Roy Keane stands firmly behind ‘courageous’ Glenn Whelan

Glenn Whelan looks pretty much nailed-on to don the green shirt for what will be the 82nd time when Ireland face Georgia in Tbilisi on Saturday.

That he is not only the third most-capped player in the current squad, behind John O’Shea and Aiden McGeady, but actually the most capped Irish midfielder of all time, speaks volumes for the regard in which 31-year-old has been held, first by Giovanni Trapattoni — who, in his own first game in charge, against Serbia in 2008, also handed the Clondalkin man his Irish debut — and now Martin O’Neill.

Yet, far from being garlanded with accolades for his long service to his country, Whelan has all too often found himself singled out for blame as the very personification, in the eyes of his harshest critics, of all the creative failings at the heart of the Irish team.

To Roy Keane, someone who knows a fair bit about the duties of being a man in the middle, Whelan’s critics are largely missing the point.

“Maybe it’s because of his role in the team,” he reflects. “When people look at sitting midfielders, they think they need to do more. Part of the game is people will analyse what Glenn doesn’t do but you can do that with everyone from the two centre-halves to Shane Long. Sometimes you have to focus on what the player does do well and that might be the dirty stuff in a game or it’s that they are more of a team player than other players.

“Glenn is a good team player, he’s always available, shows courage looking for the ball when sometimes a lot of players don’t want to get on it. He plays an important role in the team because playing in the middle of the park is not easy. He gets around the pitch. He will never get you a goal and probably doesn’t get many assists but when you’re a sitting midfielder it’s hard to do that stuff because you’re protecting your back four.

“The likes of Glenn, they are not pretty on the eye and a lot of people like to follow the crowd. Glenn doesn’t fall into the media spin, doesn’t wear fancy-coloured boots, and people pick up on all that sort of thing. But if you analyse what a footballer does week in, week out, the first thing for any footballer is to be fit and available. Surely they should be and I wish they were all like that but, if they are, it’s a big plus.

“The type of player Glenn is, you’re always going to be open to some sort of criticism but it’s part of the game. Glenn is clever enough and old enough not to take too much notice. Glenn might get a bit more credit when his career is over. And I mean that in the nicest way, where he can look back and say he played a lot of games at the highest level. 81 caps? You have to have something about you to get that many caps. And to play regularly at Stoke, a decent Premiership team who have held their own the last couple of years.

“But the beauty about Glenn Whelan is he’s here, always here. Talking about the modern footballer, Glenn Whelan is always here and available for selection. We turn up here a lot of times with lads who aren’t here or lads who are carrying knocks. I don’t ever remember Glenn Whelan sitting here and saying is he not fit or carrying a knock. He looks after himself, clearly, and now he’s got a decent move to Villa. I wouldn’t be sitting here looking to knock Glenn Whelan.”

For all that, Keane doesn’t deny that this Irish side could do with a bigger injection of creativity and not just, he insists, in the middle of the park.

“Yeah, everywhere. You are always looking for more, from our attacking players, from midfield. One of our best attacking players was our full back, Seamus Coleman. You certainly don’t want that, your best attacking player being your full back. We want more from Wardy, we want more goals from our centre-halves. The media spin... people like Wes in the team and all this carry-on, but you want players who can create that bit of quality in tough situations or games.

“We have seen that in some games, like Austria away, with Wes giving in a good ball and a good finish (from James McClean). You need moments of quality and we have produced them.

“You are not talking about 10 moments in a game, sometimes just one or two where it falls to somebody and you get the right pace on it, the right pass, the right decision-making.

“We want that, if that is Harry Arter or Meyler or whoever is in midfield.

“It’s very easy sitting here having a chat and a drink of water, saying we need more but it’s difficult when you are out there, which we will find on Saturday. We will need someone to produce, hopefully, that bit of quality to win us the game.”