Big.

One way of summing up the year ahead.

First off, I want to start by wishing all of you a belated Happy New Year, hope your celebrations were all sound and hopefully 2008 was as good a year for all of you as it ultimately turned out to be for me. Turned out to be a fairly good year for the national side as well, with our eight matches for the year reading as follows

Friendly, 6th February
Republic of Ireland 0-1 Brazil

Friendly, 24th May
Republic of Ireland 1-1 Serbia

Friendly, 29th May
Republic of Ireland 1-0 Colombia

Friendly, 20th August
Norway 1-1 Republic of Ireland

World Cup Qualifier, 6th September
Georgia 1-2 Republic of Ireland

World Cup Qualifier, 10th September
Montenegro 0-0 Republic of Ireland

World Cup Qualifier, 15th October
Republic Of Ireland 1-0 Cyprus

Friendly, 19th November
Republic of Ireland 2-3 Poland

Played 8, Won 3, Drawn 3, Lost 2, Goals Scored 8. Goals Conceded 7.

I’ll take that, even though it looks like one of the more uninspiring records in recent memory. In truth, the football wasn’t much to write about too, but what we needed was results, not necessarily outstanding football. Ideally, it will be a case of more of the same this year, because the fixtures look fairly mean, but we have given ourselves a hell of a chance of at least making the play-offs in our group. 7 matches already marked in for next year, before the inevitable number of friendlies along the way.

World Cup Qualifier, 11th February
Republic of Ireland vs. Georgia

World Cup Qualifier, 28th March
Republic of Ireland vs. Bulgaria

World Cup Qualifier, 1st April
Italy vs. Republic of Ireland

World Cup Qualifier, 6th June
Bulgaria vs. Republic of Ireland

World Cup Qualifier, 5th September
Cyprus vs. Republic of Ireland

World Cup Qualifier, 10th October
Republic of Ireland vs. Italy

World Cup Qualifier, 14th October
Republic of Ireland vs. Montenegro

No real explanation required for why the two games against Italy and Bulgaria are in bold when you take a peek at the group table, although in truth all seven could be marked out as massive games. The Cyprus one because we’ve suffered there before, the Monenegro one because it could all come down to that if we make a mess of matters and particularly the Georgia one because a win there would take us seven points clear of Bulgaria before they come to Croker, so two wins in our next two qualifiers could almost take qualification out of Bulgaria’s hands before they ever really get going.

If that proves to be the case, then it could be a case of having a real go at Italy, but in all honesty, who fancies us to get anything from the game in Bari? Not me, that’s for sure. Having said that, if we were to manage a point away, it would make the return fixture in Croke in the penultimate round of games the biggest match since our last match in the World Cup finals. A crowd of 80,000 at home cheering the boys on? It would be some night, but that is a million miles away at the moment. The only other potential concern on the horizon may be the frankly stupid rule FIFA have devised in determining the fate of the 9 runners-up in the qualifying groups, with the worst runner-up, as it were, dropping out of the matter altogether, not even being afforded a play-off against another nation for a place in the finals. As things stand, we don’t look too clever compared with the rest, so it may well be a case of hoping that the other four sides chasing Holland’s shadow in Group 9 continue to make a mess of proceedings, or we could be in line to suffer in that regard. Personally, I think a play-off against an Asian/South American side would benefit all, and allowing one side to suffer, whomever it may be, makes absolutely no sense. I feel sorry for whoever it ultimately ends up being. Again however, that’s forward thinking, there’s still seven games between us and that potential headache.

So a big year for the national side and for Traps, but who else has an important year ahead of them? Shay Given has a mightily important month ahead of him, because he needs to decide whether to move on to bigger and better things with the likes of Arsenal, Spurs or Manchester City, or whether to remain at Newcastle, despite voicing his concerns in recent days. Personally? Shay’s gotta move on. We all know the biggest chance he has of picking up a medal at International is if one of the top dogs at the FAI start doling out chocolate ones to the players, and it’s pretty much the same story at Newcastle, so if Shay wants something out of his career other than being remembered as one of the greatest stoppers of his generation, he needs to move to somewhere on the up. Try as he might, he can’t keep a sinking ship like Newcastle afloat on his own.

Important time for Aiden McGeady too. A few nice noises coming out from Glasgow today about his happiness at the club , but I think it’s all a load of crap. McGeady’s relationship with his manager will always have a black mark against it now, and in all fairness, McGeady is a better player than a backwater club with ideas above it’s station (I had to get that off my chest, I also think the comments attributed to Walter Smith in that article are insulting to other Scottish clubs, and the Old Firm are not big European clubs, period.) I’d like to see McGeady at a fairly big English club, at least one that can challenge for honours. Arsenal is probably out of the question, but I personally think if Wenger is after a decent wide-man for his side, he could do worse than to look towards Celtic Park, certainly given how much he’ll have to shell out for the man from Russia (The next Karel Poborsky?) Failing that, a middling club in the Premiership could come in for him. Villa seemed like the perfect choice to me, but then I remembered how top-heavy that would leave Villa on wide players, so maybe that wouldn’t be the best option….hard to say ultimately what the best would be for McGeady, but wherever he plys his trade this year, he needs to be on form, especially for the big fixtures we have coming up.

Robbie Keane has a big year ahead of him too, mainly as he needs to reconstruct his image amongst the media, who seem to have written him off as a catastrophic failure six months into his time at Anfield (Fun fact time: He has 5 goals in 17 league appearances for Liverpool, Berbatov has 3 in 15 for United, and he’s scored more than half the number of goals he got in his debut season for Spurs, but we must also remember that he is a morbid waste of money, because a few reporters have themselves convinced he is). As much as those myths about Keano can be debunked, fact of the matter is that they must be having an effect on the player, and he needs a few goals to shut the doubters up, because the last thing we need is our record goalscorer short on confidence going into some the biggest games we have played for years. A move would probably do him more harm than good, so it’s just a case of knuckling down and giving it his best shot, a few important goals here and there should do the trick nicely, and anyone who has followed the national side down the year will know he’s capabale of them, (91st minute and 93rd minute, cheers) so a couple for club should help country no end. A big year for the skipper.

Looking a little further ahead, there’s a few youngsters threatening to break through the ranks and stake a claim for a place in the full squad. Plenty of positive reports are being made on Watford’s Jon-Joe O’Toole, while the praises of Celtic’s striker Cillian Sheridan have been sung in recent weeks. An energetic, intelligent centre midfielder to replace the gap never quite filled since Matt Holland’s departure would be gratefully recieved, along with a goalscorer to lighten the load for Robbie up front (I still can’t see Kevin Doyle in that role). The development of Kieren Westwood at Coventry, along with Darren Randolph (Charlton) and Shane Supple (Ipswich) will also be key, because one of those is going to have to take over the gloves from Shay before too long, and whoever it is needs to be ready, because it’s a big job to take over. It’s also time for Darren O’Dea, James McCarthy and Joey O’Brien to start knocking on the door as well, because they’ve been around long enough now for some of the hype about them to wear thin. Time to show your worth, lads.

Away from the international scene for a brief moment, an important year for Bohemians in defending their title at home, while also representing the country in the Champions’ League, while St. Pats, Derry City and Sligo Rovers will fly the flag for the League of Ireland in the Europa League from July onwards. Sadly, it’s also an important period for many clubs in the Premier and First Division, due to the financial crisis that has already engulfed Dublin City and Limerick FC, and threatens to claim a few more clubs before any potential upturn. The list includes Drogheda United, Cork City, Sligo Rovers, Athlone Town and Finn Harps, along with probably a few more lingering which will become apparent before too long. If this trend is to continue, you fear for the state of League of Ireland football, so hopefully a resurgence in the financial situation will come about before too long. Remains to be seen however.

All things told then, it promises to be a very important year for Irish players, clubs and especially the national side. We’ve played ugly football to get to this point, but we’re now at it, and are a maximum of nine games away from a crack at a major tournament for the first time in eight years. Far too long to wait, so it’s essential that now we have got into a good position, we build upon it and hopefully, come October/November, can start to think ahead to this time next year, and writing pieces such as this wondering how far we can go in the World Cup finals. Nothing more than a dream at the moment, but it’s the first time we’ve dared to dream for a while, so I’ll enjoy it while I can.

Oh, and one last thing that might help along the way, I entirely agree with the sentiments of David McGuinness.

Another potential big boost in a big year. I see a pattern forming here….

Take care, everyone.