International football may not be the highest level of the game any more, but nothing matches its intensity. On Thursday morning, as we waited for news about Jonathan Walters, a couple of journalists discussed his fitness.
Would a Stoke fan be worried if it was reported that Walters hadn’t trained on a Tuesday ahead of, say, a Saturday game against Southampton? Would the fan even know? Probably not, but there is a relentlessness to the build up to any international game which increased exponentially on the eve of a tournament.
So Walters’ training session becomes the focus for the morning. He was the only Ireland player who didn’t take part in a high energy practice match at their home for at least the next two weeks, the Stade de Montbauron in Versailles.
But afterwards he glided by the mixed zone with a smile, said all is good and we got back to dissecting other things again. O’Neill said Walters was improving too so there may not be much to worry about, although as it is Walters and he has become so important to Ireland, people are going to worry. “I don’t think he’s far away,” Shay Given said and in a couple of days, it might be another story quickly forgotten.
If it isn’t Walters, it might be someone else. Robbie Keane is now fit, a reminder of how frenzied things can become. Only ten days ago, some wondered if he would even be part of the squad as rumours swirled around Cork that the captain might not make it.
It always seemed like a folly. O’Neill likes a surprise – as his team selection on Monday might demonstrate – but he understands a squad dynamic too and leaving Keane out was never a possibility.
Keane could be available from the bench on Monday, but Thursday was the day when everything seemed real.
If the process of a team immersing itself in a tournament happens gradually, Ireland might consider their first day of training as a sign that they are almost fully submerged.
The naming of the squad was the signal that the tournament was getting closer, but the arrival at their training camp was a reminder of how much reality there will be.
Around Stade de Montbauron on Thursday morning, security personnel with machine guns patrolled the perimeter. A woman on a bike examined a sign pinned to a locked gate which told her that the shortcut she normally took from Avenue de Paris to the other side of town would be closed until June 23rd. At least.
Nobody has known anything like this kind of security before, but a tournament has never taken place with the threat so real and with so much to be afraid of.
Scenes from Versailles pic.twitter.com/Zao6FWISGF
— Dion Fanning (@dionfanning) June 9, 2016
The armed protection in Versailles is a reminder of the terrible fears which stalk this tournament, but in the coming days we will probably get used to them too.
The players will adapt. Those who had been at tournaments before won’t have seen anything like it, but as long as the worst case scenarios don’t happen, soon it will seem normal.
Ireland got on with their business. The practice match was competitive and Aiden McGeady looked lively and determined. Anybody trying to read O’Neill’s mind from the line-ups wouldn’t have got very far.
The players never know what way he’s thinking so he was unlikely to reveal his own thoughts during an open training session, even if at one point a back four of Seamus Coleman, Shane Duffy, John O’Shea and Robbie Brady looked like a potential selection for Monday’s game.
O’Neill and Keane had, at least, signed new contracts, which is what everyone felt until the manager walked over to the media and said it was agreed but not yet completed.
“I’ve shaken hands with John, that’s all that’s necessary,” O’Neill said. “John felt that going into the Euros it might be a decent thing to do so fine. I’m happy with it.” Later he added that “he persuaded me that it was a good thing to do, and I was happy to go along for another two years.”
Given that the timing of the FAI’s announcement had taken people by surprise, some then wondered at this follow-up which revealed that the process was not complete, that a contract had still to be signed.
O’Neill and Delaney are men of their word so the contract is agreed, but O’Neill was prickly when asked about it with the media. By Thursday evening, it seemed another concern that was no longer a concern as a much more relaxed O’Neill told the FAI’s own reporter that it was “a done deal”.
VIDEO: Martin O'Neill: 'It's a done deal' – https://t.co/d5Jf0TnZLO #COYBIG pic.twitter.com/jPfpfn4UMV
— Ireland Football ⚽️🇮🇪 (@IrelandFootball) June 9, 2016
“We want to stay on. The fact that we haven’t put pen to paper is no intrusion,” O’Neill said. “If memory serves me correctly, about two-and-a-half years ago, when John asked me to sign up, we did do so on the shaking of one’s hand. I think eventually we might have signed the contract six or seven weeks later, something like that. It certainly wasn’t on the day we agreed to do it. I will have to assume the same thing will apply to both parties. Absolutely delighted to do so.”
So that was the morning’s speculation dealt with. There are those within the FAI who will tell you that the endless speculation is the media’s fault, that we focus relentlessly on any doubt and wonder about the reason when there is no reason, no cause for concern. Perhaps it is the case that it’s the media’s fault, but things seem to happen even without the media really getting involved.
Add us on Snapchat for all the latest from the Ireland training camp in Versailles: SportsJOE.ie pic.twitter.com/1m8n5lFcTh
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) June 9, 2016
On Thursday, we asked a Swedish colleague who left Cork last Wednesday, if anything had been going on with Sweden. Not much, he said. He asked if anything had happened with Ireland since he went away.
Not much, we said. On Wednesday afternoon, Roy Keane launched a verbal attack on a number of Irish players, singling Aiden McGeady out for particular criticism. Later that day, Martin O’Neill made a homophobic remark on stage in Cork. Five days later, O’Neill apologised, although his first apology angered some (he was more expansive when talking to print journalists when the cameras were off which ensured most people didn’t see how genuinely sorry he was). Keane also apologised to McGeady over the weekend, but everybody is ok about Roy’s comments now. On Tuesday, the FAI announced that O’Neill and Keane had extended their contracts until 2018, but on Wednesday O’Neill said they had yet to sign the contract, but it was all agreed.
Not much, we told him. This was a quiet week. On Tuesday, Roy Keane reworked the advice mothers used to tell their children. “Usually when people say they’re bored, it’s because they’re boring.” It’s not true, of course, but with Ireland, we are never bored, although the FAI might think the media are boring.
Even when nothing happens, there is something happening. That may be the defining characteristic of tournament football. It’s certainly the case when Ireland are involved.
