James McClean believes he has a great working relationship with current Ireland manager Martin O’Neill, unlike the one shared with predecessor Giovanni Trapattoni.
The West Brom winger has been in exceptional form for his country since the European Championships, where McClean played a vital role in the victory over Italy.
And the Derry man has followed up that championship form by being Ireland’s most influential player in the World Cup qualifying campaign, scoring three times in his last two international games, including the winning strike in Vienna earlier this month.
"We were 3-0 down against Spain and he throws me on, and I felt a bit insulted really." - McClean
McClean has contrasted the current understanding with O’Neill with the uneasy relationship shared with Trapattoni, which came to a head at Euro 2012, where McClean played 14 minutes as a token substitute when Ireland were losing 3-0 to Spain.
“I have got nothing but respect for Mr Trapattoni. We didn’t always see eye to eye, we bumped heads, and I think that was down to the communication and the language barrier,” McClean told RTE Sport.
“But he gave me my international debut and he selected me for my first European championships.
“He has obviously moved on and now I’m working with a manager that knows me well and I know him well and we seem to fit very well together.”
And McClean believes that the failed Euro 2012 campaign had a very negative effect on his career, which the player admitted dented his confidence in the aftermath of the tournament.
“At the time, I was playing and my confidence was sky high. I was just off the back of my first Premier League season and I was named young player of the year at Sunderland.
"And if I’m honest, that knocked me a lot that I didn’t play in the European championships and it took me a while to recover from that because it was the first time in a long time that I wasn’t being played and I felt that I should have been playing.
"During the Euros, I remember thinking that he said at the press conference that I was just there for the experience and I wouldn’t be playing. And then we were 3-0 down against Spain and he throws me on, and I felt a bit insulted really."
Listen to the full interview with James McClean on RTE Radio 1’s Sunday Sport between 2-6pm.
