James McClean's recent run of international form - three goals in our last two qualifiers, strikes that converted two points into six - has thrown light on the greater picture: he has been one of the most important Irish players in the Martin O'Neill era, and nobody has scored more goals under O'Neill than the Derry winger.
Unsurprisingly, given the Sunderland connection along with his current international favoritism, McClean is enjoying playing under O'Neill. He told RTE's Sunday Sport that he has a superb relationship with the current Irish manager, something he did not enjoy with his predecessor.
While McClean says he respects the manager who gave him his Irish debut, his treatment of him at Euro 2012 left him "insulted".
Ireland's games at Euro 2012 are, generally, have been buried deep within our collective unconscious, dwelling in recesses dark enough to just about ignore. It was a tournament of a misery remarkable; just as galling for the players as it was the supporters.
McClean's experience is, sadly, no different:
At the time, I was playing and my confidence was sky high. I was just off the back of my first Premier League season and I was named young player of the year at Sunderland.
And if I’m honest, that knocked me a lot that I didn’t play in the European championships and it took me a while to recover from that because it was the first time in a long time that I wasn’t being played and I felt that I should have been playing.
During the Euros, I remember thinking that he said at the press conference that I was just there for the experience and I wouldn’t be playing. And then we were 3-0 down against Spain and he throws me on, and I felt a bit insulted really.
McClean's lack of playing time at that bloody tournament is not unique to him. Stephen Hunt wrote quite magnificently in the Independent about Euro 2012 being the lowest point of his career, saying that 'all he had wanted five minutes'. While McClean got very little game time, Hunt got none.
