"To the naked eye, and the uneducated football fans, it's difficult for them to understand his role, but he keeps the team ticking over. He's the guy who is the disciplined one, who'll sit in front of the back four, do the dirty work that people don't appreciate at times. He's made a whole career out of that and that's why he's been so valuable to teams."
That was former Stoke City goalkeeper Asmir Begovic as he discussed his ex-club team-mate Glenn Whelan before his country Bosnia took on Ireland in the November 2015 Euro 2016 playoff tie.
Essentially, Begovic was defending the Ireland international midfielder and explaining why he believes the Dubliner is underappreciated.
Indeed, Whelan has been a fixture in most Stoke teams during the Potters Premier League years, under a succession of managers.
Current manager Mark Hughes is no different. This season, Whelan (33) has featured 18 times in the league and has played all 90 minutes in all but five of those games.
He featured for all 90 minutes during Stoke City's 1-1 draw with Manchester United, when they only missed out on a win late on thanks to a fantastic (and record breaking) goal from Wayne Rooney.
After the match, Stoke tweeted Whelan's post-match comments.
🗣 Glenn Whelan praises #SCFC fans for the atmosphere created in the final stages of the Potters' draw with @ManUtd on the weekend. pic.twitter.com/RjUX6lcsdF
— Stoke City FC (@stokecity) January 23, 2017
Given that it was on Twitter, abuse was almost always likely to follow. In this case, one user had a go at Whelan's mobility.
@stokecity @ManUtd whelan is amongst the least mobile central midfielders in the league, thus he needs special support
— Felix Scheidegger (@FelixScheidegg7) January 23, 2017
Stoke didn't take that lying down:
That's strange, he's still fishing £89m out of his back pocket #SCFC https://t.co/XVlRbSfjDy
— Stoke City FC (@stokecity) January 23, 2017
The £89 million was in reference to Man United midfielder Paul Pogba, who played against Whelan on Saturday.
