‘Pick up the phone’ – Bamford silence angers McCarthy
Trip to Gibraltar signals beginning of his real work
MICK McCARTHY has told Patrick Bamford to pick up the phone and call him if he is really interested in playing for Ireland.
McCarthy has been frustrated by attempts to set up a meeting with the Leeds striker who has indicated he is interested in switching allegiance from England, without fully committing to it. And the Ireland manager is running out of patience with the 25-year-old.
“I have been chasing Patrick now for a long time. He wanted to meet me with his dad and I said fine; I’ll come and see you but then that got kiboshed,” said McCarthy (pictured) ) yesterday, with that meeting called off as Bamford’s game e was rescheduled.
“I’ve been doing all the chasing. I think that it’s time
– if he wants to play – he picks ks up the phone and gets hold of me or sends me a WhatsApp.
“He full well knows now that I’ve been doing my damnedest to meet him. And by the way, he is not playing for me, he is playing for Ireland. But I’ve got players who are playing, I’ll go and watch them, see them play.”
Michael Obafemi’s season-ending injury was a blow for McCarthy, bubut he has taken heart from Sean Maguire’s recovery fromr a similar hamstring pproblem.
HHe was wowed by a trip to watwatch Maguire play centrally ffor PrestonP against Millwall. McCarthy likes Maguire’s “movement and his pace. He is aggressive, his finishing. I think he is a really good front player.”
MICK McCARTHY will travel to Gibraltar today to look at the artificial pitch that has the potential to make his comeback game as Ireland manager a difficult occasion.
It’s another factor that he is unable to control, following on from the damaging loss of Declan Rice that he was already resigned to when the West Ham player eventually picked up the phone.
McCarthy sent a follow-up text to the England recruit after admitting that he was “curt” when Rice initially delivered the bad news which he saw coming after an initial deadline had been missed.
Waiting on calls is now part of the territory for an Irish boss when it comes to the business of trying to win over eligible players.
The Barnsley man has been miffed by Patrick Bamford’s slow response to a request to set up a meeting. Talks with Southampton’s Nathan Redmond have yet to progress beyond a discussion with an agent, with McCarthy suspecting the player may still have designs on adding to his solitary English senior cap.
Clearance
Will Keane of Ipswich said yes without hesitation but has now picked up an injury although it was very unlikely that clearance would have come through to make him eligible ahead of the March 23 kick-off.
Therefore, McCarthy is scouring his options. He confirmed that Sheffield United’s David McGoldrick will be in the squad he reveals next week – he had fallen out of favour after a disagreement with Martin O’Neill.
McCarthy suggested that he’s the most in-form Irish striker in the Championship at the moment before adding that the fit-again Seán Maguire is a contender for that tag too.
“Didsy is playing pretty much every week and has been different class for Sheffield United, who are second in the Championship,” said McCarthy.
He went on to mention James Collins, prolific in League One with Luton, and was also asked about Pádraig Amond after the Carlow man’s FA Cup exploits with Newport County.
“Is that his benchmark? I don’t know,” said McCarthy. “I’m not ruling anybody out of anything. I don’t think we have that many players that I can afford to.”
On that theme, veterans Glenn Whelan and Daryl Murphy have taken calls to discuss whether they would be available in an emergency. Whelan never retired but was given a farewell game with O’Neill clearly moving on without him.
Murphy packed it in after the World Cup play-off loss to Denmark, yet he has a good relationship with McCarthy – ironically enough he’s back working with O’Neill and Roy Keane at Nottingham Forest.
“I said, ‘If I need you, I’ll call you up’ and we left it fairly open-ended that one,” explained McCarthy, who added that Noel King will go to Holland to watch Willem II’s Danny Crowley now that he’s committed to the Irish cause.
There is a feeling, however, that a lot of the debates about squad players are just window dressing to the real discussions.
McCarthy has a short window to get to work so the scope for experimentation is quite limited. It’s entirely possible that his future will be determined by the same core of players that were central to O’Neill’s tenure.
James McCarthy was absent for the majority of the Derryman’s final campaign and the new Irish supremo called the Everton player before the transfer deadline to ask if he could get out on loan anywhere. That didn’t come to pass.
“I’ve been in touch with him about getting U-23 games, just to get some game-time,” continued McCarthy, with his namesake now fit but not able to force his way into Marco Silva’s side.
“If he got two or three U-23 games, I’d be happy to have him in the squad. It’s hard to pick players who haven’t played at all.”
The good problem that he does have is Matt Doherty’s form and the challenge to accommodate him in the same side as skipper Seamus Coleman.
A switch to left-back is one option. However, he’s a big fan of Sheffield United’s Enda Stevens although he is actually a wing-back with his club – similar to Doherty at Wolves.
McCarthy indicated he will speak to the latter, a player he brought to
England from Bohemians, to get his thoughts with a right midfield berth another option.
“It depends on what shape that would be,” he cautioned, “Not in a 4-3-3 but in a 4-4-2 maybe as he’d make you solid. I will bring him in and have a look and train with him and see. Sometimes you ask them as well.
“I have seen full-backs suddenly have to play further forward and play with their back to play and it’s, ‘I can’t do that’ – that’s normal, so a bit of discussion and dialogue with them would be handy.”
Talking with players who actually want to play for Ireland is definitely a better use of his time.