Gleeson’s contract expiration coincides with her squad’s interest in Euro 2025 ending, but having declared on the eve of the play-off that she wanted to continue in the role, she was less adamant after seeing her devastated squad slump to a shock defeat.
“I’m not thinking about that tonight, we have a team who are devastated at the fact that they are not going to the Euros,” said Gleeson, who also refused to engage in discussion about whether she might return to her old FAI role as Head of Women and Girls’ Football.
Ultimately, it will not be her choice, but that of her employers.
“It’s not something I’m going to talk about tonight. We’re here as a team, we’ve lost as a team and we’re going to support ourselves through it as a team.
“I’m not talking about anything else other than the game tonight. We’re going to pick ourselves up and we’ll go again.
“We have to go again, women’s football will not stand still. It’s a setback and a major disappointment, obviously.”
Like I said earlier, I am not going to get into big development processes here.
Welsh boss Rhian Wilkinson was not pleased with the Irish manager after Gleeson refused to congratulate her at the final whistle.
“I’m not very happy with the Irish staff right now, but it was a battle,” she said
“The benches boil up every now and then, a team has to win or lose.”
Gleeson, for her part, bemoaned the actions of the Welsh bench, although her goalkeeping coach, Emma Byrne, was cautioned.
“A lot of shouting at players, aggressive language to our staff,” said Gleeson, whose captain, Katie McCabe, was lucky to remain on the pitch after her first caution was almost followed by another.
“It’s incidental now, but we manage it on the pitch and you are managing it on the sidelines.
“It’s difficult for players in the moment, and there was a lot of high risk and reward associated with this game, but, yeah, it was important for us to keep 11 on the pitch. It was important for us to try and keep Katie calm and not to react, and not to bring anything on herself.
“We were all on the edge. On the edge now. It was a highly charged game, very emotional and there was a lot of managing emotions.
“There was a lot of provocation along the sideline from the Welsh bench. There were reactions to that as well. It was a team challenge to manage across the night.”
Wilkinson also confirmed she had to seek out a reluctant Gleeson to engage in a handshake; Gleeson appeared unmoved.
“I didn’t see Rhian [Wilkinson], she didn’t come near me, I didn’t go near her, I was with my team.”
Gleeson confirmed the incidents went beyond the norm and that she had reported them to the fourth official.
While her team’s Euro 2025 campaign is over, she doesn’t feel her own tenure necessarily is, even though her contract expired along with her team’s chances.
Having freely expressed a desire, unprompted, to continue in the job last week, she refused to talk about it tonight.
When pressed, she did explain how devastating a blow this defeat would be to her sport.
“The short answer is, yes, we are not going to stand still. But like I said earlier, I am not going to get into big development processes here.
“We have to go again, there is another campaign, there is a World Cup. That’s football, you go again, you take the highs, you take the lows, but we always have to go again.
“Women’s football is not standing still globally, it’s not standing still in Ireland, it’s a setback and a major disappointment tonight that we didn’t get that consistent qualification, but we still have to keep moving forward.”