Best feet forward

As we start another calendar year, we can look back on 2013 as 12 months which gave us so much to talk about in the world of football that it’s hard to know where to start.

Some of the biggest stories were about people on the move. We saw our national team manager Giovanni Trapattoni replaced by two of the biggest names in Irish football, Martin O’Neill and his assistant Roy Keane. David Moyes had the unenviable job of replacing a living legend in Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford. Gareth Bale broke the world transfer record with a move to Real Madrid, one consequence of his departure from White Hart Lane being that Spurs practically bought a new team.

In what proved to be a disappointing World Cup qualifying campaign for us, the writing was on the wall for Trapattoni for some time before he and the FAI finally parted ways. The FAI took their time appointing his successor – and then came up with a headline-grabbing duo. The arrival of O’Neill and Keane certainly got the country excited again about our national team and their chances of qualifying for the European Championships in 2016. The new era has started as well as it could have but, of course, it’s still only early days. That said, we have had some players really step up to the plate and shine in the last year. Players like Seamus Coleman, James McCarthy, Robbie Brady and David Forde can be very happy with their progression on the international stage.