Martin O’Neill urges Hoolahan to forget about retirement

Martin O’Neill wants Wes Hoolahan to put any thought of international retirement out of his mind.

After seeing the Norwich playmaker give a command performance against Slovakia on Tuesday, the Ireland manager was clearly taken aback to learn the player had earlier indicated he would consider his future in the green shirt after the Euros this summer.

“There are a few senior players in the squad and I’m one of them,” the Dubliner said in an interview.

“I’ll be 34 by the time the Euros are played which means when the next World Cup comes around I am going to be 36. I haven’t really thought about whether I’ll play on but I will see how the summer goes and probably make a decision then.”

“I didn’t see the piece, you’ve taken me by surprise there, I didn’t know about it but, no, I think if he is considering it, I think he should consider it on the positive side,” was O’Neill’s response. “That’s entirely up to him but I’d be surprised really, I must admit. There’d be no call from me to end his international career. And, in fairness, Wes is kind of young because he hasn’t exactly played an awful lot of games. So I think he’s a young 62-year-old (laughter).

“He is 33 years of age but he’s still young. He has a young face, he’d pass for 18 or 19 or 20 at the end of the day. If it comes ‘round to it and that’s what he’s feeling, yeah, absolutely, I would say to him that there’s no reason for him to consider that at this minute.

“I think what happens is maybe after the tournament is over people start to consider a lot of things. It depends where he is at club level. Those things are very important. I think at this stage he’d want to be playing more often (because) maybe he misses out a few games at Norwich. And while I’m hoping — there’s a selfishness of course attached to this — that that might be of benefit to us because he stays fresh, I think Wes would want to play all the time if he could, certainly at club level.”

Asked if he believes Hoolahan is vital to Ireland playing the more expansive, attacking brand of football they showed against Slovakia — and which was in striking contrast to the defensive performance against Switzerland last Friday — O’Neill made the point he felt Tuesday’s game was one which played to the ex-Shelbourne man’s strengths.

“When Wes is on form he is obviously an excellent addition to us and that’s really good,” he said. “But he’s not the only one who can actually play for us, you know, we do have one or two others who can play. And I think myself if Wes had started in a game where we had played just two midfield players, as we did (against the Swiss), he might have struggled because we might not have been able to get the ball.

“Alan Judge worked tirelessly, as I said before, but we didn’t get the ball often enough to him in positions where he could be really dangerous for us. In fairness to the lad, that might be a disappointment. And that could have happened against Slovakia as well. But all the elements were right for someone to get on the ball.”

O’Neill did, however, concede the circumstances of Tuesday’s game meant his players were able to show more of the kind of composure and self-belief in possession which he wants them to bring into the finals in France.

“Of course, absolutely, yeah. But I think there were a number of reasons for that. We were going to be outnumbered in the middle of the field against Switzerland and, of course, I wanted little Alan Judge and Aiden McGeady to play too — so we were going to be outnumbered. And I didn’t hear a complaint from Meyler or young Quinny about this. And the Swiss played it exceptionally well, as befits a side who are rated 12th in the world.

“Against Slovakia, we were not going to be outnumbered for a start in there and, with the system we had, we were going to have a fair amount of the ball. But I thought we dealt with it for the most part in the first half pretty well. Of course, there were times when we played a couple of poorish passes, a couple of little one-twos that went astray. But for the most part it was really good. We played it, passed it nicely, got it wide and I thought the two full-backs were encouraged to get forward, which was part of their job. And I thought they did that very well.”

Of course, the big negative to come out of the Easter friendlies has been the cruel blow suffered by goalkeeper Rob Elliot as well as the less serious but still disruptive injury shipped by Daryl Murphy and that untimely gash sustained by Kevin Doyle as he looked to press his claim for inclusion in the Euros squad.

“Robbie Elliot’s injury will be a major disappointment now to Newcastle, particularly when he was playing so well,” said O’Neill.

“As I mentioned before about Mick McCarthy, well, I know Mick will say that’s the nature of the game. To be fair to Murph, he’ll not miss too many but every game he might miss is important for Ipswich trying to get into the play-offs. And then just when you thought that Kevin Doyle was trying to make an impression, he goes and gets injured. But that’s the way it is.

“Naturally from here on in, because time now is closing up, then any report of injuries or if I happen to be at a particular game where any of our players gets injured…do you know what, I’ll just trust my luck and get on with it. I can’t do anything about it.”