James McClean has revealed his relationship is better with Martin O'Neill than it was with his predecessor Giovanni Trapattoni.
The Derry native made his Republic of Ireland debut under the Italian but admits they "didn't always see eye to eye".
He told RTE Sport: “I have got nothing but respect for Mr Trapattoni. We didn’t always see eye to eye, we bumped heads, and I think that was down to the communication and the language barrier.
“But he gave me my international debut and he selected me for my first European championships.
“He has obviously moved on and now I’m working with a manager that knows me well and I know him well and we seem to fit very well together.”
McClean also said that his confidence suffered following his lack of football at Euro 2012.
He added: “At the time, I was playing and my confidence was sky high. I was just off the back of my first Premier League season and I was named young player of the year at Sunderland.
"And if I’m honest, that knocked me a lot that I didn’t play in the European championships and it took me a while to recover from that because it was the first time in a long time that I wasn’t being played and I felt that I should have been playing.
"During the Euros, I remember thinking that he said at the press conference that I was just there for the experience and I wouldn’t be playing. And then we were 3-0 down against Spain and he throws me on, and I felt a bit insulted really."
The full interview with James McClean will air on RTE Radio 1’s Sunday Sport between 2-6pm.
