‘Pico is flying flag for us and League’
Towell thrilled to see his fellow Hoop starring on AFCON stage
RICHIE Towell is adamant his club colleague Pico Lopes will ‘hold his own’ against for Cape Verde against Mo Salah’s Egypt in their final AFCON group game on Monday.
‘You see (Mo) Salah every weekend for Liverpool tearing up players and he’s coming up against Pico now but I’ve no doubt Pico will be able to hold his own against him.
‘Pico is a top defender, not just with his physical attributes but his mental attributes as well. I think he will relish a challenge like that and stand up to it,’ predicted Towell.
Like many in Irish football, Towell is tuned in to the Ivory Coast showpiece and is rooting for Lopes and his unlikely lads from the Atlantic islands hideaway.
‘It’s great to see Pico flying the flag for us, not just as a club, Shamrock Rovers, but for the League of Ireland as well.’
After marking Zlatan Ibrahimovic when Rovers played AC Milan in the Europa League in 2020, and then Sadio Mane in the 2021 AFCON, Lopes isn’t fazed by the prospect of mighty Mo Salah, injury permitting.
‘If you put them on a pedestal, you’ve sort of lost the game mentally
“We all know what it takes for success”
before you’ve entered the pitch,’ said Lopes.
The Dubliner, 31, is set to win his 25th cap for Cape Verde today against Mozambique, extending his record for the most caps by a player with a League of Ireland club.
Towell hailed his fellow Hoop as ‘one of the best professionals I’ve ever worked with’.
‘When we were back in (for preseason), we were in the gym doing our stuff first and Pico was out on the pitch trying to get himself ready for the AFCON. That’s Pico in a nutshell.
‘When you see someone like him working so hard getting the rewards, it’s amazing.
‘I was talking to him the day he played against Ghana, a great result.
‘I watched the game and they were actually better than Ghana. More possession, more shots on target.’
The AFCON runs until February 11, the Sunday before Rovers embark on a fifth successive SSE Airtricity League title, a feat no other club has done.
Elevated to the leadership group, Towell believes Rovers, if anything, could be stronger this season, even after saying adieu to stalwarts Alan Mannus and Ronan Finn.
‘I met with our gaffer (Stephen Bradley) after we won the fourth league and he asked me, “How do you think it’s gone this season”?
‘My first reaction was, “I think we could have done a lot better”.
‘He looked at me a little bit and said, “Do you know what? You’re right, we could have been a lot better”.
‘We dropped points in a lot of games. We didn’t win a game until our seventh league game which is crazy for a club like Shamrock Rovers. ‘When we see from last year how much we have more to grow, that’s what excites us the most. ‘As a group that’s had a lot of success, we know what it feels like and we know what it takes. ‘Since the start of pre-season, everyone has been chomping at the bit and working our socks off, especially the older players. ‘We feel we need to put that down onto the younger lads and drive them on as well. We need to set the standards to show what it takes to get to where we’ve been over the last few seasons.’ Rovers have a leadership core of seasoned heads, Lopes, Lee Grace, Seán Hoare, Gary O’Neill and Towell, who oversee good habits.
Everyone is grounded; egos and bling are barred.
‘You don’t want to see lads coming in with the washbag under the arm and the earrings in their ears. You want to see lads come in and put in a bit of graft,’ said Towell.
‘I got a great grounding at Celtic, I used to have to clean a minibus, pump up the balls and clean football boots.
‘It taught me standards. If you’re given a task to do, then do it properly,’ said Towell, who still makes his bed at home first thing every morning. ‘And it has to be made to a good standard too,’ he said.
‘That’s something at Rovers that we’re adamant about: standards. We must tidy the gym up after ourselves, and the canteen.
‘One of the tables wasn’t properly cleaned off yesterday and a message got put into the group: “Whoever was sitting at the table is fined.”
‘When we’re finished training or a game, we clean the dressing room. It’s nice to leave it the way we found it.
‘As players, we would always chip in and help our kitmen carry the kit out to the van. It’s basic manners.’
While a card-carrying member of the seasoned crew, Towell, 32, likes the cut of 17-year-old Naj Razi, whom Bradley revealed is being monitored by Real Madrid, among other leading clubs.
‘I’d like to see myself as a strong runner in the group and he’s right there by your side all the time which is great. He wants to win the races and improve all the time.
‘He’s really talented and the way he handles himself around the training ground is very good as well. He’s s very polite and hard-working. That’s what you want in a young footballer.’
An Irish underage international, Razi is of Algerian descent, so could yet be another Rovers player to earn AFCON spurs. If so, Towell will be tuning in again.