Motivated to make a major impact

Mary Hannigan hears why Stephen Carr has returned to the national side with renewed optimism

Such has been Stephen Carr's aversion in recent years to speaking to the media one can only assume Republic of Ireland manager Steve Staunton had a tougher job persuading the Dubliner to sit in front of a mound of tape recorders at the team hotel yesterday than he had of persuading him to return to international football.

According to the Newcastle right-back, though, the latter task proved straightforward enough for Staunton, even if, when he announced his retirement at the end of the World Cup qualifying campaign last October, Carr had insisted, "there is no going back for me now." And even before bumping into Bobby Robson on a flight from Dublin to Newcastle, when the man who signed him for the northeast of England club had a "quiet word", Carr was already beginning to view his decision as premature.

"I missed it, to be honest," he said. "I missed the buzz of the lads, the team spirit. I missed playing international football. I didn't think I would. I thought I'd enjoy having my break, having a few days off, but I found I didn't. I had no interest in having a few days off. I was bored.

"I thought it would help me injury-wise, help me long term in my career by not playing the extra games, but then I realised that one day that would be taken away from me whether I'd like it or not. I'll be a long time retired so I'm happy I've made this decision."

What was your motivation for retiring in the first place?

"I don't want to answer that, to be honest," he said.

What was your motivation for coming back?

"That'd be answering it, wouldn't it?" he grinned. "But no, I didn't need much persuading because I'd started thinking about it anyway. Then I spoke to Stan, spoke to Bobby once or twice and I liked what they had to say about how things will progress with the team and what they're going to do. But I was already half thinking about it; what they had to say just sealed it."

If he was unhappy with aspects of life under the previous regime, as has often been suggested, Carr was revealing nothing yesterday, but he did admit to being pleased to see a couple of familiar faces restored to the Irish camp.

"The spirit wasn't too bad before, although I've seen a lot written about it. But it wasn't too bad, it's just about familiarity. The lads were used to the set-up with Mick (Byrne) and Tony (Hickey, the squad's security officer), the same people we'd had for so long. The lads missed them, people they probably found they could really trust and have a good relationship with. That was probably unfortunate on the new people coming in, who were taking their place, but it's great to have them back because they're really good people and the lads love them.

"But they not being there had nothing to do with us not qualifying last time. The bottom line was we weren't good enough . . . We had opportunities to win the group, we didn't take them.

"As a team and as individuals we just had to look at ourselves and say we didn't perform. It doesn't matter who's on the sideline, what manager you have, what security man you have, we should have won those games against Israel - we didn't and it cost us in the end."

Carr's return and the call-up of young winger Alan O'Brien brought to four the number of Newcastle players named by Staunton in the squad for tomorrow's game against The Netherlands, before Shay Given's withdrawal through injury.

"It's great, it's still a bit weird, but it's great," Carr said of the arrival at the club of the fourth of that contingent, Damien Duff.

"It's the best signing the club has had for a long time, even including Michael Owen because of the price we paid for him. He's settled in already, the lads love him, he's just going to be excellent for us. He asked my opinion and I gave him an honest one on the whole thing. I told him we still needed a few new players, but hopefully seeing the likes of Duffer joining us will trigger more players coming in."

And what of young O'Brien?

"This year is the first time I've really trained with him. He's got blistering pace, absolutely ridiculous pace. He's still learning the game but once he gets the right coaching and with the likes of Duffer there helping him, seeing how Duffer plays his game, he could be an unbelievable player. He just has to get his head down and work on it."

The emergence of O'Brien, along with "the likes of Stephen Ireland and Joey O'Brien", has renewed the 29-year-old's optimism in the squad's ability to qualify for the next European Championship - and since he missed the 2002 World Cup through injury it would be his first major championship.

"Time isn't on my side. I'll be 32 when the European Championship comes around, 34 for the next World Cup, so this is probably my best chance. I've been in the squad for so long without ever getting to a championship . . . it's quite gutting, but things happen for a reason, if it's meant to be it will happen. If it's not meant to happen at least I'll have given it a shot."