STEVEN REID WAS left “upset” by Giovanni Trapattoni’s comments that the midfielder’s career was over but he has reiterated his willingness to return to the international set-up if called upon.
The 30-year-old expressed his disappointment that the Italian had written him off as a professional footballer after sustaining a cruciate knee ligament injury back in 2009, which prompted then Blackburn Rovers manager Sam Allardyce to hit out at the Ireland boss.
“At the time I didn’t want to get involved in what was said but I was very upset by it,” Reid told Newstalk’s Off The Ball last night.
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“It’s not what you need when you are coming towards the end of a 10 or 11-month process of getting back to full fitness.
“I spoke to Liam (Brady) and Alan Kelly afterwards and they mentioned the language barrier coming into play but they were still really disappointing comments that shouldn’t have been made.”
However, since featuring regularly in the Premier League for West Brom this season, Reid believes he has something to offer Ireland and has said for the second time this week that he would be keen to do a u-turn on his international retirement after calling it a day last year.
“If the question was asked then it would be a hard thing to turn down,” said the midfielder-come-defender, who says he hasn’t had any contact from Trap since his last cap against Montenegro in September 2008.
“We’d have to look at it but the squad that qualified deserves to be the squad that goes and I wouldn’t want to just jump on board and say ‘I want to go to the Euros’.
“It’s one of those, though, if there were four, five or six injuries in the lead up to it and they were struggling for numbers, it would be difficult to turn down.”
Trapattoni has a reasonably settled squad after coming through a successful qualifying campaign to progress to Euro 2012 so the chances of him taking Reid up on his offer are unlikely.
The former Millwall man would be a useful squad player however, as the arrival of Roy Hodgson at the Hawthorns has seen a player who can do a job in a number of positions switch from midfield to full-back.
“Over my career I’ve been tagged a little bit as a utility player as I’ve probably played every position on the park,” he said.
“It’s (the shift in position) has been coming over the years. I played the odd game here and there at right back and it’s probably the position I’m going to find myself at West Brom.”
'Trap hurt me but I'm willing to return' - Steven Reid
STEVEN REID WAS left “upset” by Giovanni Trapattoni’s comments that the midfielder’s career was over but he has reiterated his willingness to return to the international set-up if called upon.
The 30-year-old expressed his disappointment that the Italian had written him off as a professional footballer after sustaining a cruciate knee ligament injury back in 2009, which prompted then Blackburn Rovers manager Sam Allardyce to hit out at the Ireland boss.
“At the time I didn’t want to get involved in what was said but I was very upset by it,” Reid told Newstalk’s Off The Ball last night.
“It’s not what you need when you are coming towards the end of a 10 or 11-month process of getting back to full fitness.
“I spoke to Liam (Brady) and Alan Kelly afterwards and they mentioned the language barrier coming into play but they were still really disappointing comments that shouldn’t have been made.”
However, since featuring regularly in the Premier League for West Brom this season, Reid believes he has something to offer Ireland and has said for the second time this week that he would be keen to do a u-turn on his international retirement after calling it a day last year.
“If the question was asked then it would be a hard thing to turn down,” said the midfielder-come-defender, who says he hasn’t had any contact from Trap since his last cap against Montenegro in September 2008.
“We’d have to look at it but the squad that qualified deserves to be the squad that goes and I wouldn’t want to just jump on board and say ‘I want to go to the Euros’.
Trapattoni has a reasonably settled squad after coming through a successful qualifying campaign to progress to Euro 2012 so the chances of him taking Reid up on his offer are unlikely.
The former Millwall man would be a useful squad player however, as the arrival of Roy Hodgson at the Hawthorns has seen a player who can do a job in a number of positions switch from midfield to full-back.
“Over my career I’ve been tagged a little bit as a utility player as I’ve probably played every position on the park,” he said.
“It’s (the shift in position) has been coming over the years. I played the odd game here and there at right back and it’s probably the position I’m going to find myself at West Brom.”
For more information, check out the interview on Off The Ball>
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Euro 2012 FAI Forgive and forget Poland Steven Reid West Bromwich Albion Ukraine