Former Irish international Stephen Hunt has given a superb interview to Miguel Delaney in today's Sunday Independent ahead of the return of his column next week. Hunt is extremely interesting on a number of topics, but is particularly illuminating on his Irish career, and tells of his biggest regret from his time with the national side:
I think I probably regretted giving out to Marco [Tardelli] after the game against Italy [in Euro 2012], when he told me I'd been playing the night before, and I didn't play. I was devastated. I told him to 'fuck off'. But understandable as that is, I still regretted talking to him like that, because of the legend that he is.
Even if it was a very sad moment for me, it was how I did it. There are ways of doing things, and the way I did it made me regret that.
Given the extremely harsh way in which he was let down by Tardelli and Trapattoni, those are noble thoughts by Hunt. In an earlier Sunday Independent column, Hunt revealed that not playing against Italy was the lowest point of his career. Despite that, there is no bitterness towards Trapattoni either, with Delaney writing that opinions towards his ex-manager were "mostly positive":
Why? One, because he trusted me, how he wanted to play and, two, he was a gentleman, an absolute gentleman.
Hunt is currently doing his coaching badges, and if this interview is anything to judge by, he is going to make a very good coach. Hunt has a remarkable sense of perspective. In that earlier column, he said that he respected Trap's ruthlessness in dropping him, and also tells Delaney of his ability to "plant himself in the head" of your manager, as a way of figuring out exactly what he needs from you.
It shows a total lack of ego on Hunt's part, which along with that sense of perspective, is the hallmark of a good coach.
The link to the article has yet to be posted online -we'll update this once it is - so you can find it in today's Sunday Independent.
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