SCOTT IS SAVING HIS NEXT BLAST FOR TBILISI
Ireland forward persuaded his club boss to recall him to match-day squad with a few choice words — the move was repaid in points
EVERYONE knows a story about the angry footballer demanding to see the manager for better conditions and more game time. Denis Law famously blew his cool at Manchester United 50 years ago, storming into Matt Busby’s office seeking better pay, only to emerge placated, and with fewer bob in his pocket for his trouble.
For Scott Hogan, 27, the point of no return came last Friday when he was left out of Stoke City’s match-day squad of 18 for the trip to Championship leader Swansea.
Hogan could have slipped off and sulked but he had spent enough of the season kicking heels and made a bee-line to manager Nathan Jones to let off steam.
The Irish striker let rip with both barrels, persuaded Jones to change his mind and then walked the walk with a late winner at the Liberty Stadium. Talk about vindication, eh? While Hogan accepts he was fortunate not to be thrown out of Jones’ office with a flea in his ear, he has no regrets for seizing the moment.
Here’s how Hogan’s season took a timely turn for the better.
‘I’d been out of the squad for three or four games and hadn’t come on for about six or seven. He (Jones) picked the team and the squad on Friday (for the Swansea game)
‘If you’re not involved you go and do a bit of running and noone’s ever keen on that. Afterwards, I pulled one of the sports scientists and said a few things to him. He then went and told the manager.
‘It was like quarter to one and the bus was leaving at one. The manager pulled me in and two minutes later he told me to get my stuff and get on the bus.
‘I told him a few things which I felt were honest.
‘He could easily have said, “Train hard today, tomorrow go away with the national team and we’ll see how you get on when you get back”, but he just told me to get changed.’ How honest was Hogan? ‘I obviously can’t use the language that I used. I just said to him, “Play me, I’ll score goals at this level, forget what has gone on the past two years, I can do it at this level.”
I said, “I’ve scored two goals, I’m still your top scorer and I’ve hardly played for the past seven games. I care about playing football and I care about winning. If you put me on, I’ll score the winner.”’
And then? He sort of slammed his hand on the desk and said, “Get on the bus”.’
Jones had listened and Hogan duly pounced on a second-half rebound to secure Stoke’s first win of the season.
At that moment, Hogan’s emotion valves popped open.
‘Normally when I score, everything just slows down, it just happens naturally. But with that one, I had a lot of frustration and anger.
‘A few people texted me afterwards saying, “I’ve not seen you celebrate like that for a long time, if ever”.
‘I’ve said something and I’ve backed it up. If people can do that then they are going to go somewhere.’
‘Maybe it was a bit of a risk going in there to talk to him but if you
don’t take risks you are never going to get anywhere sometimes.’
Hogan’s courage was fuelled as much by serial frustration at not getting game time for a struggling team, as the need to justify his inclusion in the Irish squad.
Ahead of the announcement for the Euro 2020 double-header, he gave himself a snowball’s chance in hell of making the cut for the trip to Tbilisi.
‘I didn’t expect to be here, one million per cent. I did not expect it. I wouldn’t have picked me. I’m not playing, I’m not even in the squad at the bottom of the Championship. So, why would you pick me?
‘I said to my missus we might be able to do something, go away, during this international break, because there’s no way I’m in this squad, they can’t pick me.’
Yet, Mick McCarthy kept faith in Hogan, when he may have had cause not to after seven appearances and no goals.
‘I’d like to think, since the boss (McCarthy) has come here, while I’ve not scored yet, I’ve done what he’s asked and he has been happy with me. ‘I came in against Denmark away and did okay, probably could have nicked a goal at the end. I came on against Switzerland and the boss said I brought some energy, and created a platform for us to push on. ‘I played the friendly as well and it annoyed me that I couldn’t score. But I know the manager is happy with what I’ve done. He has always liked me. ‘Maybe there are a few doubting me because I’ve not scored, but I’m not bothered, we just want to win.’ On his arrival in the team hotel in Dublin on Sunday night, McCarthy approached Hogan and said, ‘Hello goalscorer’. The gesture meant a lot to the Stoke City player. ‘Coming into camp, if I’ve not played for my club, not been in squads at the bottom of the Championship. it doesn’t look good, does it?’ ‘It’s not like I’ve set the world alight in my international career so far. So it’s just nice to remind people what I can do. I remember being at Brentford and everyone was talking about me, I was going here, I was going there, teams in Europe asking about me. It was like the only way was up.’
Only he didn’t kick on. A big money move to Aston Villa in January 2017 promised much but he was soon marginalised to the extent that he ‘hated everything about the place’.
He was sent out on loan to Sheffield United, where he rarely figured in the first team. Along the way there were times, he didn’t push himself in training, and his confidence hit rock bottom.
‘On the pitch, you’re thinking, “Do I go and get the ball there?” and in your head, you’re thinking. “Nah, the way I’m going at the minute, I could lose the ball.”
‘It’s been two years of disappointment. It probably slowed everything down to what I was going to do.
‘I’ve been playing for two years with no confidence.’
Perhaps his act of defiance, and that late Saturday winner, can point the way forward for Hogan to be a hero again.