NOT SO LONG ago, it was looking like Everton would provide the core of the Irish side for years to come.
James McCarthy, Aiden McGeady and Darron Gibson were bought by the club amid high expectations, while the Toffees have developed Seamus Coleman into one of the Premier League’s best right-backs.
However, Coleman aside, the other Irish players at Everton now face uncertain futures — indeed, it’s possible that McGeady, Gibson and McCarthy could all leave the club before the current transfer window closes.
Of the players in question, McGeady is seemingly in the most irreparable position.
Much was expected of the winger upon his arrival. He impressed at Spartak Moscow and became a fan favourite, with supporters unfurling a banner in his honour amid news of his impending departure.
Yet since joining Everton 18 months ago, one or two promising moments aside, the stint couldn’t have gone much worse for McGeady.
A succession of injuries haven’t helped, with the Irish international never really getting a sustained run in the first team.
Consequently, it’s been almost a year to the day since McGeady last played for Everton, while a loan spell at Sheffield Wednesday last season was similarly unsuccessful, even if it was enough to earn him a place in Ireland’s 23-man Euro 2016 squad.
Roy Keane’s now-infamous jibe that McGeady could have done better in a pre-tournament friendly against Belarus but “that’s the story of his career” may have been ill-advised, but the assistant boss was simply echoing widespread opinion on the 30-year-old winger.
McGeady has shown evidence of his undoubted talent in tantalisingly fleeting glimpses, but a lack of consistency means there now appears to be no way back for him at Everton, and he will most likely need to resurrect his career at a level lower than the Premier League.
Despite being 30, as is the case with many wingers, McGeady remains a frustrating footballer who still looks like a player with ‘potential’ despite all the experience he has accrued and his career coming to its tail end. Unless he can adapt his game and cut out the bad habits imminently, the player who once earned glowing praise from Lionel Messi and Xavi could descend into obscurity sooner rather than later.
Similarly, Darron Gibson is another player who, at 28, has yet to realise his potential.
The Derry native wasn’t quite good enough to become a first-team regular at Man United despite 27 Premier League appearances for the club between 2009 and 2011.
Moreover, Gibson enjoyed what was undoubtedly the best period of his career so far in the immediate aftermath of his Red Devils departure.
He quickly established himself as a key player for the club — Everton didn’t lose any of the 11 matches in which Gibson featured during his first campaign with the Toffees.
However, near the start of the 2013-14 season, Gibson picked up a serious cruciate injury while playing for Ireland against Kazakhstan. In the three years since, the Ireland player has featured just 16 times in the Premier League for the Toffees and has yet to play this season.
The midfielder has struggled to emulate his pre-cruciate form and could have had few complaints when Martin O’Neill opted not to include him in Ireland’s Euro 2016 squad.
Interestingly, there was a sign of hope for Gibson during the summer, as he penned a new two-year contract with Everton.
However, the latest reports indicate that the agreement for this deal took place prior to new manager Ronald Koeman’s arrival at the club, and that Everton are now willing to listen to offers for Gibson.
Like McGeady, his Irish colleague may now have to settle for a club in the Championship if he hopes to work his way back into Martin O’Neill’s plans ahead of the crucial upcoming World Cup qualifiers.
And while McGeady and Gibson have been on the fringes at Everton for quite some time, the same cannot be said of James McCarthy, who has played nearly 100 Premier League games for the club since joining the Toffees for a fee of up to £13million in 2013.
A favourite under Roberto Martinez, McCarthy suddenly finds himself out in the cold following Koeman’s arrival at the club.
While he has featured in Everton’s two Premier League matches so far, it has been as a makeshift right-sided player rather than in his favoured central midfield role, with Gareth Barry and Idrissa Gueye picked ahead of him in the latter position.
McCarthy impressed many observers in the unfamiliar position against Tottenham, but was taken off after just 38 minutes in the 2-1 win over West Brom, in what Koeman subsequently described as a “tactical change”.
The manner in which McCarthy’s status has fallen is epitomised by the clubs he is being linked to this season compared with last. Just over a year ago, Tottenham, Arsenal, Man United and Man City were thought to be considering a move for the player. Now, Celtic, Newcastle, Aston Villa and Sunderland are among the clubs interested in signing him.
Injuries have been an issue with McCarthy in the recent past — so much so that it caused some much-publicised griping between club and country.
Yet, for the most part, at international and Premier League level, McCarthy has looked below his optimal level for quite some time now.
While he may well end up leaving as reports suggest, the situation does not seem as hopeless as it does for McGeady and Gibson. Shane Long took a while to convince Koeman of his worth at Southampton, so McCarthy may end up doing likewise, but the 25-year-old central midfielder at best has his work cut out for him, with promising youngster Tom Davies set to provide further competition and talk of both Axel Witsel and Moussa Sissoko joining the club.
Finally, Seamus Coleman does not deserve to be put in the same category as the aforementioned trio.
The 27-year-old full-back is still part of Koeman’s plans, even if the club do decide to sign a new right-back as recent reports suggest they might.
Coleman has also had nagging injury problems in recent times, and has yet to play this season owing to his latest setback.
Moreover, the Donegal native has struggled to emulate the superb form that saw him named in the PFA Team of the Year for the 2013-14 campaign.
Both for Ireland and Everton of late, Coleman has lacked conviction at times and failed to influence games in attack the way he tends to do at his best, though he is far from the only Everton player who has looked short of confidence during their woeful last few months.
Furthermore, the various Toffees-related mishaps are not the only concern for Irish football in the early stages of this season.
Player development remains a worry — Paddy McNair’s recent departure means that no player from this island is representing United’s first team for the first time in 80 years.
There have been similar reasons for pessimism at Ewood Park. It’s early days, but so far Shane Duffy and Jack Byrne — two of the brightest hopes for the future of Irish football — haven’t exactly set the world alight, with Blackburn currently bottom of the Championship on one point.
Of course, people’s worst fears about the Euro 2016 campaign turned out to be misguided, as Ireland ultimately performed respectably. And the Boys in Green will be aiming to silence their critics again in the coming months, as they attempt to qualify from a tricky-but-not-impossible World Cup group, preferably with Messrs Coleman, McCarthy, McGeady and Gibson among others thriving at both club and international level. Given their current situations at Everton, however, it seems a lot to ask.
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