REPUBLIC OF Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni has had a change of heart in regards to James McClean and yesterday added the Sunderland winger to his panel for the visit of the Czech Republic next week.
McClean, one suspects, might have passed the point of no return with Northern Ireland fans over the last few weeks. Not least because the 22-year-old has shown a surprising, and perhaps slightly unwise, willingness to engage with some of them regarding his views on nationality via Twitter.
Yesterday the Derry-born winger, who is these days talked about as something of a sensation, and not just in Ireland, expressed his delight at the news via the social media website: “Absolutely buzzing and honoured to be called up to represent my country . . . best feeling in the world.”
He then reacted with sarcasm, clearly flagged in case those he was targeting somehow missed the point, to the abuse that the term “my country” inevitably attracted.
Nothing in relation to McClean’s long-term international future can actually be resolved by this game, of course, as it is a friendly and players must now feature in a competitive game before they are tied to a particular national team.
To judge by Trapattoni’s comment yesterday, in any case, McClean might think twice before splashing out on too many match tickets for friends and family next week.
The Italian, having emphasised when omitting the former Derry City player from his original squad how firmly he hopes he will feature in the team’s post Euro 2012 future, was certainly not staging an abject climb down as he called both McClean and long-time injury absentee Paul Green into a group that now numbers 26.
“(Assistant manager) Marco (Tardelli) and I have decided to call up James and Paul to take a closer look at them during training,” he said. “Paul is returning from injury, and James is performing very well for his club. We have invited them in for this game to spend time with the squad and get an idea of the team set-up.”
On the basis of that, McClean might even talk his way out of his obligation, as dictated by squad etiquette, to sing after supper for the other players as all would-be debutants generally must.
The fact is, though, that the winger has a foot in the door and with Liam Lawrence both injured and out of favour, it will not take much, if his present form can be maintained, to get the rest of him across Trapattoni’s threshold between this and the tail end of May.
So as McClean moves closer to committing fully to the Republic there was some consolation for new Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill as 20-year-old Shane Ferguson’s international future has, it seems, been resolved.
The former Shamrock Rovers boss named his squad for their friendly against Norway and Ferguson was included. O’Neill also managed to coax Aaron Hughes out of international retirement.
There was some concern early last year when Ferguson – who like all players born in Northern Ireland qualifies to declare for the Republic too – declined an invitation from O’Neill’s predecessor, Nigel Worthington, and appeared happy to burn a bridge or two with the then manager.
The 20-year-old is a highly capable and fairly versatile left-sided player and they tend not to be in abundant supply on either side of the Border.
At the time he was beginning to feel his way into the margins of the Newcastle United first team while McClean was playing his football back at home in the League of Ireland.
He is, it has to be noted, a couple of years younger but he has now been completely overtaken by McClean having played just 143 minutes of first-team football for Alan Pardew’s side in four separate appearances this season generally, as it happens, ending up on the losing side.
McClean, on the other hand, has burst onto the scene to become not just a first-team regular at Sunderland but absolutely instrumental in the club’s dramatic revival under Martin O’Neill.
He has shown, moreover, gifts that neither of Trapattoni’s current first-choice wide players would list amongst their main assets, chiefly strength and a resulting capacity to power inside and towards goal, as well as an ability to send in fine crosses and a willingness to lend a hand defensively.
He is not, as Trapattoni likes to point out and Martin O’Neill readily acknowledges, the finished article which is good news for all concerned as he is only likely to get better.
He is, however, remarkably impressive already, a fact the Ireland boss will surely find impossible to ignore should he avoid a collapse in form between now and the end of what might well prove to be a storybook season for McClean with a fairytale ending.
Quite why Trapattoni changed his mind on Green yesterday after initially overlooking the Derby County midfielder last Friday week is, meanwhile, even more puzzling than the Italian’s rethink in relation to McClean and it is hard to avoid the conclusion the manager may have been keen to simply dilute the impact of the bigger news.
Trapattoni has made no secret of his admiration for the 28-year-old’s industry, of course, and there are those who believe that Green might have overtaken Darron Gibson in the Irish pecking order had the younger man not finally relented and left Old Trafford.
But he has played 19 games for County since returning from a long lay-off and been characteristically solid rather than spectacular since.
Solid has an awful lot to be said for it, though, in the 72-year-old’s eyes and for all of the splash made by McClean over the past couple of months, it is actually still far from a foregone conclusion which of these two hugely different players is better placed to push on and claim a seat on the plane to Poland.
NORTHERN IRELAND SQUAD (v Norway):L Camp (Nottingham Forest), A Mannus (St Johnstone), M McGovern (Falkirk); J Evans (Manchester United), G McAuley (West Brom), M Duff (Burnley), S Ferguson (Newcastle Utd), R McGivern (Bristol City, loan), A Hughes (Fulham), L Hodson (Watford), C Cathcart (Blackpool); J Carson (Ipswich), S Davis (Rangers), D Shiels (Kilmarnock), S Clingan (Coventry), G McCann (Peterborough), C Evans (Hull), N McGinn (Brentford, loan), P McCourt (Celtic); D Healy (Rangers), W Feeney (Plymouth), J McQuoid (Burnley, loan), J Ward (Derby), M Paterson (Burnley).
