SO, YOU THINK YOU KNOW ALL ABOUT GLENN WHELAN...
The antithesis of the modern footballer, the much maligned midfielder’s Ireland contribution will be recognised this week
‘WE’D LOOK FOR AN UPGRADE ON GLENN BUT EVERY YEAR HE GOT BETTER’
GLENN WHELAN will make his 85th and final international appearance when he signs off as the Republic of Ireland’s most capped midfielder against Northern Ireland at Aviva Stadium on Thursday evening. It brings the curtain down on a decade of resolute service to his country, but it is a journey which began almost 21 years ago when the Maryland Boys schoolboy left home for Manchester City at the age of just 14.
Lifelong friendships have been formed along the way as those closest to him open up about the trials and tribulations he has endured, as well as the motivations behind his longevity.
Early anger issues, brotherly love and the teenage pregnancy which shaped his future – and spurred him on – are all revealed. Everyone from best friend Willo Flood, with whom he shared digs during their formative years in Manchester, to former Ireland team-mate and confidante John O’Shea, provide an intimate portrayal of the man who forged his own path, persevering through criticism and knock-backs along every step of the way.
In Dublin this week, Whelan should, at least, receive the sort of ovation that reflects his service.
He has been a polarising figure and lightning rod for infamously cheap barbs from some quarters. However, Whelan’s commitment to the Ireland cause, from the moment Giovanni Trapattoni handed him his debut against Serbia in the Italian’s first game in charge in May 2008, should be applauded.
On Thursday, supporters will have that chance.
Save our soul, save it now for a better life
Time to break because time is flying on and on
But if you want to believe in a better life
Find a way, try now, come together with a smile
Komodo, a dance hit with a timeless beat from Italian DJ Mauro Picotto. It is the tune that resonated with Whelan more than any other in his digs in Urmston, west Manchester.
‘He liked to blare a bit of hardcore rave,’ Flood recalls.
No Stone Roses, Oasis, Joy Division, New Order or The Smiths; Komodo was the unofficial soundtrack for a band of brothers from Dublin coming through together at City’s academy at the beginning of the 21st century. Whelan, along with centre backs Paddy McCarthy and Stephen Paisley, striker Stephen Elliott and rightwinger Flood all hailed from the capital.
Then there was goalkeeper Brian Murphy. ‘I was from Waterford, I moved to Manchester and ended up with a Dublin accent because there were so many of them,’ he laughs. Whelan and Flood forged a bond that remains strong to this day. They had rooms directly across the landing from each other in their digs and went halves on the £20 per month Sky Sports package. They would also have to attend classes at Xaverian College at the back of the city’s Curry Mile. They were boys with a dream and Whelan, who arrived at the club the year before Flood, took the Cherry Orchard graduate under his wing. ‘Whelo was the one who taught me how to shave,’ he recalls fondly. ‘Little things like that you wouldn’t even think were a big deal, but they were. He looked after me and then as time went on we looked after each other. We were both so young leaving home.’ At first, that change seemed to manifest itself with fits of anger for Whelan. ‘His nickname was McAngry,’ Flood remembers, while Murphy adds: ‘He had a big angry head on him, especially if something wasn’t right in training.’ For Frankie Bunn, Whelan’s first youth coach at City, he was well equipped to deal with the problem. ‘Glenn had a passion and desire to want to become a footballer. He wasn’t attracted by anything else, the other stuff that comes with it. He was ill-disciplined to begin with, angry, aggressive and as coaches it was a case of channelling it the right way.
‘You could go to war with him but you would want to,’ Bunn, now Oldham Athletic manager, continues. ‘When that red mist came down… he was so passionate, he had such an inner desire and spirit.
‘We knew he had talent too, he was 14 when he came over, that was young, but he was so determined to make a better life for himsuch self, he saw the opportunity was there and took it.’
Joey Barton was Whelan’s midfield partner in that City youth team and while the Liverpudlian was made an honorary Irishman by the Dubliners, that didn’t spare him. ‘At times in training they would be kicking absolute lumps out of each other but with Glenn, his football brain was never in question. He could fill in anywhere – centre back, full back, anywhere in midfield – he could pick a pass, he had a good shot, you knew you would get 100 per cent.’
There were distractions, of course, and while Irish pub haunts as Waxy’s and O’Shea’s would often lead to one of the Love Train nights in Manchester city centre, they were rare and harmless compared to other habits which almost took hold.
‘Maybe we should have played more golf. We’d do stupid things like go to the casino in the evenings, that was a phase we went through for a while but we snapped out of it and copped on thankfully,’ Flood adds. ‘It’s so easy now for lads to get caught up in all that online.’
As life settled down at City, Whelan’s girlfriend Karen (from Palmerstown, west Dublin and now his wife – they married in 2012) became pregnant with their first child, a daughter, when he was just 18 (they also have an eight-year-old son, Jack).
‘He came in and told us in the dressing room and Paddy [McCarthy] turned around and said, “No way, so is mine”. People make excuses for why they can’t do something, why they didn’t have a career. Whelo never did that. Having Abbie drove him on, he wasn’t going to be one of those looking back at what might have been,’ Flood says proudly.
Bunn also acknowledges the impact becoming a father had. ‘It helped settled him down, he had something bigger than himself to play for and he was so driven by that.’
Such self-belief was evident when Whelan, after making just a single appearance for City under Kevin Keegan in the UEFA Cup in 2003, opted to join Sheffield Wednesday in League One when he was told first-team opportunities at Maine Road would not be forthcoming.
While at Wednesday, whom he helped to promotion, he was named Ireland Under 21 Player of the Year in 2005, but his underage career wasn’t always straightforward and Brian Kerr left him out of the Under 19 squad which finished fourth at the 2002 European Championships, despite playing in the play-off win over The Netherlands to qualify.
‘It was one of the hardest decisions I ever had in that job, it really was. He was playing a year above and I just decided to go with someone else. I’m sure he was angry with me at the time, but I really do hold him in the highest regard,’ Kerr, then the doyen of the underage set-up, explains, before providing further insight into Whelan’s resolve.
‘At Christmas time, because the English clubs were letting the lads come home, it wasn’t costing us anything so we would organise training weekends with matches.