IRELAND BOSS MARTIN O’Neill has acknowledged that it’s been a “difficult” season for Everton and Ireland midfielder Darron Gibson.
The 28-year-old featured in just seven of the Toffees’ 38 Premier League games this season, owing to a combination of injuries and indifferent form.
Consequently, though Gibson has been included in Ireland’s squad for the upcoming friendlies against the Netherlands tomorrow night and Belarus on Tuesday, he is far from certain to make the Boys in Green’s Euro 2016 squad, with the ex-Manchester United player on the periphery of the team in recent times.
Darron has had a difficult time this season — he hasn’t played the amount of games that he’d like to have done. He’s back in towards the end of the season — played a few games, then got left out again,” O’Neill said at a press conference today.
“He’s here. He wants to impress. If he thinks there’s an opportunity to make the (Euro 2016 squad of) 23, the fact that he’s here is great news for us. He’s a fine footballer and he has a bit of quality about him.
“But the number of times he’s played over the last few seasons would be a concern.”
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With a number of others in contention for a central midfield berth, including Glenn Whelan, Jeff Hendrick, James McCarthy, Harry Arter and David Meyler, it seems Gibson needs to make a big impression in the coming days to seal his spot on the plane.
Another player who has struggled for game time of late is Gibson’s Everton teammate Aiden McGeady, who has been on loan at Championship side Sheffield Wednesday since January.
McGeady was recently deemed surplus to requirements by Wednesday manager Carlos Carvalhal as the Owls bid for promotion to the Premier League via the play-offs, and the 30-year-old winger was consequently a surprise face at Ireland training this week.
Yet despite McGeady’s recent problems at club level, O’Neill insists he is happy with the player’s fitness.
I think if you ask Aiden about playing games, he’s a bit disappointed the way the season has gone for him. But he went out on loan at January. He could have sat back and maybe played the occasional game for Everton, but it looked as if he wasn’t going to get a look in.
“By January maybe the writing on the wall was there for him. So from that viewpoint, he at least made the effort to play. For whatever reason he’s not finishing with Sheffield Wednesday but at least he’s here with us, and I reiterate that he does have that ability to go past players and create something for you.
“He looks alright (in training). We did one-v-ones and two-v-twos yesterday and he looked pretty good.”
O’Neill suggested that he had made up his mind on “90%” of the squad, but indicated that there could yet be a few surprises when he confirms his final 23-man Euro 2016 squad after the Belarus game on Tuesday night.
Somebody might overwhelm us in these two games and we’ll say ‘right, okay, doesn’t matter if you’ve played before, you’re in the side because you’ve played brilliantly in one of the two (upcoming friendly) games. That might be a deciding issue.
“Naturally, you tend to (rely to an extent on) the boys that have done so well for their country in the last 12 competitive matches.
“They have put their heart and soul into it and that also plays a part, but we’ll see.”
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'The number of times he's played over the last few seasons would be a concern'
IRELAND BOSS MARTIN O’Neill has acknowledged that it’s been a “difficult” season for Everton and Ireland midfielder Darron Gibson.
The 28-year-old featured in just seven of the Toffees’ 38 Premier League games this season, owing to a combination of injuries and indifferent form.
Consequently, though Gibson has been included in Ireland’s squad for the upcoming friendlies against the Netherlands tomorrow night and Belarus on Tuesday, he is far from certain to make the Boys in Green’s Euro 2016 squad, with the ex-Manchester United player on the periphery of the team in recent times.
“He’s here. He wants to impress. If he thinks there’s an opportunity to make the (Euro 2016 squad of) 23, the fact that he’s here is great news for us. He’s a fine footballer and he has a bit of quality about him.
“But the number of times he’s played over the last few seasons would be a concern.”
With a number of others in contention for a central midfield berth, including Glenn Whelan, Jeff Hendrick, James McCarthy, Harry Arter and David Meyler, it seems Gibson needs to make a big impression in the coming days to seal his spot on the plane.
Another player who has struggled for game time of late is Gibson’s Everton teammate Aiden McGeady, who has been on loan at Championship side Sheffield Wednesday since January.
McGeady was recently deemed surplus to requirements by Wednesday manager Carlos Carvalhal as the Owls bid for promotion to the Premier League via the play-offs, and the 30-year-old winger was consequently a surprise face at Ireland training this week.
Yet despite McGeady’s recent problems at club level, O’Neill insists he is happy with the player’s fitness.
“By January maybe the writing on the wall was there for him. So from that viewpoint, he at least made the effort to play. For whatever reason he’s not finishing with Sheffield Wednesday but at least he’s here with us, and I reiterate that he does have that ability to go past players and create something for you.
“He looks alright (in training). We did one-v-ones and two-v-twos yesterday and he looked pretty good.”
O’Neill suggested that he had made up his mind on “90%” of the squad, but indicated that there could yet be a few surprises when he confirms his final 23-man Euro 2016 squad after the Belarus game on Tuesday night.
“Naturally, you tend to (rely to an extent on) the boys that have done so well for their country in the last 12 competitive matches.
“They have put their heart and soul into it and that also plays a part, but we’ll see.”
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