Unfazed Walters simply stays on message

That old cliché about professional footballers living in a bubble was never more apposite than in Hungary this last few days.

The travelling press corps may have spent most of yesterday debating Giovanni Trapattoni’s confusing press conference after the 0-0 draw with Hungary and his apparent suggestion that changes were imminent but the players themselves were blissful in their ignorance.

Suggestions of a switch to 4-5-1? The possibility of Jonathan Walters being promoted to the first wave? All of it passed them by, which was hardly a surprise given Trapattoni cleared up the confusion last night by declaring everything to be more or less a case of ‘as you were’.

“I don’t read the papers so much,” said Jonathan Walters after the team’s light runout at Gdynia’s reconstructed municipal stadium. “We don’t get them where we are. It’s for the manager to decide. So it’s out of my hands, really.”

Walters will start Sunday’s game on the bench but you wouldn’t bet your house on him finishing it in the same spot. The Stoke City striker has been called into the fray in the last two games and made an impact on both.

A man less welded to the principles of loyalty than Trapattoni may well have had his head turned by such evidence but Walters’ job for now is to hang tight, get his head round his second-string status and hit the ground running when called upon.

Not a problem, he insisted.

“As in every other game, if you’re on the bench you’ve got to approach it that you could come on in the first minute. You’ve got to do your warm-ups and be ready to go because that can happen in any game. If you’re on the bench from a young age, that’s what you’re taught to do. You’ve got to be prepared to come on at any time.”

Though he has done well of late, Walters did miss at least a hat-trick of chances against Bosnia-Herzegovina and Hungary — two unmarked headers included when games losing their shape made for the sort of chances at a premium at international level. Ireland will require a more sharpened killer instinct in the days to come.

“It’s sometimes easier to come on as a sub,” he admitted. “Whether it’s 45 minutes or 60 or 70 minutes, it always tends to be more opened up, and you tend to get more chances whether at international level or club level.

“As a sub you always want to come on and make an impact. You want to be in the manager’s mind, Shane, Kevin or Robbie, everyone wants to play. Only one or two can. The other boys are right behind the other guys.”

Unforeseen twists await.