Katie McCabe denies playing lead role in Vera Pauw’s exit as Ireland boss
AYE AYE CAPTAIN: Katie McCabe speaks to the press on Monday. Pic Credit ©INPHO/Tom Maher
Katie McCabe has denied she was a central character in Vera Pauw’s exit as Ireland boss but admits she regrets her handling of the infamous emoji post.
The Ireland skipper tweeted a zipped mouth image within 20 minutes of their final World Cup game against Nigeria. The scoreless draw was overshadowed by a sideline spat between the parties, with Pauw claiming she refused a request from the captain to substitute Sinead Farrelly.
Pauw has since not had her contract renewed following an FAI review that centred majorly on feedback from players involved in the tournament in Australia.
The Arsenal playmaker has flatly rejected the notion of player power influencing the FAI’s decision, which sees interim boss Eileen Gleeson take charge of the Nations League campaign, starting on Saturday against Northern Ireland at Aviva Stadium.
“On reflection, I could have maybe handled it a little bit better,” she said of impetuously venting through social media.
“There were obviously a lot of things said by the media and people having opinions which is absolutely fine. The way the women’s game is going now, where we’re higher profile players, what we do will be looked at of course.
“This thing about Katie versus Vera is not a thing. As much as the player power narrative has been turned around, that’s not the case.
"We understand how people can interpret that, the public can, but we’re footballers at the end of the day.
"We want to talk about football, we don’t want to be talking about all of this nitty-gritty going on in the media. We want to focus on training and playing games for our country, that’s what’s most important for us.
“I can speak for myself and my team-mates – we gave 100% every time we stepped on that pitch - for not just Vera, but our whole coaching staff.
“The work that goes on behind the scenes from a coaching point of view, medical point of view, media, comms, everyone plays their part for us to get on that pitch and perform at the highest level.
“I won’t go too much into our conversation with Vera because it was private. But obviously I thanked her for what she did for women’s football in Ireland since she came in.
"We created history together and that will always be in the history books. She wishes me well and I wish her well in whatever is next for Vera.”
McCabe is trying to channel her concentration into this double-header, which concludes next Tuesday in Hungary.
“We’re in a mind-set now where we need to move on. Football comes around quickly and we’ll be working hard to qualify for our first ever Euros. That’s in the back of our minds as well.
"I feel okay now. The World Cup takes it out of you mentally and physically. And then you’re straight back into competitive games with Arsenal. That’s the life of a professional footballer.
"I’ve got great support around me. And the FAI have supported me fantastically as well. It feels like yesterday we were all together in Brisbane in Australia.
"It’s exciting. There’s new players obviously coming in, new coaching staff, it’s a nice feeling. It’s a fresh start, we’re ready to go, the Nations League is new for us as well. We’ve got something to be excited for.
“We’ve sold over 30,000 tickets for a game at the Aviva Stadium for the first time ever off the back of a World Cup and I can tell you now, the girls can’t wait to get going on Saturday, to walk out in front of our fans in our national stadium.
"It’s going to be an amazing game hopefully and we’ll be doing everything we can to win it of course.”
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