Ireland captain Katie McCabe has claimed that she could have handled the situation around her and Vera Pauw during the World Cup a 'little better'.
During Ireland's final group game of this year's Women's World Cup, McCabe asked for Pauw, the former Ireland manager, to bring on fresh legs against Nigeria. Pauw did not listen to McCabe at the time.
After the game, a saga emerged where Pauw claimed that McCabe was entitled to voice her opinion, but also claimed that McCabe was not the manager at the end of the day.
“If Kate McCabe says that she wants a change, that doesn’t mean she’s the coach,” Pauw said. “Everybody was doing so well. And I said: ‘What do you want, Katie? To take the best player off?’ No," Pauw said in July.
McCabe then tweeted hours later with just a zipped up emoji and nothing else, which many people speculated was about her argument with Pauw at the time.
Since then, Pauw has spoken about the incident, saying she had spoken to McCabe about the incident and that there was nothing in reports that they had fallen out with each other."We've spoken for over an hour with each other," she said of McCabe in an interview with RTE. "We are absolutely fine with each other.“I've seen a lot on Twitter regarding Katie. I hope that stops now. It’s a young woman that made a mistake. I’ve made mistakes. Everybody makes mistakes."
Shortly after this, Pauw's contract was not renewed with the FAI. The FAI and Pauw have all had their say on Ireland's World Cup, but the players had not. That changed on Tuesday in the Nations League pre-match press conference.McCabe spoke on the matter and said that she could have gone about tweeting what she did in July in a better way. She also confirmed that she and Pauw have spoken and are on good terms.
Republic of Ireland captain Katie McCabe rejects any suggestion that 'player power' was behind Vera Pauw's departure as manager
Read full story 👉https://t.co/fuB5VDELz3 pic.twitter.com/48u5oDR8Vf— RTÉ Soccer (@RTEsoccer) September 18, 2023
“Yeah, look, I guess it was a bit of tongue in cheek at the time. On reflection, I could have maybe handled it a little bit better,” admitted the Arsenal player. "And yeah, there were obviously a lot of things said by the media and people having opinions which is absolutely fine.
“The way the women’s game is going now, where we’re higher profile players, what we do will be looked at of course. But me and Vera have spoken since then, a few times actually.“And from my conversation with her last week, she wishes us well for this Nations League campaign and will be in support for us in that.”
Despite what did transpired in New Zealand and Australia, the Ireland captain also admitted that reading the 'unfair' headlines was tough, but also thanked Pauw for her time as Ireland boss. The goal according to McCabe now is beating Northern Ireland on Saturday.
"It’s been tough, I’m not going to lie. There have been a few unfair headlines, I would say," she added. "This thing about Katie versus Vera. It’s not a thing. As I said, we have spoken and she wished us well.“I’ll always be grateful for what Vera has given Irish football as well as all my teammates.
"We’re in a mindset now where we need to move on, we need to give this closure and have full focus on the Nations League.“Football comes around quickly and we’ll be working hard to qualify for our first-ever Euros. That’s in the back of our minds as well. I feel okay now. The World Cup takes it out of you mentally and physically.
"And then you’re straight back into competitive games with Arsenal. That’s the life of a professional footballer."
Ireland's next game will be against Northern Ireland in the Nations League. That game at the Aviva Stadium starts at 1pm on Saturday, September 23.
