Shamrock Rovers v TottenhamWHEN THE Europa League draw was made a few months back, the prospect of Tottenham coming to Dublin for a group match was the glamour tie that fuelled all the talk of Shamrock Rovers moving one or more of their home games across town to the Aviva Stadium.

Now the game has finally come around, however, the club’s decision to stay in Tallaght looks at least as inspired as any of its departing manager’s team selections over the past three years.

Sure, it’s an 8,500 sell-out and promises to be a good, if chilly, night out but a hint of the game’s actual importance to the two clubs was provided by last night’s pre-match press conferences. First up were Michael O’Neill and Dan Murray, who looked and sounded like men pondering their last day in paid employment.

Then came Harry Redknapp, who dutifully proclaimed the visitors’ determination to win and, somewhat less plausibly, progress at the expense of Rubin Kazan, who are currently three points and five goals better off than the Londoners in the Group A table.

Somewhere in the good-natured banter that followed, however, the Spurs boss revealed that, in addition to leaving half-a-dozen first-team regulars back at home, he has only brought three outfield substitutes to Dublin with him, which is something of a surprise.

“I don’t want to lose any game,” he still insisted. “I want to win tomorrow night. It’s going to be very, very difficult but we want to come here and win the game, that’s the key, then see where it goes from there.

“It’ll be a good team,” he added, “I was out training with them this morning and there’s something like seven internationals. A lot of them aren’t in my starting 11 at the moment but they’re good players and it’s up to them to show me here that they should be.”

Given his lack of options on the bench, most will at least start the game confident that they’re going to get the full 90 minutes to make their case. Niko Kranjcar, though, is unlikely to feature for very long given that, Redknapp revealed, he has has only trained for two days after returning from a lengthy lay off with an ankle injury.

The mischievous pleasure Redknapp clearly took from a question about the two big Manchester clubs being consigned to this competition after Christmas suggested that, despite his diplomatic claims to the contrary, he would be more than happy to be watching its concluding stages on the telly.

“Yeah, I saw that the Wolves fans were singing at the United ones the other day about being on Channel 5 on Thursday night,” he said. “I seem to remember the United fans singing that at us a bit earlier in the season.”

He was generous in his praise of his opposite number tonight, meanwhile, observing that Michael O’Neill has “obviously done a fantastic job here”, and adding that he would be a “good choice,” for the Northern Ireland job.

Rovers had suggested afterwards that neither O’Neill nor anyone else at the club would answer questions about his departure for pastures new, but in the end both he and his skipper Dan Murray talked openly enough about the issue.

“It’s sad to leave any club, whether it’s as a manager or a player,” said the Northerner before prompting a fair bit of laughter by adding, “but then I think I played for 14 clubs during my career so you get used to that sadness. It’s become likes a habit. It’s like getting continually ditched by girlfriends, you get used to it.

“But the three years have been very enjoyable. They’ve been very hard work, a huge challenge. It’s for other people to judge how I’ve done. My career moves on, I have to look at where my career takes me. I have no major career plan. But hopefully the supporters and the members of this club who have basically subsidised the club and kept it alive, hopefully, they look back having enjoyed the three years.”

Still, when asked afterwards for television whether the parting had been amicable, he said it had not.

The players, Murray suggested, might be a bit more put out by it all if weren’t for the fact many of them might well be finishing up with the club themselves this evening. Chris Turner has just agreed a new deal but many others, including the former Cork City captain, will be unemployed as of tomorrow morning.

“The way the league is going, the opportunities for players lie outside this league,” said O’Neill. While he never seemed to win over Rovers supporters despite his success, the league will certainly be a little poorer for losing him.