Sunderland midfielder Andy Reid has not given up on being selected for the Republic of Ireland by Giovanni Trapattoni, no matter how unlikely a call-up looks at this late stage of the qualification campaign for South Africa 2010.
Reid has not been involved in the Ireland set-up since travelling with the squad to face Georgia in Mainz in the opening match of the qualifiers. He did not feature in the 2-1 win and has not been part of a squad since. In fact, Reid has yet to play a minute of football in the Italian's team.
Ireland are in a very different place now from where they were when they beat Georgia on neutral soil, and only a two-legged play-off (Nov 14th and 18th) against France stands between them and the World Cup finals. A system that did not include Reid got Trapattoni this far, he is unlikely to change tack now.
Reid is well aware of that but is refusing to take no for an answer and believes he is beginning to prove himself to the manager through his club form.
"I don't pick the squads. It's up to the Ireland manager if he wants to pick me," Reid told BBC Newcastle today.
"I feel I'm getting to the stage where I'm producing what he is looking for. Hopefully, anyway, that’s my feeling and hopefully that will be the case.”
Trapattoni sees Reid as a luxury - great with the ball but a liability without it.
He has insisted throughout Reid’s absence that the Crumlin-born midfielder remains in his thoughts, recently describing him as the “perfect” player, but one he cannot accommodate given his side’s inability to keep possession for any length of time.
His opinion prompted the 27-year-old Reid to reinvent himself at the start of this season. He shed around a stone and a half and became a much more mobile footballer than the one Trapattoni was introduced to 18 months ago.
He has been at the forefront of an excellent run of form for his club that has seen them draw at Old Trafford and beat Liverpool in recent weeks, moving ahead of the Merseysiders to seventh in the Premier League table.
While Darren Bent has been doing much of the goalscoring, with eight goals in nine games, Reid has been pulling the strings and has laid on four goals for team-mates in his five league starts this season, scoring one himself.
The weight-loss has had a part to play but Reid insists it has as much to do with his frame of mind under new manager Steve Bruce this season.
"I'm playing with a smile on my face," he said. "I feel in great form at the moment, I'm playing well but most importantly I'm enjoying my football.
"All I can do is turn in performances like I did on Saturday (against Liverpool) and since I've been in the team."
