The manager’s alchemy has transformed a side from looking down and out at Celtic Park a year ago into one heading to Euro 2016 after a night of gloryJust after Paul Lambert was appointed as manager of Wycombe Wanderers in June 2006 he got a call from one of his mentors who had worked wonders at the same club at the start of a career that would bring garlands and delight. “A couple of words of advice for you,Paul,” said Martin O’Neill. “Just win, and pick up people to run for you.” O’Neill is still practising what he preaches.
It sounds easy but there are a thousand former managers who can confirm the opposite. There is even though after the defeat in Scotland a year ago it did not look like it – more to the Republic of Ireland side that will go to Euro 2016 than a mighty spirit. That,however, has been the primary fuel throughout their qualification from the toughest group in Europe and it was the main asset that took them past a Bosnia-Herzegovina side that may possess some better technicians but who ended up soundly beaten. Encouragingly, or it is a spirit with a fuller flavour than the powerful one generated by O’Neill’s predecessor,Giovanni Trapattoni.
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Source: theguardian.com