trouble in the irish team

[stickyjoe]

was reading in the herald at the weekend that there is a lot of problems in the irish camp. particularly between given and kerr. paul hyland(who admittedly is well known for writing ****e) also goes on about players giving each other stick. does anybody know if theres any truth in these stories

[NeilMcD]

Dont believe a word that fool talks about, Maybe someone argued with someone, but arguments happen all the time its how you deal with them that counts. He is a fool that has nothing intelligent to write so writes this rubbish all the time

[pete]

was reading in the herald...

Shame on you!

[tricky_colour]

And by the way . . who the f*** reads the Herald anyway?

Stickyjoe presumably ;)

[ken foree]

what's the proverb.. 'the irish are the most fair-minded race: they never speak well of one another.' hopefully just tabloid gunk

[brine3]

If that's how Given plays when there's friction between him and the manager... long may it live.

[deadman]

i did hear about this time last year, from a source close to the dunny monster, that apparently kerr was struggling to win over the dressing room ... hopefully this is all the past or was just some hyland-esque bs

[NeilMcD]

And where was the hunny monster in the last squad

[TerryPhelan]

I had heard that there has been quite a bit of unrest in the Irish camp, and it came from ex-Heddled sources.

Apparently Kenny Cunningham and a couple of others were raging at Kerr giving the green light to so many fans being allowed to watch the final Irish training session before the Czech game.
Rumours also abound that Stevie Carr has been ****ed off from day one of Kerr's reign, and it was one of a series of run-ins that led him to excusing himself from first team duty at the last minute against the Czechs.
Earlier in the friendly campaign Mattie Holland supposedly gave out about how they were 'analysing other teams to death' with what was apparently over-zealous preparation - 'endless' video analysis, statistical assessment of performances etc. Given that this is a man of the post-Harry's Challenge era and accordingly would not be inclined to view Irish duty as the bladderfest it was of old, it did seem like a minor cause for worry at the time.

It is surprising though, given that these boys play Premiership and should be used to the uber-science involved in pre match prepapation - Irish duty should hold no great shocks to the system (particularly since all of the above are McCarthy old boys, and it was he who introduced the system of video analysis to the Irish squad's preparation).
Hope it's all much ado about nothing, though I have detected some general lack of shape and togetherness about the team lately - probably to be expected now and in future though, given how Kerr has professed his perfectly rational plan to shape the team to the fixture and not blindly stick with the same XI for the entire campaign, as Big Mick did (an intransigence that ultimately cost him). The downside of this, of course, is that the players will not get any proper stab at gelling together as a unit. :(

I trust Kerr though, and even if we don't qualify for this World Cup, we would be mad to get rid of him. Our Mick hung on for three and a bit qualifying campaigns, it would be very unjust to someone who was rung in so many improvements in such a short time such as Kerr not to grant him the same crack of the whip. Get behind him, I say, players and fans alike.

[4tothefloor]

Stephen Carr is crap for Ireland anyway and should be dropped for the French game after his disgraceful performance in Basle. He'll probably still make the team though cos it looks like Andy Reid is going to be playing lots of reserve team football between now and Paris, which means Finnan will probably have to start elsewhere other than right-back.

[eirebhoy]

Stephen Carr is crap for Ireland anyway and should be dropped for the French game after his disgraceful performance in Basle. He'll probably still make the team though cos it looks like Andy Reid is going to be playing lots of reserve team football between now and Paris, which means Finnan will probably have to start elsewhere other than right-back.
1 bad performance and Carr is suddenly "crap for Ireland". :confused:

[TerryPhelan]

1 bad performance and Carr is suddenly "crap for Ireland". :confused:

To be fair, he has been a shadow of his former self. Compared to his form for us in the WC 2002 qualifiers he has been crap for Ireland. The fact that he is such an angry ******* and has taken to giving out **** to his team-mates in the middle of play (as in Basle) doesn't exactly put him number one on the 'Positive Contributors to Team Morale' list, especially since his performances do not cover up such brattish moodiness.

Obviously the same could be said for the Boy from the Lee with the dodgy knee! :o

[Plastic Paddy]

To be fair, he has been a shadow of his former self. Compared to his form for us in the WC 2002 qualifiers he has been crap for Ireland. The fact that he is such an angry ******* and has taken to giving out **** to his team-mates in the middle of play (as in Basle) doesn't exactly put him number one on the 'Positive Contributors to Team Morale' list, especially since his performances do not cover up such brattish moodiness.

Well, maybe his change of club and yesterday's excellent winning goal in their game will help him dust off some of the cobwebs. Neither factors will do any harm.

:) PP

[eirebhoy]

To be fair, he has been a shadow of his former self. Compared to his form for us in the WC 2002 qualifiers he has been crap for Ireland.
He has got assists against Norway, Turkey and Albania since Kerr took over and isn't doing too bad defensively. Ireland have 7 clean sheets from Carr's 13 starts. Carr started Kerr's first 8 games in charge and when Carr was left on the bench for the Turkey game Turkey scored 2 goals from crosses from the left. I can't remember him being at fault for any of the 7 goals conceded in Carr's 13 starts either. Certainly not bad for a player out of form. :)

[ken foree]

overall i like carr but sometimes his attitude on the pitch seems a bit tetchy. i suppose you could put it down to desire :p he was sleepy for the goal v. saints yesterday but obviously more than made up for it

[TerryPhelan]

Well, maybe his change of club and yesterday's excellent winning goal in their game will help him dust off some of the cobwebs. Neither factors will do any harm.

:) PP

True, plus it can only be a good thing that himself, O' Brien and Given share as much time in the same defence as possible. I think Andy O has done superbly well for us so far, though he is a little too relaxed on the ball at times... I would still pick Carr against the Frogs with O' Shea at left back mostly because when there is so little between each of our players in terms of form, consistency is a very important factor in selection of a defence. Which is why, though I concede that Finnan's form is marginally less shady than Carr's at the moment, SC's transfer to Newcastle gives him an edge over Finnan.