CARLA WARD has bemoaned the loss of senior players from the Ireland squad.
And with Ivi Casagrande announcing her departure yesterday and Amber Whiteley possibly to follow, she may need to stem the flow of coaches too.
Another Press conference was spent addressing the changing of the guard among the Ireland women’s coaching staff.
It might have felt like Groundhog Day were it not for new developments, like Ward holding her ground, although her explanation for the absence of Colin Healy from her backroom team differs from that of the FAI’s chief football officer Marc Canham.
With Whiteley in line to get the Liverpool manager’s job on a permanent basis, Ward suggested Healy could yet have a role.
But the likelihood of him wanting a part-time role with less responsibility and pay after the manner in which he was treated by the FAI, for which Canham belatedly apologised, is low.
And all of this before performance coach Casagrande — brought in by former boss Eileen Gleeson — announced her exit via Instagram.
She will be replaced by Holly Pickett, who worked with Ward at Aston Villa and Birmingham City.
It has not been the easiest introduction to the Irish football landscape for Ward as she recalled the manner in which one of the players, Julie-Ann Russell, announced she was hanging up her boots.
Ward said: “I actually spoke to them all. Funnily enough I rang Julie-Ann about her daughter and my daughter. I couldn’t wait for them to play together.
“That’s when she broke the news and broke my heart, bless her. Diane Caldwell and Niamh Fahey the same.”
That has been compounded by the absence of Louise Quinn, 34, with a long-term hip injury but Ward is keen for all four to have some role within camp.
Ward said: “There’s four massive leaders that can really help guide people off the pitch as well as on the pitch. I’m still trying to work a solution where we get them in the environment in some capacity because I think that’s really important.
“For example I spoke to one of them about potentially coming in and being a player liaison, a link between players and staff but being a sounding board for the players, particularly the senior players.
“That can be really powerful — really powerful.
“The organisation are all on board with it, it’s just the timing for the players because they’re still playing at club level, bar Julie-Ann. It’s just finding the right moment for them.”
NOT IN QUESTION
And it helps explain why there was never any question of Ruesha Littlejohn, 34, losing her place in the squad in the wake of her move to Shamrock Rovers.
Ward said: “I told her to do it, I’m not going to lie. She called me and said, ‘I have got three options’. I won’t tell you the other two options, and I said, ‘League of Ireland. Think about the impact you can have on young players. Not just how you can impact the League of Ireland’.
“When I was at Aston Villa, I didn’t want her to go, she wasn’t playing much football but if you take Ruesha out of an environment . . . she was the glue.”
Ward has also called up Aoibheann Clancy for the upcoming Nations League double-header against Greece and she said a third home-based player — believed to be her Shelbourne team-mate Alex Kavanagh — would have been included had she not been injured.
The boss said: “I think there are some exciting players in the League of Ireland. I have been impressed and pleasantly surprised. They have the quality side, the physical side of it should be interesting coming from part-time to full-time.”
There are recalls for Bristol City’s Chloe Mustaki and prolific Celtic striker Saoirse Noonan, who had contacted Ward to ask what she needed to do to be picked.
Ward said: “She actually reached out to say, ‘How do I close the gap to get myself back in the international set-up?’
“I love that. We need more of that, real hunger and desire to want to represent your country.
“We had 27 shots on goal against Slovenia, I think that’s probably where you wish you had a Saoirse Noonan in and around the box.”
