by IFAB in time for this summer’s tournament and to be discussed by FIFA at their Congress in Canada today, is a welcome one given some of the racist and homophobic abuse we have seen on the pitch in recent times.

Just last week, the Benfica winger Prestianni was handed a six game ban for homophobic behaviour towards Real Madrid’s Vinicius Jr during their Champions League game in Lisbon back in February. Vinicius Jr had claimed racist abuse on the night but that was downgraded to homophobia as UEFA took action last Friday.

We know IFAB won’t make any recommendations on VAR protocols when they sit down with the other FIFA big wigs in Canada today but they might get the chance to have a word or two with their European colleagues in between the lectures and the banquets.

And if they do, they might just look back at last night’s Champions League semi-final between Atletico and Arsenal in Madrid.

It was a game that ended 1-1 with all the talk afterwards about three penalties, two of them given and converted (to borrow a phrase from rugby) and one that was awarded then overturned after Dutch ref Danny Makkelie was called to the sideline for a review by the Video Assistant referee into the Hancke ‘foul’ on Eze.

As so often happens when the match official runs to see what the video official sees constantly on his television screen, Makkelie had a quick change of mind and rescinded said penalty, much to the ire of everyone from Mikel Arteta to Ian Wright to even Steven Gerrard.

Very few, aside from those with an Atletico affection, could agree with the decision to over-rule how Makkelie had reacted in real time. And not for the first time, a game of chess dressed up as the first leg of a Champions League semi-final was shrouded in controversy over a VAR decision.

Said controversy has dominated every headline since the final whistle blew last night and it will rumble on all the way to Tuesday night’s return in North London. Which is a real shame.

Sure, the game never matched the free-scoring love-in of PSG’s 5-4 win over Bayern Munich 24 hours earlier, but it was never going to do so with two managers hell bent on stifling any creativity from the opposition.

It was still a bloody good game of football with two penalties that were rightly given and one that should have stayed as a ‘given’ just as the referee’s instinct had told him in the first instance.

A VAR controversy was also probably always going to be a ‘given’ last night. We can’t seem to have an elite level game of football these days without someone bemoaning VAR.

Which makes me very glad that the FAI and the League of Ireland just don’t have the finances available right now to bring VAR into our domestic game.

They may well, in the not too distant future, do what their Northern Ireland colleagues are doing and start to trial a VAR Lite offering, the one turned down by Championship clubs of late.

But even that is a step too far if you ask me. Let’s go back to trusting our referees to make decisions of their own accord, even if they can make mistakes sometimes.

They are human after all and human mistakes are certainties - just like death and taxes.

The Haves served up a thrilling nine goal semi-final first leg in Paris last night while the Have-Nots get the chance to do the same in Madrid this evening - but not on equal terms.

The Haves, in case you were watching Coronation Street, are PSG and Bayern Munich who managed to entertain us with one of the great European matches at the Parc Des Princes, the home side just winning out on a 5-4 scoreline.

PSG led by three goals at one stage of a breathless performance from Dembele, Kvaratskhelia and Doue. Bayern produced a breathtaking late revival, capped off by a Luis Diaz goal inspired by a quite brilliant assist from that grandson of Galway, Harry Kane.

Between them, The Haves from Paris and Munich served up a treat that would have graced any European Cup final on any given day.

And I use the European Cup term deliberately, being of an age that remembers well when the tournament that we now ironically call the Champions League was restricted to the champions of each UEFA member state.

Founded in 1955 as the European Champions Club’s Cup but more commonly known as the European Cup, the competition was a just reward for being the best team in your country.

Alas, that all changed in 1998 when multiple entrants from member nations were allowed in to make even more money for themselves and UEFA while the champions from lower ranked leagues like the League of Ireland were forced to make do with the qualifying rounds.

That’s why I refer to last night’s protagonists as The Haves and tonight’s entertainers, Atletico Madrid and Arsenal, as The Have Nots.

PSG won the French title last season and are on their way to winning it again this term. Bayern Munich have already retained the Bundesliga crown for the 2025-26 season and remain on course for a treble.

Both PSG and Bayern are their national champions and played like it last night. Atletico were third in Spain last season when Arsenal finished runners-up, again, in England.

In my book, Atletico and Arsenal just shouldn’t be in the Champions League. The Europa League would be good enough for them just as the UEFA Cup was good enough for the title also-rans back in the day.

Would that make a difference to Irish clubs given that Shelbourne went out to Qarabaq from Azerbaijan in the qualifying rounds of the Champions League this season and Shamrock Rovers were knocked out by Sparta Prague last season? Maybe not.

Would television pay as much if only 55 champions played in the Champions League instead of the 82 teams from 53 countries who qualified for this current version of the competition? Probably not.

So Irish teams would lose out on valuable UEFA solidarity revenue if champions only played against other champions? Yes. But at least then the Champions League would actually live up to its own name. And the honour of representing your country would be earned by winning your national title - not by finishing sixth in the Premier League or fourth in Italy, Spain, Germany or France.

Will the competition ever revert back to former ways and make this grumpy old man happy? No. But at least the champions of France and the champions of Germany did the European Cup proud last night.

And maybe, Atletico and Arsenal will surprise me tonight by matching the intensity of the 5-4 Paris match. I doubt it but I’d love to be wrong.

For Harvey Vale, read David Kelly. For Jack Moylan, read Alan McLoughlin. For Grenada, read England. For Turner’s Cross in Cork, read the Enrique Roca Stadium in Murcia.

For the Republic of Ireland training camp in 2026, read the B Specials in 1990 and a friendly thumping of the Old Enemy’s second string at a jam-packed Cross in the People’s Republic.

Such was the nature of the Irish B team’s 4-1 win, over an England side captained by Tony Adams, in the March before the World Cup heroics in Italy, that many people got carried away, both then and afterwards.

Indeed the Cork Examiner, as it was in those days but known as the Irish Examiner by the time the 30th anniversary came around, even claimed that the footballing highlight of 1990 occurred in Cork and not Genoa. And they were, by their own admission, only half joking!

So what you are wondering has any of this got to do with the Heimir Hallgrimsson squad and the start of the post-Prague era for Irish football?

Well, Ireland are off to the Spanish city of Murcia on Thursday week for a 10 day training camp that will include a friendly fixture against Grenada. This is a B international in everything but name.

The most famous B international in Irish football history was that 4-1 win against England in 1990, a game that offered future options to Jack Charlton in the guise of the aforementioned McLoughlin, Terry Phelan and Denis Irwin.

Of those three, McLoughlin made the squad for Italia ‘90 as a last minute replacement for Gary Waddock. That late decision was made by Big Jack after McLoughlin’s match winning performance when Swindon won the Division Two (now the Championship) play-off final against Sunderland at Wembley. Macca scored that day and convinced Jack that the promise he had seen in Cork was no fluke, even if it meant ditching Waddock rather cruelly.

Likewise, Niall Quinn and David Kelly were already established as fringe players before they joined McLoughlin on the scoresheet in Turner’s Cross. Their performances that day, against Tony Adams and Andy Linighan, merely confirmed their seats on the plane to Italy.

There’s no World Cup on the horizon when Ireland touch down in Murcia on Thursday week, May 7th. There will also be no players from the Premier League, the EFL play-offs or the Scottish Premier for example so Heimir’s squad, to be announced next Tuesday, will be dominated by Championship and League One players, like Vale and Moylan.

Vale has already worn the Irish shirt and will do so again in Spain. Moylan, an Aviva Stadium season ticket holder for Ireland games as a kid, will surely do so against the so-called Spice Boys of the West Indies who represent Grenada.

They won’t be playing for World Cup squad places after the disastrous defeat in Prague but they will be playing for their international futures, on the training pitch as well as in the Enrique Roca Stadium.

With so many senior players not available until the June games against Qatar and Canada, the likes of Vale and Moylan have 10 days to prove to Hallgrimsson and his staff that they should be around when the Euros kick-off in the autumn.

QPR’s Vale has done enough in the Championship this season to edge him towards the squad for those Euro qualifiers. Lincoln’s Moylan has suggested, via his League One form and goals, that he deserves this chance to become a September springer.

Murcia is their Cork. Grenada is their England. This is their opportunity. Now it’s up to them.

God bless the poor surgeon who took it upon himself recently to tell James McClean that ‘he has no business being on a football pitch’ as he delivered a preliminary prognosis on the playing future of one of Ireland’s most iconic footballers.

We can only assume that the unnamed medic was telling it as he sees it, having first examined McClean’s ongoing hip injury before delivering his final verdict at a meeting with the Derry City player on Friday just gone.

That meeting was first revealed by McClean on social media on Thursday night last. The outcome will probably become public knowledge in the coming days as McClean and his club consider his options.

Based on McClean’s post, it may not be good news given that the old plastic pitch at the Brandywell has only aggravated his hip problem since his return home from Wrexham.

When James tells you that he is struggling with the pain, you better believe him. When he explains that it is interfering with his life, including his devotion to his kids, then you can only begin to sense how serious it all is.

Hence his fear, as revealed on Instagram, that the injury may be too far gone to facilitate the surgery he feels represents his only chance to fulfil his final wish in football and serve his Derry City club with distinction and pride before he finally retires.

The surgeon would appear to be in the glass half empty camp. But many people before him have told James McClean that he has no business being on a football pitch. And he’s never bowed to any of them.

Part of that is the Derry in James McClean, the resilience that has seen those who worship the Candystripes through so many hard times in the past. They know a challenge in the North-West and like his peers, McClean loves a challenge. They also know how to battle against the odds.

That’s why Tiernan Lynch confirmed after Friday night’s big win against Shamrock Rovers that he wouldn’t be surprised if James turned up in a wheelchair and still togged out in the red and white stripes.

It wouldn’t surprise any of us to be fair. When he came home from Wrexham’s version of Hollywood in January, Jimmy wanted to end his career by making a real impact on the Derry team. Not, I suspect by limiting his movement in a central midfield role curtailed by the pain and restrictions of this hip issue.

He deserves a better swansong. The League of Ireland also deserves a fitting farewell season or two from the player who earned 103 caps for his country and won the heart of the nation with his commitment.

Never afraid of a fight or taking a stance, McClean will give this last battle his all. He deserves to win it and to end his professional career on his own terms, not on the recommendation of a surgeon.

Ironically, James McClean wasn’t in the Derry set-up for the game against Rovers. He did train at the interim City venue with his team-mates on Thursday, just before his Instagram post dropped, but he didn’t make the match day squad.

So he wasn’t put out to grass at Celtic Park on Friday. Fitting, if you think about it.

Many years ago, before he had a motorway service station named after him and ahead of one of his many triumphant visits here, Barack Obama remarked that half of America is Irish and the other half wants to be.

Nobody really contradicted him so it must be true. And we should hope it is if we want to cling to a World Cup lifeline because we need either or both of those two halves of Irish America to play a game of political football right now with current President Trump, his many special envoys and anyone who can get us back on football’s biggest stage.

It’s not as far-fetched as it sounds even if all of Troy Parrott’s good work in Budapest was undone in Prague last month and Ireland exited the USA 2024 saloon at the European play-off semi-final stage.

See, all we need is a bit of clout and a lot of neck, both of which can come from any of those in America who are either Irish or want to be. All we have to do is to take a leaf out of the Italian book. A cheeky Italian book.

Now you’d think the Italians were in the same boat as us in terms of the upcoming World Cup finals. They did beat Michael O’Neill’s Northern Ireland in their play-off semi but then managed to lose the final on penalties to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Down and out? Far from it. On Thursday, the US Special Envoy Paolo Zampolli told the Financial Times and the BBC that he has suggested to President Trump that Italy replace Iran at the World Cup because of the current carry-on in the Middle East.

He even went so far as to say that he is an Italian native and that it would be a dream to see the Azzurri at a US-hosted tournament. He mustn’t have been in the Giants Stadium in 1994 so.

Here’s the best bit though. Zampolli is a former modelling agency boss, property trader and socialite and allegedly introduced Trump to Melania, now the First Lady of the United States.

He definitely has a bit of clout with Donald. So take note when he says that with four World Cups to their name, Italy ‘have the pedigree to justify inclusion.’

That’s it sorted so. Aside from the fact that they are currently at war with the USA, Iran’s footballers have never won the World Cup. So they shouldn’t be there in the first place. No pedigree.

The same theory applies to New Zealand, Belgium and Egypt last time I checked, the three countries scheduled to play Iran this summer.

So Zampolli should have a word with Donald and ask him to remove the three of them as well, by association with Iran thanks to the World Cup draw.

Then, if Irish America applies enough pressure, he can propose that Ireland join Italy in the replacement teams category, regardless of the fact that we can’t qualify for World Cups anymore, never mind dream about winning them.

It’s justifiable. There are as many Irish as Italians in America and Donald loves County Clare. Like the Italians, we’re Catholic by and large as well so that will appease the Pope after his recent spat with the President.

We’ll even bring the party, inflatable shamrocks and all, to Los Angeles and Seattle where Iran are currently scheduled to play.

It’s a no-brainer from where I’m sitting even if FIFA, the Italian Government and most of the world’s football fans are already laughing at Zampolli and this mad idea.

You don’t think it can happen? This is a World Cup owned by Donald Trump and Gianni Infantino. Anything is possible. Literally, anything.

See you in America, Troy.

Managers come and managers go but one constant remains the same in football no matter what the latest trend is - normally managers do not get sacked for winning matches.

The word ‘normally’ is important here because so much of what passes for conventional wisdom in professional football these days is not normal.

It’s certainly not normal behaviour to light fires in the four corners of your training ground at the start of the biggest week of the season - as Arsenal did recently.

It’s hardly normal for a manager to effectively bait his employers and dare his club to sack him - as Rueben Amorim did with Manchester United back in January.

Likewise circling the ball and the referee before kick-off, a mark of respect to the ball on the part of his players apparently, was one of the peculiarities allowed by Liam Rosenior not long after his appointment as Chelsea manager.

And it’s off the wall to internally suspend one of your own stars for two games - after he allegedly made a remark that may have been lost in translation back in Argentina - when you are fighting for your own future just weeks into your job.

They’re just two of the reasons why Rosenior’s exit as Blues boss on Wednesday afternoon hardly came as the biggest surprise of an English season full of managerial surprises.

And for all the talk from Chelsea’s BlueCo owners of a six year project when they brought Rosenior to Stamford Bridge from Strasbourg, another one of their clubs, their loyalty didn’t last long. Not surprisingly.

There are many Chelsea fans out there who are convinced that their American owners know little or nothing about soccer and even less about how to run one of the biggest clubs in England.

BlueCo’s clear policy of buying young players and tying them to long contracts before selling at a profit comes straight from their venture capital playbook but it has come back to haunt them in terms of losses in recent weeks when their team has clearly lacked experience and leadership.

That’s partly why those owners need to look in the mirror during their ‘process of self-reflection’ following the decision to part ways with Rosenior.

Choosing an inexperienced manager and signing inexperienced players has now come with a real cost to their Champions League aspirations, even if the FA Cup could still offer the Blues some silverware this season.

So one reality needs to come to the fore when they look for that lightbulb moment in the coming days and weeks - football is still a results business and always will be.

Chelsea have lost their last five games without scoring a goal, their worst such run since 1912. Rosenior lost 10 times in 23 games as boss, the fifth manager of the BlueCo era.

If he had won his last five games, he would still be the manager and the fans wouldn’t have turned on him as they did at Brighton on Tuesday night.

As Mick McCarthy regularly says, he’s never been sacked for winning matches. That tends not to happen - even if your owners are clueless Americans!

Cathal Dervan, Editor

Look at Everton who loudly celebrated their first Merseyside derby goal at their new stadium, scored or not as it happened by Ndiaye, then had those celebrations wiped out by the video referee in a game they went on to lose to Liverpool.

It was another side of the VAR story across the motorway in Manchester a little later on Sunday afternoon when Gabriel should probably have been sent-off for his headwork in his clash with Erling Haaland in the top of the Premier League clash but got away with it because VAR didn’t get the call to arms.

On and on it goes. Officially VAR stands for Video Assistant Referee. Unofficially it could stand for Very Angry Response maybe. Or Video Again Ruins (it). Or Video Assisting Ronaldo as suggested on Facebook.

Regardless of interpretations, what VAR has really done, since its inception in a Dutch Cup game 100 years ago this September believe it or not, is divide opinions and annoy people.

It’s Very Annoying Refereeing if you like - in games that utilise VAR and games that don’t.

Deep in the bowels of Tallaght Stadium late on Friday night, the Shamrock Rovers manager Stephen Bradley made his distaste for VAR very clear. It should, he suggested, have no place in football. Instead of making everything more black and white, said Bradley, it has created grey areas.

He went on to claim that VAR is killing the game by expanding the decision making process to include a fifth official in a far away room.

Bradley made a good point. A referee is human and can make a mistake - although the Hoops gaffer was adamant that both penalty decisions made by Rob Hennessy in Friday’s derby, one for each side as we’ve said, were correct.

What makes real sense here is his point that asking another human being to join the decision making process in the VAR room adds to the chance of another mistake.

Referees, wherever they operate, are humans. And humans make mistakes as we saw at the Etihad when Gabriel should have been red carded for his headbutt even if it didn’t make contact with Haaland - who deserves credit for staying on his feet and not feigning injury by the way.

Arsenal without a suspended Gabriel for three of their five remaining Premier League games would be less of a threat to City and Haaland’s renewed title hopes.

But VAR agreed with the referee Anthony Taylor’s decision to book Gabriel and didn’t feel an error had been made by the match official so the colour of the card wasn’t questioned either.

In a week when another player was sent-off for a hair pull, Martinez of Manchester United against Leeds, that lack of real involvement in a game of such Premier League title magnitude seems even more ridiculous.

All of which, from Tallaght to Manchester, proves that VAR’s only real success has been to divide opinion.

In the old days, referees made mistakes but we all got to accept them and moan about them in real time. Now we have to wait - to celebrate goals or to bemoan VAR decisions.

Let’s go back to allowing referees to make mistakes in real time and getting on with it. Let’s follow the example set by the Championship clubs in England on Tuesday and vote to say no thanks to VAR. We just don’t need it - or the aggravation that comes with it.

Cathal Dervan, Editor

You know you’ve made it as a goalscorer when Michael Owen starts to take notice of your career - or at least those who ghostwrite his column for a betting site start to ask questions about your future.

That’s the case right now according to reports around our Troy in the Irish Mirror and Irish Daily Star and carried elsewhere on this platform following AK Alkmaar’s Dutch Cup win at the weekend.

Parrott, the hat-trick hero of Budapest and now the country’s favourite sports star according to a recent survey, is a wanted man by all accounts and Michael thinks he should follow the money this summer.

Everyone from AC Milan to Borussia Dortmund fancy the young Dubliner whose career has really taken off at club level since he left Tottenham behind and took his chance in Holland, first on loan at Excelsior and now with Alkmaar.

A host of English clubs have also been linked with the 24-year-old including Leeds United, West Ham, Everton and Fulham.

And Spurs get a mention too - but only if they are relegated from the top flight of English football which is a real possibility at present after West Ham’s point at Crystal Palace on Monday night and their draw at home to Brighton on Sunday.

At first glance the condition that a return to north London for Parrott is dependent on the drop for Tottenham seems fair enough. The club that decided Parrott wasn’t ready to take a Premier League gamble on with a new contract just two summers ago, may well think he is good enough for the Championship now after honing his skills in the Eredivisie.

But think about that appraisal of Parrott’s coming of age with AZ and your Irish blood might just start to boil.

Who can argue with any justification that the Championship with Spurs is a better prospect for Troy’s next career step than AC Milan or Dortmund? Who can say that second division Spurs will be a better move than Leeds or West Ham if they stay up at Tottenham’s expense?

The truth is that Spurs had their chance to be loyal to Troy Parrott two years ago and didn’t take it. They were happy when he was dubbed the new Robbie Keane at a very young age but not happy enough to stand by him when he needed the comfort blanket of an extended stay in or around their first team squad.

Instead they let him leave for Holland, first with Excelsior and then for a permanent move to AZ Alkmaar. If anything, he has thrived on the back of that Tottenham rejection and realised, as well as proving, that England is not the only destination young Irish players should think about when the time comes for a career move.

That lesson is one that more and more young Irish players should take note of now that Brexit is as cemented in stone as the Luke Kelly statue in Troy’s beloved inner city home parish.

As for Troy? Well English clubs need him now more than he needs English clubs. He has proven himself as one of Europe’s leading goalscorers by moving to mainland Europe and he should stay there.

Italy, Spain, Germany or Portugal, with one of their big three clubs and maybe even Jose Mourinho’s Benfica, will offer our Hungary hero more than anyone across the Irish Sea as he looks to develop his skills even further.

Troy may indeed fancy a move back to Spurs to prove them wrong but he doesn’t have to - he’s already done that and more by going Dutch.

To put it simply, he should stay away from England now.

Graham Burke stole the headlines and the Player of the Match award with not one but two goals as Shamrock Rovers and Bohemians served up a Friday night feast at Tallaght Stadium in a Dublin derby that was indeed one for the ages.

This was always going to be a game and a half, the league leaders against a Bohs side that had set the early season pace, and it certainly delivered and then some as Burke inspired Rovers to a 2-1 win.

The immediate afterthoughts centred on Burke’s brilliance, two contentious penalties and the fact that Bohemians have just gone six games and a full month without a Premier Division win.

But now that the dust has settled, there’s another storyline from South Dublin that deserves an airing, one that sits nicely alongside a pre-match conversation in the West Stand with a man who remembers the old days as well as I do.

As we exchanged greetings, about half an hour before kick-off, we started a conversation about how much League of Ireland football has changed over the years since Milltown was still open and Dalymount Park could accommodate fans on all four sides of the ground.

Before a ball was kicked in anger, we came to an inevitable conclusion - the hard men of previous Dublin derbies are a thing of the past. And to prove the point we settled on the example of one particular player who could hold his own when needed to but probably wouldn’t fit into the modern derby player mould.

Dermot Keely was the common denominator as we discussed former players whose bite wouldn’t suit such a modern game - the fact that his recent and really entertaining biography is called ‘Better Without The Ball’ suggests that the self-effacing LOI Legend would probably agree with us.

What transpired on the pitch for the next two hours proved it. The game moved at pace, some of the passing was top class, some of the challenges were robust as they should be on such an occasion but the big takeaway was the impact of youth on this pivotal match.

Senan Mullen of Bohs is just 21 but Rovers had four players younger than that in their starting team. Victor Ozhianvuna and Michael Noonan are just 17. Cory O’Sullivan is 19. John O’Sullivan is 20. All five looked at home in the heat of a top of the table clash, all five benefited from the faith their respective managers have in them, regardless of age.

That’s a huge turnaround as far as our national league is concerned. For Stephen Bradley to trust three teenagers to start against Bohs is a vindication of his own beliefs as a manager but also of the academy system that Rovers are working on, even since before Brexit forced more young players to stay at home until their 18th birthday.

Rovers have the best academy system in the country at their Roadstone training HQ and the emergence of so many young players in their first team squad proves it.

But the upcoming investment by the Government into academies across the country will give everyone else the chance to play catch-up with Rovers in terms of player development.

Given how well those five kids mentioned did on Friday night, particularly John O’Sullivan in central midfield for the home side, the advent of youth in LOI football and the prospect of even more talent emerging in the very near future is to be applauded.

Graham Burke, a veteran at 32, got the goals and the headlines this time and rightly so. But not for the first time, the sub-plot on a Friday night in the Premier Division was just as interesting. Long may it stay that way.

Friday night fever will be all the rage at Tallaght Stadium tonight as Premier Division leaders Shamrock Rovers entertain Bohemians at the best ground in the League of Ireland for what is arguably the biggest Dublin derby of them all.

It was tempting to say Rovers will welcome Bohs to south Dublin but I’m not really sure the word welcome is entirely appropriate in this instance, such is the rivalry between these two great clubs.

What is certain is that The Hoops against The Gypsies is always special and tonight there are a few extra ingredients that will only add fuel to the fire.

Both sides have players in their ranks who are being talked about as potential call-ups to the experimental Ireland squad that Heimir Hallgrimsson will bring to Spain for a training camp and friendly against Grenada next month.

Ed McGinty, Matt Healy, Adam Brennan, new to Rovers after his pre-season move from UCD, and Dawson Devoy are rightly in the frame to feature in the first Ireland squad post Prague as the Boys in Green emerge from the World Cup ashes.

Bohs manager Alan Reynolds, as you will read elsewhere here, is open to the idea of allowing the hugely talented Devoy to skip LOI games in May if it helps him win a senior cap for his country.

We’ve yet to hear from Stephen Bradley on his trio’s prospects of a few weeks off club duty but with captain Pico Lopes already booked in for World Cup duty with Cape Verde in June, Bradley may not be quite as keen on player sharing.

What’s important to acknowledge here is the fact that four LOI youngsters are being talked about as Ireland call-ups in waiting - and elder statesman Jack Byrne wouldn’t be out of place in that conversation either on current form.

What’s great here is that all four youngsters will get the opportunity to show us why they are on Hallgrimsson’s radar in front of a live TV audience when the match goes out on Virgin Media tonight.

The more eyes that see the potential of these LOI players the better - the more they can impress the viewers, the more chance some of those viewers will make the move from couch to grandstand.

The Virgin Media studio line-up is also a positive this evening when Damien Duff will make his first public appearance since leaving his job as Shelbourne manager, an appointment that really brought attention to our League.

His TV work tonight will also bring more eyes and ears to the game which is another welcome addition - as is the fact that Rovers are hosting a corporate dinner before the game which has attracted sponsors, potential business partners and owners and opened up a new commercial opportunity for the club.

Such pre-match functions are the norm in most major European Leagues so here’s hoping that this event becomes another regular feature for Irish football.

Enough about matters off the field tonight however. What we can guarantee is a blood and guts derby - one that is unlikely to remain scoreless by the half-time whistle, never mind full-time.

Rovers went top of the league with their win at Pats last Friday night. Bohs lost the only unbeaten record left in the Premier Division when they were beaten at home by Galway the same night.

Both teams will have a point to prove tonight. It promises to be a cracker. It deserves to be.

Two Irish women who care passionately about their game. Two Irish women who stood up to be counted this week. Two football heroes. Take a bow Katie McCabe and Joanne Byrne.

On Tuesday evening, as the kids were coming for their tea in time to watch the national senior women’s team play Poland in Gdansk, Katie again proved her worth as one of the Irish game’s best players ever.

On Wednesday evening, slightly later than tea-time, Byrne proved that her love for the beautiful game is as evident when she’s playing political football as it is when she’s supporting Drogheda United now that the club owners have decided to dismiss her services as a volunteer.

Let’s start with Katie. Out of contract at Arsenal in the summer, the Tallaght native couldn’t have picked a better time to again lead by example as Carla Ward’s team held on against a late flurry from the hosts to beat Poland 3-2 in their World Cup qualifier.

Scorer of a quite brilliant second goal - and guilty of a late miss from the penalty spot - McCabe was described after the game as the best left-back in the world by Ward. High praise but not unreasonable.

Despite a suspicion that Katie herself would prefer to play higher up the field, she delivered again in this reluctant role on Tuesday. And not for the first time, we were left to wonder how well Katie McCabe would cope against her peers in the male game.

I’d suggest her spirit, her technique and her ability to snap at heels when it matters would have been right at home in the World Cup play-off in Prague last month. Alas current rules - that girls cannot play mixed football after 14 - dictate that speculation about the likes of Katie playing against male opposition will be forever that, pure speculation.

What can’t be denied is her influence on the next generations. Any young girl who watched Katie against Poland this week can only have been inspired to follow in her footsteps. And that will be Katie’s legacy, that she continually inspired those generations coming up behind her.

The same can be said of Joanne Byrne off the pitch. Last month, she was brave in her call-out to have the Euro 2028 games against Israel scrapped in protest at the crisis in Palestine. That bravery cost her the role of chairperson with her beloved Drogheda United no matter how the club try to paint it.

Yet she was brave again in the Dail on Wednesday when she called-out Minister for Sport Patrick O’Donovan for his patronising remarks and knee-jerk reaction to the recent and disgraceful flare issues at the opening of the new astro at Oriel Park when Dundalk played Drogheda in the Louth derby.

Byrne didn’t have to point out that a social media post on the Minister’s own account celebrated the use of pyros pre-match that night - and is still online - but she did highlight it as she vowed to continue to stand up and be counted for League of Ireland football despite her recent travails at United.

Thankfully, like Katie McCabe, Joanne Byrne is not afraid to tackle with a bit of bite. Irish football should be grateful to count these two women in our ranks.

Twice this season, he answered the call when the Bhoys found themselves in a managerial crisis and looking for a replacement boss, first for Brendan Rodgers and then for the unfortunate Frenchman Wilfried Nancy.

On both occasions, the clear inference was that O’Neill’s return to the dugout was merely a sticking plaster, that the former Ireland boss would not be returning to work on a long-term never mind permanent basis having recently turned 74.

That’s fair enough. O’Neill owes nobody anything in Scottish football. His first stint in Glasgow produced trophies and his third go at the job may yet come with a silver lining before the season concludes in May.

But O’Neill may well have a bearing on what happens when the Celtic players return to work after their summer break. And his words of support for Robbie Keane in recent days may be more significant than a simple answer to a simple question about Robbie’s credentials for the Parkhead job.

O’Neill is not the sort of man to refuse to answer a question. Sometimes, he can take pleasure in twisting the question and turning the expected answer on its head. But more often than not, he speaks from a position of strength, he speaks safe in the knowledge that those who run Celtic will listen to what he says.

So his response when asked about Keane’s suitability for the job should be analysed as the opinion of a man in the know.

Here’s exactly what he said the other day. “Robbie has done really fine at Ferencvaros, so why shouldn’t he be? The club should be looking at someone of that calibre. I don’t know enough about Robbie as a person to say how he’d manage a group in a dressing room, but he’s made a fair fist of it so far.”

That sounds like an endorsement to these ears. As more than one Scottish football commentator has not, it’s the biggest endorsement yet of Robbie Keane’s suitability to return to the club he played for briefly, on loan.

What’s important for Celtic now, as they look to become a real force again, is that Robbie’s reported interest in the job and the Martin O’Neill endorsement are taken seriously.

Keane has proven he can win things in both Israel and Hungary. On Tuesday night his Ferencvaros side welcome Puskas Academy for a huge game in this season’s race to the NB1 crown, on Sunday they go to current league leaders Gyori for a potential title decider.

Celtic need a winner to turn their club back around. They need someone who understands their unique culture. They also need their fans to back the next boss - which is where the O’Neill factor will really come into play.

Robbie Keane can deliver a team on the pitch that will upstand the Celtic traditions with a hunger to match the ambitions of those in the stands.

What he needs is a support prepared to give him a chance, prepared to let his football silence all the noise around his previous employment locations.

If Martin O’Neill thinks Robbie Keane is a good candidate for the Celtic job, and he clearly does, then the Board and the fans should take note and give Martin’s opinion a real chance. He’s never let them down before.