Kevin Kilbane says any leaks from within the Irish senior camp need to be addressed by the FAI, after Seamus Coleman spoke about rumours this week.
Media reports at the start of Stephen Kenny's tenure suggested the Republic of Ireland captain Coleman was upset with his manager at having to attend a pre-match press conference after being left out of the team.
However, Coleman this week rebuffed any such claims.
"It’s absolutely not one bit difficult whatsoever. There is no ego with me. I read something about me being disappointed with getting told to go to a press conference.
Coleman debunks reports of Stephen Kenny rift 👀
The Irish captain has responded to an article which read, 'Coleman snub one of many errors Ireland boss has made.'
Here's the full story behind the clip 🇮🇪 #COYBIG #OTBAM pic.twitter.com/hsU6MzRj66— Off The Ball (@offtheball) March 24, 2021
"Then to read that I was disappointed to be asked to go to a press conference when the manager had the decency to say, ‘you don’t have to do the press conference if you don’t want to’.
"He said, ‘I know it might be disappointing because you’re not playing, if you don’t want to do it, you don’t have to, if you want to do it, it’s fine’.
"The manager left me out of his first game, had the decency to call me to his room and explain the situation which I was fine with because Matt was playing very well at the time.
"There is absolutely no ego involved with me and there never has been."
And speaking on OTB AM this morning, Kilbane says leaks have always been an issue at international level, going back to his playing days.
"You know what... certainly through my international career and even afterwards, there always [were] stories that were getting out. Half the time they were nothing stories, and even the Coleman one - it's a nothing story that's become something hasn't it?
"Seamus even addressed it himself, he said 'Look, I'm captain and I've got responsibility and that's always been the case.' It's always been the scourge of my time and since then, there's always stories that just seem to get out. They become something then without being something that's going to rock the boat.
"I do think there's a responsibility, certainly around Stephen Kenny's immediate team. What's going to happen now is they probably won't trust certain people within the FAI, it'll be 'he or she is getting things out.' It then creates a bad environment.
"All that's going to happen here - I think it'll bring the squad of players closer together, it'll bring Stephen Kenny and his staff closer together.
"There's always been a lot of trust... players are going to talk to agents or friends as we've probably seen in a big way over the years with WhatsApp messages and things like that, but that's always gonna happen isn't it?
"Anybody that knows Seamus Coleman knows full well that is not his character at all. He's a huge leader and a huge influence and I just think it's always happened.
"Seamus knows himself it's always going to happen, but the FAI yes do absolutely have a responsibility just to sort it out. Sort these little shite stories that continuously have come out that have just gone to disrupt managers and disrupt the players over the years.
"Just get them sorted. If it's something that's upsetting the whole group of players, yeah I understand it [the leak] but it's little ones like this [that] are ridiculous, they are. They're nonsense as well."
