I had to get away from my circle in England and save my career in Italy to avoid being forgotten man of Irish football
REPUBLIC OF IRELAND striker Aaron Connolly has opened up on becoming the ‘forgotten man of Irish football.’
The Galway-native moved to Venezia in Serie B in search of consistent minutes after falling out of favour at Brighton & Hove Albion.
He had broken into the Seagulls’ first team in 2019 with a sensational brace against Tottenham Hotspur.
He played 24 times in the Premier League that season, scoring three goals.
Connolly was unable to capitalise on this bright start, however, going on loan to Middlesbrough in the Championship in January 2022.
Once again, though, he failed to stake a starting place in Chris Wilder’s side and, after returning to Brighton, was sent on loan to Venezia.
Speaking to Irish Football Fan TV, the 22-year-old revealed that he made the move to Italy to get away from negative influences in England.
He said: “I wasn’t in the right place to go on loan last year. I did it because I wanted to play football but I wish this version of myself right now had showed up at Middlesbrough.
“It would have been a different story.
“Mentally, I wouldn’t have been able to move abroad last season. I wouldn’t have been excited.
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“But this time, I couldn’t say yes quick enough. I’ve got a good group of people around me now, a good group of mates… the old circle I used to be around off the pitch, I’ve had to make my mind up.
“It’s either keep going in the phase I was going in and eventually I’ll just be completely forgotten.
“At the minute I’m probably the forgotten man in Irish football and if I kept associating with people I’d been associating with before, I would have completely gone off the scale.”
FALLING STAR
That aforementioned brace over Spurs, in addition to his glistening performances for the Ireland U21s, set him up to be a big star.
Indeed, he won his first senior cap under Mick McCarthy in October 2019, and when Stephen Kenny took charge in 2020, the hope was that Connolly would kick on.
Instead, however, his club form saw him fall out of favour with the Boys in Green and hasn’t played for them since the 1-1 draw with Azerbaijan in September 2021.
He continued: “I had a meeting with Keith [Andrews] and Stephen [Kenny] and they were showing me clips from the Azerbaijan game where I wasn’t pressing and then they showed me clips from the U21 game (with Sweden in 2019) where I wouldn’t stop running.
“That faded without me realising.
“That love for football has probably faded in the last three seasons.
“Now I’m in a better headspace, you look back at games and think ‘Was I really walking around for that long? Did I really have my head down for this long? Did I really walk around like that?’
Now that he has embarked on his very own Italian job, however, he is hopeful that he can rediscover his best form and force his way back into international contention.
“At the time when people were telling me, I didn’t want to listen or hear or see what they were saying to me was right.”
“Now, with all the work I’m putting into this pre-season, like I was four seasons ago, five seasons ago, six seasons, that’s when you really start to realise how much the hunger and desire and love for the game faded over the past few seasons.”