| Maybury’s dream of the Premiership and
more caps By Phil Campion
Republic of Ireland full-back Alan Maybury has mixed feelings on Brian
Kerr’s departure but the former Hearts defender hopes to benefit from Stephen
Carr’s early retirement.
He said: “The FAI may appoint a new manager who has never heard of me.
But on the other hand now that Stephen Carr has retired I may get more opportunities.”
Maybury — who joined Leicester City from Hearts in January —wants to
add to the 10 Ireland caps he’s earned over a seven-year period and also
needs to be picked for the crucial games not just the friendlies
“I've missed out on the squads since last summer but I’ve been fortunate
to play in a lot of friendlies.
“When I played for Ireland I felt I played well and I was comfortable
but sometimes it’s difficult coming from Scottish league football to internationals.
“I made that step up but unfortunately I had to pull out of squads.”
The Dubliner admits the new Ireland manager may not rate him as highly
as Brian Kerr did.
He said: “I’ve played under Brian Kerr since I was 18 and I had nothing
to prove to him.”
When Maybury left Edinburgh in January the promise of Premiership football
with Leicester and teaming up with his former Hearts boss Craig Levein was
too big an offer to turn down. Ten months later Leicester City are a long
way from winning promotion from the Coca-Cola Championship and Maybury’s
old club Hearts appear to have taken a massive turn for the better by now
challenging Celtic for the SPL title.
It looks like Hearts will be playing Champions League football next season
and Maybury could well have made a huge mistake but the former Leeds player
begs to differ.
He said: “It was a soap opera up there. For three years there was always
something on. If they weren’t arguing about the stadium they were falling
out about something else.”
When Maybury left, the Lithuanian business tycoon Vladimir Romanov hadn’t
taken over at Tynecastle and a number of players left the club to secure
their future.
“My contract was up with Hearts and I only had one meeting with them.
There was no money at the club at the time.
“I made a football decision to work with Craig Levein. We’ve had a mixed
start to the season here at Leicester and conceded some stupid goals but
we’ve made lots of changes. If we win a couple of games we can shoot right
up the table.”
Maybury insists the standard of football is far better than in Scotland.
He said: “The Coca-Cola Championship is a lot more physically demanding
than the SPL — I would see this league as a step-up after the SPL.”
Given time Levein will turn Leicester into a Premiership side according
to Maybury.
“We’ve a good mixture of lads now, the age of the team is a lot younger
and we’ve taken a while to get used to each other. It’s a good mixture.”
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