IRELAND INTERNATIONAL Aaron Connolly has suggested off-field problems are partially responsible for his indifferent recent form.
The 22-year-old striker has long been considered one of Irish football’s brightest prospects.
A brace on his full Premier League debut for Brighton against Tottenham in October 2019 added to the sense of expectation surrounding the youngster.
However, the Galway native has failed to maintain that level of form in recent times.
After struggling to establish himself as a first-team regular at the Seagulls, he spent the second half of last season on loan at Middlesbrough but did not set the Championship alight, with two goals in 18 appearances for Chris Wilder’s side.
It’s been a similar story at international level. Connolly has eight Ireland caps but has not featured for the Boys in Green since the 1-1 draw with Azerbaijan in September last year, while a combination of injuries and form have led to his exclusion from recent squads.
However, earlier this month, the striker secured a season-long loan move to Serie B club Venezia and he is hopeful the move to Italy can rejuvenate his career.
“Physically and mentally, I haven’t felt this strong in a long time, ” Connolly told Irish Football Fan TV.
The player also elaborated on some of the reasons why he has struggled to build on the early promise he showed, explaining: “A lot of people know why I haven’t kicked on and I know myself. That’s why this move to Italy was vital, just to get away from the circle I was in back in England, I needed a fresh start.
“My confidence was on the deck when I missed chances and hadn’t been playing. I wasn’t in the right place to go on loan last year. I did it because I wanted to play football but I wish this version of myself right now had shown up at Middlesbrough. It would have been a different story.
“Mentally, I wouldn’t have been able to move abroad last season. I wouldn’t have been excited. But this time, I couldn’t say yes quick enough.”
Connolly also revealed details of a meeting with Irish boss Stephen Kenny, in which a lack of energy from the striker during the Azerbaijan game was highlighted and he added: “It’s either I keep going in the phase I was going in and eventually I’ll just be completely forgotten. At the minute I’m probably the forgotten man in Irish football and if I kept associating with people I’d been associating with before, I would have completely gone off the scale.
“That love for football has probably faded in the last three seasons. Everyone can probably tell by my performances at times. And maybe the way I carried myself on the pitch and sometimes off it.
“Now I’m in a better headspace, you look back at games and think ‘Was I really walking around for that long? Did I really have my head down for this long? Did I really walk around like that?’”
I’d love to see mayo win it out the really deserve it just have to keep the egos under control by the looks of things
@Jamie: sure you have no interest in gaelic football you continually slag it off on here.
@dead right: the only thing he slags off more than gaa is mayo gaa!
@Dec: and dublin bitter little cavan man
Ah boys yee are all in fierce bad form tonight
@Jamie: Mayo deserve nothing more than the pain they are suffering, they are somehow egotistical and arrogant dispite their constant failures. Dublin and Kerry will see to it that they fail again this year.
@dead right: And no true GAA fan could consiously support mayo. Dublin are disliked by some but have to be respected as Champions. Mayo on the other hand have no respect.
@SYM-Metal: jaysus paul scanlon would you have a night off. you get slagged off by everyone here, even those that aren’t mayo fans!! keep changing your handle but its obvious from how you talk. do us all a favour and write “i hate mayo” a hundred times on your bedroom wall and save us from having to read your muck on here. cheers lad
Mayo were absolutely brutal today. They are a serious team in decline. Outside of durkan and parsons not one would get in a Dublin or Kerry team. Unfortunately they had their chance. As a Dublin person it’s Kerry’s to lose
@Bill Clay: insert year here.
@Bill Clay: Stop commenting. You’re an embarrassment.
Yawn. If they had won by 30 points you’d no doubt be claiming “Typical Mayo. Peaking too early. Championships aren’t won in May or June”.
Tough game against galway next. But would love to beat the rossies in the final. I suppose paul scanlon has changed his name again
@stephen keane: He shut up as soon as Ross were relegated. Very peaceful :)
Cillian o Connor is the greatest waste of time….gloryhole if I ever see one
@Brian Shaw: Without the constant soft fees he gets, mayo wouldn’t score at all.
If Sligo weren’t so negative they could have taken them, seems like Sligo’s main ambition in this game was not to get slaughtered like they did two years ago.
@Tomas Rooney: You have to defend and attack to get anywhere, we’re just not good enough, but I’d have no issues with the game plan, your lines are taken directly from the gobs of O’Rourke and Spillane who are bags of wind, we played some decent stuff in the second half but Mayo have better players, don’t really see where the negativity was, we tried to work the ball up the field and were smart enough to get men defending when they needed them, Mayo were just better at taking there shots, some people want 30 headless chickens running around the field