McCarthy needs fresh challenge

If Roberto Martinez has his way, James McCarthy will see out the rest of the season at Wigan.

But even the Spaniard’s mastery of diplomatic-speak — he described reported interest in some of his best players as “a compliment” — couldn’t hide his apparent resignation to the prospect of losing the Ireland international later if not sooner.

“Whenever we lost players, it’s been at the right price and at the right time,” he said this week, “and I don’t think January is the right time to lose any of our important players when we’re right in the middle of the fight.”

Which, of course, makes perfect sense if you’re the manager of Wigan, where all concerned have grown accustomed to the grim realities of the relegation scrap over the past three campaigns.

But despite his mutually appreciative relationship with Martinez, McCarthy, at 22, could surely be forgiven if he daydreams of what life might be like a little further away from the trapdoor.

Not that either Arsenal or Liverpool — two of the bigger clubs with which he has been recently linked — are exactly models of stability these days. And it’s not only because Everton are currently ahead of both in the Premier League that you can’t help thinking that Goodison Park might be best next destination for an obviously talented player looking to enhance his footballing education. From a green-tinted point of view, a move to Everton would also see him linking up with Darron Gibson which — if the latter ever gets over his post Euros huff — could provide the template for the Irish midfield of the future.

Shane Long’s is the other Irish name which, as we media folk coyly like to put it, has been featuring strongly in the January transfer window speculation, ensuring McCarthy hasn’t hogged the headlines all to himself. And again, echoing Roberto Martinez, West Brom manager Steve Clarke has insisted the striker was going nowhere. For all that, it says something about the comparatively limited options available to Giovanni Trapattoni that there aren’t really any other boys in green featuring all that prominently on the most wanted posters around Britain and Europe.

Which is not to underestimate the importance of the double-move to Hull City for David Meyler and Robbie Brady, two of the new arrivals in the squad and both developing players who will need to get all the game-time they can in England if they are to realise their promise and stake a real claim for permanent inclusion in the senior team. Being allowed to leave a club like Manchester United can hardly be interpreted as a vote of confidence by any young player but, as Brady seems mature enough to appreciate, he’s far better off playing regularly at a Championship side with promotion ambitions than repeatedly watching the train leave the station without him at Old Trafford.

And, if he needs any further reassurance, he only has to look at how the aforementioned Gibson has blossomed at Goodison Park.

With the Irish making few enough waves so far in the transfer market, probably the most significant piece of business has been David Moyes securing Seamus Coleman on a long-term deal at Everton. Coleman is undoubtedly the most exciting Irish player of the hour and his belated emergence as a certain starter in the international team has been one of the few incontestable positives of the post-Euros period. And with Marc Wilson now being reported by his manager at Stoke, Tony Pulis, to be just a couple of weeks away from a comeback having broken his leg last October, the prospect of Ireland’s full-back situation being transformed gathers pace.

But McCarthy, not for the first time, is the one on whom most hopes will be pinned. Of course, when it comes to judging Irish players, there has long been a tendency here to overstate the talent at the international manager’s disposal, even though it’s as long ago as the Jack Charlton era that the man in charge could effectively have his pick of some of the very best players in some of the very best teams in Britain.

So, before we heap even more pressure on young McCarthy’s shoulders, it’s worth saying we’re not exactly talking here about a new Paul McGrath or Liam Brady or Roy Keane or John Giles. Or, at least, not yet. In the Premier League the midfielder is obviously very highly regarded, as much for his footballing intelligence and disciplined workrate as his prized ability to pick out a killer pass. Yet, it’s not unfair to say that he has yet to make a similarly sustained impression in the green shirt, his contributions thus far offering glimpses of what he can offer rather than the complete picture.

Trapattoni’s rigid requirements of his central midfielders, as well as the initial stop-start nature of McCarthy’s international career, can both be cited as plausible reasons for his failure to exert authority in the green shirt on a par with what’s he’s shown at Wigan, but the more he gets to feature in the Irish team, the more one is entitled to hope he grows into the role.

And while you wouldn’t expect Roberto Martinez or the Wigan faithful to agree, there’s a greater chance of that coming to pass if, on a regular basis, McCarthy gets to taste an atmosphere a tad more rarified than the one at the DW Stadium.

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