STEPHEN KENNY IS unsurprised by David McGoldrick’s decision to retire from international football.
McGoldrick – Ireland’s Player of the Year in 2019 and outstanding in the Euro 2020 play-off defeat to Slovakia last month – called time on his international career yesterday.
McGoldrick will be 35 by the time the 2022 World Cup swings around and has made the call to focus on his club career with Sheffield United and spend more time with his family.
“It wasn’t really a shock to me. It was always his intention to retire at the end of the campaign”, said Kenny. “He’s a great guy, David. He was a very popular member of the squad. I would have liked for him to stay on and have a positive impact on all the young attacking players coming through.
“I felt he could have had an impact, but he has his reasons and I respect his reasons. That’s the way life is.”
Asked whether McGoldrick might answer an SOS call in the future, Kenny laughed and said, “You’ll have to ask him that. You never know.”
The Irish manager then hinted that McGoldrick’s recent spell out of the Sheffield United team after injury against Slovakia partly prompted his decision.
“It was always his intention to retire. He can speak for himself, but obviously he had an injury he played with in Slovakia – the adductor injury – and I think it affected his training and he subsequently lost his place at Sheffield United because his training programme was affected, and he hasn’t started the last few games there.
“He is a private man and he has his own reasons, and we have to respect that.”
Kenny today named a 26-man squad for next week’s friendly with England along with subsequent Nations League games with Wales and Bulgaria.
Kenny started each of last month’s trio of games with a different central striker, but none have been included in this squad. McGoldrick has retired, while Shane Long and Sean Maguire have not made the cut.
Instead, Luton Town striker James Collins has earned his first call up under Kenny – Collins has scored five goals for Luton thus far this season – with Ronan Curtis and Daryl Horgan keeping their places having been late call-ups from the previous squad.
Ireland have scored just once in five games under Kenny so far – a Shane Duffy header from a set-piece in the opening game against Bulgaria – but the Irish manager today stressed the positives of those performances when the issue was raised today.
“I think you have to look at each of the games in isolation. I think the performance against Slovakia was a really good performance. Away from home, and we dominated the game. The other games, you cannot just erase the fact that eight players were not available because of Covid tracing. That’s not making excuses. You have to accept criticism if you don’t score goals and I am willing to do that.
“We only conceded four goalscoring chances over the three games. There were two chances in the game against Slovakia – Darren made a save from a counter attack from our own corner and Shane Duffy cleared one off the line – we didn’t concede any chances against Wales at all and Finland hardly anything, a couple.
“And we probably created 15 chances in the three games. We are creating chances, we are playing well, and we haven’t taken them.”
Kenny praised the potential of Adam Idah, Aaron Connolly, Callum Robinson and Troy Parrott, with the latter expected to be named in the Irish U21 squad tomorrow after an injury lay-off.
And while he lamented the loss of McGoldrick, he said it offers Aaron Connolly a chance to play centrally, his preferred position having spent much of the Kenny era so far playing off the left.
Ireland have hardly scored under Kenny and they have yet to win, though that fact is not unduly worrying the manager.
For example, Bulgaria play Gibraltar in their first friendly – we could have looked to get a really lowly-ranked team at home, tried to get some goals under our belt and get a victory and just park that, and it parks that question. But we didn’t. We’ve taken on England. Does that make sense to do that? Are people going to go on about win/game ratios in friendlies and things like that? Is that important?
“Really I’m looking for the team to develop. We’ve taken on the England game because we don’t fear anyone.”
Kenny sees the England game as a chance for Ireland to improve ahead of next year’s World Cup qualifiers, the draw for which will be made on 7 December. Ireland are currently second seeds in that draw, but may be usurped and fall to third, with seeding contingent on results across the November window.
“I can’t get fixated on the minutiae of World Cup seeding points”, said Kenny. “We just have to focus on playing well against England, against Wales after that quick Thursday/Sunday turnaround, and then the game against Bulgaria in Dublin on Wednesday.”
An added benefit to the England game, said Kenny, is a chance to beat them for only the third time in Irish football history. The most recent win over England was at Euro ’88, with Kenny pointing out Darren Randolph was the only member of his squad alive at the time of that game.
James McCarthy and Seamus Coleman have both been named in the Irish squad in spite of recent injuries, though Kenny says both are expected to be fit to link up with the squad in London on Sunday.
The squad will be based in the UK until they fly home for the Bulgaria game in Dublin on 18 November.
Jack Byrne will miss the England game but will link up ahead of the Wales game, likely after Shamrock Rovers’ FAI Cup quarter-final with Finn Harps.
Republic of Ireland squad
Goalkeepers: Darren Randolph, Caoimhin Kelleher, Mark Travers
Defenders: Seamus Coleman, Matt Doherty, John Egan, Kevin Long, Shane Duffy, Enda Stevens, Dara O’Shea
Midfielders: James McCarthy, Harry Arter, Jayson Molumby, Jeff Hendrick, Conor Hourihane, Jack Byrne, Alan Browne, Robbie Brady
Forwards: Callum Robinson, Callum O’Dowda, James McClean, Daryl Horgan, Adam Idah, Aaron Connolly, Ronan Curtis
