Blood, Sweat and McAteer: A Footballer's Story by Jason McAteer

Author:Jason McAteer [McAteer, Jason]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: BIO016000
ISBN: 9781473636064
Publisher: Hachette Ireland
Published: 2016-09-28T20:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

Hotel golf is big on the Ireland trips. We always pack a couple of eight irons and putters in Joe Walsh’s skips. It’s not enough for Babbsy and Mark Kennedy, however, on the double-header trip to Iceland and Lithuania. They see some lovely new Callaway Big Bertha drivers and woods in duty free at Reykjavik airport, and buy them just minutes before they get on the plane. The air stewardess ain’t happy.

The clubs come out in the hotel in Lithuania. The lads forgot to buy balls to go with their new clubs, so we roll up paper. We set a bin up in the corridor as the hole and take turns at trying to chip in from twenty yards. We all fail miserably, and the physio Mick Byrne, a member at Hollystown, tells us he’ll show us how it’s done. Mick takes a massive swing, connects with the paper ball and takes a divot – out of the carpet. We fall around laughing and Mick panics. When we get up the next morning there’s a big pot plant hiding his divot.

Mick McCarthy is the new man and the new start for Ireland, and for me that is a worry simply because I don’t know where I stand with him. I never played with Mick and I’ve only ever met him when he’s been around the hotel as Jack’s guest for some of the games.

I do know he had a blazing row with Roy on a trip to Boston, just before my time. Every Irish player knows about it. Roy had gone for a drink with some of the players at Frank Gillespie’s Blackthorn bar, and they held up the team bus for the drive back to the airport and the flight home. They were so late, Mick Byrne had to pack their bags for them and Mick, as captain, wasn’t having it. Being the stubborn Yorkshireman that he is, he let Roy know what he thought of him keeping the rest of the players waiting. Being the stubborn Corkman that he is, Roy let Mick have it straight back with both barrels: ‘I didn’t ask you to wait.’ How are they going to get on as Irish manager and captain, if Mick appoints Roy captain? It is going to be interesting.

I don’t know how Mick is going to act as manager. I don’t think he’ll be the fatherly type like Jack, so I’m a little bit nervous about his appointment. At least Kenny Dalglish didn’t get the job. Joe Kinnear seemed to be the only other viable candidate, but Joe thinks he’s a viable candidate every time the Ireland job comes up.

What I do know about Mick is that he’s an Irish legend, both as a player and a leader. He’s a big character with a big voice in the dressing room and everything about him suggests power and strength.

The man who knows him best in my circle is Sparky. He worked with Mick at Millwall and actually babysat Mick’s kids, which is an unusual one for an international footballer and his new gaffer.

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