Jonathan Macken

[Bowsy]

Have just read Macken is keen to declare for the Republic. Apparently he has played for England u21s but under new rules is eligible. Does anyone know how he qualifies? Looks a decent player. Doesn't look like a natural goal scorer but holds the ball up well and does a good job. Cracking goal last night. Can beggars be choosers?

[only1kilbane]

if he can qualify he should deffo be given a go ! its not like we have many strikers playing in the premier ! the fact city paid £5m for him shows he must have some ability. Id also include kevin nolan a regular scorer against some of the top clubs before england play him to stop him playing for anyone else !!! :)

[Dodge]

:rolleyes:

[nifan]

Originally posted by Bowsy
Can beggars be choosers?

:D :D :D heh heh

[Daxion]

Originally posted by nifan
:D :D :D heh heh

At least the Republic know where the net is, unlike our Northern comrades

[Condex]

I was at the game last night.

Macken looked quite useful, we need a forward and I don't really care where we get him from or who he has played for in the past.
Otherwise we might as well forget about qualifying for the World cup..

Carr and Keane both played quite well.
Dunne looked as dodgy as ever.

[finlma]

I saw Macken in the original game and he missed 2 sitters. However he seemed good last night and that was an excellent header. The more strikers we have to choose from the better.

One thing that was proved last night was that Stevie Carr is no captain. That was an appalling turn around and the captain has to hold some blame in not getting the team to perform.

[Condex]

Agreed, Carr is no captain, but had a very good first half.

I really think hes just going through the motions until he gets another club.

[Bowsy]

Can he be any less committed than Clinton at the end of the day? The fact is given the choice Clinton would play for England but we need forwards so when a premiership forward is eligible we can't turn our noses up. Our current options to partner Keane are meagre - Morrison, Connolly, Lee, The Doc and a bunch of promising but unproven youngsters. We need players to fill a hole while the likes of Elliott hopefully develop. As for NIFAN, I wouldn't think anyone who got shot down be Lee Trundle would have anything to laugh about.

[Junior]

Originally posted by Bowsy
. As for NIFAN, I wouldn't think anyone who got shot down be Lee Trundle would have anything to laugh about.

To be fair I think Nifan was having a laught at the irony of the original statement 'beggars belief' get it??

it seems this was lost on a couple of posters here

[Bowsy]

Getcha now. You don't have to get up too early in the morning to get one past me.

[nifan]

Originally posted by Junior
To be fair I think Nifan was having a laught at the irony of the original statement 'beggars belief' get it??

it seems this was lost on a couple of posters here

I was indeed. I have a simple sense of humour:)

[Macy]

I think Macken would be a Massive for Ireland....

[pingpongbob]

Hello, I'm new here, nice site....on Macken, he's 26, the F.A.I. should set an age limit to players who commit to the ROI, maybe 21, this way the fans can be assured that the ROI ain't their second choice.....Look at Kilbane, Connolly....McGeady at Celtic... they all declared before 21 and I don't think they were that cynical about their abilities that they'd never make England or the Scotland teams.... they genuinely had the ROI at the top of the list.... Wasn't Lee Trundle part of the Liverpool youth set-up? Why not declare when he was with them?...Darren Potter did.

[tetsujin1979]

Think Trundle never thought he'd make it so he never committed himself to any country. You sure about him being on Liverpool's books? Pretty sure he's an Everton fan. He was definately on Preston's books though, that's why it was particularly sweet to knock them out of the cup.

He'd admitted it's only been in the last 2 seasons or so that he finally copped himself on and started applying himself in training and working on his fitness, and that is the reason he's only made it onto the scene this season

[pingpongbob]

Originally posted by tetsujin1979
Think Trundle never thought he'd make it so he never committed himself to any country. You sure about him being on Liverpool's books? Pretty sure he's an Everton fan. He was definately on Preston's books though, that's why it was particularly sweet to knock them out of the cup.

He'd admitted it's only been in the last 2 seasons or so that he finally copped himself on and started applying himself in training and working on his fitness, and that is the reason he's only made it onto the scene this season


You're right, he's from Liverpool, didn't play for them, checked Soccerbase.com no Liverpool or Everton.

[Condex]

He was born in 77, so if he hasn't made an impact by now,
is he worth bothering about.

[fromthenorthffs]

a thought that just occured to me is that it should have been Richard Sadlier doing this by now, and its a real shame he can't

[Plastic Paddy]

Originally posted by fromthenorthffs
a thought that just occured to me is that it should have been Richard Sadlier doing this by now, and its a real shame he can't

Hear hear. We lost a striker with real potential. Hope life is working out for Sads now...

:) PP

[fromthenorthffs]

I guess it will be real hard for him to watch the Brazil game cos it should be the highpoint of his career so far

[Andyh]

Trundle was a late starter, don't think he came into the game, professional anyway until he was 23.

[Plastic Paddy]

Originally posted by Andyh
Trundle was a late starter, don't think he came into the game, professional anyway until he was 23.

That's right - he was playing for Rhyl and scoring for fun in the League of Wales when picked up by Wrexham for £50k. He dropped down a division in signing for Swansea on a Bosman - following their director of football Brian Flynn - at the start of this season.

:D PP

[Andyh]

Anyway i'm happy for Trundle to play for the south, as i wouldn't want to subject the NI players to that voice. Was on goals on sunday a couple of weeks ago, he makes Beckham sound cool.:D

[Grafter]

Who was the better player for Ireland in their limited appearances :-) Jonathon Macken, Joseph Lapira, Owen Coyle or Mickey Evans?????

[CraftyToePoke]

Jon Goodman trumps them all for me. Quality.

[TrapAPony]

Paul Butler must be up there too

[Serb]

I remember being pretty optimistic about Macken's inclusion in the Ireland squad at the time. Of course in hindsight, he was muck, but he was playing in the Premier League and I had just seen him score the 4th goal for Manchester City in the 4-3 turnaround against Tottenham Hotspur in the FA Cup. For some reason, based on that, I decided that he must be really good. City had paid a good bit of cash for him too (£5,000,000 in 2002). He's probably one of the more expensive Irish internationals. Anyway, I seem to remember we only capped him in the one game he played to tie him to Ireland (he had previously played for an underage England team). Did he ever get anywhere near another Ireland squad?

[Olé Olé]

I'm just reading down through the posts in this thread. It's a tremendous improvement in fortune with the selection of strikers we have to choose from. Keane, Long, Doyle, Keogh, Cox, Walters and Best. And the three best strikers out of the lot are born and bred Irishmen who have never lined out at underage for any other national side (Tipp minors doesn't count).

I've nothing against English-born players claiming for Ireland, it's just positive to have Shane Long doing well in the Premiership, rather than asking Jon Macken nicely to play with us.

It seems that the North is the new England too when it comes to players claiming for us having previously lined out for a different football association.

That's probably on the back of the Good Friday agreement which allows players born in the North to carry Irish passports and play for Ireland :rolleyes:

I'm kidding with that last bit, by the way.

[Grafter]

I'm just reading down through the posts in this thread. It's a tremendous improvement in fortune with the selection of strikers we have to choose from. Keane, Long, Doyle, Keogh, Cox, Walters and Best. And the three best strikers out of the lot are born and bred Irishmen who have never lined out at underage for any other national side (Tipp minors doesn't count).

I've nothing against English-born players claiming for Ireland, it's just positive to have Shane Long doing well in the Premiership, rather than asking Jon Macken nicely to play with us.

It seems that the North is the new England too when it comes to players claiming for us having previously lined out for a different football association.

That's probably on the back of the Good Friday agreement which allows players born in the North to carry Irish passports and play for Ireland :rolleyes:

I'm kidding with that last bit, by the way.

It's true, we've never had more strikers than at this time... Walters late-elevation has been a surprise bonus too! I recall a time 97-98 when we were praying David Connolly would get a game at Feyenoord, Cascarino was old really old, Quinn's back was fecked, David Kelly was playing midfield for his club, Tommy Coyne was approaching mid 30s, O' Neill was constantly crocked and Aldo had retired... how we prayed Chris Armstrong would find it in his heart to play for us:shock:

[Stuttgart88]

Grafter, where have you been all these years? In prison with no internet?

[Grafter]

Grafter, where have you been all these years? In prison with no internet?
Thanks Stuttgart88, actually I've been trying to get on here for years but the fact that I only had a hotmail account posed a problem come registration. Believe it or not, it took doing a night course this year and subsequent college email address for me to be accept here:rolleyes:

[theworm2345]

Macken is now playing for Northwich Victoria in the Northern Premier League Division One South which I believe is the 8th tier of English football. That's still one level of above Joe O'Cearuill.

[DannyInvincible]

Call him up, Trap!

[CraftyToePoke]

Macken is now playing for Northwich Victoria in the Northern Premier League Division One South which I believe is the 8th tier of English football. That's still one level of above Joe O'Cearuill.

Madness, this means he will play my local side who are in that division this season, might pop down for a peak at what a £5 million pound player looks like.

[Yard of Pace]

Madness, this means he will play my local side who are in that division this season, might pop down for a peak at what a £5 million pound player looks like.

In fairness he's 35. He was a £5m player 10 years ago. If he was a piece of furniture, he'd have depreciated fully by now.

[CraftyToePoke]

In fairness he's 35. He was a £5m player 10 years ago. If he was a piece of furniture, he'd have depreciated fully by now.


It's strange, I've seen lads winding down their careers at this club on a few occasions, Julian Joachim, Guy Whittingham and a handful more. If you didn't know who they were, I'd challenge anyone to pick out the ex Prem player among the nearly men of non league.

Funnily, Gerry Taggart was the exception, absolutely stood out when I saw him playing for Tamworth Vs my local side. He didn't break sweat, just read it perfectly all game long. Didn't miss a beat, even when I told him he had lovely tits these days as he collected a ball for a throw in.