Alan Browne back and buzzing to end Ireland underachievment
TIME IS NOW: Alan Browne during a Republic of Ireland training session. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
Darkness was falling across Newcastle on Thursday evening in tandem with their team’s Champions League campaign when joy abounded in a pocket of the city for an Irishman.
Alan Browne had been a constant in the Ireland squad for seven years, so to endure an absence of 18 months explained his caution about a recall.
Earlier in the day, almost an hour south in Middlesbrough, Tommy Conway was bouncing around the club’s training ground’s reception relishing his imminent international duty for Scotland.
Browne hadn’t heard directly from Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrímsson since a brief November chat.
At that stage, they both agreed an ankle injury conspired against him being drafted in for the concluding World Cup qualifiers as a latecomer.
The player doesn’t regret the decision, despite what transpired in the wins over Portugal and Hungary.
“I was gutted to miss those but I wasn’t fully fit,” reflects the Corkman.
Now he’s injury-free and match sharp in time to assist Ireland’s bid to finish what was started in Budapest by completing the mission on Tuesday week against Denmark or North Macedonia.
Such is the 30-year-old’s form, and the injury-enforced absence of his friend Josh Cullen, that he’s poised to cap his international revival with a starting place for Thursday’s semi-final away to Czechia.
Boro occupy the second automatic promotion slot from the Championship.
That Browne has featured in 32 of the 34 games he’s been available for underlines his value to Kim Hellberg, among a crop of emerging young bosses from Scandinavia.
Hallgrímsson shares the pragmatism associated with coaches from that northern part of Europe and concluded from his visits to Boro that Browne possessed the ideal traits to be accommodated in his flexible formation.
“Since the manager came in last November, he’s played me in a hybrid role,” says the Mahon native.
“I find myself in the middle, the right, sometimes up front as the No 9. He keeps me guessing most weeks on the position.
“It depends on the opposition’s style and we adapt. On the back of that, I could find myself dropping into midfield if that’s where the space is, out wide if we’re doubling up on an opponent.
“It’s not so much a set formation, more fluid within the game. We all know our roles because of his level of detail. I’ll keep the book open for a spot on the left eventually too.”
Hallgrímsson’s preference is to entrust him in central midfield, where Czechia captain Tomás Soucek is used to dominating.
His versatility as a right wing-back was utilised during Stephen Kenny’s reign, rendering him an option if captain Séamus Coleman doesn’t last the distance of potentially 120 minutes.
Another factor enhancing his prospects of inclusion is his big-game experience.
Mick McCarthy started the Leesider in the final 2019 Euro qualifier against Denmark, as did Kenny in the playoff Slovakia a year later.
Both deciders ended in anguish, rationalising why Browne considers his Ireland career, up at 37 caps, as disappointing.
“I haven't done enough on the international stage and neither has the team,” he reasons about a tournament famine since Euro 2016.
“Sometimes you can be carried a bit. If the team is doing well you might get away with having a half-decent or poor game or poor game. It can go unnoticed.
“But certainly, at international level, you're gonna be found out.
“It's just been a disappointment for 10 years. Even though we didn’t have superstars like Robbie or Roy Keane, I think we should have done better and we didn't.
“Looking back, some of the games seemed a big task but, still, all the Irish teams before us found the way to qualify.
“That's just the reality. It's not me trying to call anyone out. If we’re being real about it, that’s the way we’ve been.”
Browne does bracket the absent Evan Ferguson in the matchwinner category, as well as Troy Parrott.
He was Preston North captain when his compatriot arrived as a fresh-faced 20-year-old on loan, a stopover on a journey to national hero status four years later.
“The boys pulled off a miracle,” he says of the November salvage job spearheaded by Parrott.
“The World Cup is still in sight somehow. It's still a long way off as well but to be in with half a chance is unbelievable.”
Finishing 2026 with that tournament in North America graced and a belated Premier League debut constitute his twin targets.
He was heading towards the promised land of the top-flight, following almost 500 appearances as a Championship lifer, when parent club Sunderland opted for alternative midfielders.
“He was probably keeping me around for his own benefit to wait to see who would come in,” Browne said of the approach taken by Black Cats boss Régis Le Bris after Browne aided their promotion success.
“The closer it got to the deadline he told me my gametime would be limited. When a manager says that, he's kind of closing that door to a certain degree.
“Moving here to Middlesbrough for the season made sense in so many ways. A huge club and the only one in the Championship that I didn’t need to move house for.”
Uprooting once, from the north-west to the north-east, was enough upheaval for a young family.
They could celebrate together when the call finally arrived from the FAI on Thursday evening, confirming another element of his very being was restored.
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