As a 19-year-old, Jack Byrne was invited into the Ireland squad for training under Martin O’Neill.
And while he wasn’t in the squad proper, the FAI still put him up for interview before Easter friendlies against Switzerland and Slovakia in 2016.
O’Neill said: “If he backs it up with ability, great. If he turns out to be crap, that’s his problem. He might have a bit of that knocked out of him by the senior players!
The next day, Roy Keane said he had no issue with confident and cocky players - once they backed it up but added: “A blindman can see he’s a talented boy”.
There is a difference between cockiness and confidence, but it can be a fine line sometimes.
Tonight, Byrne, now 23, is poised to win his first cap.
And he regrets nothing about what was said three years ago.
“I’m older,” he said.
“I don’t feel I said stuff back then that was anyway over the top or out of order. I was just saying how I felt at the time.
“I was a young kid and I was coming through the ranks at Man City and I was doing quite well over in Holland. I was just saying what I felt.
“People asked me if I felt ready to play and of course you’re going to back yourself.
“I wasn’t saying that I was better than the players who were in, or that I should be playing instead of him. It was nothing like that.”
Against Switzerland last Thursday, Byrne was the one player to miss out on the 23-man squad but sensed it was coming.
“Someone had to miss out and I understand that the level I’m playing at is probably not as high as the rest of the squad,” he said.
“If I was picking someone myself to miss out I probably would have been the one I’d be thinking. But it would be a dream come true to win a cap tonight.”
