Last November, in the driving rain at the Excelsior Stadium just outside Glasgow, a group of young Irish footballers braved the elements in the hope of impressing a faceless man.

Coming three days after the conclusion of Ireland's disastrous Euro 2008 tilt, the 'B' international with Scotland was neither memorable nor high profile. Pat Devlin's side conceded a last-minute equaliser after dominating the game, but the result was irrelevant in the greater scheme of things.

Afterwards, the chatter was about who would impress the Irish senior manager when he was eventually appointed and sat down to watch the DVD. The bigger picture was whether any of those present would be in the shake-up by the time the next qualifying campaign came around.

Wes Hoolahan and Mark Yeates were the names on everybody's lips that night, but they are nowhere to be seen in Germany this week. In fact, just two of the 17 bodies who saw action at the home of Airdrie will be present for training at the Stadium am Bruchweg today ahead of the World Cup opener with Georgia tomorrow.

One is Alex Bruce, who has no chance of involvement. The other is a man who was bitterly disappointed to limp out through injury after half an hour of that occasion, yet 10 months on begins the era of Giovanni Trapattoni as the first choice central midfielder.

It's been some turnaround in the fortunes of Glenn Whelan.

This evening, the 24-year-old will come under the kind of scrutiny that he has never experienced before in his homeland where his progress has slipped completely under the radar.

The Stoke midfielder has received criticism in recent weeks from people who you can be sure only learned his circumstances after consulting their old friends Google and Wikipedia.

It is true, nevertheless, that his ascension under Trapattoni has been remarkable. Like a reality TV show, the other hopefuls who turned up to impress the Italian at the all-inclusive training camp in the Algarve have been whittled away but he has survived the cull.

At the start of the year, the other 10 names who will be on the teamsheet to face Georgia would have expected to be involved if available or, in the case of Steve Finnan, once they made themselves available. Whelan could not have envisaged such a scenario.

But then his career is built on stories of surprising people in the face of scepticism. With his strength of character, and his dedicated lifestyle, the former Maryland Boys schoolboy has always been viewed by those close to him as a potential late developer whose attitude would ensure he enjoyed a good career in the game.

His first stop in the UK was Manchester City, where he joined a clutch of young Irishmen, Willo Flood, Stephen Elliott and Paddy McCarthy, who all share the fact that while things didn't work out for them there, they have stayed at a high level in the game in pastures new.

When he was 19, it became clear that Whelan would not be making the breakthrough at the club, despite Kevin Keegan involving him in first team squads. He had an option to stay on for another year, but opted to depart.

"I had to move on," he said, in an interview with the Irish Independent last year. "You get to 19 or 20 and you realise there's only so much you can learn playing reserve football."

So, he packed his bags and headed for Sheffield Wednesday where his first season at the club culminated in play-off final success and promotion from League One with a man-of-the-match performance and a vital goal in the showdown with Hartlepool at the Millennium Stadium.

Alas, his first season in the Championship was not a resounding success and by the time the following campaign started, he was on the transfer list with Owls' boss Paul Sturrock -- who would shortly leave the club anyway -- bringing in a number of midfielders in the summer to take his place.

Rather than being knocked back, Whelan rallied and went on to regain his spot, score 10 goals and land their player of the season award in 2006/2007. New boss Brian Laws took him off the list, but could not convince him to sign a new deal.

He started last season with a year remaining on his contract and refused offers to stay as his list of suitors grew longer. Five minutes from the conclusion of January's transfer window he joined Stoke after a dramatic day. With offers from other promotion contenders, he had backed the right horse and made his own contribution as the Potters reached their promised land.

At club level, he must now deal with an influx of new competition. Having opened their top flight stint in the starting XI at Bolton, he has been on the bench since. Midfielders Amdy Faye, Michael Tonge and Tom Soares have arrived and suddenly his position looks insecure, but then he's been in such quandaries before and has insisted that he will stick it out again. Adversity doesn't faze him.

Such attributes are what have endeared him to Trapattoni who had never heard of Whelan before his appointment, but has taken an instant shine to him, reasoning that he has the attributes to be the foil to the more attack minded players at his disposal.

His strengths are that he is tidy in possession and skilled in the type of ball retention which suits the patient passages of play that the Italian likes his teams to build. Trapattoni's selections always have such players; most recently at Red Bull Salzburg he had Niko Kovac who played the role masterfully for Croatia at the European Championships.

It's not that Whelan lacks offensive ability, far from it, in fact. His Sheffield Wednesday career was punctuated by spectacular goals, where he displayed the capability to produce something special from distance.

At a higher level, he has honed the defensive instincts he learned during his mid-teens when he spent time as a right back and even as a central defender. With that experience comes an aptitude for the demands which the Irish boss asks of the duo he chooses for his engine room; it's no coincidence that Steven Reid is also an accomplished full-back.

Reid is a proven Premier League performer, though, something we cannot yet say of Whelan. For all that he is respected for his Championship achievements, the heat of a competitive World Cup qualifier is uncharted territory. His biggest test is Trapattoni's most significant gamble.