Dec 13,2024
And so the dream has curdled and soured for Eileen Gleeson.
It's almost exactly a year since the FAI decided that the 52-year-old was the standout choice among the 42 candidates who’d applied for the job.
Now she’s gone, failing to earn a new contract after the Republic of Ireland’s bitterly disappointing Euro 2025 play-off final defeat to Wales.
In December 2023, Gleeson was sincere when she described getting the role on a permanent basis as "the proudest and most humbling moment of my life".
But the Dubliner wasn’t born yesterday. She had left her gig as head of women’s and girls’ football knowing full well there was a risk things would go pear-shaped.
It was shrewd and pragmatic to insist on having a clause inserted into her contract that gives her the option to stay in employment with the FAI in some capacity, though what exactly she’ll be doing is unclear.
The FAI insist Gleeson will not return to the head of women’s and girls’ football position, which is currently filled by Welsh native Hannah Dingley.
Dingley started that job last May after a drawn-out recruitment process. There were reports that the FAI changed the role from being a permanent position to a fixed-term appointment, with some candidates consequently dropping out of the race.
Many joined the dots and assumed the door was being kept ajar for Gleeson to go back to her old job after the Euros campaign, but Dingley looks likely to stay on until at least early summer, so if Gleeson is to hang around the Sport Ireland Campus, they’ll need a plan to utilise her.
They also need to get moving on finding a new head coach.
Ireland begin their Nations League campaign on 21 February against Turkey, travelling to Slovenia four days later. It’s possible they’ll appoint an interim boss, perhaps Dave Connell, who has done such impressive work with the Under-19s for years. Indeed Connell could well be in the frame to get the senior job outright, though the FAI may shy away from another internal appointment if they feel they can land a glamour name.
Financial constraints obviously hinder those ambitions, but England’s Hope Powell would be the sort of figure who’d command instant respect from the players and public alike. Currently working as the technical director at Birmingham City women, Powell was linked to the Ireland job a few years back. The FAI ultimately went with Vera Pauw.
Other names will get churned out in the rumour mill over the next few weeks as supporters prepare for another new era.
The Gleeson reign was not a complete disaster, but it does feel like the team needs a strong outsider to come in and revitalise them after that crushing loss to the Welsh.
Gleeson was the perfect interim choice in the wake of Pauw’s messy departure. Familiar, well-liked and armed with decades of experience in the women’s game in this country, she calmed things down and guided the squad to Nations League promotion.
In the end, she couldn’t resist putting herself forward for the role full-time, while the FAI suddenly saw a straightforward solution to a problem that had dragged on for three months.
Gleeson used to haul a bag of footballs onto her moped when managing St James’ Gate in the early noughties. Now she was leading out her country at Aviva Stadium to take on England, Sweden and France. It must have been intoxicating and surreal.
That Euros campaign was a steep learning curve too. Declarations about playing more expansive football post-Pauw now look naïve. Ireland are not technically strong enough to pass through the world’s best midfields. Their strength is in a collective resilience and the talents of their two best players, Katie McCabe and Denise O’Sullivan.
Gleeson never fully executed plans to evolve into a more cultured side. She was dealt a bad hand when drawn alongside the English, French and Swedes for qualifying – they’re all ranked inside the world’s top six. And yes, there was that great day at Páirc Uí Chaoimh when the Girls in Green beat France 3-1 in front of a raucous home crowd.
But there were some fault lines throughout her tenure.
In Ireland’s 12 games over the course of 2024 they used 11 different central midfield combinations. Leaning heavily into a 3-5-2 helped solidity, but it also curtailed the influence of McCabe, used at left wing-back, and O’Sullivan, who became isolated in a midfield three against stronger teams who could force Ireland’s two wing-backs to retreat to deeper positions. Goals were often hard to come by.
The age profile of the squad might have raised eyebrows in the FAI too. After the World Cup, their own review of the tournament concluded that Ireland needed fresh blood with an eye on the next three or four tournaments. In the first leg of the play-off against Wales, the average age of the starting team was almost 30, and six of those players grew up outside of the Irish football structure.
That’s a problem that goes beyond the head coach.
The FAI scrapped home-based sessions, there’s still no Under-23s team and an underfunded SSE Airtricity Women’s Premier Division is falling behind as the women’s game accelerates.
Bringing in a new boss with a good profile would be a sugar rush to appease the masses. Long-term however, there's plenty to ponder then as we head for the new year and another fresh start.
