Managers look at drawbacks of a player like Wes Hoolahan, it takes a brave one to play him

FIRST came the acclaim, then the outcry, now the witch-hunt.

Just who is responsible for having denied Ireland and the world the outrageous talents of Wes Hoolahan until the twilight of his career?

On Monday, people across Europe saw him score with a stunning half-volley with his weaker foot and presumably went online to find out he is 34.

At home, people who had barely heard of him five years ago wailed how it is a national tragedy he had been ignored for so long.

By the age of 30, he had just one cap to his name, he was 31 by the time he started a competitive game and almost 32 before he was trusted to start a qualifier against anybody but the weakest team in the group.

Those statistics are, the argument goes, an indictment of all that is wrong about Irish football.

Maybe, but his former Shelbourne team-mate Alan Moore takes a more balanced view and suggests some of the responsibility lies with Hoolahan himself.

But he was not surprised the player he had first come across 12 years ago had lit up the Stade de France.

In 2004, Moore returned from 13 years in England where he had made his top-flight debut for Middlesbrough at 18.

His 200-odd appearances across the water included one in the League Cup final replay in 1997, when Martin O’Neill’s Leicester City won out.

So he knows more than most about what was is required to make it at the top level.

Moore told SunSport: “I knew of Owen Heary and Jason Byrne before coming to Shels but hadn’t heard of Wes.

“Eamonn Collins, Pat Fenlon’s assistant, was full of talk about this little lad who could play

“I could see he was a maverick, on and off the pitch. On the pitch, I could see why fans loved him, he played with freedom.

“But I could see the dilemma for a manager — where to play him, whether you could trust him because he’d take players on in his own box. It was like he was playing street football.

“Off the pitch, he probably wasn’t professional enough. The food he was eating, that sort of stuff. Would he have the discipline to become a proper footballer?

“Yes, he was young but he was 22, not 16 or 17. It was his ambition to go to England but to make that happen, he needed to do things right.”

Moore — who has worked in the academies at Bury and Carlisle United — reckons Hoolahan’s height at 5ft 6in may have held him back.

He said: “Category one clubs are taking players from the age of nine, measuring them and looking at their diets.

“Sports science people could be telling you he’s not going to be an athlete but they haven’t seen him with a football.”

Hoolahan’s ability on the ball was not in question. On Teesside, Moore played alongside the likes of Juninho, Fabrizio Ravanelli, Emerson and Paul Gascoigne.

But the Finglas man said: “He’s similar to Paddy McCourt in that they see pictures quicker than anyone else. And he would never struggle with his first touch.

“It would always put the ball where he wanted it to be.

“Some of his goals were mesmerising. He did things I wouldn’t have seen people at Middlesbrough do. I remember one against Finn Harps when he just dinked it over the keeper.”

That was shortly after Moore’s arrival from Burnley but Harps boss Felix Healy was not impressed.

He remarked that if Hoolahan was that good he would be in the team every week instead of watching some games from the stands.

And Moore said: “He played out wide for us a lot. It was a case of trying to find his best position. If you gave him a free role as a No 10, then you had to set up a shape for the players around him.

“Managers will look at the drawbacks of a player like that, so it takes a brave one to play him.

“The be-all and end-all for them is winning games. There’s an argument to grind things out for 60 minutes and then bring better players on when it’s opened up.

“Wes fell into that category. I don’t think he understood football as well as he could have done. The coaching staff and the older players tried to educate him.

“It was a case of trying to see the pitch in thirds. You don’t take any risks in your own third, you can take a few more in the middle third but you’ve still got to be careful because if you give the ball away there against a good side, the chances are they will score.

“It’s only really in the final third that you can take risks.

“There were days when he gave the ball away so sloppily it would frustrate the life out of you but then the next game he’d go and win it on his own.

“You had to have a bit of patience. Footballers aren’t robots, they make mistakes.”

After that Harps game, Shels flew straight out to Croatia for a Champions League qualifier.

In the previous round, Moore had scored in a 2-2 draw against KR in Iceland, with Shels progressing on away goals.

He was again on target as they lost 3-2 away to Hajduk Split before beating them 2-0 in the return leg at Tolka Park.

But it was in the final qualifying round when Hoolahan really shone, particularly in the 0-0 draw against Deportivo La Coruna at Lansdowne Road.

Moore — capped eight times by Ireland in 1996 — said: “He didn’t fear anyone.”

Hoolahan eventually got his move, but it was hardly one that dreams were made of, as he joined Livingston in January 2006.

They were promptly relegated from the SPL.

He joined Blackpool, initially on loan. They won promotion to the Championship in his first season and stayed up in his second.

In eight seasons with Norwich, four have been in the Premier League, three in the Championship and one in League One.

Moore reckons Hoolahan has learned as he has got older but can still see moments where instinct trumps education.

He said: “I followed him when he went away and at Blackpool he was a fans’ favourite. They would question why he didn’t play in certain games.

“He fell into that ‘Tuesday night at Stoke’ category but I loved the way he played with them. It was so expansive.

“He has learned the defensive side of the game but even now I’ve seen Premier League games where he has won the ball back in his own 18-yard box and tried to take players on. Managers would be tearing their hair out.

“But then again, you look at Eden Hazard on Monday night.

“There was only once in the game when he went past someone.

“You know with Wes that he’ll go past people. He’ll be brave and commit.

“He mightn’t beat them every time but he’ll keep trying.

“I remember that he had such a low centre of gravity in training, he’d be twisting his little legs around and you couldn’t get near him.

“It’s great to see him doing it now for Ireland on the big stage.”