Aaron Connolly F Millwall b.2000

[paul_oshea]

I've heard some argue he's not in great physical condition. I'm not convinced. Despite criticism of his lifestyle I think he's vain enough to like his six-pack but I'm sure those working with him at close quarters know the truth here.
https://twitter.com/kieran_b_sport/status/1520008168402735106?s=24&t=sAteHi9YRGnTois56GHoeg

Personally I don't think he's good enough. He hasn't been able to transition from boys to men's football. But he's doing himself few favours and few sympathisers with the above

[liamoo11]

https://twitter.com/kieran_b_sport/status/1520008168402735106?s=24&t=sAteHi9YRGnTois56GHoeg

Personally I don't think he's good enough. He hasn't been able to transition from boys to men's football. But he's doing himself few favours and few sympathisers with the above

6 months ago the same types were saying obafemi would be playing non league in a season or 2 now it's Connolly who is going to be playing league of ireland (which is a fine standard when people want jack byrne in the squad ). Connolly has attributes that make him very much of an addition to us and championship/ premier league clubs .

[SkStu]

https://twitter.com/kieran_b_sport/status/1520008168402735106?s=24&t=sAteHi9YRGnTois56GHoeg

Personally I don't think he's good enough. He hasn't been able to transition from boys to men's football. But he's doing himself few favours and few sympathisers with the above

Its a bad look alright. He does himself absolutely no favours when it comes to the question marks around his professionalism

[John83]

6 months ago the same types were saying obafemi would be playing non league in a season or 2 now it's Connolly who is going to be playing league of ireland (which is a fine standard when people want jack byrne in the squad ). Connolly has attributes that make him very much of an addition to us and championship/ premier league clubs .
The opinion of some punter of twitter is not worth getting this worked up over. More gifted players than Connolly have failed to make the grade. Less gifted ones have thrived. All we know for sure is he's not setting the world alight right now.

[paul_oshea]

Its a bad look alright. He does himself absolutely no favours when it comes to the question marks around his professionalism

Generally, or personally I don't care about lads going out and doing whatever, we were all young once but when you're on the lowest rung of social media talking about stuff like that surrounded by jersey-tugging-knicker-droppers you're really not helping your cause when you're not performing for your club. Same as anyone holding down a job who has bad performances who's out till all hours of the night on school nights. The conclusion to draw is none of this would matter if he was banging goals in for Boro

[Razors left peg]

6 months ago the same types were saying obafemi would be playing non league in a season or 2 now it's Connolly who is going to be playing league of ireland (which is a fine standard when people want jack byrne in the squad ). Connolly has attributes that make him very much of an addition to us and championship/ premier league clubs .

He has attributes that could make him brilliant, that's the frustrating part.

People were saying Obafemi was going to be a L2 player because he looked crap and there was a lot of stories about how unprofessional he was. By all accounts he changed that and knuckled down. You can even see how his body shape changed. Hard work changed his performances on the pitch.

Obafemi should now be the poster boy for Connolly on how a change of attitude can go a long way. A lack of professionalism has killed the career of many a young Irish lad

[liamoo11]

He has attributes that could make him brilliant, that's the frustrating part.

People were saying Obafemi was going to be a L2 player because he looked crap and there was a lot of stories about how unprofessional he was. By all accounts he changed that and knuckled down. You can even see how his body shape changed. Hard work changed his performances on the pitch.

Obafemi should now be the poster boy for Connolly on how a change of attitude can go a long way. A lack of professionalism has killed the career of many a young Irish lad

Fair enough. I'd like to see some compassion for these lads from supporters. Yes he hasn't had a successful loan but there has been no doubting his commitment or work rate with his manager praising him for that .

He seems to have lost some of his cockiness and confidence in front of goal and needs a few goals hopefully to get it back.

Sucking in helium from a balloon and been drunk with similar aged consenting yiung women isn't the worst behaviour for a 22 year old surely. It's just sad that some loser in his group videos him and then sends it around to embarrass him. Hopefully Kenny includes him in the summer to give him some confidence

[Razors left peg]

The thing is though Liamoo, a 22 year old footballer isn't the same as the rest of us. They get paid to look after their bodies and the lads that take that more seriously thrive. Those that don't just become another d1ckhead in the bar in years to come talking about what might have been

[John83]

https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2022/0531/1302228-david-connolly-aaron-has-a-bit-of-work-to-do/

Former Republic of Ireland striker David Connolly says Aaron Connolly must park his ego and accept he has to prove himself in the Championship, or lower, to kickstart his stuttering club and international career...

[seanfhear]

https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2022/0531/1302228-david-connolly-aaron-has-a-bit-of-work-to-do/
He’ll soon have to pee or get off the potty alright.

[Stuttgart88]

When David Connolly questions your attitude you know you're in trouble

[sadloserkid]

The man scored 193 senior club goals (I just looked at his Wiki page obviously). Was there an attitude problem there or was he just a lad who didn't quite match up to the early hype? It's a running joke with certain friends that I'm like a search engine for footballers' misdemeanours and I'm drawing a blank (or have erased from memory) whatever Dave Connolly got up to.

[CraftyToePoke]

The man scored 193 senior club goals (I just looked at his Wiki page obviously). Was there an attitude problem there or was he just a lad who didn't quite match up to the early hype? It's a running joke with certain friends that I'm like a search engine for footballers' misdemeanours and I'm drawing a blank (or have erased from memory) whatever Dave Connolly got up to.

No tabloid kodak moments come to mind, but wasn't he known to be particularly .... self assured .... lets say ?

[tetsujin1979]

Was it Givens who rang him to come into a squad and Connolly said he should have been first choice?

[Diggs246]

Was it Givens who rang him to come into a squad and Connolly said he should have been first choice?

His exact words " what do I owe the honor of this call"!!!

[sadloserkid]

If towering self-regard is his biggest faux pas I'd happily enough give him a pass. 😁

[Razors left peg]

Im not sure I believe anything from Don Givens.

I think Connolly was a bit unlucky that his career coincided with Robbie. He would have gotten a lot more caps otherwise

[seanfhear]

His exact words " what do I owe the honor of this call"!!!
Is that from the Horse’s Mouth ?

[Stuttgart88]

yeah, that's true. Givens himself said so. I think his spelling had a u in it though :)

[SkStu]

His exact words " what do I owe the honor of this call"!!!


Im not sure I believe anything from Don Givens.

these both made me laugh for different reasons :D

At the end of the day... Two Connollys from Galway; the w@nkery must run deep in that Galway Connolly lineage ;)

[CraftyToePoke]

I thought he said, well, Don, to what do I owe this pleasure ?

Anyway, stuff of legend. Aul Don wouldn't handle that at all

[Razors left peg]

these both made me laugh for different reasons :D

At the end of the day... Two Connollys from Galway; the w@nkery must run deep in that Galway Connolly lineage ;)

Steady now....... ;)

[CraftyToePoke]

Clutching a piece of paper in his right-hand, Givens continued: "The conversation on the 'phone on Saturday evening went 'Hello David, it's Don Givens, are you fit?' He said 'to what do I owe the honour of this phone call?'

"I said 'I would like you to join the squad tomorrow.' And he said 'Why was I not selected in the original squad?' I said 'That was the choice I made.'

"Then he said 'I should be the number one striker for Ireland, not number five.'

All here : https://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/givens-holds-his-ground-in-war-of-words-with-striker-connolly-26027770.html

It was honour.

[Razors left peg]

All here : https://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/givens-holds-his-ground-in-war-of-words-with-striker-connolly-26027770.html

It was honour.

Reading that again Givens comes across as a complete tw@t

[CraftyToePoke]

Whoever the other four strikers were * we ended up with none & Glenn Crowe being replaced by Rory Delap in a 0-0

* ( guessing Keane / Quinn / Morrison / Duff ) or have I forgotten one instead of Duff ?

[elatedscum]

Whoever the other four strikers were * we ended up with none & Glenn Crowe being replaced by Rory Delap in a 0-0

* ( guessing Keane / Quinn / Morrison / Duff ) or have I forgotten one instead of Duff ?

Gary Doherty and Graham Barrett. Quinn would have been retired. Duffer as a winger.

[Eirambler]

For all Aaron's flaws he has already played more Premier League games and scored more Premier League goals than David Connolly ever did.

David was an Irish player I was never able to warm to, always seemed to have an over confidence in himself that wasn't backed up by his ability at the highest level.

As for Aaron, his next step is crucial. He may not have much interest from Championship teams after a fairly disastrous loan move to Middlesbrough. But if he can get fully fit, fully focused and find a team with a setup that lets him run off defenders and find a bit of space out wide he could be a great loan signing for a team at the right level. Unfortunately that level might now have to be League 1 or maybe even somewhere like Aberdeen.

[paul_oshea]

these both made me laugh for different reasons :D

At the end of the day... Two Connollys from Galway; the w@nkery must run deep in that Galway Connolly lineage ;)

It's a C thing in Galway :P

[Razors left peg]

It's a C thing in Galway :P

Nuthin' but a C thang!

[SkStu]

It's a C thing in Galway :P

Steady now…… :D

[Fixer82]

Givens fell out with numerous players when managing underage squads. Connolly was injured at the time anyway. His side of the story was Givens didn't give him a chance to say he was injured and hung up on him and went straight to the press.

Connolly was definitely very confident in his scoring abilities but yes, he was unlucky to coincide with Robbie. When he was on form he was a lethal poacher. He was unlucky in Premiership. Scored a screamer on his debut with Wigan and then got injured and couldn't regain form/fitness properly.

[Trequartista20]

Reportedly in talks with Venezia, relegated from Serie A last season.

https://m.independent.ie/sport/soccer/aaron-connolly-in-talks-with-italian-serie-b-club-venezia-41833745.html

[JR89]

Loan move to Italy confirmed by Venezia.

[pineapple stu]

Same level as Liam Kerrigan and Gianluigi Buffon.

Make of that which you will!

[seanfhear]

I hope he makes a go of it. Maybe the hot weather will be good for him physically.

[Exgrad]

Shows how much his stock has fallen...hopefully he can rebuild things over there out of the spotlight. He'll have year left on his contract at end of season so likely to be moving on one way or another at that point.

[ontheotherhand]

Same level as Liam Kerrigan and Gianluigi Buffon.

Make of that which you will!

Will we finally get our answer to the LoI player vs Buffon debate stu?

[pineapple stu]

Don't go there otoh - don't go there!! :p

[ontheotherhand]

Ah come on, it might be the only interesting thing to happen on this thread moving forward....

Hope it works out for him but also hope Kerrigan outscores him just for the laugh. We can do an in no way at all limited case study then on players who leave for England at a young age versus those who stay at home and get their education before moving abroad to play.

[pineapple stu]

Hope it works out for him but also hope Kerrigan outscores him just for the laugh.
I'll drink to that anyway!

[Fixer82]

A change of scene like this could be a great move for him.

[samhaydenjr]

A change of scene like this could be a great move for him.

Be good to get away from the party culture he seems to have enjoyed a bit too much in the last year or so

[Predator]

The move to Venezia and Serie B on the surface seems like a step backwards, but there are attendant (potential) positives. A change of scenery with fewer distractions can only be good for a young footballer. Then, the proximity means there's the chance that he might even manage to turn a few heads in Serie A... Good luck to him.

[liamoo11]

Delighted he has made the move would have been easy to stick around at Brighton. Hopefully couple of goals gets the confidence going.

[elatedscum]

A change of scene like this could be a great move for him.


Be good to get away from the party culture he seems to have enjoyed a bit too much in the last year or so


The move to Venezia and Serie B on the surface seems like a step backwards, but there are attendant (potential) positives. A change of scenery with fewer distractions can only be good for a young footballer. Then, the proximity means there's the chance that he might even manage to turn a few heads in Serie A... Good luck to him.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Palermo’s chairman on Kyle Lafferty:

“He is an out-of-control*womaniser, an Irishman without rules. He is someone who disappears for a week and goes on the hunt for women in Milan. He has two families with six children, he never trains, he’s completely off the rails. On the field he’s a great player, because he gave us everything he had and more. In terms of his*behaviour, however, he is uncontrollable. My Coach told me he cannot sort this player out, so he has to go.”

[seanfhear]

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Palermo’s chairman on Kyle Lafferty:

“He is an out-of-control*womaniser, an Irishman without rules. He is someone who disappears for a week and goes on the hunt for women in Milan. He has two families with six children, he never trains, he’s completely off the rails. On the field he’s a great player, because he gave us everything he had and more. In terms of his*behaviour, however, he is uncontrollable. My Coach told me he cannot sort this player out, so he has to go.”
Lafferty didn’t have a bad career considering that this may have been going for a lot of it ! !

[MylesNotMiley]

"He is someone who disappears for a week and goes on the hunt for women in Milan.”

Why did he go all the way to Milan from Palermo? It's Italy, it's not like there would be a shortage of beautiful women in the country.

[seanfhear]

Why did he go all the way to Milan from Palermo? It's Italy, it's not like there would be a shortage of beautiful women in the country.
Perhaps the Women in Sicily might not be the Women to be messing about with i.e. Mafia.

[Trequartista20]

Perhaps the Women in Sicily might not be the Women to be messing about with i.e. Mafia.

He might have found himself sleeping wid da fishes.

[geysir]

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Palermo’s chairman on Kyle Lafferty:

“He is an out-of-control*womaniser, an Irishman without rules. He is someone who disappears for a week and goes on the hunt for women in Milan. He has two families with six children, he never trains, he’s completely off the rails. On the field he’s a great player, because he gave us everything he had and more. In terms of his*behaviour, however, he is uncontrollable. My Coach told me he cannot sort this player out, so he has to go.”
When it comes to womanising and diving, Lafferty should be more accurately described as being British.