Darron Gibson is ready to play for Ireland again after a self-imposed international exile since Euro 2012, an exile, he admits, was because of his relationship with the now departed Giovanni Trapattoni.
The Derry-born midfielder has been conspicuous in his absence from Ireland squads for over a year since the disastrous showing at the Euros, with fans of the Boys in Green often lamenting the fact that a man playing for an established Premier League side wasn’t turning out for his country.
Gibson spoke to the press while promoting FIFA 14 in Manchester yesterday and is widely quoted in today’s papers, where he admits that he is ready to pull on the green jersey and admitted why he felt he couldn’t play for Ireland again while Giovanni Trapattoni was in charge.
“Obviously because Trapattoni is gone,” Gibson is
quoted in The Irish Times in response to a question about why he made himself available to play for Ireland again.
“I never really wanted to make a big deal of it to be honest with you. But after what happened at the Euros I just felt I couldn’t play under him anymore.
“I was embarrassed when I came back from the Euros (after) not winning a game and not getting on the pitch. I was playing every week at the time for Everton and we finished in the top six of the Premier League.
“Obviously I didn’t get on and I just felt he had some sort of problem with me but I felt he had a problem with me before the Euros as well as I never played. Like I said, I didn’t want to make a big deal about not playing under him so I kept myself quiet but I am available to come back now.”
Gibson goes into more detail about his experiences at the Euros, his relationship with Trap and his thoughts on the identity of the new Irish manager in the Irish Times piece which you can read
here.
The revelations about his relationship with Trap are hardly surprising given that all Irish supporters knew that Trap’s presence was the main reason behind his international exile, something he didn’t exactly hide with a well-timed tweet following news of his departure last week.
Still, it is good to see that a man with as much Premier League experience as Gibson is willing to return to the cause, the Irish soccer team needs as much good news as it can get at the moment.
