WORLD CUP QUALIFYING EUROPEAN GROUP EIGHT: Carl O'Malleyon how fledgling international Glenn Whelan will be chaperoning the even greener Keith Andrews in the Ireland midfield
IRELAND WILL take to the field against Georgia this evening with a midfield partnership that boasts just eight caps – and just three of those have come in competitive games.
All three belong to Glenn Whelan but the Stoke City midfielder is already a fixture in Giovanni Trapattoni’s team and tonight he will be given the task of chaperoning Keith Andrews through his first competitive start.
Whelan’s rise to prominence is similar to that of Andrews. Neither are particularly young – Whelan is 25 and Andrews is 28 – yet few fans would have looked twice had either passed them on the street until recently.
In a little over seven months, however, after his last-minute move from Sheffield Wednesday to Stoke City in the 2008 January transfer window, Whelan has become nigh on indispensable for Trapattoni, who recently went as far as to compare him with the Italian midfield enforcer Gennaro Gattuso.
Whelan, an unassuming sort of chap, would rather his manager kept his council next time.
“I’ve got plenty of stick, I’m still getting some stick now. Obviously for him to mention that was great for myself but I’d like him to keep that to himself the next time,” quipped the Clondalkin man when having a brief sit-down with the media this week.
Nevertheless, he has a lot to thank the Italian for. After securing promotion to the Premiership with Stoke, Whelan found himself included in the international set-up and made his debut in the 1-0 friendly win over Serbia. The manager stood by him when he fell down the order at Stoke and he has not missed a minute since, paving the way for a return the first XI at the Britannia Stadium.
The manager’s faith means a lot. “It does,” says Whelan. “I felt maybe in the last couple of games there would be a few changes because I hadn’t been playing, but he has given me a chance and I’m grateful for that. Hopefully, I’ll just keep rewarding him by playing well.”
Things, then, sort of happened back to front for Whelan, whose prominence in the Ireland side contributed to him getting back into the his club side and he now feels he is peaking just in time for the relegation scrap and a push for South Africa.
“Definitely, because now I’d like to think I’m 110 per cent match fit. If you ask any player they will want to play as many games as they can, and I’m no different.
Georgia is “a massive game”, he says, though he stopped short of his captain’s declaration that it was Ireland’s best chance to top a qualifying group.
“Obviously, with no other team playing, if we can get the three points it would be great for us in terms of getting out of the group. We know it’s going to be a tough game, but we are definitely going out to get the result and put in a good performance.”
A good performance for Whelan is doing the simple stuff well. He’s a no-nonsense type and intends to keep it that way, though he is enjoying his privileged role and the responsibility that comes with it.
“I like to try to get on the ball and take that responsibility. With my club I have been taking set-pieces . . . and I had to take responsibility with Ireland, with Steven (Reid) and Andy Reid not there.
“I still only have seven or eight caps so I’m probably a little bit inexperienced at the minute. But the more games I play, the more confidence I’ll get. Hopefully, I’ll just keep getting games in.”
There’s little chance of that changing by the looks of things, especially with a solid performance against Georgia tonight and maybe even another goal to add to the winner he and Georgian goalkeeper Giorgi Loria contrived to put in the net in Mainz.
“Yeah, it was obviously unbelievable. It was only afterwards, after the game was over, that it really sank in. But I have to give the goalkeeper a big thank you for that as well.”
Loria won’t feature tonight.
No doubt Whelan will, as always, try his luck anyway.
