How Football Manager Thinks Martin O'Neill And Roy Keane Will Get On

Last week we took a look at how Roy Keane, Martin O'Neill and Mick McCarthy get on when each of them are put in charge of Ireland on Football Manager 2014. Well now that it looks a certainty that O'Neill will get the job with Roy as his assistant, we wondered how they'd do in the land of FM.

Euro 2016 qualifiers

Our chances of making Euro 2016 got a great boost when we were drawn into a less than daunting qualification group. At first glance it would seem that Russia would provide the toughest test but, even at that, a top three finish will leave us qualifying for a play-off.

The nation's attention was firmly fixed on Armenia, who provided the first competitive opposition of the O'Neill/Keane era. The dream team sprung a couple of surprises in the starting line-up, with Joe Mason given the lone striker role most notably.

In the RTÉ studio Eamon Dunphy rejoiced that Wes 'Maradona' Hoolahan was starting and he was full sure we were on the first step of the ladder to winning Euro 2016. It wasn't long till his mood changed however, as Ireland slumped to a 2-2 draw.

Things went from bad to worse as we then got beaten by the Czech Republic and Russia. A win over Malta only provided temporary reprieve as we then lost 3-1 to Armenia in the return fixture. So after five matches we had one win, one draw and three losses.

Low and behold when all seemed doomed we pulled out a win over the Czech Republic and then another over Malta. We occupied the play-off spot but with a game extra played and final match away to Russia, our path to qualification looked mountainous.

Would you believe it!? We beat Russia 3-1 and began to dream. However, our dreams quickly turned into terrible Armenian nightmares as Ireland's new foe beat Malta 1-0 to go second, with themselves and the Czech Republic finishing ahead of us on the head-to-head rule.

World Cup 2018 Qualifying

Another failed qualification campaign but the FAI decided to stick by the beleaguered duo for our World Cup 2018 bid.

Our luck changed when it came to the draw as we were landed with the old enemy Italy and hipster sensations Belgium.

As bad as our Euro 2016 qualification campaign was the World Cup one proved even more disastrous. By the end of the group we had only won three matches out of ten. We drew a whopping five games, finishing fourth behind Israel.

We sat 67th in the world rankings and it appeared that things couldn't have gone much worse under O'Neill and Keane.

Meanwhile in the land of Robbie Keane....

The former LA Galaxy and Derby County was 39 years old and showing no signs of hanging up his boots.

Marcus Sorg - The Saviour of Irish football

In June 2018 Martin O'Neill decided to do the honourable thing and retire. German coach Marcus Sorg was charged with picking our country up off the floor with Roy Keane staying on as his assistant.

His impact was instant. We finished top of our Euro 2020 qualification group and got to quarter-finals of the tournament proper. Alas we were then beaten 2-0 by Sorg's home country, Germany. It didn't dampen spirits too much as we quickly dusted ourselves off and comfortably qualified for the 2022 World Cup.

We got to the last 16 of the World Cup but were beaten after extra-time by France in an eleven goal thriller. Tommie Hoban, Aiden McGeady, Jack Grealish, Conor Clifford and James Collins scored the goals for Ireland.

So while this supposed dream team looks as if it will be an absolute disaster, at least we only have to wait five years for the arrival of Mr Sorg and the rebirth of Irish football.

Meanwhile in the land of Robbie Keane...

The true hero in this story.