Martin O’Neill planning for the long haul with Ireland

Martin O’Neill might not have had any fresh news to report on the state of his contract negotiations with the FAI yesterday but, as he unveiled a 40-strong Ireland squad which includes three players wholly new to the international scene, he gave a strong hint that, as Ireland manager, he’s already looking beyond even Euro 2016.

“After the Euros, it’s not long before we’re in playing World Cup matches,” he pointed out.

“And we are, I think, going to lose one or two of the players – (the Euros) might be a swansong for one or two of the senior players.

“So I think it would be important for one or two of these (new) players to be around and not stepping into a World Cup venue when they’ve had no experience.”

In addition to Chris Forrester (Peterborough), Matt Doherty (Wolves) and Jonny Hayes (Aberdeen) who have all been named in the panel for the upcoming friendlies against Switzerland and Slovakia, O’Neill said that he will talk to U21 coach Noel King about allowing Jack Byrne and Alan Browne join the senior squad for some training.

While Harry Arter and Alan Judge are already regarded as knocking on the door of the 23-man Euros squad, the friendly games will also be important for a number of players who have been around the scene for a while without putting down roots – the likes of Anthony Pilkington, Keiren Westwood and Anthony Stokes, the latter a personal favourite of O’Neill who described him yesterday, with a broad grin, as “possibly (one of the) three laziest players - talented, brilliantly, lazily talented”.

Ireland’s US exports Robbie Keane and Kevin Doyle have both been named in the squad but O’Neill indicated that he would not have a problem if the LA Galaxy veteran gave these two games a miss.

“Robbie Keane is the captain of the team and he’s always a very good and strong influence around the players,” he said.

“But I’m totally conscious of the fact it’s a long way to travel for him. He’s just getting into the games and I will certainly speak to him this week.

“In terms of Kevin, he might be a different issue. I wouldn’t really want to bring someone a long, long distance if I can’t guarantee him some playing time but we do have the two games and I think - not having spoken to him - Kevin would welcome that.

O’Neill, who will cut the provisional squad to around 30 players for the games against the Swiss and the Slovaks, is not about to close the door on any other contenders for the summer, although he did say that, after these two games, “it would be more difficult, not impossible, but more difficult” to break into the travelling party for France.

The door, however, does seem to have been slammed permanently shut on Crystal Palace’s Damien Delaney.