For Mick McCarthy, it was death by facial expression.
It was early 2019 and he was watching a match at Southampton, sat not far away from England manager Gareth Southgate. Declan Rice was on both of their minds.
“I think looking back I was probably a fair way away from persuading him,” McCarthy reflects, nearly four years on, of a fateful moment for Irish football when Rice turned his back on the national team.
“I met (Declan) in the December, he’s a lovely young man and he’s turned out to be a fantastic player. I’m delighted for him with the success he’s enjoyed because he is a lovely person.
“At the time I got the call he wasn’t going to play I was pissed off. But I kind of knew.
“I’d been waiting for an answer in January and I saw Gareth at Southampton and asked him ‘What’s going on with Declan Rice?’ and he didn’t give me the answer I was really looking for, which was ‘Oh no, he’s not for us’. He puffed his cheeks out a bit and I thought ‘Oh right’ and I knew full well where he was going.
“It was the same for Jack Grealish, I was trying to get him but they’re both brilliant players for England, one has gone to Manchester City for £100m and the other will go for £150m this summer.”
If losing those two players felt like Ireland’s sliding doors moment, things may be about to change.
There is no chance of suffering the same fate with the brilliant young striker Evan Ferguson, who has enjoyed a stellar breakthrough season at Brighton.
The 18-year-old scored twice in a weekend win over Grimsby in the latest sign that he is – in the words of club coach Roberto De Zerbi – a “special” talent. Ferguson’s mother is English, which makes him technically eligible to play for the Three Lions but any lingering ember of doubt over his allegiance will be settled when he plays his first competitive match for Ireland on Monday against France.
In scouting circles, there’s a belief that Ferguson can be a £100m striker in the future and he will be key in a testing qualification group that also includes the Netherlands, quarter-finalists in Qatar.
But there is “hope and excitement” about the group, says expert Ronan Calvert, who runs the Kenny’s Kids twitter handle dedicated to tracking and promoting young Irish talent.
“That’s partly because of the occasions ahead but also because of the emergence of some good young players,” he says.
He highlights Nathan Collins (Wolves), Gavin Bazunu (Southampton) and Dara O’Shea (West Brom) as ones to watch and predicts a “more cohesive and street-wise team” will emerge in this qualification tournament.
The green shoots of recovery with the senior side are backed up by a resurgence at youth level, where Ireland’s under-17s recently qualified for the Euros.
“What’s happening with the Ireland underage teams is a bit remarkable,” Calvert says.
“With the football industry in Ireland being so famously underfunded, the international sides should probably mirror the League of Ireland’s coefficient position of 36th in Europe, sandwiched between Latvia and Finland.
“However, what seems to be down to some exceptional coaches working with an unusual amount of raw talent we now have a situation where the under-19s are ranked 8th in Europe and the under-17s are ranked 9th.
“It bodes really well for the next decade but you would have to wonder how sustainable it is.
“The FAI should see an increased injection of cash from the government soon enough as they continue to rebuild trust and it will be much needed because the lack of full-time employees and adequate facilities in Irish football is quite alarming.”
The senior side qualifying for a major international tournament would be a huge fillip, having come close in a truncated Euro 2020 qualifying programme.
McCarthy looks back on that now as a case of what might have been. They lost just once in their qualification group before the pandemic delayed their play-off semi-final against Slovakia and brought a premature end to McCarthy’s second stint, with Kenny’s contract stipulating he would take over in late 2020.
Kenny narrowly lost that play-off before reverting to youth for the World Cup qualifiers. They suffered some turbulence in that campaign – losing to Luxembourg in Dublin – but there were signs of encouragement in two fine displays against Portugal.
“The young players that have come through and are coming through have done really well,” McCarthy says.
“They have played some good football, they’ve got some really good young players coming through but I think it’s got to be a mix of experienced ones and young ones who come in and give you legs.
“They have got France and Holland in their group which doesn’t bode well. They will have to play out of their skin to qualify for the Euros.
“We had a hell of a group in 2002 but we didn’t lose a game. It’ll take some doing to repeat that but fingers crossed they do it.”
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