“D’YA KNOW WHAT, it was lovely chatting about football,” Katie McCabe grinned.
“Sorry for being cranky in the French press conference! Nah, cheers guys, really appreciate it. Thank you.”
Two-and-a-half months earlier, the Republic of Ireland captain couldn’t hide her frustration after a significant media engagement alongside Vera Pauw.
The World Cup send-off game against France was overshadowed by allegations against the former Ireland manager — which she refutes — much to McCabe’s annoyance.
A lot has happened in the last 10 weeks, but ultimately, that was the beginning of the end.
The next chapter opened yesterday, and it turned into quite the Manic Monday at FAI HQ, Abbotstown.
Snippets of RTÉ Radio One’s Liveline were caught on the drive over: former internationals airing their grievances and sharing their disappointment at the FAI’s plans to honour them at Saturday’s showdown against Northern Ireland at the Aviva Stadium.
It wasn’t the only scathing assessment of the afternoon.
But stop number one, training.
There was a giddy first day of school feeling as interim manager Eileen Gleeson, her staff and squad gathered on the pitch. Performance coach Ivi Casagrande, formerly of the Brazil women’s national team, put the players through their paces as they warmed up, with plenty of room for laughing and joking too. Casagrande’s role is one of three additions to the set-up, along with nutritionist Dr Brendan Egan and psychologist Sarah Murray.
In the 15 minutes open to the media, one of Gleeson’s assistants, Colin Healy, oversaw an intense passing drill as they moved through the gears into a match-scenario session. Her other right-hand woman, Emma Byrne, and goalkeeping coach, Richie Fitzgibbon, were also busy, with the StatSports analyst (Claire Dunne for Niamh McDaid) the other notable change to the set-up.
McCabe sat out of training after an in-house friendly with Arsenal on Sunday, with all 25 players seemingly fit as of Monday. (Ruesha Littlejohn has since been ruled out, with Izzy Atkinson getting the nod.) Denise O’Sullivan was the only player yet to report to camp, having captained North Carolina Courage in Florida on Sunday night.
In all, the mood was good.
Onwards to the press conferences.
McCabe was first into the hot-seat as the players broke their silence on Pauw’s departure.
The Arsenal star was diplomatic and measured, carefully choosing her words as she fielded questions. She shut down any notions of “Vera versus Katie” and “player power” and reflected on a difficult few weeks before moving her focus to this “fresh start”.
She spoke positively about Gleeson and Byrne, in particular, and touched on life at Arsenal: the need for reform and change to the women’s calendar in the wake of their early Champions League exit, and her Ballon d’Or nomination.
Her eyes lit up when that was mentioned and she told The 42 the story of Gunners manager Jonas Eidevall informing her. “I was like, ‘Oh God, what now?’ He sat down and told me that I had been nominated for the Ballon d’Or, which took me by surprise. It’s obviously a first in terms of an Irish women’s player’s point of view.
“You don’t achieve those sort of things without the support and the teams around you. I’m very happy with it but I’m not sure I’ll be beating [Aitana] Bonmati to the title! It’s a really nice thing and I’m happy, but I’ll be happy to just get back on the pitch with the girls tomorrow.”
She departed with that quip, and (via a zipped-mouth action) confirmed talks were ongoing with Arsenal over a new contract in a separate interview.
In her wake came Diane Caldwell.
It was all fairly run-of-the-mill at the start: the historic Aviva showdown, Gleeson, Byrne, the FAI’s “show of intent” with new roles and the “level of professionalism”. The experienced defender kept coming back to the latter, which begged the question: ‘Was that lacking under Vera?’
Off she went.
Republic of Ireland defender Diane Caldwell has sensationally slammed the management of Vera Pauw insisting that their historic run to a first-ever Women's World Cup was due to the players
— RTÉ Soccer (@RTEsoccer) September 18, 2023
READ MORE: https://t.co/A9U1JmISO9 pic.twitter.com/20H6xYUbsg
The killer line? “I think the results and performances that we got were in spite of Vera being our coach.”
Just when you thought things might have been moving on…
Another Manic Monday.
Another extraordinary press conference.
Another dramatic day on the beat.
All that came before, and followed, Caldwell’s assessment was superseded, the noise heightening around this team once more. The expectation and pressure will ratchet, but Caldwell, McCabe and co. insist they’ll thrive off it.
Tuesday didn’t appear just as colourful.
Gleeson and three non-World Cup players were up for interview at the Castleknock Hotel, the squad’s base in North Dublin, this morning.
They trained at Abbotstown again this afternoon and will likely keep a low profile through the week until Friday’s pre-match press conference at the Aviva Stadium.
The focus must be on football, the present and the future thereafter.
That would be just lovely, as Katie McCabe said.