HENDRICK HAS HIS SAY OVER ‘SILLY’ COMMENTS
Hendrick hits back at O’Neill and Keane following their comments about modern-day players
TWO Jeff Hendricks. The Dubliner is reticent, almost fearful of saying too much, sitting alongside manager Martin O’Neill at Friday’s pre-match press conference. ‘I’ve got to play better,’ he says. With O’Neill to his right and a line of television cameras, photographers and journalists in front of him, he is never going to give too much away.
It didn’t matter. He made sure to get everything off his chest a few days before.
At Lansdowne Road on Tuesday morning was a nice environment for him. A handy training session in front of scores of enthralled young FAI season ticket holders. All the kids want are signatures and selfies. No better man to flash a gleaming smile. He wears the look of appreciation well because it is genuine. There is no faking. This is the good side of life as an international footballer. No expectation, no pressure, no criticism.
Smile and repeat. Smile and repeat. Smile and repeat.
Eventually it wears off. The sound of screeching adoration has faded by the time he pulls up a seat in the photographer’s room behind the main press conference area.
He has plenty to say and more than enough time to do so. The FAI media officer at the back of the room doesn’t quite have the same stifling effect as O’Neill. He isn’t compelled to take cheap shots or settle scores, he simply feels that there are issues which need to be addressed and certain matters put right. Firstly, the perception that his international career has stalled since playing so impressively at Euro 2016.
‘Those three or four games at the Euros must be the only good games I’ve ever played for Ireland. For people to say that, I must not have played a good game before or after that,’ he begins.
‘It does annoy me a bit but people have got their own opinion. I’ve got to use it as motivation It could be the expectation level. I don’t know what [it is]. These are the people that are saying it, not me. I don’t know why or what way they’re thinking.
‘For this team I’ve played holding mid, I’ve played in a 10, I’ve played normal centre mid, I’ve played on the right, I’ve played on the left. It’s different roles and different positions,’ Hendrick continues, citing frustration with manager Martin O’Neill for the first time publicly.
‘When you look back to the Euros, I was one of the advanced two in a three-man midfield and I’ve probably not played that too much [since]. I’ve played off the right a lot more for the World Cup qualifiers, so it is harder to affect the game from that position. People probably don’t take that into account when they’re judging me.
‘Family members read papers or whatever, they hear certain comments but they wouldn’t relay those comments to me. They try and blur it out and, obviously, I don’t live here so I wouldn’t have to hear as much as they do.’ Like his family, though, Hendrick can’t help but have become aware of O’Neill’s statements urging him to become a more authoritative figure within the Ireland squad. ‘I’ve heard what he said. Maybe it’s something I’ve to think about a bit more. For years I’ve been coming into the squad and just got on with my work, played my football and enjoyed seeing the lads,’ he acknowledges. ‘But there’s a good few changes now and, caps-wise, I’m one of the more experienced players. Maybe I need to be a bit more vocal amongst the group. Like the manager said, to lead a few of the new faces. I wasn’t thinking about it until then so now I’ve been thinking and trying help the new lads settle in on and off the pitch. ‘I don’t think you need to be 100 per cent vocal to lead any team. If you look down through the years, there’s different captains and not all are vocal. They can be at the right times and that’s what I’d be more like. ‘I wouldn’t be screaming or shouting, or doing that type of stuff, but when I will say stuff when it needs to be said, on or off the pitch. Anyone with tell you, when I go out and play football I’m calm and nothing really affects me. That’s just the way I am as a person, so I don’t think too much about it.’ For some, such an attitude in the modern day is all the proof required that a player doesn’t care as much as those who came before and had to toil in worse conditions for far less reward.
In the last week alone James McClean has backed up O’Neill and Roy Keane’s belief that players are soft. Hendrick, a Premier League player for Burnley but a product of Derby County’s academy after leaving Dublin schoolboy club St Kevin’s Boys, bristles at such a suggestion.
‘Every player has different hurdles they have to face throughout their career and that makes them the person they are. I think it is a silly comment for people to say that we don’t care or that we’re soft because, at the end of the day, a lot of lads have to leave their family at 15, go away.
‘Different players have different things that have affected them through their life and have dealt with it. It’s not easy being a professional footballer in England. I think footballers have to be a lot more thick-skinned these days.
‘Fans have a lot more access social media-wise. Every player gets abuse, that’s just the way it is. You see that negativity no matter what. It’s for you to get on with it, really. These sort of people can shout whatever they want on social media and we’re told that we’re not allowed say anything back, so you’ve got to get on with it.’
A prime example occurred recently when Cyrus Christie was the victim of racist abuse online from Ireland fans in the aftermath of the World Cup play-off defeat to Denmark.
Hendrick insists he is fortunate not to be on the end of such vile personal attacks but admits the messages he receives while playing for his country sting.
‘It’s a little bit different with it being Irish. Everyone says who plays for Ireland that they just want to do their best for their country. It’s the greatest honour we have but when you’re getting abuse, it might affect some lads.
‘There’s nothing else you can do. Everyone has got their own opinion. I see bad things said about me and you’ve just got to deal with. Everyone has their own right to an opinion and you’ve just got to get on with it because if you don’t, if it does affect you, you can easily crumble.’
Hendrick could easily have done so when he was on trial for violent
‘THINGS ARE SAID ABOUT ME, YOU JUST HAVE TO GET ON WITH IT’
disorder following an incident in Dublin city centre four years ago. The 26-year-old, along with another man, was accused of pulling a man from a taxi and chasing him down an alley where he was left with severe injuries.
In July of last year he was acquitted of the charges and when the topic of social media abuse is brought up regarding the trial, he was at pains to point out it didn’t cross that line.
‘The fans were pretty good with me over that. Any sort of abuse was football-related. I didn’t get many bad words said about that. I couldn’t even be able to quote anything really. You sort of glance at it, I think people who stop and read it and dwell on it, that’s when it can affect you without you really even noticing. ‘I’ve talked about it a lot of times, that confidence in football is one of the biggest things and without you knowing you can lose it or get it back. Reading these sort of comments would affect your confidence without you even knowing, then you go out on the pitch and one bad mistake and you might go under.
‘The best thing I would say is, “Don’t read the good comments or the bad comments”. It’s only the people around you that you need.
‘That’s one thing, on social media, I’m not too active on it. I might post a picture or a tweet, whatever it is. Some players might be looking for comments. I would tell them to post what you want to post but don’t go searching for replies because you might not like what you see.
‘I’ve found after games, whether we’ve won or lost — I’d say more in England than here [with Ireland] because we’re on the bus and don’t see them — but in England you might have to walk past a few fans and they are always fine.
‘Whoever it is giving the abuse, they’re never there [in person], it’s all through their phones. That the way it is. If that’s what makes these people happy, then let them be.’