Paul McGrath stands to shake hands, a warm smile lights the former Republic of Ireland player’s face, his presence filling the room instantly.
Despite approaching his 65th birthday, McGrath continues to carry the frame of a man cut from a block of granite. There might be more grey hair than dark within the genesis of a goatee on his chin, but the jaw remains angular and the eyes a deep, piercing brown. From his left ear hangs a small silver sleeper. He could, you determine silently, still do a job on the edge of the box.
McGrath hasn’t done too many media gigs over the years, but the area of men’s mental health is personal.
“As fellas we don’t talk about how we’re feeling too much, or I don’t anyway,” he says.
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McGrath’s battles with alcoholism over the years have been well documented and while maintaining his mental health has been an ongoing challenge, right now he finds himself in a good head space.
“Yeah, I’m getting back to normal. I don’t feel a little bit battered or anything like that, but I feel like I’ve been through quite a bit in the last couple of years and especially in the last year. But I’m coming out of it now and trying to start just getting back out into the public and doing one or two things, so it’s good.”
He’s hoping Ireland can come good in Helsinki on Thursday night too. And while McGrath feels Heimir Hallgrímsson should be given time to put his stamp on the team, the ex-Ireland defender reckons there is some remedial work required immediately.
“I think we need to stop leaking goals,” says McGrath. “I think the lads are trying their best, some I would think are not maybe good enough, maybe we have to change the pattern of play to suit the players we have, which is what we did [under Jack Charlton].
“Some of us were not the greatest of players but we could put ourselves about a bit and that seemed to soften one or two of the teams.”
Of course, Ireland’s prospects would be significantly brighter had Jack Grealish and Declan Rice remained in green, but McGrath believes there is not much point dwelling on their defection to England.
“I have met Jack quite a few times and I love Jack for how well he played for Villa,” says McGrath. “He made a choice, or his dad made a choice, or his agent made a choice, I don’t know, that they wanted to switch.
“If he didn’t want to play for Ireland, I would rather he moved. Declan as well, I would rather he moved out. If he doesn’t want to play for Ireland, I don’t think we need him.”
McGrath pauses.
“But turns out we might have needed him, might need them both actually,” he laughs.
“No, if you are not totally committed to playing for this country, you shouldn’t do it.”
Grealish and McGrath are both former Villains too. Indeed in the inaugural Premier League season, McGrath’s performances for Aston Villa earned him the 1992-93 PFA Players’ Player of the Year award.
But these days the hero of Villa Park is Unai Emery.
“Brilliant man, a lovely man,” says McGrath of the Villa boss. “Can’t understand him sometimes, but I genuinely do think he has done a brilliant job for us and I am very proud of what he has done for Aston Villa.”
It has proved a more challenging period for the current manager at another of McGrath’s clubs, Manchester United.
“I think Erik [ten Hag] is doing the best he can, but I honestly don’t know whether he’s good enough to be manager of Manchester United.”
Of course, life has a way of reminding all of us that sport is just that. The death last month of Totò Schillaci, at the age of 59, resonated with many in Ireland.
“It was such a shock [hearing the news],” says McGrath. “He was very quick, knew where the goals were and to me he was a brilliant footballer.”
McGrath’s Ireland career is, of course, intrinsically linked with Jack Charlton.
In the acclaimed documentary, Finding Jack Charlton, one of the most powerful and heartbreaking scenes shows the former Ireland manager, then suffering from dementia, looking at old videos when he suddenly recognises a player on the screen. “Paul McGrath,” says Charlton, before looking up and smiling.
McGrath has seen that clip but the documentary on an ailing Charlton was not for him.
“I haven’t watched the whole thing, I had to switch it off, to be honest. It wasn’t something that I wanted to watch anyway. When it got to that bit, I just forgot about it.”
McGrath continues to live in Wexford and while he watches “a bit too much” sport these days, he has no interest in getting actively involved with a team in the future.
“Not at all, no,” he fires back immediately.
Either way, he will be forever linked with a glorious, unprecedented era in Irish football.
“The highlight for me was definitely 1990-1994,” he says.
When it is put to McGrath that his performance against Italy at Giants Stadium in 1994 is regarded by many as the greatest individual display ever by any Irish player, he immediately scrunches his face, uncomfortable with a compliment he must surely have heard countless times.
And then he proceeds to do what he spent an entire career perfecting: neatly clearing his lines and bringing somebody else into the game.
“We played Russia [in 2011] and Richard Dunne’s performance that night just blew everything else out of the water. There’s always someone that eclipses what you might think was your best game. There’s always someone coming after you and puts it to bed.”
There are plenty who would argue the toss with McGrath on that one.
— Paul McGrath has joined forces with Pringles to champion men’s mental health throughout Movember
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