Martin O’Neill rejects claims over pursuit of Jack Grealish

Martin O’Neill says that he entirely accepts Jack Grealish’s decision to play for England rather than the Republic of Ireland, but he has angrily rejected the suggestion in a Sunday newspaper that the attempt he and the association made to recruit the Aston Villa midfielder amounted to “whoring”.

"I never chased Jack Grealish at all," he said. "I never prostituted myself in any way, shape or form trying to get Jack Grealish. I think Jack Grealish and his father would readily admit that. Actually I was accused of the other thing, of not chasing it up.

“Jack Grealish,” he continued, “had a decision to make. Jack Grealish was born in England. His father was born in England and therefore he made a decision to play in England... that’s it . . .”

O’Neill says he received a call from Grealish’s father shortly before the player’s decision was made public last Monday to inform him of the news and he suggests that this ended well.

He suggested, however, that there were inconsistencies in the media coverage of the issue generally, with some reports suggesting that a manager should actively pursue a young player with the talent to improve the national team and others contending such a pursuit should effectively be beneath the Ireland manager or his employers.

“Lads you’ll have to make your mind up about this. Whether, as some journalists are saying, you go and prostitute yourself about taking players who were not actually born in the country.

“Naturally I would love if every single one of these players, a bit like Celtic [when they won the European Cup in 1967] where they were born 30 miles from Glasgow.

“But that doesn’t prevent them from wanting to and being eligible to play for the Republic of Ireland so, in the long term who is to say? Jack has really good talent, he is a really fine player and of course it is a disappointment to lose out on that there but hopefully it’s not the end of the world.”

Play-offs

O’Neill, meanwhile, reiterated his previous admission that he would happily take a place in the play-offs at this stage if it was on offer, insisting that even if Ireland lose both their games but get to the knock-out round by virtue of the Poles beating Scotland on Thursday, he would be happy enough.

“I wouldn’t have a concern at all about the play-offs,” he said. “Over two games I’d take my chances. If you were saying would I take the play-offs now, there’s no point in beating around the bush – yeah.”

Pressed on the scenario whereby Ireland got there despite the last two games being lost, he concluded: “Whatever you get into the play-offs I’d take getting into the play-offs, over two legs regardless of who we play.”

The number of injuries and suspensions that he has to deal with this week as the world champions come to Dublin may have crystallised his position on the matter, but O’Neill dismissed issues like Glenn Whelan’s suspension and Séamus Coleman’s hamstring problem as part of the day-to-day business of running a team. Still, there is no avoiding the fact that his restricted options in central defence and midfield as well as at right-back pose a particular challenge ahead of such an already tough game.

Sidelined

With Ciaran Clark out and Marc Wilson expected to be sidelined too, Richard Keogh looks the most likely candidate to partner John O’Shea. David Meyler, meanwhile, may well be required in midfield in which case

Cyrus Christie

would be first in line to replace Coleman.

The Everton player trained alone yesterday and while O’Neill declined to give up on him, it seems hugely implausible that he could be risked from the start against Germany with even the Poland game on Sunday looking to be something of a long-shot.

Christie, meanwhile, missed training yesterday himself with the Derby player not risked because of a minor hip problem that struck two weeks ago then reoccurred in the wake of Saturday’s game against Brentford. The 23 year-old sounded certain that he will be fine by Thursday but O’Neill was more cautious, saying, “we’ll see how he is”.

On the attacking side of things, the manager is better fixed although James McClean's suspension and Aiden McGeady's lack of any recent competitive action – O'Neill's said that he failed to make the Everton squad at the weekend due to yet another recurrence of his ongoing hamstring issue – is a long way from ideal but there was better news over the weekend in the form of goals for both Robbie Keane and Kevin Doyle.

The northerner didn’t quite sound as if Doyle’s has helped to play him back into contention for a start, however.

“Well, Robbie is Robbie,” he said, “but there would be more for a question of what Kevin is trying to achieve out there.

“Robbie’s record speaks for itself. In terms of Kevin, it’s nice. I always think no matter what level you’re playing at, if you get yourself a goal or two it helps a bit of confidence and when you come to the squad to be able to talk about something that you’ve actually achieved.”