By John Foley
So how was Saturday for you? Did you get the kind of performance you expected? Was the star player missing in action? Was the game taken on its merits?
No, we’re not talking about Ireland v Scotland, we’re talking about the RTÉ panel, for God’s sake.
Such was the hullabaloo around John Giles being dropped from his usual position as the ‘senior analyst’ that you almost forgot there was an actual game of football taking place.
No sooner was the decision taken and there were campaigns in national newspapers to get John reinstated in time for Saturday’s kick-off. Such is his standing in Irish life that you can be absolutely certain there wouldn’t have been the same reaction if any member of the actual football team was told he wasn’t playing.
But then that’s what happens when you’ve become a fixture in people’s lives for the best part of four decades.
Speaking during his regular Thursday night slot of Newstalk’s Off The Ball last week, Giles pretty much threw RTÉ Head of Sport Ryle Nugent under the bus.
“You’ll have to ask him why I’m not on the panel,” Giles told presenter Ger Gilroy when asked about the controversy.
“I made it very, very clear that I was available and I wanted to do the match,” he said, continuing that while he had fulfilled his contractual obligations in terms of the number of games he works on over the course of a season, he was willing to work on this game for free.
“I would liked to have got a call from the Head of Sport to explain to me what the situation is.”
Whatever you think about Giles and his amigos, that sounds reasonable enough. But for all the calls for Giles’s reinstatement, it was interesting to see a fair proportion of people on social media seemed happy enough with the change.
It says as much about the demographic that frequents social media, of course. But for a generation who weren’t around as far back as Italia 90, and who get their weekly dose of in-depth football analysis from the likes of Phil Neville and Jamie Carragher on Sky Sports, there can sometimes be a dated feel about the RTE panel.
Sacrilege as it might sound, their days are coming to an end and it’s only right that the station should be planning for the future.
Eamon Dunphy’s favourite player Wesley Hoolahan under pressure from Scott Brown and James Morrison of Scotland at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday Photo: Inpho/Cathal Noonan
The problem is not the decision itself, but rather how it was done.
As Giles himself alluded to, the contractual element doesn’t come into it. He would have done it for free and if it was just a case of RTE having used up all of John’s slots during the year, then that was incredibly poor planning on their part.
It’s not as if the Scotland fixture came out of the blue and they should have been able to plan his schedule such that Saturday’s game was his last of the season.
Maybe Ryle Nugent simply dropped the ball, not realising the fuss that was about to be kicked up and not anticipating that Giles would be hurt by the decision. It’s unlikely he would deliberately brush off a man who has been a mainstay on our television screens since Nugent himself was in short pants.
As for Saturday’s fare, you were just waiting to see the temperature in the studio ahead of the game. Were Eamon and Liam going to meet Richie Sadler’s comments with icy stares? Would they engage at all with the pundit’s opinions?
Poor old Richie. It’s a difficult position to be placed in, literally sitting in Giles’s chair. But of course there was no point-scoring against the young man. It certainly seemed as if there was a slightly stunted flow to the conversation – the week preceding the game meant that was always going to be likely with Eamon Dunphy himself making representations to RTE bosses on Giles’s behalf. But the only time things got heated was when Dunphy and Brady revisited the question of Trapattoni and his use of Wes Hoolahan.
By the way, does anyone call Wes Hoolahan ‘Wesley’ apart from Eamon and the lad’s mother.
The result made for a somewhat subdued post-match atmosphere, what with our chances of making it to the Euros in France now all-but up in smoke.
It may be that Giles’s days as the senior analyst are numbered. But he was missed on Saturday. Maybe he falls back on some old phrases a little too often. Each game is taken on its merits and all that. But call it a comfort blanket. When Ireland are playing there’s still a place for Giles on the television.
Maybe they should leave the squad rotation for wet Wednesday nights and the Champions League.
One thing’s for sure, Giles’s presence wouldn’t have changed the result. We still couldn’t win the bloody game. Another qualifying campaign is fast flowing under the bridge and another chance to sit at the top table is passing us by.
Plus ça change…
