Ready for the big stage
His selection in the heart of Ireland’s midfield for the Italian’s first game in charge against Serbia was surprising enough but few people expected him to be chief contender for the same jersey with the opening World Cup qualifier just a handful of days away.
It’s a dizzying rise but Whelan doesn’t come across as the excitable sort and a 10-minute conversation with the player is pockmarked by reminders that he has proven nothing yet. The real business, he stresses, is only about to start.
It’s a good point and one Frank Rijkaard put best when, as Dutch manager back in 1999, his team began to rack up a succession of impressive friendly performances in the run up to the European Championships.
“Pavarotti is not judged on how he sings in the shower,” said Rijkaard. “People wait until he gets on stage.”
His games thus far may have been mere sideshows but Whelan has done all he can to ensure that he retains a leading role when the production hits Broadway on Saturday. It was his performance against Serbia in Croke Park last May that started the ball rolling.
“Coming to meet the squad for the first time, you do want to impress. You want to catch the manager’s eye and stay there. Hopefully, that’s what I’ve done. I’m here on merit but I know that if I’m not doing the business there are other players out there who will come in and take my spot.”
He had been made stew in the waiting room long enough. The low point came 14 months ago when, after a spate of withdrawals, Staunton trawled the length and breadth of British football for young Irish-qualified players to take to the USA.
Many of those caught in the net had been sitting on the sidelines with their clubs but Whelan was overlooked even though he had been a constant presence in the Sheffield Wednesday side that was plying its trade in the Championship.
Seeing Joe Lapira, for one, ahead of him in the queue can’t have been easy to take. It’s a subject he prefers to brush over this week but the disappointment cut deeply at the time.
It was clearly a steep climb to the top but he took his first small steps last November with an impressive performance for the Ireland ‘B’ team against their Scottish counterparts in Airdrie.
It was soon after that his club career began to take off. Stoke City made a late bid for him as the January transfer window was about to shut and five months later he was contemplating trips to Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge.
Having sat out the club’s last two Premier League games prior to the international break, it hasn’t worked out quite as he would have hoped so far.
“You ask anybody and they will tell you they want to play every game. It is going to be difficult this year. The manager has brought in some new players and he wants to develop a settled team, to get us going. I’m more than confident that I can get back in the team. I just have to keep the head down.”
Trapattoni has so far shown no such inclination to replace him. The ultimate compliment came when the Irish manager compared him to AC Milan’s enforcer Gennaro Gattuso and the expectation is that Whelan will start against Georgia in Mainz.
The game against Norway in Oslo last month would certainly suggest as much. Prior to the game, Trapattoni was effusive in his praise for Andy Reid but it was Whelan who lined up alongside Stephen Reid come kick-off.
“It’s nice to know that you have been picked ahead of great players and Andy is a great player but it was just that one time and you don’t know what the manager has in mind for the following games.”
The new management has made a concerted effort to make Ireland a more solid team, one which is difficult to score against and therefore difficult to beat. Trap has talked endlessly about the importance of balance and he sees Whelan as a key figure.
Funnily enough, the player himself doesn’t see himself as the archetypal defensive midfielder. With Sheffield Wednesday he was known to score the odd screamer and the two central players alternate between attacking and defensive duties at Stoke.
Not that he has any quibbles with how Trapattoni wants him to play. All being equal, he is expected to again partner Stephen Reid in the centre. In Oslo, the Blackburn Rovers player showed glimpses of the form that Ireland have missed through his years of injuries.
“Stephen has been missing for the last 18 months or two years but he came back in and settled really well, like he’d never left. I’m sure he wants to get back into the fold and get as many caps as he can.
“It was great playing beside him. He helped me through the game and he has a lot of experience. Hopefully I can learn a little bit off him as well.”
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