Shane Supple

[Umberside]

With that sort of surname its a real possibility.

I suppose so


But journos usually get their facts right

Not sure about that though

[EalingGreen]

Maybe EG is actually BG?
Nope! Like the IFA, I'm "Original and Best"...;)

[Stuttgart88]

I think you're a bit older than BG anyway, as you said you traveled south for a game in 1977 a while back.

[EalingGreen]

Well, I'd tend to give him the benefit of the doubt, especially if he follows Spurs at all closely it would be common knowledge.

Why would he be reading an Irish soccer forum?
I'm not bothered about it, but having listened to the Podcast, I suspect the process was as follows.
Being Irish, Glendinning guessed he might be asked about Supple, who used to play for "Roy Keane's Ipswich" (c), after all.
As part of his research, he checked to see what the fans were saying, so will have checked ITFC and ROI websites (inc. this one).
Realising from my post that Supple is hardly unique, he then went on to find details of Hall and Woodhouse etc.

I'm pretty sure that he read my post, since he mentioned both players in the context of Spurs, despite their having been with Pompey and Everton upon retirement, with Baardsen actually playing more games for Watford in between than Spurs or Everton.

Also, Glendinning seemed to repeat my comment about Allen and Injuries/Barmy Army etc a little too faithfully for them to have been his invention.

Plus I doubt very much that Glendinning is a Spurs fan, otherwise he'd have mentioned that Baardsen (who was recommended as a youngster to Spurs by their Norwegian keeper, Erik Thorsvedt, btw), was brought up in California. I am pretty certain therefore that he never really bought into the "soccer culture" in Europe, hence his disillusionment with the game.

So if you're reading, Barry, have I got that right? ;)

[EalingGreen]

I think you're a bit older than BG anyway, as you said you traveled south for a game in 1977 a while back.Older and Wiser, I'd say!
Plus you wouldn't really expect me to speak with Glendinning's "Mexican" accent, do you?

(Btw, between Football and Rugby, I'd guess I travelled down to Dublin for matches up to a dozen times during the late 70's)

[endabob1]

Glendenning is from Offaly so I'm pretty sure him & EG are not one and the same

[Philly]

My brother played against him today in GAA. He plays for ST Brigets. One of the Moorefield players commented to a Diblin lad that "you'd much rather be in Croker" and the Dublin lad said out loud he'd "much rather be in Portman Road". Supple had a laugh about it. Aparently he is going to be a chef or something? Anyway, he pulled off some good saves and kept a clean-sheet if Trap is still keeping tabs (you don't have to have a club to play for Ireland after all!)

[SuperDub]

Yea i heard he was only home and he was out training with St Bridgets Seniors. Dont be to surprised if you see him playing in goal for dublin next year.

[youngirish]

Could be becoming a guard:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1213474/EXCLUSIVE-I-quit-escape-players-didn-t-care-says-Shane-Supple.html

[drummerboy]

Could be becoming a guard:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1213474/EXCLUSIVE-I-quit-escape-players-didn-t-care-says-Shane-Supple.html

He played for St Bridgets in the Dublin Championship last week. They were surprisingly knocked out of the competition.

[Lionel Ritchie]

Could be becoming a guard:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1213474/EXCLUSIVE-I-quit-escape-players-didn-t-care-says-Shane-Supple.html


He played for St Bridgets in the Dublin Championship last week. They were surprisingly knocked out of the competition.

:D I suggested a drinking game for one of RTEs cringe inducing GAA celebrations recently. One of the obligatory imbibations was a long, lungful toke on a monster doobie upon mention of the term "Trainee Garda".

[paul_oshea]

Seems to be that ipswich girl was fairly spot on the mark!

Who said he will be dublin keeper in a few years? was he playing in goals or outfield? I wonder would he consider going playing for shamrock rovers. Straight down the m50 and all that :D

Seems like an intelligent level-headed fella. Surely though, playing for Ireland would still be a goal?!

[drummerboy]

Seems to be that ipswich girl was fairly spot on the mark!

Who said he will be dublin keeper in a few years? was he playing in goals or outfield? I wonder would he consider going playing for shamrock rovers. Straight down the m50 and all that :D

Seems like an intelligent level-headed fella. Surely though, playing for Ireland would still be a goal?!

He played in goal. Conceded 2.

[Onefootednopace]

Supple has been called up as sub keeper for the Dubs. Playing Mayo in the NFL on Sunday.

[Dermotron]

Pic of him in the Indo today from the Dub vs Kildare match at the weekend

[Paddy Garcia]

We want Shane............

[tetsujin1979]

Bumping this for the good news!

[sullanefc]

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/shane-supple-sees-way-forward-for-republic-of-ireland-hz0d8pj9f

Doesn't seem like players get a lot of info/tactics in the international setup.

[Stuttgart88]

Any chance you can paste the whole article?

[DeLorean]

Shane Supple sees way forward for Republic of Ireland

Bohemians keeper says Ireland can learn lessons from Gareth Southgate’s England
RYAN BYRNE

England have long been the butt of many jokes, but Martin O’Neill and the Republic of Ireland can learn plenty from what Gareth Southgate’s team achieved at the World Cup, according to one member of the last Irish squad. The Bohemians goalkeeper Shane Supple was drafted in for the end-of-season friendlies against France and the USA and wasn’t particularly impressed by what he saw and heard on his first call-up. Supple quit club football in England at the age of 22 because of attitudes in the game over there and, asked if his international call-up had made him reconsider, he replied: “Quite the opposite. It just confirmed to me my decision to come back.”

Supple was on the bench for both the friendlies and there was plenty about the experience that he liked, even though he was rushing back and forth between playing for Bohemians and training with Ireland. He valued chatting over a cup of tea with old friends such as Seamus Coleman, Jon Walters and Shane Long and catching up on what was happening back across the water.

“From what I heard, the attitudes in dressing rooms has gone on to another level, not necessarily in a good way,” says Supple, who left Ipswich Town in 2009. “The camaraderie is so difficult to get over there because there are so many different nationalities. You have lads who don’t really have a love for the club and it’s difficult to build that. Having been brought up in GAA circles it was difficult for me to comprehend how they couldn’t all be fighting for the same cause.”

If that was the extent of it, then it wouldn’t necessarily represent a problem for Ireland, but Supple is uneasy with some of the practices and attitudes on display in the Ireland camp. There were mitigating factors as he points out, in that these were end-of-season friendlies rather than competitive games.

“It’s a tricky one. You have a lot of inexperienced lads coming in who have an opportunity to get capped for Ireland and are hungry. There are other players there who have a lot of caps and had a long and tough season so the friendlies aren’t coming at an ideal time for them.”

Nonetheless, Supple would like to have seen better practices in place, better habits that he believes breed better teams. “We are not kids any more. We don’t need our mammies and daddies to be looking after us. You throw your dirty gear outside your room and the kit man comes along and picks it up. That wouldn’t be my way of doing things.”

Wasn’t that the kind of thing that Roy Keane fought for, that players shouldn’t have to sweat the small stuff and could just concentrate on their football?

“There is a balance. You have to take responsibility for yourself and you have to build character, if we want to improve our national team. We have got to start creating better people as well. The way to do that is to not let them be disrespectful or think everything is going to be done for them because of their status as professional footballers. They are playing for their national team. I don’t know whether you would see the Irish rugby lads doing that or the All Blacks. They have systems in place, self-regulated by the players. In rugby or GAA, it’s all player-driven.”

After studying the All Blacks model, Southgate decentralised decision-making as much as he could and England players adopted their own code of conduct, which included a ban on the use of mobile phones at the dining table. Irish teams down the years have also policed themselves and reacted badly when managers such as Giovanni Trapattoni made too many rules. However, Supple believes that the ethos of the Ireland camp needs to be re-addressed.

“Look at the England team and how Southgate has improved them. He has given them that kind of identity which we wouldn’t have associated with England in the past. Self-regulation would enhance the [Ireland] group and make them improve as a unit and as a team. Something similar enough to the mobile phones at the dinner table and bringing your laundry down to the laundry room. Bits and pieces like that. Being respectful to the staff. I am not saying they weren’t, it’s just something which could be brought in as well, in terms of creating the values and ethics of a team. Anybody coming in knows exactly that this is the way we do things and if you don’t come on board there are consequences. Most modern-day teams are taking initiatives along those lines to create their own culture.”

Some of Supple’s thinking is influenced by his involvement with the Dublin Gaelic footballers in 2013 under the guidance of Jim Gavin. Since returning to Dublin, he has also thrown himself into studying sports performance and work as a life coach. Martin O’Neill might argue that some of his ideas are a bit like reinventing the wheel. Supple and O’Neill did talk in the dressing room after the 2-0 defeat by France in Paris, but it was mostly about Gaelic football and O’Neill’s own experiences playing for the Derry minors in the late 1960s.

“He is similar to Joe Royle, who I played under at Ipswich. Joe would stand back and watch training from a distance and let his coaching staff look after all that. He would pick the team on a Saturday. ‘You are men, go out and play’. That is the way it is. The game has evolved a lot since then and players are maybe looking for a bit more direction, with the information and the technology available. That is there for the international team as well and a lot of the lads utilise it, but Martin I suppose would leave it up to the boys themselves. Again that kind of an old attitude; ‘You are grown men and this is way it is. Go out on the pitch and do your job’. Simple as that.”

Is it as simple as that any more, even with the no-frills Ireland team? Supple’s forthright comments should be studied closely rather than dismissed.

[Stuttgart88]

That's actually an infuriating read. O'Neill is some effing chancer.

[Eminence Grise]

This won't endear him to you, Stutts. Apparently the only way we can do what Croatia did is by getting our players into top clubs... No mention of what kind of coaching might be required for that to happen though.

https://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/international-soccer/martin-oneill-on-what-ireland-need-to-do-to-emulate-croatias-world-cup-heroics-37129993.html

[Stuttgart88]

I read that in the print edition this morning, thanks. At least he name-checked Sweden too, and if you were to take him totally on face value, it's not too unrealistic to say we'll never get to a WC final without having players at top clubs.

But I still think - reading between the lines - that he's still banging on about what he said 3-4 years ago about not having any quality players. He loves talking about his historic success, Brian Clough, unlucky to lose Coleman, if only James McLean had scored, bladdy bleeding blah.

Much as I'd love to have Mick back in charge I can't help thinking our path to glory involves Stephen Kenny aided by a leading Mick-era ex-player like Steven Reid, Lee Carsley. Someone who'll not only manage the senior side but help join the whole structure up.