Emmet Maloneon midfielder Glenn Whelan, who has become a symbol of Giovanni Trapattoni's tenure in charge

JASON McATEER’S claim, in an interview widely accessed on YouTube in recent weeks, that what epitomised the Irish team of the later Charlton years wasn’t so much fighting spirit and solidarity as discussions about well-endowed fans during the national anthems, may have fatally undermined the ability of supporters to take such notions even remotely seriously.

Still, it is hard to resist the idea that if there is one player who might stand out as a symbol for Ireland under Giovanni Trapattoni so far, it is Stoke City midfielder Glenn Whelan.

There has been some talk but little obvious action from the Ireland manager since the Fifa rules were changed earlier this year of moving to woo a couple of English-born players who might consider a change of allegiance.

Whelan, on the other hand, was Irish born and well known to everyone in these parts prior to the Italian’s arrival. Still, neither Brian Kerr, who had capped him at underage level, nor Steve Staunton appeared to see him as a contender for senior honours.

Kerr, to be fair, had Roy Keane available to him for the bulk of his stint in charge but Staunton’s options in the centre of midfield were rather less impressive and yet Whelan couldn’t even make the plane for the summer tour of America back in 2007.

“When I was at Sheffield Wednesday, playing well and the club captain, I never seemed to get noticed,” he acknowledges. “I saw other players come in and make their debuts.”

Even his fortunes at club level, though, have rarely seemed all that secure. He started out at Manchester City, who had brought him over to England from Maryland Boys in Dublin, but there was to be just one first-team appearance, against Welsh opposition in Europe, before a couple of loan spells.

At Wednesday, where he had made an immediate impact, changes in management and the arrival of other players – never better, really, but newly signed which counts for something, of course – provided periodic setbacks to his progress.

In the end, he grew frustrated and took the chance to move to Stoke for €560,000 in January of last year. It was, as it turned out, a good time to be leaping aboard the Britannia bandwagon.

Within a matter of weeks, Trapattoni was appointed and he made it into the new manager’s extended squad for the Algarve training camp. “I was fortunate to get there” he recalls, insisting that the raised profile that went with any sort of transfer had probably played a part in enabling him to make the cut.

The journey to New York and Boston a year earlier had been pretty much a waste of time for most of those who made it but almost immediately Whelan realised that Trapattoni was taking his get-together a good deal more seriously.

“It was mainly about getting to know each other but right away you could see him set out his plans to make us hard to beat. And maybe I do fit into that system more than others.”

Andy Reid who, like Stephen Ireland, is a friend of Whelan’s, was absent during these formative days of the new Ireland set up, something the Italian brings up almost every time the Sunderland player is mentioned at a press conference. Whelan, on the other hand, made the most of the opportunity.

He certainly hoped at that stage that this might be the breakthrough but never would have dared to dream that he might end up ranking alongside Shay Given and Richard Dunne as the veteran manager’s most relied upon players during the opening two years of his reign. Until suspension kept him out of last month’s game against Montenegro, he had played every minute of every competitive outing under Trapattoni, something some onlookers do not find entirely surprising.

“Well, he fits almost perfectly into the strategy that Trapattoni has set out for this team,” says former Republic of Ireland boss, Eoin Hand. “He doesn’t look to do anything sensational but does the simple things well; that had been Roy Keane’s trademark.

“Now, he’s not as dynamic as Roy, that’s for sure, but he does have that same knack for looking to do the simple things – get a well timed tackle in or play a short pass to someone nearby in a bit of space – and you can see how that would count for a lot with Trap.

“Glenn was always and efficient, tidy player,” adds Hand, “who wouldn’t let you down and that probably sums up the whole Trap philosophy.

“He has his limitations – he could contribute more going forward for a start and in international terms, he has no great pace, not what’s required over five or 10 yards to suddenly go past someone – but he’s a guy who will conform to the party line and Trapattoni clearly appreciates that.”

Whelan seems to largely agree with the thrust of the assessment, observing that: “As a midfielder, I should be scoring a lot more goals but if the manager wants you to play a certain way then you can’t go against him. And we are a harder team to beat now.”

Trapattoni’s ongoing approval is clear from the fact that the 25-year-old has returned promptly from last month’s suspension to this evening’s starting line-up and the Italian’s assistant, Liam Brady is quick to pay tribute to Whelan’s attitude and application.

“He has handled it very well,” says the former Ireland skipper. “It is not easy to come into a team with a new manager and with the disappointing campaign last time the pressure was on but the lads have handled it and Glenn seems to take most things in his stride.”

It is, Whelan happily admits, better for his club career that he was scoring in front of 72,000 against Italy in Croke Park last month rather than playing with the Stoke reserves – he had lost his status as an automatic starter at Stoke since Tony Pulis spent €5.6 million on Dean Whitehead in the summer – around that time in front of 290 at Nantwich Town.

The City boss still saw fit to give him a new four-year deal which the unassuming midfielder says took “a week or two to sort out” as if such a delay is something to be embarrassed about.

“The great thing about Glenn,” enthuses Pulis, “is that he has stepped up to the mark. He came into the Premier League totally unproven but he’s done smashing when you think about it. He’s always shown a professional attitude and tried to do everything that’s been asked of him.”

If the French are to be contained tonight then he will have to step up to the mark once more.

His performances have not generally won enormous praise from the critics and he says that his family have read some unpleasant assessments but the honesty of his effort on the pitch is as unmistakable as his pride in what he has achieved with the range of talents available to him.

Now, seven years after he watched from the stands as Ireland took a major step towards the 2002 World Cup by beating the Dutch in Lansdowne Road, he is likely to be sorely tested tonight, most directly, it seems, by Yoann Gourguff.

But, his manager knows, he will give his all and he will, almost certainly, be held up afterwards by Trapattoni not as one of the team’s “famous” players but as one of its heroes nevertheless.