Stephen Hunt’s Sunday Independent piece is a must read today
Thankfully leaving all the stuff about GAA players and pros behind, Stephen Hunt’s column in today’s Sunday Independent is top class.
It addresses that most painful of subjects for Irish football fans, Euro 2012, and how it painful the experience was for Hunt, who didn’t play a minute in Poland.
The column is filled with tremendous insights into the night of the qualification, his rivalry with newbie James McClean for a spot in the team – ‘My problems began in January. One of them had a human face and was called James McClean’ – but the real meat of the column is the blow by blow account of Euro 2012.
From the boring camp in Montecatini to the way Kevin Foley was left out all issues addressed in a way we have never seen before by a player who was actually there.
However, the most interesting part is when Hunt turns to the hurt he felt when he didn’t get to play in the tournament. Hunt reveals that Giovanni Trapattoni told him the night before the final game against Italy that the winger would play, and Marco Tardelli told him he deserved to feature, but when the game was played, it was Simon Cox who was the final sub, playing on the wing where Hunt could play.
‘When Simon Cox was sent on to play on the wing, it broke my heart. In the dressing-room afterwards, I fell to pieces’
Hunt displays no bitterness towards Trap – ‘He broke my heart but I respect him for his ruthlessness’ – and the column gives a tremendous picture of the ups, but mainly downs, of being a professional footballer.
Make some time in your day to check out the full piece here.
