Only those fortunate enough to have encountered the scenario will understand. It is one not confined to football. The prospect of another job seems wholly attractive amid a rising sense of career stagnation, despite lauding from an employer.
Then the notion becomes a reality. Stick or twist? Retain adulation and a safe role or disappoint those you have worked alongside to step into a position which in theory carries more esteem if less money.
Michael O’Neill is no longer dealing in the theoretical. He is expected imminently to come face to face with a Scottish Football Association executive who has courted him since it was plain Gordon Strachan had to depart. And, contrary to some hilarious revisionism, Strachan’s exit was a no-brainer; two failed campaigns are far more pertinent than a decent win ratio.
Meanwhile O’Neill was winning a European Championship qualifying group before taking Northern Ireland to a World Cup play-off. At any given point, O’Neill was lucky to have 35 players from whom to pick. The sections from which Northern Ireland prevailed – and almost prevailed – are of the ilk Scotland have botched for two decades.
Motivation for Scotland’s pursuit of the 48-year-old is not complicated. When you add in the fact of O’Neill living in Scotland and being apparently more attuned to the vagaries of the domestic scene there than Strachan ever was, the SFA can hardly be accused of unreasonably placing eggs into one basket. It is making a sensible move. The problem is it is not guaranteed to be a successful one.
There is no need for extreme positions in this debate. Nobody is citing O’Neill as the messiah, just as managing Scotland is not the football equivalent to playing Augusta National with cheat mode switched on.
O’Neill’s attention to tactical detail should not be underestimated. He has fostered an approach in the Northern Ireland set-up whereby every player not only buys into the closely knit squad but is left in no doubt as to what his job is.
It is, though, no longer a question of why the SFA may be attracted to O’Neill. The unknown relates to why O’Neill may swap the country of his birth for one so accustomed to international failure.
That dismal run is one likely motivation; there cannot be pressure associated with a job where qualification is an alien concept. The next manager to guide Scotland to a finals will revolutionise attitudes as well as the SFA’s bank balance. The opposite applies in Northern Ireland. There will be an expectation of success, which is clearly unachievable unless O’Neill waves a magic wand.
What O’Neill will not want to do is be seen to discard his home nation. Admirable as this is, it belies what supporters do to managers when results fail and short-term memories apply. Chris Coleman realised as much when swapping Wales for the perennial disaster zone of Sunderland. O’Neill should not overplay the notion of a Scotland manager being subject to intense or constant scrutiny. Neither exists beyond half a dozen weeks a year, let alone for an individual detached from Glasgow and the madness of the Old Firm.
Scotland’s domestic scene vastly outperforms a Northern Irish environment that is barely worth a national manager paying attention to. Although there is a shortage of blue-chip personnel within the Scottish domain, the average ability of players – plus the number of them – readily quashes what O’Neill has been dealing with. O’Neill would rightly back himself to guide Scotland to Euro 2020.
Within the SFA, there is a fear of O’Neill’s fiscal demands becoming overbearing. It can be said with certainty the deal offered by Scotland will not match what Northern Ireland are willing to commit to until 2024. It would also be a sign of decline in O’Neill’s stock if he were in position for long enough to realise the extent of those terms. If money is the sum of O’Neill’s aspiration, he would surely have signed the Northern Ireland contract. Or moved to Qatar. Four years at an excess of £600,000 pa, plus a seven-figure qualifying bonus, to carry out what is basically a part-time job in charge of Scotland is hardly the stuff of monetary disaster. O’Neill is far too young to be contemplating pension funds.
Albeit Alex McLeish was the last manager successful enough to prove it, Scotland offers a far higher projection into further employment than Northern Ireland.
If O’Neill takes Scotland, another also-ran, to a major tournament as well, his status would soar. On the flip side, he would surely query his decision if he stays put and his ageing Northern Ireland team flounder, which is far from an inconceivable scenario.
Those around O’Neill are guaranteed to have vested interests, about which he is wise enough to be wary. In this brutally commercial arena of 21st-century football this appears to be an emotional call. That makes it endearing. O’Neill’s heart may tell him to stick but the logical career choice resonates in Scotland. It is the SFA’s job to present precisely that case and adequately.
