This sporting life, according to Tyler Toland. “Football is up and down, every manager has their opinion.”
Despite several promptings, the Blackburn midfielder refused to discuss the particulars surrounding her three-year exile from the international scene, a situation that saw her miss out on the Republic of Ireland’s first World Cup.
Not a mention either of the accusation of harassment levelled at her father, Maurice Toland, by former Ireland manager Vera Pauw.
Instead, she played the media this week like she did the Northern Ireland midfield at the Aviva Stadium last month – crisp, quality answers were the order of business. That game was her first appearance in a green shirt since September 2019, when she scored in the 2-0 win over Montenegro.
Capped at 16 by Colin Bell, interim coach Eileen Gleeson wasted no time returning Toland and Megan Connolly to the Irish midfield for the Nations League campaign. The ripple effect has Denise O’Sullivan and Katie McCabe closer to the opposition goal, where they are getting a brisk silver service. Toland never takes a second touch when one will suffice.
“It’s always been my style of play. I played with the boys until I was 17, until I got the move to England. And if you take too many touches, somebody will take the ball off you, so touch, pass, touch, pass. Play it simple and just play it to feet, that has always been my style of play.”
Touch, pass, touch, pass, should be the story of this 22-year-old’s career, not her extended omission from the squad. She refuses to court sympathy by revisiting the past: “If you focus on other people, on their thoughts, it is not going to do well for you. For me personally, I just kept working on myself, my own game, and I knew the chance would come. Here I am.”
“You just have to deal with the cards you are dealt. Keep your head and the tides will turn.”
Above all else, she understands the opinions of others will not always align with her own.
“I had to grow up quickly, moved away from home just before I turned 18, but I think that is football, being in and out of teams, you do grow up and mature very, very quickly.
“You have to learn to stand on your own two feet, meeting all those new people and you are coming in to play with world-class players and that helps you as a person as well, and as a player [it] pushes you on and drives up your standards. It has been a good few years.”
[ Katie McCabe on top form again with two goals for Arsenal in WSLOpens in new window ]
On the football front, what happened? “Where do you want me to start from?”
How about a club career that began brightly at Manchester City before stints at Celtic and Levante in Spain failed to deliver enough performances to make calls for her return to the Irish set-up impossible to ignore.
“Last time I was in camp I was at Man City. From there I got an injury a year into that contract so I went on loan to Scotland, signed with Celtic for a year. We done the cup double that year and then from there I went to Spain for a year, which kind of stood to me.
“It is really, really technical, which is me down to a tee. From Spain, I signed for Blackburn and I think that was the ideal move for me. Regular football week in, week out just gives me a platform to push on on a personal level.”
Describing La Liga as “phenomenal”, her lack of minutes forced a reset, so the second tier of English football is currently witnessing the second coming of Toland.
“Football is not just about playing, it is about your mentality as well,” she reflected. “To get far in football you have to have a strong mentality. One hundred per cent for me, it is about the here and now, and what we can achieve in the future. There is no looking back, you are not going to get anything by looking back. In my eyes, I am here, I am ready to play and I’m looking forward to the next few days.”
Happy days that include two internationals against Albania, ranked 72nd in the world, starting on Friday at Tallaght Stadium (kick-off 5.45pm). Don’t look back.
