Football: The perils according to Lawrie

Northern Ireland's manager is helping to safeguard the future.

IT WAS with uncanny timing that Futures in Sport kicked off its media conference in London, unveiling a presentation on how to combat the perils of management at the very moment Newcastle were handing Kenny Dalglish his jotters. Front man for the project, a 40-week course in association with satellite TV designed to produce qualified administrators for all sports, is the amiable and able Lawrie McMenemy, who has recently planted his own shoes on what he calls "the carousel of management" one more time by becoming manager of Northern Ireland.

McMenemy, who has roped in Joe Jordan and Pat Jennings as his sidekicks, takes his team to Turkey on Saturday for their first game in the qualification stage for the 2000 European Championship and feels, with justification, that his experience will provide a useful buffer zone against what they will be facing.

"I was there with England more than once when I was working with Graham Taylor and one thing I can do is paint the picture for young players who don't know what is going to hit them. The atmosphere is awesome, the noise, colour, fireworks going off. You have to be ready for all that, as well as coping with very skilful players. If Turkish footballers could finish as well as they play up to the edge of the box they would rival people like Brazil. They are tremendously skilful but don't travel the world a lot because they don't need to. They are revered and are very well paid in their own country."

Being well paid was not something in the forefront of McMenemy's thinking when he took the job, on the face of it one of the bleakest in international football. "None of us is in it for the money, let me make that clear. Northern Ireland is usually the smallest country in any competition, with a million and a half population and very few players to pick from. The majority are in the Nationwide divisions, too, but it was a great honour to be asked to do the job and I am enjoying it.

"When I was with England my main job was managing the B and Under-21 teams and I think that experience has stood me in good stead. Then being all those years at Southampton, a little club among the giants, was also helpful. In the next 18 months we have eight games home and away against Germany, Turkey, Finland and Moldova and we will just about be the underdog every time. But I will remind my players that on any given day anybody can beat anybody else. You might back Germany to beat us eight times out of ten. I'm looking for the two times where we can turn the tables. Realistically, Germany will win the group but, just as realistically, we are aiming for runners-up."

Realism, he said, came with age. "I think when the grey hair comes in, the ego goes out of the window. International management is for older fellows who have been through the divisions, won a little bit, lost a lot but survived. People like me can focus on the management of the team and get results without having to try to impress anybody."

Jack Charlton was the first to congratulate McMenemy on his appointment and warned him about the difficulty in getting players from such a small population base. "He's right, and I'm looking high and low. I think I raised a few eyebrows when I said I had acquired a lad called Bambedili Adeboula. People were wondering what part of Ireland he was from. Adeboula was coming to us at first, then he was persuaded to wait for Nigeria but he didn't get in the World Cup so I'm still scratching on his door. I won't give up.

"Our shortage at the minute is forwards. Iain Dowie is a warhorse but he doesn't play regular football now. But we have some high quality performers, like Keith Gillespie, Steve Lomas and Michael Hughes. I want to try to get a few more like them, particularly from the Premiership if I can."

Clearly McMenemy is enjoying his time back on the management carousel where, unlike most of his contemporaries, he has been a success rather more frequently than the other way round. "In our days you stumbled into football management," he said. "If you won a few things you stayed in it a bit longer but if you didn't do the business you were off the bottom two steps."

"Nobody in sport ever thought about helping athletes after they finished," said McMenemy of Futures in Sport's initiative. "The new blueprint of football in England is going to demand qualifications for managers." Among those listening keenly at the conference was Frank Clark, the former Nottingham Forest and Manchester City manager, who has endured a bumpy ride. McMenemy interrupted his praise of the new approach to call out to Clark: "I suppose somebody's told Kenny he's out of work, Frank."