Ruled out through injury until 2019, the Republic of Ireland's Jon Walters was a special guest on Sky Sports this morning. Sitting in for Goals on Sunday, there was always going to be some intrigue surrounding recent developments in the Republic of Ireland camp, and the Roy Keane question.
With his easy way for such interviews, Walters was never going to give too much away about the incident that initially saw Harry Arter depart the Irish set-up, he did confirm that Stephen Ward's noted retelling of events did, more or less, hit the nail on the head.
After a difficult period for Ireland and Martin O'Neill, many were left questioning what Keane actually brought to proceedings, and whether or not his 'old school' approach to man-management was not in fact doing more harm than good.
For Walters, he is not so convinced.
Believing that the game has indeed changed, and a management figure needs to possess some greater awareness, it didn't necessarily sound like he was too pleased at the prospect.
Things happen in football, things were said, words were exchanged ... Harry has his view, I have mine, but, you know ... I don't want to add fuel to that fire.
I've played under so many different managers, so many different ways of playing, so many different styles of management ... and there's no way I can say there is one way that is right.
But, you are touching upon something that is going out of the game - managing yourselves in the dressing room, players having a go at each other ... I think that's going out slightly.
Looking at the example of Declan Rice (a 19-year-old playing first-team football) in a positive light, Jon Walters reckons that the length of time a player has to wait before getting high-octane first-team experience is changing things for the worse.
Higher-up [in the leagues] it's not the same, boys are pampered a bit too much past the age of 18. If you get to 21, 22, 23 and you haven't played, when you are thrown into the first-team and have to deal with players having a go at you .... and you're a bit soft, so, whether it's right or wrong to do it, I'm not to say.
