MAYBE IT\u2019S FITTING that while an experimental Republic of Ireland squad have spent the last week at a training camp in Spain, one of the most significant pieces of news regarding the international team emerged from Merseyside rather than Murcia.<\/p>\n
Confirmation from Everton that Seamus Coleman\u2019s time as a player with the Premier League club will come to an end later this month arrived on the eve of today\u2019s friendly with Grenada in Real Murcia\u2019s 31,000-capacity Estadio Nueva Condomina.<\/p>\n
Coleman will say his goodbyes to Everton in their final home game of the campaign against Sunderland on Sunday.<\/p>\n
There is no guarantee he will feature given David Moyes\u2019 side remain in the hunt for a European place, even if the chances are now slim.<\/p>\n
Coleman could move above the great Dixie Dean into 10th on the club\u2019s all-time appearance list should he feature for the 434th time.<\/p>\n
Football rarely offers the fairytale ending for anyone in the game, although it would be a fitting occasion for Coleman\u2019s contributions over the last 17 years, many of them turbulent, all of them eventful, to be acknowledged by a community he has embraced.<\/p>\n
More importantly, as referenced among the many glowing club tributes, Coleman\u2019s playing career is not necessarily done as he will \u201cnow take this summer to decide his next move, with the defender having the option of taking up a coaching role at Everton or continuing his playing career with another club and the Republic of Ireland.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coleman turns 38 in October and will be a few months shy of his 40th birthday by the time Euro 2028 comes around.<\/p>\n
That is, of course, the carrot dangling enticingly in front of him and everyone else in Irish football.<\/p>\n
Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson spoke in the aftermath of that utterly contemptible World Cup play-off losers\u2019 friendly with North Macedonia about wanting Coleman to remain involved as a key player in the defence.<\/p>\n
With the manager\u2019s new contract ensuring he will be in charge for that tournament \u2013 provided Ireland don\u2019t suffer the ignominy of all ignominies by somehow missing out \u2013 the logical assessment is that Hallgr\u00edmsson will be encouraging Coleman to prolong a career that has always been defined by a sense of duty and leadership.<\/p>\n
Self-indulgence will not be the driving force behind Coleman\u2019s decision. He stayed on with Everton for this campaign because he felt capable of contributing on the pitch.<\/p>\n
Injury curtailed some of that ambition but so too did the form of Jake O\u2019Brien.<\/p>\n
Understandably, some viewed Coleman walking out at the Aviva Stadium with his children for that friendly on 31 March as a nod towards his thinking.<\/p>\n
Clearly there is more for him to do over the coming weeks, and it may well be the case that Hallgr\u00edmsson confirms that he will be involved for the friendlies with Qatar in Dublin at the end of this month followed by the trip to face Canada in Montreal in early June.<\/p>\n
The Ireland boss will announce the squad for those games after today\u2019s friendly with Grenada. Some of the fringe players involved this week will hope they\u2019ll have more opportunities this summer.<\/p>\n
Others, like Adam Idah, will just be keen to play games after a season decimated by injury. The Cork native proved in the last campaign that can he be impactful off the bench and score important goals.<\/p>\n
The 2026\/27 season should already be one he views as a chance to make eve<\/p>\n
Lincoln City\u2019s Jack Moylan is another product of the League of Ireland who approaches his 25th birthday with a season in the Championship in front of him.<\/p>\n
A positive impression this week is important, of course, but it will be his ability to thrive there that will ultimately determine the likelihood of continued progress with Ireland.<\/p>\n
Another playmaker in Andy Moran who is on board this week will testify to that.<\/p>\n
Finding more creativity and options to control games from the middle should be the priority now given the stability at the back that is backboned by Premier League quality, and the ascension of Troy Parrott that has yet to be fully realised given the calibre of European clubs pursuing him this summer.<\/p>\n
The FAI expect in the region of 800 travelling supporters for today\u2019s game, only a couple of hundred shy of the official allocation for the World Cup play-off in Prague in March.<\/p>\n
The dedication of some remains unwavering, even if the sense of occasion could not feel any further from Czechia.<\/p>\n
Indeed, the game will not be broadcast on Virgin Media, RT\u00c9 One or RT\u00c9 Two, instead relegated to the RT\u00c9 Player.<\/p>\n
And yet it was only this week that Sinn F\u00e9in member of the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee, Cathy Bennett TD, called on RT\u00c9 \u2018to clarify their justification\u2019 in sending 41 staff to work on their coverage of the play-off across TV, radio and online.<\/p>\n
Of course, given that the game had an average of 78% of people watching TV in the country tuning in, that is easily justified as a national broadcaster fulfilling its duties<\/p>\n
Everything feels much more low-key for this friendly in the shadows, but the significance could yet be realised further down the line when Ireland and Hallgr\u00edmsson are under the spotlight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MAYBE IT\u2019S FITTING that while an experimental Republic of Ireland squad have spent the last week at a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1113,196014,61,60,43,3404,3405],"class_list":["post-451509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-fai","tag-fun-in-the-sun","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-republic-of-ireland","tag-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}