Helping those in need of assistants

THE tracksuits look familiar to the people sitting around the lobby in the north Dublin hotel but not the players in them. The gaze of a businessman on a mobile phone follows a young man as he wanders past, boots in hand, but, while the Opel Umbro and FAI logos all suggest the wearer should have a familiar face, Carlisle United's Rory Delap still has a way to go before his features start to ring bells.

One or two are more familiar with Mark Kennedy fresh from his first really bruising encounter with the British tabloids, and Tottenham Hotspur's Steve Carr both standing out amongst the youngsters. There is a notable absence, however, of the real stars from the senior squad who have cleared out to prepare for their World Cup match in the greater privacy of Monaghan.

With them has gone team manager Mick McCarthy and in his absence it is his assistant Ian Evans, whose multitude of roles in the new regime includes that of under 21 manager, who is left to prepare what it is hoped is the next generation of Irish heroes. They play Iceland tonight at Dalymount Park.

Evans looks almost as anonymous as the young players who wander past as he speaks but, as he soon makes clear, that is the way he prefers things to be. Since joining McCarthy in the Irish set up in the wake of an unseemly attempt by the FAI to prevent their new man from bringing in his own assistant, Evans has deliberately attempted to keep a low profile. Now, being interviewed, he is friendly, humorous and easy to talk with. He maintains, nonetheless, that his dislike of dealing with the media, sponsors, directors, and just about every other group of people that a man in football management can expect to meet with the notable exception of players is the reason that he has turned his back on the idea of holding the reins of power himself. He has opted instead to devote himself to providing back up for others.

"For a while I wanted to be the boss but I had a spell in charge at Swansea which cured me of that quickly enough. Taking that job was the worst thing I ever did and since then I've been happy to help out whoever wanted me to be their assistant," he says.

In fact, Evans, a former centre half from the south of England, who played 13 times for Wales between 1976 and 78 (he qualified thanks to his Welsh born father), started to map out a route to management for himself while still a relatively young player. He earned his full coaching badge when still a 24 year old.

That was during his early days at Crystal Palace but it was five or so years later, after a particularly bad leg break had effectively ended his career at the club, that it was to start to come in useful.

Frustrated by his inability to break back into the first team he readily agreed to a move when a bid was made to bring him north to Barnsley. Allan Clarke was looking for an experienced man to play alongside an up and coming central defender named Mick McCarthy.

With his international record as well as long spells with QPR, where he had started as an apprentice, and Palace, Evans seemed ideally suited to the role. When Clarke departed shortly afterwards to manage Leeds, new manager Norman Hunter heard about the fact that his more experienced defender was also a qualified coach and asked him to double up in training.

Evans kept his home in the south for a while after joining the Oakwell Ground club and it was McCarthy who was sent to pick him up from the station each time he travelled north. "He invited me out with himself and his wife which I appreciated and we became friendly. We always kept in touch afterwards when he went to City, Celtic and even on to, France. We didn't see each other too often but we'd chat on the phone about how things were going quite regularly.

THOSE days at Barnsley, when the club won promotion to the old second division, enjoyed a couple of good Cup runs and regularly attracted crowds of more than 30,000, marked the start of McCarthy's rise to prominence. Evans, on the other hand, was to end his playing days there and after a little more than three years at the club, as well as a brief spell during which he worked towards setting up a driving school in the town, he returned to Palace as assistant to new manager Steve Coppell.

"I told him at that stage that I didn't want his job and that helped our relationship a lot. Then, going into my fifth season there I told him that I had a gut feeling that I needed to take the next step, to be my own man and that if a job did come up, I'd take it. Within a couple of months the Swansea job came up and I leapt into it with both feet but it was a terrible year and, after I left, I went to Millwall as their Youth Team coach."

It was at the Den that he came across his old friend McCarthy again and, after Bruce Rioch's sudden departure, the pair found themselves promoted to take charge of the first team. "He was an experienced player by then but he wasn't used to handling other players in bulk. I remember he'd go in before a game and go blah, blah, blab and then Just dry up, and so he'd turn to me and say, `eh Taffy, you got anything to add?' and I'd sort of chip in with a few things.

"We worked well together, he learned a bit from me and I learned from him. I handled a lot of the coaching and he dealt with all of the other stuff, going to the directors' lounge, talking to the press and all that. It was fine. We had the same views on football and we got on well so we were both happy."

The two, it appeared to onlookers, were of one mind on just about everything to do with their work and yet, when McCarthy left to replace Jack Charlton at the start of this year, he was surprised to see that the Millwall team which Evans put out for the following Saturday bore little resemblance to the one he had been selecting in previous weeks.

"Well, I did that for a couple of reasons. The team had been going through a bit of a slump and so something a bit different needed to happen but then I also thought, well, I'm only going to have one match here, so sod it, I'm going to make some changes here".

"I'd told the chairman that I wasn't interested in Mick's job - I didn't want to be in that situation again - and I knew that that would put my own position in jeopardy because a new man would want to change things. Anyway, all I wanted was to make a bit of an impact and that's what happened because, even though we only drew the game 1-1, the team played bloody well. When they came in afterwards I thanked them all and said `cheerio' because I reckoned I had about 10 minutes before I was sacked which, from the time Jimmy Nicholl arrived, wasn't far off."

Evans is still involved with Millwall, helping to train promising schoolkids as part of its School Of Excellence scheme but his life now, as he continues to adapt to the international stage, is very different to a year ago.

"It's hard to get into a routine but it's actually busy enough. My brief in England is to keep an eye on players of all ages and so I tend 10 spend my time monitoring lads from 15 or so right up. People will fire names at me, ask me if I've seen such a lad who they've heard eligible and, if I haven't, I'll try to get along to see him."

His week to week work involves seeing about five or six games, spanning everything from the Premiership down to a lower division club's youth team and then, when he travels to Ireland, trying to get along to a few National League games.

"I think there was a feeling that the previous regime only wanted to pick the tried and tested lads and there was a feeling that the best players had already left for the big English clubs by the time they would figure in the under 21 side. That's generally the case, but thats not to say that there aren't exceptions to the rule and I've certainly tried to cast the net a little bid wider.

"I want to bring in locally based players who are good enough to be involved although there is a suspicion that all I've been involved in is a PR exercise. But that's really not the case. People complain about a player like Owen Henry but Owen plays the same position as Steve Carr who is playing for Tottenham in the Premiership so it's going to be tough for him to get into the team and it is the same for a lot of the other players."

DURING the Charlton years, when the senior team enjoyed the good times, the under 21s had an abysmal record under Jack's assistant Maurice Setters. Now, however, there appears to be renewed optimism within the panel, particularly in the aftermath of last month's 4-0 victory over Macedonia in Dublin.

"We've had one good result and the lads played well but the goal has to be keep winning games, to win all our games in the group and qualify for the finals. That's the target," says Evans. "To be involved in an international under 21 tournament would be a great experience for any of these lads and it would stand to them in the future so that's what we're aiming for at the moment. Last month was just a decent start, that's all."

If he had all of the eligible players to choose from, he feels, he would have a "terrific" team but with the likes of Keith O'Neill, Shay Given and David Connolly having quickly progressed into the reckoning for the senior team, he is keenly aware that achieving any sort of consistency will prove difficult.

"That is a problem but that's part of my job, to shovel them through to Mick in the senior squad just as Maurice Price has to push them through to me from under 18 if I need them. I don't mind that, I'm glad for the lads and I'm glad for Mick that he has them to call on. This is the part of the game that I like, helping players to develop and seeing lads who are good enough getting caps."

Aside from his role with the under 21s, though, Evans is also there to contribute to the senior team and, when tonight's game at Dalymount Park is over, he hopes he will get a chance to sit down with McCarthy and talk about tomorrow's game.

"Sometimes it doesn't all run smoothly. I'm not saying we're the odd couple but sometimes he'll sit back looking at me as if to say "what the hell are you talking about?" and sometimes I'll do the same. In the end, though, after he states his case and I state mine he's the one in the hot seat so he's the one that gets to make the final decision.

And that's the way he hopes that it will stay, although, asked about his long term future, Evans splutters into laughter. "I don't talk about the future in this game, not more than a couple of months anyway. In two years time, I could be sweeping the streets. The last time I planned for the future was when I left Barnsley and did the advanced driving instructors' course. Then the merry go round of football management started up and suddenly I was off."

With that, suddenly he was off. Springing up from the table to help after noticing a young child with her hand caught in a door. He returns the infant to her mother and leaves the hotel foyer smiling. It's past lunchtime in north Dublin and Ian Evans has remembered his mission. There are plenty more people out there, people in need of his assistance, and that, he will happily tell you, is just the way he likes it.