Ireland success was “in spite of Vera” – Diane Caldwell slams former manager

Ireland success was “in spite of Vera” – Diane Caldwell slams former manager

Veteran defender Diane Caldwell was very critical of former Ireland manager Vera Pauw today.

Diane Caldwell says the Ireland women’s team’s success was all achieved “in spite” of ex-manager Vera Pauw whose methods, according to the FC Zurich defender, were not “up to the standard that’s expected at international level”.

“From my position as a pretty experienced player, I don’t think it was up to the standard that’s expected at international level,” said Caldwell.

“The results and performances that we got were in spite of Vera being our coach. We approached her many times about professionalising many aspects but it was hard to get change.

Caldwell slams Vera Pauw’s management.

“She obviously made myself as part of the leadership group that she created along with a few other players and she gave us that position to use our voice and try to talk on behalf of the team.

“We tried to do that as a group as best we could but at the end of the day, she’s the coach and controls everything and you can only say and try to change so much.”

Explaining the unsavory ending to Pauw’s tenure as Ireland manager, Caldwell said: “I think it was just an accumulation of everything over a long time.

“After the European campaign myself and Katie also reflected with Ruud Dokter at the time about certain aspects that need to be improved and changed but ultimately that fell on deaf ears and she got a contract extension.

New lease of life.

“This gives us all a new lease of life, there’s a new beginning and like I said with the changes the FAI has made with new roles it just shows intent, standards are going to be raised.

“They’ve listened to the stakeholders in this team. These girls are good but we can actually be getting more out of them and performing at a higher level and achieving more success than what they have been.”