Damien Delaney was omitted from the Irish squad for the Gibraltar and Georgia qualifiers in September. Given that Delaney is a regular starter for a well-performing Premier League side, many quite reasonably felt he was surely worth at least a spot on the plane to the Algarve.
Unsurprisingly, it was speculated that 'differences' with Roy Keane, stretching back to their unhappy time together at Ipswich, accounted for his absence. In an English courtroom in 2011, Delaney blamed Keane for his speeding charge, claiming his 'unreasonable manager' would fine players 'thousands of pounds' if they were late arriving at the training ground.
However, Delaney has today denied that this was the cause of his omission and has effectively announced his international retirement with a very thoughtful instagram post.
He said that, at 34, he does not feel 'the future of Irish football lies with me' and said he now looks upon the international break as a chance to recover.
In the course of his message, he contradicted what he was asserted was Martin O'Neill's suggestion that he had asked for a starting place (though O'Neill didn't quite say this - he merely said that Delaney felt he was well down the pecking order and he replied that he couldn't guarantee games), and very strongly implied that Ireland were on the wrong track with O'Neill. By contrast, he praised Giovanni Trapattoni and said Ireland need to build a footballing identity in keeping with the country's 'traits and strengths.'
We need to build an identity and team ethos from schoolboy football to full international that will last. I understand people weren't enamoured with Mr. Trapattoni but whether you agreed with his philosophy or not you have to respect the man and the results he achieved with his philosophy. There are many footballing philosophies and we need to choose one that suits Irish traits and strengths best.
He signed off by saying that he wished he 'could have contributed more... #coybig #identity'
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