Reid: I feared I’d never be called up again
As yesterday unfolded, the in-form Nottingham Forest midfielder — busy preparing for tonight’s game against Charlton — was also touched to discover that many others were eager to share in his glad tidings.
“As soon as I got in from training there were a few text messages on my phone to let me know that I’d been called in and to congratulate me — and it pretty much didn’t stop all day after that,” he told the Irish Examiner last night. “It’s really nice that people are taking such an interest.”
Having been omitted from Giovanni Trapattoni’s plans since 2008, the 31-year-old Dubliner had felt it was unlikely his name would ever again feature in an Irish squad.
“Being honest with you, I didn’t think the opportunity would come along again,” he admitted. “Having said that, after the initial two or three squads when I didn’t get picked, I didn’t really think about it that much. I put it to the back of my mind a little bit and got on with concentrating on my club football. But, no, I didn’t really think it would happen again and I’m delighted that it has.”
He does reveal, however, that with the recent exit of the Italian, he thought there might just be a glimmer of hope.
“I did think that if a new manager took over, whether permanent or interim, if they looked at players’ current form then I thought to myself I’ve got to have a chance. I have been playing well and not just recently — I thought I had a really good season last year, as well. But I’m also old enough and experienced enough to know that players don’t always get picked on current form, there’s a lot of other factors come into it. I don’t think it should be that way, but it is.
“So I’m really grateful to Noel King for selecting me in this squad. And if I get a chance to play, it will just put to bed some of the more recent bad times I’ve had in the international set-up.”
Those bad times, of course, had their seeds in the now infamous night in a Wiesbaden hotel when Trapattoni took exception to a late night sing-song in which he seemed to regard the guitar-playing Reid as the ringleader. Three years ago, I conducted a long interview with the player at his home in Nottingham during which he was insistent that he would not divulge details of the incident, on the grounds that he has always regarded team matters as private matters. And, speaking to me again last night, he was holding firm to that position.
“I still feel exactly the same, and even more so now that I’ve been selected for this squad,” he said. “To me, it’s gone and I just want to look to the future and try and make as much of an impact as I can second time round.”
Asked if he thought the manager’s failure to call him up over subsequent years was personal or pragmatic, Reid replied: “I don’t really know. I didn’t have any contact with him whatsoever from the time he left me out so it would be wrong for me to speculate on what his reasons were. You people in the media asked him enough questions about it but I never got to speak to him on the matter. But, like I said, for me now it’s not an issue, it’s something that’s in the past and I’m just looking to the present and the future.”
Reid did add, however, that his parents in Dublin had found it hard to deal with the fact that their son had ended up at the centre of an Irish football controversy — another reason, then, that he is especially pleased with his fresh call-up.
“They’re absolutely delighted,” he said. “That was one of the hardest parts. I was in England and away from it a little bit but my family got caught up in the storm, as it were. And it was difficult for my mother and father. So being selected again is a nice thing for them as well as me. I’m really happy about that.”
All of which, for now, leaves room for one final but crucial question: any comment, please, on Noel King’s quip that the music-loving Andy Reid can play his guitar as much as he likes just so long as Ireland are winning? “I don’t think I’ll be touching a guitar on any more Irish trips,” responded Reid with a laugh. “I’ll play it before I go and then I’ll get back on it when I come back. While I’m away I think I’ll just get my head down and concentrate on my football.”
