Ireland Squad For Romania and Unity (snigger) Cup!

Kone

Given (Newcastle United), Colgan (Hibernian), Kenny (Sheffield United),

Maybury (Hearts), Finnan (Liverpool), Cunningham (Birmingham City), O'Brien (Newcastle United), Doherty (Tottenham Hotspur), Breen (Sunderland), Clarke (Stoke City),

Holland (Charlton Athletic), Douglas (Blackburn Rovers), O'Shea (Manchester United), Miller (Celtic), Roy Keane (Manchester United), A Reid (Nottingham Forest), Rowlands (QPR), Kennedy (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Doyle (Coventry City), S Reid (Blackburn Rovers), Quinn (Sheffield Wednesday), Delap (Southampton), McPhail (Leeds United), Kinsella (WBA), McAteer (Sunderland), Barrett (Coventry City),

Robbie Keane (Tottenham Hotspur), McGeady (Celtic), Lee (Cardiff City), Connolly (West Ham United), Morrison (Birmingham City).

A few new starters and a few old reliables....... No real surprises!

eirebhoy

Originally posted by Kone
No real surprises!

Yeah right, just a player who has about 90mins first team experience. People were calling me mad to call McGeady up so soon. I actually do think its mad.:D Rowlands and Clarke are also big suprises.

Johnny_the_fox

Clarke is a left back.. with Harte not in the squad This is a big chance for him.

eirebhoy

Lads, guess who's out of the squad for the 3rd time in a row, Stephen Carr. He's not even on the Physio List.

I think the papers may have been right about the row between him and Kerr.:(

_blank_

Originally posted by Kone
Kinsella (WBA)

Could be his last game for us, as he is being released by WBA, and there are no rumours linking him with another club.

SteM

We're devloping a decent looking squad. I'd like to see what McGeady can do, not seen him play for Celtic yet. I'd prefer to see QPR's Kevin Gallen for Connolly though.

Anyone know how to get tickets for this Unity Cup? I might be in London when it's on and wouldn't mind going to the Nigeria game.

Johnny_the_fox

Originally posted by SteM
Anyone know how to get tickets for this Unity Cup? I might be in London when it's on and wouldn't mind going to the Nigeria game.

Ticketmaster UK

SteM

Cheers for that Johnny. Never dawned on me to look on ticketmaster for footy tickets

_blank_

...and another thing...Why is Jason Byrne not included?

Surely his display against Poland warrants a place, and he scored twice in the game on the friday he came back from Poland.

iasc

Originally posted by Johnny_the_fox
Clarke is a left back.. with Harte not in the squad This is a big chance for him.

Prolly not with o'shea in the squad

sikes

wheres stephen kelly

and carr????

i know carr is injured at the moment tho

GuanYin

Originally posted by eirebhoy
Lads, guess who's out of the squad for the 3rd time in a row, Stephen Carr. He's not even on the Physio List.

I think the papers may have been right about the row between him and Kerr.:(

You said this before, but if you consider who the Irish Assistant manager is I think you'd have to rate the story as a crock.

Do you really think Hughton wouldn't resolve the matter?

Villain

Originally posted by syke
You said this before, but if you consider who the Irish Assistant manager is I think you'd have to rate the story as a crock.

Do you really think Hughton wouldn't resolve the matter?

I was the one that revealed that story here, and I as far as I know Carr is not injured he has fallen out with Kerr, Hughton obviously can't resolve it.

I got the story from a very very reliable source.

Pepe LeFrits

Alan Quinn is being released by Sheffield Wednesday too.

eirebhoy

Originally posted by syke
You said this before, but if you consider who the Irish Assistant manager is I think you'd have to rate the story as a crock.

Do you really think Hughton wouldn't resolve the matter?

I said the same thing the last time but I didn't know he was injured. He could be injured again now but he's not listed here and it usuall tells you when a player is injured here. Nearly every paper said Carr fell out with Kerr when he pulled out of the squad the morning of the Czech match and there is definitley something strange.

\edit - Spurs site says he has an ankle injury. He's getting worse then Duffer. Mark Yeates will make his Spurs debut tomorrow too.

phenom

the team doesnt look bad to me. The younger ones might just get 45mins. whats the odds on Ireland winning?

Dewey

I think the squad is very good. SOOO glad McGeady is in the squad, the sooner we get him in a senior Ireland Jersey the better. Cant have those Scots steeling him.

The Squad isnt bad and when you think Healy, Duff, Carr, Kanangh, Dunne, Kilbane, all injured, the first team will be a strong one come September for the World Cup Quilifer.

And i dont think Carr has had a bust up with Kerr, because Carr is ruled out of tomorrows Clash with Wolves so he is injured and Kerr said he expects Carr to have an opration.

Have to say, I'm not really looking forward to this Unity Cup. Not when Euro 2004 is only a few weeks away and were in this friendly tourament no one cares about.

But I'm still looking forward to seeing how the young lads do.

smemon

carr's no loss anyway, his best days are behind him. 3/4 years ago he was one of the best right backs in the world imo, up there with cafu.

now he's lost it through injuries and will nevber be the player he was.

mcgeady is over-hyped, kerr has fallen for it. he's barely played a game for celtic and kerr has to be basing his decision on the media hype and all the glowing talk from celtic and scotland.

would love to see a miller/keane partnership in midfield. one would just complement the other and you guys would get to see just how classy miller really is.

KdjaCL

Shame Byrne not in it ,Carrs not playing for Spurs morrow so reckon that might be why he not playing.

It looks thats all the irish players they could find.

kdjac

eirebhoy

Originally posted by phenom
whats the odds on Ireland winning?

Winning all 4? It should be fairly even for the Romania match, about 5/4 or 6/4.

Originally posted by Dewey
I think the squad is very good. SOOO glad McGeady is in the squad, the sooner we get him in a senior Ireland Jersey the better. Cant have those Scots steeling him....
Have to say, I'm not really looking forward to this Unity Cup. Not when Euro 2004 is only a few weeks away and were in this friendly tourament no one cares about.

We're the ones stealing him. I'm looking forward to Ireland's next 4 matches an awful lot more than Euro 2004 TBH.

Originally posted by smemon
mcgeady is over-hyped, kerr has fallen for it. he's barely played a game for celtic and kerr has to be basing his decision on the media hype and all the glowing talk from celtic and scotland.

Well Kerr has coached him a good few times at underage level and if he didn't think he was up for it he wouldn't have been called up.

Pigman II

On this whole issue I think the squad is getting far too diluted. If all these newbies get capped over the next month Kerr will have picked around 45 different players since he took over last year. That's a figure that would have made even Sven Goran Eriksson blush.

Now I'm all for having a reasonably large panel of players (25-30 or so) but I don't like the way Kerr seems to be picking anyone and everyone (esp div2 players) just to have multiple coverage for every position and the whole thing seems like overkill. Why, we have 5 goalkeepers alone in Kerrs thoughts if you count Graham Stack (the FAI site does), actually 6 if you count Kiely who Kerr said he'd take back if he decided to come out of retirement again.

I know Kerr is trying to create a system whereby the formation and tactics remain rigid and the players themselves can simply be interchanged like cogs, but do we really need 2-3 covering players for EVERY position - especially as our performance in Poland indicated (result aside) we are really a very poor side when we let some of these so called 'prospects' out on the pitch.

Incidently, I seem to remember McCarthy picking a lot of lesser players (Savage of Millwall comes to mind?) when he first took over, and fortunately he dropped this policy (and most of those players) once the France98 qualifiers began in earnest. Hopefully Kerr will do the same and have no more than 30 or so players left in his mind by the time the real deal begins next September.

Originally posted by seansouth
Could be his last game for us, as he is being released by WBA, and there are no rumours linking him with another club.

I've read Coventry are interested in him?

Originally posted by seansouth
...and another thing...Why is Jason Byrne not included?
Surely his display against Poland warrants a place

He didn't get a touch if I recall?

eirebhoy

Pigman II - Remeber this is a squad for 4 matches in 3 different countries in 10 days, Kerr needs options. There was no cover for O'Shea at LB so Clarke had to get a callup. The only right midielder in the squad, that I can see anyway, is S.Reid so that explains Rowlands inclusion. McGeady is the only debutant that wasn't needed. Douglas, Kennedy, Kinsella, Barrett and Quinn weren't needed.

Pigman II

Originally posted by eirebhoy
Pigman II - Remeber this is a squad for 4 matches in 3 different countries in 10 days, Kerr needs options. There was no cover for O'Shea at LB so Clarke had to get a callup. The only right midielder in the squad, that I can see anyway, is S.Reid so that explains Rowlands inclusion. McGeady is the only debutant that wasn't needed. Douglas, Kennedy, Kinsella, Barrett and Quinn weren't needed.

No I understand that. I just don't like the way Kerr goes 'ok, my Premiership level player in position-X is gone therefore I'll take the next available position-x player going - even if he's playing in Div2 or the EL'. He's sticking too rigidly to 'player for position' no matter how debatable a players quality might be.

Now, I can understand taking in a lower league player as cover if he's a young guy with potential but lets take the case of Martin Rowlands for example. Now no offence to the guy but he is 25 and still playing in Division 2, what does he really have to offer in the long term?

On top of all this I think it is giving out the message to senior players : 'don't worry about turning up for friendlies, we'll just get some jobber to take your place and your place will still be assured for the qualifiers'.

eirebhoy

Originally posted by Pigman II
No I understand that. I just don't like the way Kerr goes 'ok, my Premiership level player in position-X is gone therefore I'll take the next available left back going - even if he's playing in Div2 or the EL'. He's sticking too rigidly to 'player for position' no matter how debatable a players quality might be.

That is the way it works though. O'Shea is not going to be played in all 4 matches so Kerr had to call up another left back. Clarke is obviously the best LB available. The same applies to Rowlands.

May I add, Rowlands scored 12 from midfield and was named QPR's player of the season. He will be playing in division 1 next year and at 25 is still young. We desperately need a permanent right midfielder and I wouldn't be ashamed to have Rowlands fill that gap. He certainly deserves a chance. His inclusion in this Ireland squad is actually the first time I found out he has declared for us.

Kone

Originally posted by eirebhoy
Yeah right, just a player who has about 90mins first team experience. People were calling me mad to call McGeady up so soon. I actually do think its mad.:D Rowlands and Clarke are also big suprises.

What I was actually referring to was the fact that Kerr was fully expected to call
as many players as he could nto the squad for 4 games in 10 days!

I was expecting a lot of chopping and changing for the Unity (tee-hee) Cup!

/Kone