While 2015/16 was a spectacular season for many Irish internationals, it was a very poor year or Marc Wilson. Having played against Bosnia in the Euro 2016 play-off, Wilson looked assured of a spot in Irish squad - if not team - for the Euros. A knee injury sustained against Crystal Palace in January, however, scuppered his chances of making the squad, so while his Irish teammates were off weaving Antonio Conte's nightmares, he was trying to get fit for pre-season.
Wilson has recovered and took part in Stoke's pre-season training camp in a bid to break back into the team, efforts which were put to waste by an overly instinctive use of twitter, when he responded to a fan by criticising Mark Hughes' training methods:
centre back mate. But it would actually help if we ever did any defensive training which we dont😡
— marc wilson (@wildog87) August 5, 2016
It is fair to say that Hughes was unimpressed by Wilson's tweets. The extent of his wrath has this afternoon been accentuated by the news broken by John Percy of The Telegraph:
Bournemouth are signing Marc Wilson from Stoke for £2m. Deal could rise to £4m. #afcb #scfc
— John Percy (@JPercyTelegraph) August 14, 2016
In the long run, it might not be a bad move by Wilson. Ireland's first World Cup qualifier against Serbia takes place in Belgrade on September 5th, and now that we know that Robbie Brady can never be wasted at left-back ever again, there is an opportunity for Wilson to push Stephen Ward for the left-back position.
Ward played ninety minutes for Burnley in yesterday's 1-0 defeat to Swansea, so Wilson needs games to put himself into contention.
