Dublin Baresi bringing it home

ONLY 53 days to go in the transfer window (thanks for that, Sky). Will we ever be able to stand all the excitement?

John O’Shea’s departure from Manchester United to Sunderland has been the biggest Irish move to date, while we continue to await developments on the likes of his fellow internationals Robbie Keane, Kevin Doyle and Shane Long, amongst others.

Robbie, of course, is a saga unto himself when it comes to transfer moves but fans of the League of Ireland will be especially interested in what fate has in store for Doyle and Long, two players who left Cork City for a song (and a verse) and whose joint value is now rated in the multi-millions.

It has long been a complaint of supporters of the domestic game that outstanding players here invariably have to go to England or Scotland before their talents seem to come to the notice of the management of the international side. Keith Fahey and Seamus Coleman are two other notable examples of the phenomenon, almost as if simply being sprinkled with Eau de Championship or Eau de Premiership is all that it takes for a Trapattoni or a Tardelli to belatedly begin sniffing about.

So it was interesting this week to hear Kenny Cunningham address the issue at length after he was unveiled to the press as Damien Richardson’s assistant for the Airtricity League XI which will shortly be doing battle with the might of Inter, Man City and Celtic in the inaugural Super Cup.

The former Ireland captain reckons that the standing of talented Airtricity League players bears comparison with that of their Irish counterparts in the lower leagues across the water. He gives the example of Keith Andrews.

The midfielder first caught Cunningham’s eye playing for Wolves reserves, impressing with his physical presence and passing ability. Then he saw him playing even better after his move to MK Dons, leading Cunningham to think “the lad was not far off” even though his name would barely have registered outside the club “But then he gets the move to Blackburn Rovers,” Kenny observes, “and very quickly gets his opportunity at international level, steps in and looks very, very comfortable. The point is that for some players, three months, six months or a year at a higher level can make a big difference. Psychologically, to get that move to a bigger club can really help you confidence-wise. You really grow, you realise how good you are by playing alongside excellent players and being able to hold your own. You can become 20, 30, 40% better in a short period of time. There’s the fitness aspect of it as well, the conditioning and sports science aspects of big clubs are amazing. We talk about technical ability and game intelligence but the physical conditioning of players now plays a huge part. Very quickly the club assesses you and gets you on a specific programme and, certainly within a year, you’re a different physical specimen to the one which came to the football club.”

Richardson echoes that point, drawing on his experience as a player who moved from Ireland to England in the 70s.

“Long time ago as it was,” he recalls, “when I went full-time I left Shamrock Rovers at 11 stone 7 and six weeks later at Gillingham I was 12 stone 7 — and that without the level of conditioning that’s available nowadays. What I had as a player reacted to the full-time environment. Gillingham had looked at me at Rovers and thought, ‘he’s five foot eleven so we could put another stone on him very, very quickly and his stride pattern is too long so we can break that down’. And, nowadays, with the new GPS systems, you can check heart rate and everything else.

“That’s why there’s been such a big improvement in players who’ve gone from this league to England. Keith Fahey was a classic example. Trapattoni won’t take players from the league here. Why? Because he feels if they’re good enough, they’ll go to England and he knows that when they do, they will get this all-round improvement.”

For his part Cunningham rejects as tokenism the idea that League of Ireland players should be called into the Irish squad if only to give them a taste of training with the best on offer.

“If I was a League of Ireland player I’d want to make my way into the international scene purely on merit,” he says.

“I wouldn’t want it to be like, ‘come on in, enjoy the hotel complex, join in the five a side and have a few pictures taken with the rest of the lads’ — I’d find that a bit disrespectful. “It should be about getting in on merit and that’s not out of the reach of some of the players in this Super Cup squad, particularly some of the younger players.”

And Cunningham concludes on an optimistic note for performers in the Irish game. “We’ve already seen examples of players from the League of Ireland who, having gained some experience in English professional football, have developed, realised their potential and stepped very quickly into the international scene. That must give encouragement to players in the League of Ireland. I don’t think it’s such a big step — not for everyone, of course — but there’s real talent within this league.”

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