Ireland defender Liam Scales is looking forward to a Celtic reset next season after Martin O’Neill steered them to a League and Cup double at the end of a tumultuous campaign.
As he prepared to report for international duty, Scales told the media that Saturday’s 3-1 Cup final win over Dunfermline and the League success will allow the club to refocus over the summer.
As reported by the Irish Examiner, Scales said: “It gives us that chance to go into next season on a positive note. The last couple of months has all gone in one direction.
“It’s been great for us, it gives us a chance to go into next season on a positive note. But it also gives us that realisation that we need to continue to improve and continue to be at the top of our game, to win things, because we weren’t for stages of the season and that kind of put us in a difficult situation. So it’s a bit of both.
“You have that positivity in the group, and everyone’s buzzing, but then there’s also the sense that we need to push on again. We definitely made it more difficult for ourselves at times. But it’s never going to be smooth all the way through.
“It’s about bouncing back from all those little kind of ups and downs and we managed to do that. I guess it’s happened in the past and it’ll happen again, it’s never going to be 100 per cent smooth.
“So I think everyone can learn from mistakes and everyone’s included in that, players, coaches, board, it goes all the way up.”
Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes has branded Roy Keane a liar and defended his own character and achievements after setting a new record for Premier League assists.
The World Cup bound Portuguese midfielder was upset by Keane’s description of him as a clown amid reports, on the BBC amongst other outlets, that the former United captain had misquoted Fernandes.
After setting the assists record against Brighton on Sunday, Fernandes responded to Keane’s outburst and said: “Like I’ve always said, I don’t mind criticism. I’ve always taken criticism from everyone and anyone and I never reply to anything or whatsoever.
“People have an opinion; they think it’s good, bad, whatever. What I don’t like is when people lie about things and [in] this case that you said about Roy Keane basically what he said is a lie because… either he saw some other interview or he can’t say that I said one thing that I’ve just not said and luckily for me is everything on record.
“I accept his criticism, I accept that he might like me as a player or not, like me as a person or not. But what I don’t like is that he puts words in my mouth that have not been said. That’s the only thing I don’t like.”
John Egan is back in the Premier League and proud of his Hull City team-mates for proving the critics wrong in Saturday’s Wembley win against Middlesbrough according to a report in the Irish Examiner.
Corkonian Egan said: “Everybody was writing us off but I thought we had a lot of lads who had either been promoted, played in the Premier League or played top-end Championship football.
“There are a lot of ups and downs, but I think what helped us this year was the amount of experience we had last summer.”
Murcia hat-trick striker Jack Moylan is back in the Ireland squad for Thursday night’s friendly against Qatar at the Aviva Stadium after a spate of withdrawals forced Heimir Hallgrimsson’s hand.
Alan Browne, Alex Gilbert, Ryan Manning, Finn Azaz and Andrew Omobamidele are all out of the end of season games with Dara O’Shea and Moylan to be involved only for the Qatar game. Dawson Devoy and Conor Coventry will travel to Canada while Jamie McGrath and Killian Phillips are in for both games according to RTE.
Lionel Messi has handed Argentina a World Cup injury scare after he limped out of his final MLS game before the tournament as Inter Miami defeated the Philadelphia Union 6-4.
The Athletic reports that remarks from interim Miami manager Guillermo Hoyos in his postgame press conference seemed to play down any potential severity of the Messi leg injury.
