http://sport.independent.co.uk/football/comment/article2514284.ece
Kevin Doyle: 'When I play against Chelsea that seems to me to be just
as tough as when I was playing against Ireland's top teams'
He is the Premiership's find of the season. Less than two years ago
Kevin Doyle was playing for Cork City, now he is one of the League's
top goalscorers. With his first top flight campaign drawing to a
close and his side pressing for a European place, the Reading striker
talks about his incredible rise to James Corrigan
Published: 05 May 2007
Which is unlikelier? A team emerging from a 135-year history in the
lower divisions to take the Premiership by storm and so qualify for
Europe, or a player emerging from a four-year history in the Irish
League to take the Premiership by storm and so become one of its most
prolific marksmen? Kevin Doyle analyses the above and tries to arrive
at the answer before shrugging his shoulders. "Perhaps we're just
made for each other," he says, looking over Reading's training
ground.
The name of the Berkshire complex is Hogwood, although it might more
aptly be Hogwarts, what with the end-of-term feel, all those tricks
going on out there and, yes, that big rabbit known as the Uefa Cup
threatening to be pulled out of the hat. It is plainly not the
atmosphere one would expect at a club a couple of wins away from the
required top-seven finish to carry them to undreamt of competition.
Where there should surely be tension, there seems only excitement;
where there could be scowls of intent, only smiles of "whatever".
Doyle takes just the two words to explain why. "Steve Coppell," he
says.
Rather controversially, the Reading manager has been on the minus
side of nonplussed as Europe has come into focus, a startling sight
that could be all but confirmed with victory at home to Watford
today. In short, Coppell would prefer his first-season wonders not to
achieve the unthinkable now, but to wait a few seasons until the
squad is both big enough and ready enough. Naturally, as a
competitor, Doyle is somewhat at odds with this line of thinking.
"There is not a player alive who would not want to qualify for
Europe," he says, before going on to outline Coppell's reasoning is
no bad thing. "Steve's attitude is great for us lot as this is
basically a pressureless end to the season. It's not like at say,
Spurs, where qualification is basically demanded of their players,
compulsory, if you like. Here it'd be just a bonus. Of course, we
want to finish with two wins and keep the form going into next
season. But if we don't, well, nobody's going to break down and cry
or have months of sleepless nights."
Doyle could be forgiven for doing so, though, if only to allow his
mind to race through two years in which his rise has been even more
stunning than Reading's. In June 2005, Doyle was turning out in the
Eircom League when John Madejski finally nailed down Cork City to a
£78,000 transfer fee. Nice business. Eighteen months later the Royals
chairman reportedly turned down from Aston Villa the princely sum of
£5m, roughly 64 times what he had paid for the blond striker. Canny
business. Four months on, the 23-year-old is worth at least £7m as
his stock soars as highly as his name does up those Premiership
scoring charts. With 12 goals, it would be fair to say that Doyle
is "the find of the season" if it was not for the fact that he
was "the find of last season" as well. Better to say that this
uncovered gem continues to scrub up ever brighter.
Unsurprisingly, the day he was dug out of that Munster turf takes a
significant berth in his memories. "Some say Steve came to watch me
five times, but I think it was just three times. Someone would
whisper to me, 'He's here again' and I was grateful for it because
every other time it'd be a scout, not a manager. I can understand why
Steve ummed and ahhed because I didn't play too well, to be honest,
but I scored in all the games he saw and I just hoped that would be
enough. The story goes that he only decided after five or so
Guinnesses, but whatever, I'm so grateful. At that stage, I was 21,
going on 22 and if he hadn't given my chance then I'm not sure anyone
would have. Let's just say, I'm glad he had those few beers."
Fitting enough for someone of his nationality, alcohol has played a
part in his formation, not in the negative but in the glass half-full
sense. When he was 16 he had the choicemany of his young countrymen
are confronted with, but instead of following what he calls "99 per
cent of the majority" across the Irish Seato become an apprentice he
opted for Wexford and the family pub. "It was a conscious plan," he
recalls. "I realised I was a big home boy and wouldn't last very long
in England and now I can see I was right. It's a tough life for the
15, 16-year-olds, giving up school to come over to another country
and cleaning boots, living in digs and all that, only to be told
you're being released after two years. In fact, I wouldn't have
lasted six months and that would have been that then; another boy who
wasn't good enough to make it, a slur that would likely have stuck.
No, my view was that if I wasn't good enough to crack it in Ireland
then I wouldn't be in England. So I finished school and worked in the
pub."
At this juncture it would be easy to think of the barman turned star
man re-entering Cooper's Inn to a resounding cheer. But although
there are plenty of shirts and pictures of the famous son on the
wall, the locals do not fall off their stools in the race to greet
him.
"There's some right characters in there I can tell you," Doyle says
with a grin. "But I'm not sure they liked me, as I would stop serving
right on time and lay down the law to get them out early. Closing
time is a bit of a loose concept where I'm from and my brother would
let them stay on for a few extras. He runs the place now and I still
go there, have some food and a laugh with the regulars. I suppose
they regard me as their own, although they're no different with me.
Nobody in Ireland really is."
Doyle might be in for a shock when he returns in the summer as, since
he was last there, the club shirt with his name on has become the
biggest Premiership seller in the Republic. "I'm told that it's
Reading jerseys everywhere and I'm looking forward to the whole
bloody randomness of seeing someone I don't know wearing my shirt -
'Doyle, No 9'. That'd be bloody mental, scary really. Last year, you
couldn't buy one over there and people were ringing me to send them
over. The sports shops have cottoned on now."
It would surely have been bankruptable not to, as if Doyle's exploits
at Reading did not grab them by the blarneys, then a few match-
winning performances for the national side just must have. "In truth,
when I made my debut [against Sweden, in March 2006] I wasn't even
expecting to be playing in the first-choice Reading team by then,
never mind for Ireland. But then there's a lot I haven't expected."
What plainly still staggers Doyle most of all is that "leading score
list" he features in so predominantly. "It's still mad and no it
hasn't sunk in. When I was joint-leading scorer before Christmas I
had to persuade my brother not to take a photo with his mobile of the
chart off Sky Sports News as I didn't want to think it was a fluky
one-off. But when I got my hamstring injury in January, I knew I'd be
out awhile and I thought that's it, I'll drop off it now. But a
couple of goals have got me back up there and it's all a bit surreal
again. Here we are, in one of the best leagues in the world and my
name's above people like Thierry Henry, Nicolas Anelka and all these.
It's honestly something I never even imagined as a kid and it
definitely gives you confidence. It can give you the creeps, too."
This is the side of Doyle that is most endearing and the one most
likely to ensure that this blessedly unaffected rarity does not crash
and burn. "I have this terrible thought in the back of my mind that
it will all be over as quickly as it's begun and, although I've got a
new contract and know the club have faith in me and everything, it's
still there. I've seen it before, we all have. So many players have
come and done really well in their first season or two and then a few
years later someone mentions 'em down the pub and it's, 'Oh yeah,
whatever happened to him?' Well, I don't want that to happen to me,
but appreciate how easily it could if I don't keep my head down and
carry on working hard. It's to do with luck as well, though, and
that's why I've never let myself believe that fate will always be
kind to me."
Is that an inevitable hangover from the tragic days when, as a nine-
year-old, he watched his brother, Bernard, die of cancer at 21? "I
don't know whether it's because of what happened to my brother or
not," Doyle replies, "but I've always had the outlook that 'You can
die tomorrow, so make the most of it while you're here'. And I don't
mean make the most of it as like go out and party every night and
grab every hour of fun you can, but to make the most of what you are
and what life's giving you. I try to do that, although my girlfriend
would tell you that I'm sleeping half my life away on the sofa in the
afternoon. That's part of my training, I tell her, part of my
recovery."
Doyle laughs as he thinks back to Cork and, before that, St Pat's. He
is happy to have those experiences and hopes that other young
greenshirts might take the same route, not least because he believes
it to be one that is perfectly viable. Irish football is often
pilloried as bony knees above rolled-down socks splattered in mud and
blood, but Doyle is a fierce defender of his roots.
"It's probably down to my weird make-up or how I can quickly adapt or
something, but I haven't found it that massive a difference over
here. You know, I'd love to go back and play in the Eircom League
just to gauge what the standard is really like, because when I play
against Chelsea that seems to me to be just as tough as when I was
playing against Ireland's top teams. I know the players are obviously
stronger, fitter, faster and more skilful here, but that's just how I
found it and my scoring strike rate bears this out. It's basically
been the same.
"Now, what is massively different is the pressure. When you're in the
Premiership everyone here and in Ireland and wherever knows what
you're doing and not just whether you scored or not but everything.
With ProZone here now nobody misses anything and then there's Match
of the Day, live games on Sky, delayed live games on Sky, Goals On
Sunday and so on and so on. It's a scary thought when you're picking
your nose or something that everyone could be watching it or will be
very soon."
He is dealing with it, all right, and so too are Reading; as Doyle
might say "scarily" so. He credits the values Coppell has imbued in
the team as "our X-Factor" and reveals how they will remain
so. "Steve showed faith in us and we've repaid him. Last summer he
could have had a clear-out but didn't and here we are at the same
stage as last season with almost the same starting XI. That's
unbelievable, isn't it? He just told us to go out there, enjoy it,
work hard and we'll improve. And that's what we've done. Personally,
I'm petrified to reach a level and think, 'Well, that's it'. It's
like the club. We don't want all that second-seasonitis shite next
year; we actually want to do better. I know that's difficult, for me
as well as this club, but that's got to be the aim. We've come this
far, after all." Doyle and Reading - made for each other, indeed.
High jumpers: Hidden gems who have leapt into the limelight
* SHANE LONG Part of the deal that took Kevin Doyle to Reading from
Cork City in 2005. Long had played for the Eircom League side just
twice. Since joining the Royals at 18, Long has won a Championship
winners' medal and has played in the Premiership 20 times, scoring
twice. He made his debut for Republic of Ireland in February against
San Marino.
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