by Snowflake Royal »
29 Jan 2021 19:04
muirinho David Meyler talks about his time at Reading here.
https://www.the42.ie/david-meyler-willi ... =shortlinkIn the opening league game of the season, we played Derby County at home. I was picked to make my debut while, over in the away team’s dug out, the recently-appointed Frank Lampard was managing in a competitive match for the very first time.
I remember Jon Dadi Bodvarsson scored a header early in the second half and we were comfortable enough. Mason Mount then equalised and a few fellas had a go over the goal, as I could have got tighter to him before he took the strike.
Leandro Bacuna came on for me with five minutes remaining, and we ended up conceding in the 94th minute to lose 2-1. Derby were impressive that day — they had a lot of young lads and were well organised.
I continued to play but when you’re not winning you start to question things and the manager began to chop and change his team. Unfortunately, I was one of the players to miss out.
There was an international break coming up in September and Paul said he didn’t want me to go away with Ireland. He was looking for me to get familiar with my team-mates and do some work on the training pitch to learn what way he wanted us to play, which was completely understandable.
However, he was talking to the wrong person. I was regularly picked in Martin O’Neill’s squads and was always going to make myself available as playing for your country is the greatest honour you can have. I made that clear to him and he wasn’t happy about it.
A year on from captaining Ireland in the win in Cardiff, we faced Wales again but this time I wasn’t selected to play. I was desperate to be involved, so I was annoyed when I didn’t get on and we lost 4-1. I ended up having a run-in with Martin in training the following day and, to make matters worse, I picked up a slight hamstring problem during the session.
When you go away on international duty, the manager always says ‘Good luck in your game, but don’t come back injured’. As it turned out, I didn’t play for Reading again after that international break. I still trained with the first team after recovering but I felt like I was beating my head off a wall at times as I wasn’t getting an opportunity.
Results weren’t going our way, there were a few players creating problems and they weren’t being addressed properly. In December, Paul was sacked and replaced by Jose Gomes. A month later, I went out on loan to Coventry City — the last club I would line out for before retiring
To be fair to Paul, he is an exceptional coach. His training sessions were fantastic and there was variety everyday. He kept players on their toes.
Having progressed through the youth teams at Chelsea, he became Carlo Ancelotti’s assistant and would go on to have great success under the Italian — also working with him at Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich.
You could see why he was Ancelotti’s number two as everything he did during his sessions was phenomenal. However, as a number two, you don’t have to show your man-management skills and deal with 20-odd egos in a dressing room.
I think that’s what let Paul down. His ideas were fantastic and he is one of the best coaches I worked under but when push comes to shove, you have to make the hard calls.
Presumably Meyler doesn't regard Clement dumping him out of the team as a "hard call"!
I wonder which players he regarded as causing problems that weren't being addressed.
Interesting. Meyler was decent in that game against Derby iirc but after that was one of the worst midfielders I've seen. Just so slow and ponderous. No wonder he didn't get picked to play for Ireland playing like that. Seems like he couldn't accept his own poor performances.
Gomes ostracised Aluko, Baldock, Gunter, McCleary and Mannone, whilst Bacuna was sold not long after iirc.
Hard to think Gunter, McCleary, Baldock or Mannone had bad attitudes, but quite easy to believe of Aluko and Bacuna for example