GLENN WHELAN DECIDED to book a trip home last week so he could surprise his father.
The night before his Friday morning flight from Manchester to Dublin, one of his two younger sisters informed him about the orange weather warning that was in place.
“I was shitting it then. I’d rather not know,” he says.
Going to bed with his wife, Karen, at their house in Cheshire (they still won’t call it home despite moving to England almost 30 years ago and raising two children) he was anxious about any possible disruption and a rough journey.
Whelan wanted to make it back in time to have some breakfast with his dad, Dave, and have a decent catch up before going to watch Bohemians take on Shelbourne in the last League of Ireland Premier Division match under the lights at Dalymount Park.
Whelan gets home at least once every six weeks. Since his mother, Deborah, passed away in January 2022, the trips back have taken on an even greater importance.
“She fought cancer, God love her,” Whelan says.
He arrived through the doors at home in Lucan looking forward to the weekend, only for his father to inform him that he was heading away to get a bit of sun on his back with Whelan’s grandmother, Marie, later that evening.
She’s in her late 80s and still lives in the house on Lismore Road in Drimnagh, where Whelan would often walk back to as a kid after playing matches with Maryland Boys in Brickfield Park. He had grandparents on Rutland Grove in Crumlin, too.
Marie’s independent streak is maintained by going the shops and doing the messages each day. “And she’ll still give out to me when she wants to,” Whelan says, smiling.
Glenn Whelan in action for Manchester City. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
His mam would often be the one standing on the sideline in Brickfield watching, always encouraging, always positive, always smiling. He remembers his dad being there for the biggest games, but mostly he was doing weekend nixers after working all week as a metal fabricator in Greenhills.
“If I wanted to be a fisherman or work on the docks, they would have supported me,” Whelan says.
“There was never any pressure.”
These days at home give pause for a different kind of reflection for someone who reached the greatest heights in professional football. Over a couple of coffees each during a two-hour chat with The 42 in Lucan village, Whelan is happy and willing to open up.
Even as various strangers come and go to take up the spare seats beside us, gossiping over pots of tea and tucking into breakfast, Whelan doesn’t break stride.
“It’s only been over the last few years that my dad would open up a bit more. I’d get little bits from him, he’s told me he wishes he didn’t let me go away so young because of what was missed out on as a family.
“You wouldn’t usually get much from him in that way, he’s old school. Yeah, it worked out well, but you feel it now. My dad is here, my sisters are here and they’re close, they have always been around.
“I know the bond they have is different than the one I have with my dad. I have been away for so long.”
Whelan turns 43 in January and left Dublin for Manchester City at the age of 15. “Only after I did my Junior Cert. My mam made sure of that.”
He arrived at the airport with fellow Dubliners Paddy McCarthy, Damien Joyce and Stephen Paisley to embark on a new life together. Stephen Elliott would join a few months later, winger Willo Flood too. Goalkeeper Brian Murphy from Waterford would swell the ranks further.
“My sisters (Amy and Chloe) lost an older brother and I felt like I gained brothers,” he says. “It’s sad cause my youngest sister would have only be seven or eight, I wasn’t there for her, but I knew I had to go to England to achieve what I wanted. I wanted to make it there.”
The digs on Stretford Road in Urmston, west Manchester, allowed Whelan to settle. He was the one who taught Flood how to shave. He shared a computer with some of his new brothers and took detailed logs of how long they used the dial-up internet for, leaving it on a pad next to the router.
The bill was split, the same for the £25 Sky TV subscription. When Whelan wanted to blare music it was Komodo by Mauro Picotto rather than Oasis or The Stone Roses.
Whelan's family with balloons to mark his milestone 300 appearances at Stoke. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
The Bibby house was warm and caring. They were as close to parents as he could have wished for. Mrs Bibby would call Dave and Deborah if ever she felt their son needed a lift or could do with a visit home.
She also had a garage converted into a hair salon and would look after “the old dears” from the street. “I was the best at making tea and coffee so whenever we’d try to sneak into the house down the side without knowing they always knew. ‘Glenn, Glenn, is that you? Can you make the tea, Glenn?’”
He’s smiling again at the thought of it.
Whelan loved that time.
He always made sure to call home to speak to his parents on Wednesdays and Saturdays after games. This was the late 1990s into the new millennium, so when money ran out (£42.50 was his apprenticeship wage) he would write letters back to friends to keep them in the loop.
City’s old training ground was at Platt Lane in Moss Side. Whelan and his band of brothers were like mini celebrities in one of the roughest, most deprived areas of Manchester. They were told not to stay too late after training and to leave before it got dark.
“Maybe we were naive but we always felt safe in our City gear,” he says. They also attended the nearby Xaverian College, located on what is locally known as “The Curry Mile”, and Whelan’s eyes were also opened to different races and ethnicities, an education he embraced.
So, while letters would sometimes have to find their way home to friends, he always made sure to call his mam, right up until he was ready to retire a couple of weeks after turning 37 and suffering a partial tear of his Achilles playing for Fleetwood Town in League One.
“My mam was the one being positive, keeping my spirits up. She was the one telling me that if I was able to get back and keep playing that is what I had to do. That is why I kept on with it.”
Less than a year later, Whelan knew his mother’s cancer was terminal. “I was the older brother trying to put on a hard face for my sisters, to be there for them. My dad was doing the same thing, just trying to hold things altogether.
“I had football as my way out, I knew how much my mam loved me, how much she loved football and watching me play.”
Whelan was still playing with Bristol Rovers at this point and, after the funeral, football provided solace. The grief was still there – it still is – but the game was a release.
“I needed football.”
Whelan celebrates scoring against Italy during the 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign. Morgan Treacy / INPHO
Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO
Whelan recalls how Bristol went on a run of 20 unbeaten from their final 23 games and on the final day of the season they produced a stunning turnaround for automatic promotion on goal difference with a 7-0 win over Scunthorpe United.
“No one will tell me there wasn’t someone there looking down on me through all of that.”
Whelan’s memories are fond ones, mostly, but there is also great sadness at some of the hurt his family endured while he played for Ireland. He remembers Italian people falling to their knees in awe of Giovanni Trapattoni and kissing his feet. “Whatever the manager wanted me to do for the team, that is what I would do. I wanted to make sure I was wearing that Ireland jersey. I hope fans can look back and know I always gave my all for the green jersey.”
Some of the most unfair and acerbic criticism came from Eamon Dunphy, who made things personal by claiming, falsely, that he had two Ferraris. “I remember walking to meet my mam and dad at the hotel when I was home with Ireland and she stuffed a newspaper with my face on it in her pocket so I wouldn’t see it. I could see it was getting to them.”
Deborah’s death has made Whelan think about his own life because it’s also brought different, deeper types of conversations out of his father. Those sacrifices at least paid off, and their son fulfilled his dreams.
He played 91 times for Ireland, representing his country at two European championships.
He helped Stoke City earn promotion to the Premier League and then stayed there for nine consecutive seasons.
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Later, when Aston Villa were relegated, they turned to Whelan to play a key role in their return to the top flight.
Dunphy derided him yet he was the epitome of the ‘Good Pro’ so lauded in his own seminal memoir, Only A Game?
Giovanni Trapattoni was a major influence. Donall Farmer / INPHO
Donall Farmer / INPHO / INPHO
And yet none of that would have been possible if it wasn’t for the outlook Whelan took when Kevin Keegan, then City’s first team manager, called him into his office and said he was not part of his plans.
He still had a year left on his contract but was determined to leave and find his own way in the game..
“God rest him, he was honest with me, at least, but all I had in my head was to prove him wrong from that point on,” he says.
It’s a state of mind that sustained him throughout his time in the Premier League with Stoke under Tony Pulis and then Mark Hughes, even if his nine and a half years at the club ended in hurt.
“I didn’t want to leave. Someone went behind my back to sell me. They wanted to make a profit on me after all those years. I saw my service to the club as being part of a family. They wanted the best price.
“I could have stayed for another few months to get a testimonial but it was never about money for me.
“I always just wanted to play football. You can have a €20 million contract but I’d rather a trophy or a promotion.”
Whelan in action for Stoke. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
Whelan had an inner drive from a young age that was also tested by significant external factors.
He was 18 when he returned to City from his summer holidays and was told by Paddy McCarthy that he and his girlfriend were expecting a baby.
“Two weeks later I got the same news from Karen,” Whelan laughs.
He couldn’t ring his mam or dad, so McCarthy was the obvious person to turn to.
“What the fuck are we going to do?”
Whelan considered returning home to find stable work straight away before reassessing. “It was a case of making this life work for us,” he says.
“Maybe if Paddy said we were both fucked then I’d have thought we would be, but we weren’t. It worked out because we’re both still with our wives. You do everything for your family, don’t you?
Jon Walters (left) with Whelan after losing the 2011 FA Cup final to Manchester City. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
Whelan didn’t want to tell City about the situation. Both families provided the support that was needed. His daughter, Abbie, was born in Dublin and spent the first couple of years there with Karen before moving to England when Whelan had earned another professional contract with Sheffield Wednesday.
Abbie is 23 now and has returned to their house in Cheshire to save money. She studied criminology at Liverpool University with the aim of working in police forensics, but Covid interrupted her plans and is now working in the fraud department of a major bank.
Jack, Whelan’s 16-year-old son, is with Macclesfield Town and finding his way as a left back. There are split loyalties in the house when it comes to football. Whelan is a childhood Liverpool fan from a family of Manchester United supporters. His wife’s family are also United.
“The only thing I asked my lad was that he wasn’t going to be a United fan. I couldn’t deal with that.”
Jack chose City. It’s a different club from the one his dad was part of, and even though they have been found guilty of historic levels of financial cheating from 2009 through to 2018 Whelan doesn’t want a FA Cup winners’ medal from the final they lost in 2011.
“Nah, that’s done with. But there’s a group of us [ex-pros] who play nine-a-side together on a Tuesday. It gets tasty, loser pays for the pitch, and I’ve joked with Joleon Lescott that he can give his one back.”
It’s a touchy subject at home. Whelan brought Jack into the away end at Anfield a couple of years ago for a City win over Liverpool and got a buzz off his son giving stick to the home fans on the other side of the segregation line.
His former Aston Villa teammate Jack Grealish arranged tickets for City’s Champions League final win over Inter Milan in 2023, and once the celebrations were over in the stadium they had to wander down the side of a motorway to get back to their hotel in Istanbul. Whelan was able to commandeer a taxi by waving a €50 note in the air.
He has a bucket list of events he would love to attend as a fan: the Euros in Ireland, a World Cup with Jack, famous stadiums around the world. He remembers now how his own mam used to ask him about all the countries he visited with Ireland and would mark them off on a map.
Whelan during his time on the Ireland coaching staff. Ryan Byrne / INPHO
Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
Whelan has a cousin the same age who went travelling around Asia after college and just decided she wasn’t coming home. Karen has family in Australia. The closest they came to relocating was at the end of his time with Villa, after helping them to promotion back to the Premier League, when APOEL Nicosia offered him the biggest contract of his career in Cyprus.
“Life changing money,” Whelan says.
He wanted to keep his international career alive after Mick McCarthy brought him back into the fold, but when he was told that it was a backward step and would harm his chances, he decided against it.
“Then Mick ended up out there not long after, funnily enough. There was only one reason he was going,” Whelan laughs.
He had big plans to visit Brazil last year when a former coach at Bristol, Andy Mangan, became Davide Ancelotti’s assistant at Botafogo. Their departure ended that dream.
Whelan’s life is a comfortable one, but it’s out of balance without football. He never cared about what his teammates earned while they were in the trenches of the Premier League, but he only wanted to make sure he was valued. He has been able to put money away but the determination and love of the game that was clear from the age of six in Greenfort remains as strong as ever.
He felt the need to consider a life outside the game when the Professional Footballers’ Association arranged for him to go on a six-week course at a college in Liverpool. It was an introduction to becoming a bricklayer, plumber or electrician.
He loved working with Ireland’s U16s as part of Paul Osam’s coaching staff. Not just because the former St Patrick’s Athletic midfielder was an inspiration growing up.
He coached at Bristol, too, and caused a stir on punditry duty after his brief stint alongside John O’Shea and old pal Paddy McCarthy when they took interim charge of the Ireland team in March and June 2024 before Heimir Hallgrímsson’s appointment.
Whelan expressed his frustration at the mentality and attitude of some of the players in the squad, a point he doesn’t shy away from again as he explains how he said the same to their faces about concerns over professionalism.
He hasn’t fallen out with his McCarthy or O’Shea, he still sees the latter regularly as they live nearby. They go to the gym togther and played golf the day before meeting The 42.
Whelan’s concerns are rooted in a desire to see Ireland succeed and thrive on the biggest stage.
He also retains ambitions of his own in coaching, be it in the League of Ireland, Britain or further afield. He took caretaker charge of Wigan Athletic after coming on their staff and got a chance to forge a path this season when Livingston appointed him following their relegation from the Scottish Premiership.
Five games into the league season he was sacked. Two wins and three defeats. David Martindale, the manager who oversaw relegation before becoming sporting director, is still interim boss now.
The dynamic was a struggle.
“They teach you on the Pro Licence about managing up but it’s hard to manage up when the person there wants to be the manager.
“I know in another dressing room no one cares what I’ve done as a player. It’s how you make these young lads feel in a moment now. Show them that you care, that you can improve them, that you can help them get better.
“I like to think that I’m a sound fella first and foremost. I’m honest. There are certain people I’ve come across in this industry that has made me think ‘I don’t ever want to be like you’.”
Whelan has been shaped by enough good people to know that.
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Up close with Glenn Whelan: The pain, pride and hope of a life in football
GLENN WHELAN DECIDED to book a trip home last week so he could surprise his father.
The night before his Friday morning flight from Manchester to Dublin, one of his two younger sisters informed him about the orange weather warning that was in place.
“I was shitting it then. I’d rather not know,” he says.
Going to bed with his wife, Karen, at their house in Cheshire (they still won’t call it home despite moving to England almost 30 years ago and raising two children) he was anxious about any possible disruption and a rough journey.
Whelan wanted to make it back in time to have some breakfast with his dad, Dave, and have a decent catch up before going to watch Bohemians take on Shelbourne in the last League of Ireland Premier Division match under the lights at Dalymount Park.
Whelan gets home at least once every six weeks. Since his mother, Deborah, passed away in January 2022, the trips back have taken on an even greater importance.
“She fought cancer, God love her,” Whelan says.
He arrived through the doors at home in Lucan looking forward to the weekend, only for his father to inform him that he was heading away to get a bit of sun on his back with Whelan’s grandmother, Marie, later that evening.
She’s in her late 80s and still lives in the house on Lismore Road in Drimnagh, where Whelan would often walk back to as a kid after playing matches with Maryland Boys in Brickfield Park. He had grandparents on Rutland Grove in Crumlin, too.
Marie’s independent streak is maintained by going the shops and doing the messages each day. “And she’ll still give out to me when she wants to,” Whelan says, smiling.
His mam would often be the one standing on the sideline in Brickfield watching, always encouraging, always positive, always smiling. He remembers his dad being there for the biggest games, but mostly he was doing weekend nixers after working all week as a metal fabricator in Greenhills.
“If I wanted to be a fisherman or work on the docks, they would have supported me,” Whelan says.
“There was never any pressure.”
These days at home give pause for a different kind of reflection for someone who reached the greatest heights in professional football. Over a couple of coffees each during a two-hour chat with The 42 in Lucan village, Whelan is happy and willing to open up.
Even as various strangers come and go to take up the spare seats beside us, gossiping over pots of tea and tucking into breakfast, Whelan doesn’t break stride.
“It’s only been over the last few years that my dad would open up a bit more. I’d get little bits from him, he’s told me he wishes he didn’t let me go away so young because of what was missed out on as a family.
“You wouldn’t usually get much from him in that way, he’s old school. Yeah, it worked out well, but you feel it now. My dad is here, my sisters are here and they’re close, they have always been around.
“I know the bond they have is different than the one I have with my dad. I have been away for so long.”
Whelan turns 43 in January and left Dublin for Manchester City at the age of 15. “Only after I did my Junior Cert. My mam made sure of that.”
He arrived at the airport with fellow Dubliners Paddy McCarthy, Damien Joyce and Stephen Paisley to embark on a new life together. Stephen Elliott would join a few months later, winger Willo Flood too. Goalkeeper Brian Murphy from Waterford would swell the ranks further.
“My sisters (Amy and Chloe) lost an older brother and I felt like I gained brothers,” he says. “It’s sad cause my youngest sister would have only be seven or eight, I wasn’t there for her, but I knew I had to go to England to achieve what I wanted. I wanted to make it there.”
The digs on Stretford Road in Urmston, west Manchester, allowed Whelan to settle. He was the one who taught Flood how to shave. He shared a computer with some of his new brothers and took detailed logs of how long they used the dial-up internet for, leaving it on a pad next to the router.
The bill was split, the same for the £25 Sky TV subscription. When Whelan wanted to blare music it was Komodo by Mauro Picotto rather than Oasis or The Stone Roses.
The Bibby house was warm and caring. They were as close to parents as he could have wished for. Mrs Bibby would call Dave and Deborah if ever she felt their son needed a lift or could do with a visit home.
She also had a garage converted into a hair salon and would look after “the old dears” from the street. “I was the best at making tea and coffee so whenever we’d try to sneak into the house down the side without knowing they always knew. ‘Glenn, Glenn, is that you? Can you make the tea, Glenn?’”
He’s smiling again at the thought of it.
Whelan loved that time.
He always made sure to call home to speak to his parents on Wednesdays and Saturdays after games. This was the late 1990s into the new millennium, so when money ran out (£42.50 was his apprenticeship wage) he would write letters back to friends to keep them in the loop.
City’s old training ground was at Platt Lane in Moss Side. Whelan and his band of brothers were like mini celebrities in one of the roughest, most deprived areas of Manchester. They were told not to stay too late after training and to leave before it got dark.
“Maybe we were naive but we always felt safe in our City gear,” he says. They also attended the nearby Xaverian College, located on what is locally known as “The Curry Mile”, and Whelan’s eyes were also opened to different races and ethnicities, an education he embraced.
So, while letters would sometimes have to find their way home to friends, he always made sure to call his mam, right up until he was ready to retire a couple of weeks after turning 37 and suffering a partial tear of his Achilles playing for Fleetwood Town in League One.
“My mam was the one being positive, keeping my spirits up. She was the one telling me that if I was able to get back and keep playing that is what I had to do. That is why I kept on with it.”
Less than a year later, Whelan knew his mother’s cancer was terminal. “I was the older brother trying to put on a hard face for my sisters, to be there for them. My dad was doing the same thing, just trying to hold things altogether.
“I had football as my way out, I knew how much my mam loved me, how much she loved football and watching me play.”
Whelan was still playing with Bristol Rovers at this point and, after the funeral, football provided solace. The grief was still there – it still is – but the game was a release.
“I needed football.”
Whelan recalls how Bristol went on a run of 20 unbeaten from their final 23 games and on the final day of the season they produced a stunning turnaround for automatic promotion on goal difference with a 7-0 win over Scunthorpe United.
“No one will tell me there wasn’t someone there looking down on me through all of that.”
Whelan’s memories are fond ones, mostly, but there is also great sadness at some of the hurt his family endured while he played for Ireland. He remembers Italian people falling to their knees in awe of Giovanni Trapattoni and kissing his feet. “Whatever the manager wanted me to do for the team, that is what I would do. I wanted to make sure I was wearing that Ireland jersey. I hope fans can look back and know I always gave my all for the green jersey.”
Some of the most unfair and acerbic criticism came from Eamon Dunphy, who made things personal by claiming, falsely, that he had two Ferraris. “I remember walking to meet my mam and dad at the hotel when I was home with Ireland and she stuffed a newspaper with my face on it in her pocket so I wouldn’t see it. I could see it was getting to them.”
Deborah’s death has made Whelan think about his own life because it’s also brought different, deeper types of conversations out of his father. Those sacrifices at least paid off, and their son fulfilled his dreams.
He played 91 times for Ireland, representing his country at two European championships.
He helped Stoke City earn promotion to the Premier League and then stayed there for nine consecutive seasons.
Later, when Aston Villa were relegated, they turned to Whelan to play a key role in their return to the top flight.
Dunphy derided him yet he was the epitome of the ‘Good Pro’ so lauded in his own seminal memoir, Only A Game?
And yet none of that would have been possible if it wasn’t for the outlook Whelan took when Kevin Keegan, then City’s first team manager, called him into his office and said he was not part of his plans.
He still had a year left on his contract but was determined to leave and find his own way in the game..
“God rest him, he was honest with me, at least, but all I had in my head was to prove him wrong from that point on,” he says.
It’s a state of mind that sustained him throughout his time in the Premier League with Stoke under Tony Pulis and then Mark Hughes, even if his nine and a half years at the club ended in hurt.
“I didn’t want to leave. Someone went behind my back to sell me. They wanted to make a profit on me after all those years. I saw my service to the club as being part of a family. They wanted the best price.
“I could have stayed for another few months to get a testimonial but it was never about money for me.
“I always just wanted to play football. You can have a €20 million contract but I’d rather a trophy or a promotion.”
Whelan had an inner drive from a young age that was also tested by significant external factors.
He was 18 when he returned to City from his summer holidays and was told by Paddy McCarthy that he and his girlfriend were expecting a baby.
“Two weeks later I got the same news from Karen,” Whelan laughs.
He couldn’t ring his mam or dad, so McCarthy was the obvious person to turn to.
“What the fuck are we going to do?”
Whelan considered returning home to find stable work straight away before reassessing. “It was a case of making this life work for us,” he says.
“Maybe if Paddy said we were both fucked then I’d have thought we would be, but we weren’t. It worked out because we’re both still with our wives. You do everything for your family, don’t you?
Whelan didn’t want to tell City about the situation. Both families provided the support that was needed. His daughter, Abbie, was born in Dublin and spent the first couple of years there with Karen before moving to England when Whelan had earned another professional contract with Sheffield Wednesday.
Abbie is 23 now and has returned to their house in Cheshire to save money. She studied criminology at Liverpool University with the aim of working in police forensics, but Covid interrupted her plans and is now working in the fraud department of a major bank.
Jack, Whelan’s 16-year-old son, is with Macclesfield Town and finding his way as a left back. There are split loyalties in the house when it comes to football. Whelan is a childhood Liverpool fan from a family of Manchester United supporters. His wife’s family are also United.
“The only thing I asked my lad was that he wasn’t going to be a United fan. I couldn’t deal with that.”
Jack chose City. It’s a different club from the one his dad was part of, and even though they have been found guilty of historic levels of financial cheating from 2009 through to 2018 Whelan doesn’t want a FA Cup winners’ medal from the final they lost in 2011.
“Nah, that’s done with. But there’s a group of us [ex-pros] who play nine-a-side together on a Tuesday. It gets tasty, loser pays for the pitch, and I’ve joked with Joleon Lescott that he can give his one back.”
It’s a touchy subject at home. Whelan brought Jack into the away end at Anfield a couple of years ago for a City win over Liverpool and got a buzz off his son giving stick to the home fans on the other side of the segregation line.
His former Aston Villa teammate Jack Grealish arranged tickets for City’s Champions League final win over Inter Milan in 2023, and once the celebrations were over in the stadium they had to wander down the side of a motorway to get back to their hotel in Istanbul. Whelan was able to commandeer a taxi by waving a €50 note in the air.
He has a bucket list of events he would love to attend as a fan: the Euros in Ireland, a World Cup with Jack, famous stadiums around the world. He remembers now how his own mam used to ask him about all the countries he visited with Ireland and would mark them off on a map.
Whelan has a cousin the same age who went travelling around Asia after college and just decided she wasn’t coming home. Karen has family in Australia. The closest they came to relocating was at the end of his time with Villa, after helping them to promotion back to the Premier League, when APOEL Nicosia offered him the biggest contract of his career in Cyprus.
“Life changing money,” Whelan says.
He wanted to keep his international career alive after Mick McCarthy brought him back into the fold, but when he was told that it was a backward step and would harm his chances, he decided against it.
“Then Mick ended up out there not long after, funnily enough. There was only one reason he was going,” Whelan laughs.
He had big plans to visit Brazil last year when a former coach at Bristol, Andy Mangan, became Davide Ancelotti’s assistant at Botafogo. Their departure ended that dream.
Whelan’s life is a comfortable one, but it’s out of balance without football. He never cared about what his teammates earned while they were in the trenches of the Premier League, but he only wanted to make sure he was valued. He has been able to put money away but the determination and love of the game that was clear from the age of six in Greenfort remains as strong as ever.
He felt the need to consider a life outside the game when the Professional Footballers’ Association arranged for him to go on a six-week course at a college in Liverpool. It was an introduction to becoming a bricklayer, plumber or electrician.
He loved working with Ireland’s U16s as part of Paul Osam’s coaching staff. Not just because the former St Patrick’s Athletic midfielder was an inspiration growing up.
He coached at Bristol, too, and caused a stir on punditry duty after his brief stint alongside John O’Shea and old pal Paddy McCarthy when they took interim charge of the Ireland team in March and June 2024 before Heimir Hallgrímsson’s appointment.
Whelan expressed his frustration at the mentality and attitude of some of the players in the squad, a point he doesn’t shy away from again as he explains how he said the same to their faces about concerns over professionalism.
He hasn’t fallen out with his McCarthy or O’Shea, he still sees the latter regularly as they live nearby. They go to the gym togther and played golf the day before meeting The 42.
Whelan’s concerns are rooted in a desire to see Ireland succeed and thrive on the biggest stage.
He also retains ambitions of his own in coaching, be it in the League of Ireland, Britain or further afield. He took caretaker charge of Wigan Athletic after coming on their staff and got a chance to forge a path this season when Livingston appointed him following their relegation from the Scottish Premiership.
Five games into the league season he was sacked. Two wins and three defeats. David Martindale, the manager who oversaw relegation before becoming sporting director, is still interim boss now.
The dynamic was a struggle.
“They teach you on the Pro Licence about managing up but it’s hard to manage up when the person there wants to be the manager.
“I know in another dressing room no one cares what I’ve done as a player. It’s how you make these young lads feel in a moment now. Show them that you care, that you can improve them, that you can help them get better.
“I like to think that I’m a sound fella first and foremost. I’m honest. There are certain people I’ve come across in this industry that has made me think ‘I don’t ever want to be like you’.”
Whelan has been shaped by enough good people to know that.
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big interview Glenn Whelan October Soccer