Originally Posted by
EalingGreen
Shane's Da posted a fairly long update on OWC, summarised roughly as follows.
His (Donegal-born) Da would dearly love him to play for ROI, but the lad himself has always been strongly committed to NI, for reasons which I quote below. Indeed, the Da drove him down to Dublin for a trial with the ROI under-age set-up (not sure what age level), which Shane came through with flying colours, much to his Da's delight. Yet when Da asked him what he thought, he merely replied it was "OK". At that point, the Da realised Shane had only gone along with the trial to please him, which he (Da) to his credit accepted was not a good enough reason for switching.
Since then, as we know, Shane has made great progress via NI, eg playing for the U-21's whilst still only 17 and even getting into the 18 man squad for the senior friendly in Italy (our squad was desperately short of players, it should be said).
However, two things look to have hacked Shane off somewhat. First, he was the only unused sub (of seven) for the Italy game. It had been agreed with Italy in the morning that only six subs would be used, yet Worthington still asked Shane to warm up, presumably leading him to think he'd get a few minutes. I don't know what NW was thinking, but it was he seems to have built the lad's hopes up, only to dash them.
Second, the NI U-21 team had a shocker at home to Iceland, after which the manager (Steve Beaglehole) had some VERY harsh words for them. From what we can gather subsequently, he was basically referring to the IL contingent, but when Shane wasn't picked for the return game in Iceland, he assumed that Beaglehole's criticism had also been directed at him (it wasn't).
It was only four weeks later, when Alfie Wylie (Beaglehole's local Assistant) phoned Shane about something, that it emerged that Shane had not been picked to travel to Iceland because Everton would not release him (Shane had been unaware of this it seems). Therefore, Shane is still as highly valued by NI as ever.
Anyhow, on the basis that these misunderstandings don't appear to have soured him, I am stil reasonably confident he'll stick with us, for as his Da said on OWC:
"any way it seems to have been sorted out by all involed,right now the dicision is purly in shanes hand what ever he dicides to do we will back him 100%.one thing is for sure there is no way shane would be were he is todayif it was not for n/ireland.from paddy mcgongle in the milk cup to dessie currie in the victory shield then paul kee u/17s to steve beadlehole u/19s 21s and nigal himself shane has so much respect for all these men any rightfull so all topmen,shane loves to play for n/ireland and always has done"
Of course, he is still only just 18, with a hell of a way to go. Moreover, Centre Back is NI's strongest position by a long way - in Jonny Evans and Aaron Hughes we've got regulars in two of the top defences in the EPL, plus another 4 or 5 CB's who feature strongly in the EPL, SPL or English Championship.
But having said all that, with an attitude like Shane's, if/when he does get to play for the senior NI team, he is guaranteed absolute LEGEND status amongst the fans from the moment he pulls on the shirt!
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