International games are still a big deal to players, especially in a tournament season

FOOTBALL DOSSIER

Kyle Lafferty celebrates scoring 10-man Northern Ireland’s equaliser deep in injury time as they salvaged a vital 1-1 draw against Hungary at Windsor Park (Getty)

The Premier League’s return this weekend will be warmly welcomed by those who believe international weeks are an irrelevance that disrupt the season’s flow and leave their players injured.

Those who hold this view are primarily supporters and managers of top-flight clubs but there are fans at all levels who believe players feel the same way, especially England players. Every time the national team fails there are cries that players lack pride in the shirt and are more motivated by the Champions League.

It is true the latter competition often provides more demanding matches and greater glamour, but not when it comes to tournaments. The World Cup and European Championships remain, for most professionals, the ultimate stage. And to play in them a team has to win qualifiers, and players must perform in those and friendly matches, which is why very few take any international game lightly.

Next summer, following the Republic of Ireland’s Euro ’16 play-off success this week, an unprecedented quartet of British Isles nations – England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic – will feature in a major tournament.

Many a club manager, with a view to next season as well as this, will be cursing. They need not. While there is a possibility that those who enjoy an extended stay in France will suffer a reaction next season, this is unlikely to extend to many players. In the meantime their performance levels for the rest of this season are more likely to improve than drop.

There are not many players, in any of those qualifiers, who can take their place as a given. Those that can – such as Joe Hart, Gareth Bale, Steven Davis and Jonathan Walters – are not the type to lower their standards, which is one reason they are automatic choices. The rest know that their form between now and May will, depending on their standing, make the difference between being in the team or on the bench, being on the plane or watching from home.

Steven Reid, the former Republic of Ireland international, now first-team coach at Reading, described this week how the most important match of his career was not playing for Ireland in the 2002 World Cup against Germany, it was playing for Millwall at Grimsby Town in late 2001. Ireland had just secured a World Cup spot and that match, wrote Reid in his Irish Independent column, “was the day I started playing for my World Cup place”.

Reid, 20 at the time, was playing in what is now the Championship. He added: “I became a different player. Gone was the lack of confidence, the shyness. In its place was a determination to make myself a better player and to make Mick McCarthy’s squad.”

His improved performances won him a better contract at Millwall, then a place in the Irish team in the finals, then a move to the Premier League with Blackburn Rovers. His income improved exponentially – no longer would team-mates ridicule his car. But, Reid stressed, there was much more to it than bigger wages and flashier motors. Playing at the World Cup finals, he wrote, was “one of the four greatest things in my life, along with getting married and the birth of my two children”.

He adedd: “Even now, 13 years on, I still get goosebumps thinking about that summer and putting it into the words, the unbelievable pride you got from playing in a major tournament for your country, the connection you had with the fans, the satisfaction you got from knowing you were standing on the biggest stage of all.”

There are plenty of lads in both Irish teams, and Wales, whose careers could now receive a similar boost to Reid’s: players like Jeff Hendrick (Derby and Republic of Ireland), Oliver Norwood (Reading and Northern Ireland) and Tom Bradshaw (Walsall and Wales). Already Kyle Lafferty’s extraordinary performances for Northern Ireland in qualifying have made him a player in demand, rather than one whose career was stagnating at Norwich.

Cynics will argue that unlike England’s players these do not play in the Champions League so international football is the pinnacle, this summer especially as these countries qualify infrequently.

Those cynics should look at Bale’s commitment to Wales (and that of Aaron Ramsey), or the eagerness to be fit enough to play a part for Ireland on Monday of John O’Shea, who won five league titles, an FA Cup and the Champions League at Manchester United. Alongside him Robbie Keane, who has already played at a World Cup finals and a European Championship, has spent the campaign travelling from Los Angeles, often to sit on the bench.

While some become disillusioned, having watched England at close quarters for two decades I believe most players are as patriotic as those of the Celtic nations. Many will be chasing domestic and continental titles this season, but the biggest prize will be a role at Euro ’16 and few have one nailed down.

So, just as Reid re-focused at Blundell Park in 2001, Kyle Walker is likely to be doing the same at White Hart Lane on Sunday. Nathaniel Clyne may be ahead of him in the contest for the right-back slot, but not by much and with so many Englishmen in the team Roy Hodgson will be watching a lot of Tottenham between now and May. Similarly, Daniel Sturridge hopes his quest to prove form and fitness will begin at the Etihad this afternoon.

There is scepticism at Anfield as to how prepared Sturridge is to play through pain. If he spends the rest of the season on the park rather than in the treatment room his club will not be complaining, even if Euro ’16 is the carrot.

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FIVE ASIDES

1) Will women fall victim to red button’s demise?

The England women’s international in Germany on Thursday is being televised on the BBC red button. This service, which is at risk through cuts in funding, has often shown the women’s games. When it goes will they be broadcast on BBC 2, or simply not shown?

2) West Ham lack depth to overcome loss of Payet

Dimitri Payet’s injury is a huge blow to West Ham, like Leicester losing Jamie Vardy. A lack of squad depth is why few expect either club to stay top six. It will be good for the Premier League’s competitiveness if they do, but the Hammers’ task is now much harder.

3) Outstanding Alli makes the case for young talent

The star of international week was Dele Alli, proving again at 19 that if you are good enough, etc... One wonders when any of the exceptionally talented young players at Chelsea will be deemed good enough to play in a team 16th in the Premier League. They must wonder as well.

4) The FA is transparently better run than most

A good week for the Football Association was capped when named as one of the few affiliates in Fifa to meet Transparency International standards (as were Northern Ireland). The governing body still needs reform, but gets a lot right these days.

5) Orient’s hotel bill might have been put to more use

Many League Two clubs do not even stay overnight for a distant away match, so to put Leyton Orient’s players in a hotel all week is unusual largesse. It may work, but smacks of owner’s pique; the cash might have been better spent on a loan signing.

@GlennMoore7