Glenn Whelan relishing second bite of the cherry following Aston Villa release

If Aston Villa’s decision to release Glenn Whelan hardly came as a complete shock to the veteran, he was still taken aback by the manner in which he found out.

After Villa had regained Premier League status with their Championship play-off win over Derby, Whelan took the opportunity to grab a short family holiday before flying back through the night last Saturday to link up with the Irish squad in Dublin.

“There was only one little disappointment,” he says, with controlled understatement. “I had two missed calls when I landed, one from a journalist saying I’d been released and another one from the gaffer (Dean Smith) saying could I ring him? I knew where I stood.

"I’m not going to be going in knocking on doors at my age. I’m just happy I went to Aston Villa for two years and the two years got them back in the Premier League and I’d like to think I played a massive part in that.”

At aged 35, Whelan reckons he still has plenty to offer but insists it has to be as a regular player rather someone spending most of his time warming the bench.

“I have huge respect for the manager and for the club and the fans,” he says. “If I got a chance to go in, I’m more than happy to fight for a place to get in the team. But if it’s not a fair fight, then I’ll look elsewhere.

The manager told me they’d be looking to bring a certain number of midfielders in and if you’re going out spending X amount of money on players, they’re going to be ahead of you.

"So, like I said, it felt like it was probably not a fair fight. If there’s anyone out there that wants me, I want to go in and make an impact. I had one or two foreign options but when I spoke to the manager (Mick McCarthy), it was about playing as high as I can, so for me to go to a different league, which is probably not as competitive as the Premier League or the Championship, if I do that, I think my options would be limited to come back into the international scene.”

Whelan is determined to make the most of what he calls his “second bite of the cherry” with Ireland.

“This is my dream, it’s what I’ve dreamed of as a kid, it’s what every kid out there dreams of - playing for your country,” he reflects. “I don’t know if it’s in my blood now, but it’s what I want. I want to do it as long as I can and it probably got taken away from me a little bit with the last manager. This is like a second bite of the cherry now and I want to come in and play as many games as I can. But it is not just to play games; listen, I want to affect games as long as I can do that.”

Indeed, so far as his nine-year-old son Jack is concerned, that will hopefully be long enough for him and his Da to play together for Ireland.

“The family, the kids, they follow me everywhere,” he smiles. “I’ve got a little lad who plays football and to tell him that I’ve got a chance to put the jersey on again, he couldn’t believe it. He was delighted. He wants me to keep playing until he becomes a professional footballer. That’s his thing. “Even with the Villa thing, not being kept on, he is asking am I retiring. I’m like, ‘No’. And he says, ‘You can’t, you’re not allowed’.”

He reminds us, not for the first time, that he never actually said he was retiring on the occasion of last year’s friendly against Northern Ireland which was billed as his ‘farewell’ game after 85 caps.

“When I got the phone call from Martin O’Neill I was delighted. It was really respectful of him to ask me to come in and to say I’d get the farewell. But Martin at the time had his way of thinking and where the team was going to go.

"I shook his hand and I was delighted with that. Then a few months later, obviously things didn’t go well with a couple of bad results again, and there was a change of manager. I got a phone call, I think it was October, and he (McCarthy) asked me if I’d retired. I said I’d never retire. And he said, ‘If I need you, or if there was a development, would you come back in?’ I said, ‘Yeah, as long as I’m not going to be a cheerleader’. I wanted to come back in and have a chance to fight to play.”

The midfielder has done more than that. Given that he is on his 86th cap, after impressing in the home win against Georgia, and looks like he’ll get his 87th against Denmark in Copenhagen on Friday, we wonder if he now has a new caps target in mind?

“The next one,” he shoots back. “It’s not about numbers for me, it’s the next one. That’s all I’m worried about. We’ve a big game against Denmark coming up and I want to be in the team for that one.”

But the ultimate goal, he concedes, would be to play for his country, in his native city, in the finals of the European Championships.

”Playing in Dublin at the Aviva for Ireland at any stage is special, but to do that in a tournament would be unbelievable. But let’s get there first, please God, before we start thinking about that. We’ve given ourselves half a chance with two good results. It’s game by game.”