WHAT ARE YOUR thoughts on Bosnia? Do you know many of their players well?
Apart from (Edin) Dzeko and (Miralem) Pjanic, I wouldn’t know too many of their players, which is obviously why you do the video analysis. You can try and do your homework on formations and different players and how they play and everything else. So that would go into the preparation for this game on Friday.
What’s Martin O’Neill like to work with? They say he really comes alive on game days. Have you found this to be the case?
It’s only natural. Game day is the serious day. It’s alright to be a bit calm before then. It’s probably excitement on his part, wanting us to do well and us wanting to do well for him.
If you do something wrong, he’ll let you know — like any manager. If he wants to get a point across, he’ll let himself be known.
In a previous interview, it was suggested that Giovanni Trapattoni didn’t know some of the Ireland players’ names when he was manager. Do players get frustrated at this or is it better to have a manager with that impersonal approach who is clearly distancing himself from players emotionally?
I don’t know if he didn’t know people’s names. I think it was just easier for him to point. With English not being his first language, maybe sometimes he found it difficult to get across exactly what he wanted from people.
There’s a fine line. You don’t want it to be a case of ‘I can’t speak to him or say hello to him’. You want to know you can go and talk to the manager if you need to, and that comes down to the manager and his man-management skills.
You earned your first squad call-up in 2007, yet you only have four caps. Was it difficult to motivate yourself to go over for international duty when, until recently, you knew you probably wouldn’t be playing?
As a keeper, you have to be patient, especially with someone like Shay (Given), who’s been around for so long. I always knew it was going to be a waiting game — everyone gets frustrated when they’re not playing, but I knew I just had to bide my time.
Of course, while you might prefer to be at home sometimes, it looks like the team have a bit of craic and go on trips together to ‘I Keano’ and things like that?
Yeah, I went to ‘I Keano,’ it was a good laugh. You do enjoy going away to catch up and have a bit of craic, to talk about previous trips and everything else. It’s good to get away from your club and come back home.
Roy Keane has a reputation in some quarters as an innately angry character, but would it be fair to say he’s the type of person who also doesn’t take himself too seriously at times?
Roy’s grand. Off the pitch you can have a laugh with him. When you’re training and it’s game time, it’s back to business and back to the Roy Keane that everyone sees from the outside. He takes his job seriously as he should and there’s no messing about at training.
He’s come out and criticised some clubs for exaggerating their players’ injuries to try to stop them turning up for international duty. Have you ever been put under pressure in this regard by clubs?
I’ve been lucky enough that the managers have all been understanding and never stopped me from going or said ‘be careful when you go away’. They always wish me luck and I’ve never had any problems with that thankfully.
How have you found it so far since moving to West Ham in the summer?
I’ve settled in fairly well. There’s a great bunch of lads and staff there. They’re all welcoming and down to earth and the start we’ve had has been brilliant so everyone is on a high.
Is Slaven Bilic as eccentric a manager as his reputation suggests?
He’s very passionate. He’s great around the place. He has a lot of attention to detail in meetings about other teams and players, and how they play. We’ve intense, high-tempo training. Everyone likes him and I suppose, it shows on the pitch. Everyone’s adapted well to what he’s asked us to do, and I think it’s showing in the league table.
It must have been difficult on one level to leave Birmingham given that you were a bit of a fan favourite there?
It was tough, but with Gary Rowett coming in and taking us from second bottom to 10th, I knew they’d have a good season (they’re sixth in the Championship currently). It was a difficult decision to leave, because I really enjoyed it and I like the people there, but the Premier League was something that I didn’t want to miss out on, having worked so hard to try to get back there again.
Playing and winning 3-0 at Anfield with West Ham earlier this season must have been pretty special?
It was coming off the back of the Bournemouth game (they lost 4-3) — that was just one of those days where it was a bad day at the office for everybody. Going to somewhere like Anfield is going to be tough — you need to be on your game, and that day we were brilliant. We just frustrated them, go the goals at the right time and again, left with the three points.
Richie Towell is a player who’s attracted plenty of attention after a sensational season with Dundalk. Some people have even suggested Ireland could do worse than calling him up and trying him out in a friendly. As someone who’s gone from the lower leagues to Premier League and international football, how difficult is it to make that step up?
I think I’ve played at every level: Conference, League One, League Two, Championship. There’s definitely a step up in each division, whether it be physical or skill-wise. Some players adapt quicker than others, it can take time. But it’s a good test of yourself to see where you are compared with everyone else. The higher up you go, you get to see where you are against the best.
I’ve talked to a lot of people about the Irish underage system and whether or not we produce enough technical players. As someone who came through that system, what’s your take on the matter?
From when I played underage, I don’t think there was as much talk of playing technical football and this and that, like there is now. I’m not a coach, so I wouldn’t know where to start with the technical side of things for underage players. I’m sure there are people out there looking out for other countries that are technically good and trying to see what they do and how they work with their younger players and trying to take their ideas, which there’s nothing wrong with — you try anything to see if you can gain an advantage and hopefully that’s only going to benefit us in the future.
There was talk during the Rugby World Cup in some quarters that the Irish rugby side aren’t as harshly criticised as the soccer team, and there’s far less negativity around them by comparison. Do you think the soccer side gets unduly criticised at times?
I haven’t really heard too much about it and I choose not to listen. Everybody has opinions — when things are going well, it’s all positive. When things go wrong, people have their opinions and can feel free to say what you want. Whether people listen or not is another story. I don’t know the reason behind it if that is the case (that the soccer team gets more criticism).
On a similar note, what are your thoughts on social media? You were on Twitter at one point?
I did have Twitter, I’m not on it any more. I’m wary of it, there’s only so much you can say before you get punished. Some players choose to have it, some don’t — it’s free for everyone else to do and say what they want, but you’re restricted to what you can say and do and what you can put up. I don’t live on social media. I’m on there the odd time, but it doesn’t take up a big part of my life.
I don’t really say much, and anything I want to say I can’t say, so I didn’t see the point of keeping Twitter anymore. The whole trolling business, it happens. It’s people sitting at home bored. It’s a platform for them. It gives them a voice and if it makes them feel better to put other people down, then so be it. It’s up to other people whether they go on there and read it, and make of it what they will.
The trolls have few followers and no picture up of themselves, so it’s safe for them. They’d be the same people asking you for pictures and autographs in person.
And finally, especially for big clubs like Barcelona and Real Madrid, playing different goalkeepers in the league and Champions League is threatening to turn into a bit of a trend. What are your thoughts on this matter?
In the Championship, when you play every Saturday and Tuesday, there are a lot of games and when games finish, you’re constantly thinking ‘let’s get on to the next one,’ it’s mentally quite tiring, so I can understand why managers want to change it up for cup games. In the past, when there have been a lot of games, it’s actually benefited me coming out for a cup game to have a break to concentrate on the next one that you come back and play in.
Personally, I can understand why managers do it. Maybe other people feel you should just play the same players all the time so you get into a rhythm. But it’s down to the manager and how he chooses to work.
Three have announced the renewal of its sponsorship of the Republic of Ireland football teams with a sponsorship deal which will continue to 2020 and will bring Three customers closer to the action. Three are proud sponsors of the Republic of Ireland football team.
