Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Wes craving nightmare is not on cards
WES HOOLAHAN’S retirement has robbed the Irish team of a creative spark but James Mcclean feels there’s no need to panic.
Hoolahan, who turns 36 in May, announced his international exit earlier this month after 43 caps in green.
It followed Daryl Murphy’s decision to quit, and others could yet follow as John O’shea, Jon Walters and Glenn Whelan have yet to reveal their intentions.
Ireland are back in action next month when they face Turkey in a friendly in Antalya on March 23.
Martin O’neill’s squad will be based in the coastal resort for four days beforehand for a warm-weather training camp.
With no World Cup this summer, O’neill is eager to blood younger players and Mcclean has no fears for the future.
“Having trained with Wes and seen him first hand, he’s an unbelievable footballer,” said the West Brom winger yesterday.
“He would just blow you away at times. He bowed out with 43 caps and should have had a lot more.
“Let’s be honest, pundits are hardly ever happy with the team that’s picked, they’re always going to pick faults.
“If Wes is picked all the time they’re probably going to be saying this other player should be playing. That’s just the way punditry is.
“But Wes Hoolahan as a footballer was unbelievable, definitely one of the best I’ve played with.”
It was Hoolahan’s delicious ball in Vienna that put Mcclean through to score the goal that floored Austria in the last campaign.
And while his vision and trickery will be missed, the Derry man feels Ireland can unearth alternative sources of creativity.
He namechecked Seanie Maguire (inset) as one and said: “I wouldn’t say it’s a worry because we’ve a lot of players with their own styles.
“It’s up to lads to step up. There won’t be massive changes as a lot of the squad are all a good age.
“We’re only going to grow as footballers. A lot of us are coming to our peak, our prime and I’m pretty positive we can carry on the success of the last years.”