Dion Fanning: There is no circle of trust for the manager and the media

When Ireland played Scotland at Lansdowne Road in 1986, the Scottish manager Andy Roxburgh was said to have asked his players at Celtic, Manchester United, and Liverpool to detail the strengths and weaknesses of the Irish players at those clubs.

David Walsh told the tale in his magisterial profiles of the Irish squad that appeared in the Sunday Tribune before the 1990 World Cup. After asking Roy Aitken and Gordon Strachan to provide information on the Ireland players at Celtic and United, Roxburgh turned to Kenny Dalglish, then player-manager at Liverpool, and asked him to tell his fellow Scotland team-mates about Ireland’s players. “I don’t have anything to say about the Liverpool players who play for Ireland,” Dalglish replied.

For Dalglish, the circle of trust was a small one. Those on the inside knew who they were. They might not include members of the Scotland squad, they certainly didn’t include the media. “Write what you see,” he would tell journalists as a way of reminding them they weren’t going to get much from him. They were on the outside.

Information was power so Dalglish would keep quiet, even in another dressing room. For the media, this was an infuriating position as they tried to extract information, but for Dalglish it made sense. 

During the course of Ireland’s appearance at this summer’s Women’s World Cup, a curious phenomenon developed. While the plain people of Ireland looked on with hope and anticipation, cheered by the extraordinary achievement of Vera Pauw and her players in qualifying, others were aware of a more nuanced story.

Those who had heard the whispers of player dissatisfaction wondered if and when the Ireland campaign would unravel. Others who considered it inevitable just queried the