Ronan: It’s an exciting time to be coming through in Irish football

Connor Ronan was lucky, for once, when it came to the Ireland squad’s travel arrangements for their Euro U21 qualifier in Armenia.

Ronan: It’s an exciting time to be coming through in Irish football

Connor Ronan was lucky, for once, when it came to the Ireland squad’s travel arrangements for their Euro U21 qualifier in Armenia.

As the rest of the squad embarked on their three-flight, 4,000km route across Europe, Ronan was already halfway there. It was a relatively short hop from his home in Slovakia to Kiev to meet up with the team for their final connection to Yerevan.

Air miles have been collected on a monthly basis by the frequent-flying Irish midfielder, travelling around the continent for Europa League games, Ireland’s Toulon Tournament, and Euro U21 qualifiers, and the “silver lining” of a trip home to Rochdale as he suffered from a fractured rib.

Since his recovery, Ronan has been ever-present in the Dunajska Streda team as they bid to go one better this season and oust Slovan Bratislava as Slovak Fortuna Liga champions.

He’s well settled in now, having first moved over on loan from Wolves in February. It’s an environment he feels is getting more out of him than his previous loan move to Walsall, where he found his playing time limited.

“I feel like they’re getting the best out of me at the minute and I feel like I’m playing the best football I’ve played since I broke into men’s football and made my debut at Wolves,” he said.

“It was a bit of a surprise to me, around the age of 19, 20, where I wasn’t playing every week, and sitting on the bench. Even though it was men’s football, it was a bit of a shock to me, adapting to not playing and having to work on match fitness but without playing matches.

“At that time, I was open to whatever was going to be the best option for me. I just wanted to be playing football.”

Slovakia came up through a link Wolves has with the club. They showed him clips of how the team was playing.

Their fast-attacking, possession-style caught Ronan’s eye and appealed to his own strengths. They had a new stadium and a new academy.

The business of the dressing room is conducted through English to accommodate their German manager and players from across the world, with English lessons given to those who need improvement.

And most importantly, there was the possibility of regular first-team men’s football; the chance to, as Wolves put it, ‘fit in and stand out’.

“The football side of things has gone well, so everything else has just taken care of itself,” says Ronan.

Throughout the week, [the town] is quiet. Then, as soon as matchday comes, everything’s just booming, there’ll be traffic everyone. They’re football mad, they love it.

Wolves’ Europa League visit to Slovan Bratislava last month gave him a chance to catch up with team-mates and staff from his parent club.

They’re regularly in touch through loan manager Seyi Olofinjana, who runs a Loan Player of the Month award, and although they didn’t turn to Ronan for any inside information on Bratislava, plenty of local journalists did their best: “I tried not to give too much away,” he chuckles.

The most common question he gets within the Ireland U21 dressing room is about what it’s like living in Slovakia but when it comes to other players’ future options, Ronan says it’s down to the individual’s own priorities and requirements.

He’s one of the older players in the dressing room now, as Stephen Kenny turned to five debutants for the 1-0 win in Armenia due to a raft of injuries, suspensions, and senior call-ups. But Ronan says age isn’t relevant in either Kenny’s or Mick McCarthy’s set-up.

“For some lads, it’s happened quite quickly [the call-up to the senior squad] and it’s a good time to show us how quick it can happen. A few good performances, you’re on form, and the manager is willing to put you in there.

“It’s good not just for the 21s but the younger lads as well, knowing it’s possible to get that 21s call-up.

“There’s a lot of young players in the team and if you look at Troy [Parrott], Aaron [Connolly], and Lee [O’Connor], who’ve been called up for the first team, they’re not one of the older lads, even in the 21 squad. It shows age doesn’t really matter to the manager and it’s the same feeling for the 21 squad.

“It’s an exciting time to be coming through in Irish football.”

The ability for players to step into the senior squad or U21 team exhibits a depth of talent that Ronan says wasn’t available before. “With other Irish teams I’ve been on, we’ve always had good teams but when we go to the Euro finals at the younger ages and you have to play three games in a short space of time, you don’t really have that depth in the squad.

“It can be difficult so it’s obviously a massive help having lads ready to go when there’s an injury or suspension.”

Kenny has added a sense of confidence to the mix and an intent to dominate opponents, “whether it be Italy or Luxembourg”.

We have some big teams in the group, like Italy and Sweden. Maybe in the younger ages, you’d go into the game sitting off, trying to hold out, and hit them on the counter.

"But we have this style of play where we want to play out from the back, we want to dominate the game and dominate possession, and whoever we play isn’t going to affect that.”

They build up within a structure but have a “licence to roam” in attack, which was evident in their late show to defeat tonight’s opponents, Sweden, in a 3-1 away win last month. However, Ronan says more of the “typical Irish style of football to grind out results” was needed in their shock 1-0 loss to Iceland.

“Iceland was a good example where things weren’t really going our way and we struggled a little bit. We should have won the game.

“We lost that momentum we had but we’ll be full of confidence again going into the Sweden game.”

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