5 days ago
Hallgrimsson aiming to avoid unwanted record ahead of World Cup campaign
As if there wasn't enough pressure on Heimir Hallgrímsson and his players ahead of the World Cup qualifiers later this year.
Failure to make the 2026 tournament - co-hosted by the USA, Canada and Mexico - would represent the longest gap between appearances on either the European or World stage since the country's breakthrough at Euro '88.
By 2026, 10 years will have passed since the last successful campaign - and that would equal the distance between Ireland's 2002 World Cup heroics and the disastrous Euro 2012 showing.
Progress to the European Championships four years later and progress to the last-16 in France gave rise to optimism that regular qualifications were back on the cards.
Then came the play-off collapse against Denmark for the 2018 World Cup, and a poor showing in the Euro 2020 qualifiers and play-off penalty shootout heartache against Slovakia.
Stephen Kenny's men were out of contention early in the 2022 World Cup campaign, while Euro 2024 was practically out of the question after the draw landed Ireland in a group with France and the Netherlands.
So here we are, a few months out from a rapid-fire three-month series of World Cup qualifiers against Portugal, Hungary and Armenia.
Manager Hallgrímsson has just one player in his current squad - Lille hero Robbie Brady - that featured at Euro 2016.
While he remains hopeful that Seamus Coleman will be available come September, it's a real knowledge deficit when it comes to successfully navigating a qualification campaign.
Giovanni Trapattoni had four veterans of the 2002 World Cup - Shay Given, Richard Dunne, Damien Duff and Robbie Keane - when he bridged a 10-year gap to progress to Euro 2012.
That experience, says Hallgrímsson, can be key. So expect Brady, and hopefully Coleman, to have big roles on and off the pitch by September's big kick-off.
'I can only say from my experience, once you have smelled it, you know how big it is and you would want to go again and again and again,' said the former Iceland manager.
'They know that and we need them to spread that around the young players, just how massive it is and how fun it is.
'These are the moments you remember when you stop playing. To share that experience is so important.
'I have spoken about Robbie, how good he has been since I came in, in the absence of Seamus, him and Doc (Matt Doherty) have needed to step up in the leadership role.'
It's not just that experience that is invaluable. Qualification offers an international manager something that they cannot buy at any other time of their tenure.
'It's not only to qualify, it's the two months of being together that will continue to grow the team,' he said.
'That's not spoken of, but it's one of the reasons why it's always the same teams qualifying. They spend that valuable time together that other teams don't get.
'We only have five camps, and have had the shortest FIFA window, three camps I think were only a week.
'Seven days, seven days, seven days, and if you are developing teams three weeks is not much.
'Most of the training sessions are recovery because they play on the Sunday with the clubs. We cannot do anything Monday. Tuesday is limited load.
'That is the valuable time for national teams, to be in camps in finals, it's something we really need at this moment.'
There is something else that Hallgrímsson could do with - a strong pool of players getting regular game-time in Europe's top five leagues.
Recently, FAI academy chief Will Clarke made the point during a presentation that a country needed 35 players playing an average of 1,400 minutes of league football a season in a top five league to be successful.
During 2024/25, 20 Irish players featured for less than 1,000 minutes each on average.
However, Hallgrímsson insisted: 'I think we have the material to qualify, sure. I think I have, again, from experience.
'I have qualified with less talent than we have here. So that's my take on this question.
'I know what you're getting at. Obviously, we would like more players to play at a higher level.
'And I think more players will play at a higher level. They're still not peaking in age and all of that. So I'm pretty confident that we will have more players playing more minutes in the top leagues.'
