Perhaps it really was just too good to be true.
The mastermind of Northern Ireland’s glorious journey to the Euro 2016 finals returning to lead an embattled national team back to another major tournament.
That was the script when Michael O’Neill was re-appointed as manager in December, wasn’t it? It was certainly what a lot of supporters hoped for as they sensed the opportunity of another memorable summer after the favourable Euro 2024 qualifying draw Northern Ireland were handed.
Indeed, O’Neill even went as far on Monday night to say there has been an “obsession” about qualification among some since that draw in early October placed Northern Ireland in a group with Denmark, Slovenia, Finland, Kazakhstan and San Marino.
The former Stoke City manager was not the man in charge at the time and it was his predecessor Ian Baraclough who attended the ceremony in Frankfurt.
At his unveiling in early December, O’Neill seemed to share the optimism about the country’s chances of qualification, noting a lot of the senior players he had managed in his first spell would be hugely important in helping the younger, inexperienced members of the squad navigate a course to Germany next summer.
After Monday night’s chastening 1-0 defeat by Kazakhstan, however, that narrative has been turned on its head with O’Neill all-but writing- off Northern Ireland’s chances of repeating their 2016 heroics. In this campaign, at least.
Windsor Park fell silent three minutes from time when, with Northern Ireland pushing for a late goal, substitute Abat Aimbetov broke from near the halfway line to slot home a goal that condemned the home side to their third defeat in four qualifiers and leave them fifth in the table.
“We have to win five games out of six and we have won one out of four,” O’Neill said when asked if the team can still qualify for the Euro 2024 finals.
“I am not going to sit here and say that we have given up or anything like that, but it will be extremely difficult for us to put ourselves in a position to qualify.”
“I think we have been obsessed with qualification since the minute the tournament was drawn but the reality is that for us to be in a position to qualify we need our strongest squad available and we need it available as much as possible throughout the campaign.”
O’Neill has not been able to select anything near his strongest squad because of a list of injuries to senior players that has been as high as 10 across this campaign, with Liverpool’s Conor Bradley adding to it on the eve of the Kazakhstan defeat.
Five teenagers played against Denmark in Friday night’s cruel 1-0 loss in Copenhagen and on Monday in Belfast the likes of Isaac Price and Trai Hume were making only their second competitive international starts.
That is not how O’Neill envisaged it upon his re-appointment back in December. He knew then he would be without long-term injury victim Stuart Dallas for these two camps, but he then lost captain Steven Davis and Corry Evans to major injuries.
Across his first two camps he has also been without the likes of Jonny Evans, Craig Cathcart, Josh Magennis, Conor Washington, Shayne Lavery and Jamal Lewis at different times.
It can be harsh at times to pin a manager down to something he says in the immediate aftermath of a defeat as cruel as the one against Denmark, but he said clearly he “was not thinking about qualification”, even before the game, due to the youthful and inexperienced make-up of his squad.
Those sentiments crystallised further after what was a somewhat toothless performance against a Kazakhstan side sitting 50 places below them in the world rankings.
“I am not being critical of those players in any shape or form but it isn’t a squad that would qualify for a tournament at this minute in time,” he observed.
“I think it is important to recognise that and that is the hand we have been dealt.
“The choices we have are limited but equally the young players who have come in have done extremely well and they give us a lot of positivity going forward.
“We have to continue to work with them, continue to mould them and continue to hopefully give them a good experience of international football because they will be the players down the line whose shoulders the hopes of qualification will rest on.”
And what of that narrative for Northern Ireland and their supporters once the dust settles on a start to Euro 2024 qualification that has yielded three points from four games? With a double-header of away matches against Slovenia and Kazakhstan to come in September, adding to their points tally will not be easy.
“We’re positive with the group of players. They’re very disappointed in there, you can see it, and the fact they are like that is a positive for me because it does hurt them.
“I can’t control the narrative around this, that’s down to you guys [the media], but what I can control is the group of players. I said to them after the game, we have no option but to stick together.
“We have to embrace the challenge of going to Slovenia and Kazakhstan – very difficult games.”
From obsession to realisation. Northern Ireland’s narrative continues to evolve.
