Still just 22, Ireland's Tyler Toland has already experienced so much

Tyler Toland is plotting the opposite career path of her mentor and once the world’s most expensive player, Keira Walsh.

The pair of midfielders were teammates at Manchester City, where Irish coach Alan Mahon acclaimed Walsh for taking his compatriot under her wing.

They’ve diverged from those days at City, Walsh becoming a Champions League winner since Barcelona met the asking price of £400,000.

Toland, four years her junior, also moved on from Manchester, initially to Glasgow with City and Celtic and then Spain to line out for Levante.

That journey was overshadowed by her travails with the Irish team, demoted from 16-year-old debutant under Colin Bell to enforced exile by Vera Pauw.

The past year has been a rehabilitation of sorts, as England has come calling on the club circuit and she’s been restored to the Irish fold and side seamlessly.

All of this has unravelled and the Donegal native is still only 22.

Toland remains unified with Walsh through the Blackburn Rovers connection.

That’s where England’s playmaker emerged from and is the platform Toland has used to reemerge from.

She’s been a mainstay of a club that placed additional importance on their women’s section this year.

Seventh in a competitive Championship table, ahead of London City Lionesses, Reading and Watford is admirable but it’s during the second year of her contract that Toland foresees them mounting a serious push for promotion.

“Speaking to Blackburn before I signed, I asked them honestly ‘what is club’s ambitions?’,” she recalls about considering her options.

“They did say genuinely that we are looking to make a name for ourselves this year as a team that is hard to beat with the intention the following year of looking for promotion to the WSL.

“Th