Playing ball with media as well

Ian Harte, Damien Duff, Joey O'Brien, Stephen Kelly, John O'Shea, Steven Reid, Liam Miller and Kevin Doyle. No, not the selection for tomorrow's game at Lansdowne, just a touch of glasnost, Irish football style.

All eight players made themselves available for interview yesterday at the team hotel, in striking contrast to the way things were done under the previous regime. Back then, on the eve of a game, players with as much chance of being selected as the assembled hacks were often sat at the top table for a press conference, as uncomfortable for them as it was largely useless to the media, or the folk who want to read what the likely participants were thinking.

Yesterday? Harte talked freely about his homesickness in Spain, O'Brien and Kelly about the thrill of being included in Steve Staunton's first squad, Miller about rebuilding his career at Leeds, Doyle about a wonderfully successful first season in English football. All relaxed, amiable, articulate, you wondered why they were ever kept from us.

None more relaxed than O'Shea, still beaming after joining a select band of Irish players to complete the set of English winners' medals, Premiership (or old first division), FA Cup and League Cup, following that 4-0 victory over Wigan on Sunday.

A midfielder against Wigan, and, possibly, a midfielder for Ireland under Steve Staunton? "He (Alex Ferguson) has always said to me he can see me doing a job in there, so fingers crossed. And I've spoken to Steve about it and, yeah, he said he was thinking maybe I could do a job in that position. We'll just have to wait and see. It's a fresh start for everyone now and we're just looking forward to seeing what we can do."

Roy Keane's departure from United and retirement from international football has, of course, left vacancies in the midfield of both teams. "Yeah, exactly," says O'Shea, "but to be comparing me with Keano, I don't want any of that nonsense," he laughs.

How big an influence was he on your career? "Ah, he's been a huge influence. Ever since the first day I took part in a training session with the first team. It wasn't a case of 'ah, this is a nice young Irish lad, we'll take care of him', he was firing the ball at me, flying into tackles. You learn to cope with that and the respect follows. And he was like that with new signings worth £30 million, that's what he does."

Were you close? "Yeah, yeah, we were. I didn't live too far away from him, we used to have good craic about Munster rugby, hurling, although he had the edge on me there. Except for yesterday," he triumphantly declares, referring to the Waterford hurlers' win over Cork on Sunday.

To the future. He's won all the "domestic" honours with United, but has yet to reach a major tournament with Ireland. "Of course it's been a huge disappointment so far, but you just have to get on with it, you cause yourself damage if you keep looking back at things, you've got to look forward, and that's what we're looking to do. We've a new regime, there's a new feel about the place, new confidence."