David Connolly

[dr_peepee]

They have the same agent (Advisor Lawyer or whatever he is) Micheal Kennedy.

A very shrewd low risk signing by Keane given his record at Championship level and Keanes personal exposure to him in squads. Nothing more, even if they are 'Buds' I sincerely doubt that would be a factor.

Connolly on form should be in the squad.

[youngirish]

How quickly people forget. David Connolly is cr*p at International level. Always was and always will be. He was the John O'Shea of his day. Always on the teamsheet (in the early years) but never contributing anything of note to justify his being there.

His performances ranged from the inconspicuous to the plain terrible against anyone other than p*ss poor opposition. This nonsense about calling him up because we are going through a (very) bad patch is being supported by many of the same people who were pushing for O'Shea to be a mainstay of our midfield at the end of last season after Ferguson was forced to put him there due to injuries to other players. This despite his previous 36 consecutive terrible performances in an Ireland shirt. I see he has really made that position his own this season at United and again has continued in his rich vein of form for Ireland.

The goldfish brigade I call them.

Answer me this how can recalling a player who couldn't score for us when we were a better team (with admittedly poorer strikers though) who created far more chances for our strikers than we do now possibly help us in the situation we find ourselves in? And as for Connolly being on form. Anyone who knows anything about the player would realise he has always been on form playing in poorer leagues against poorer quality opposition (Wimbledon, West Ham, Watford, Excelsior) while he was always struggled when playing at higher levels (Ireland, Feyenord, Wigan). Get a clue.

[gustavo]

Answer me this how can recalling a player who couldn't score for us when we were a better team (with admittedly poorer strikers though) who created far more chances for our strikers than we do now possibly help us in the situation we find ourselves in? And as for Connolly being on form. Anyone who knows anything about the player would realise he has always been on form playing in poorer leagues against poorer quality opposition (WImbledon, West Ham, Watford, Excelsior) while he was always struggled when playing at higher levels (Ireland, Feyenord, Wigan). Get a clue.


Playing devil's advocate here , but maybe because he is a better player now than he was then?

[dr_peepee]

:rolleyes: O.K Young Irish

You forgot his loan spell at wolves and his time at Leicester!

We're all deluded in believing Wavey Davey Connolly is the world beater up front we've been waiting fpr aren't we... Living in the land of Chocolate on Lollypop lane!!... Following the Keane band wagon like lttle automotan droids

Or is it that he's easliy one of the 23 best performing Irish players in Club football at the moment. Or more to the point one of the 4 best performing forwards at the moment... And not just his goals.

[eirebhoy]

How quickly people forget. David Connolly is cr*p at International level.
It's nothing to do with forgetting. Connolly has been crap beside Robbie Keane and Keane hasn't been much better. When he's not partnering Keane he's far from crap. As for not scoring for us, 9 goals in 20-25 starts isn't a bad return. We bring up his goalscoring and he gets stick because he scored 3 of them against Liechtenstein. If it was that easy it wouldn't have taken 10 years for another Irish player to do it.

[SuperDave]

Simply put Connolly is a genius at Championship level and a mug at any level above that.

and who are Wales and Slovakia's centre back pairings? Rob Edwards? Danny Gabbidon? Hardly Fabio Cannavaro.

And Stan Varga and Martin Petras hardly inspire deep seated fear in centre forwards either (that said, i think Varga, training with Connolly, should be smart enough to figure out how to stop him or Stokes for that matter).

[pete]

When we get drawn against Liechtenstein Connoy can come back.

[cavan_fan]

A big striker of his ability would be a shoo-in. However we have a number of tricky, relatively little strikers and so I can see no benefit of having him ahead of Keane, Doyle, Stokes etc etc.

[republicofwhite]

cavan_fan, you missed a glorious "insert Cillian Sheridan plug here" opportunity there...

[cavan_fan]

cavan_fan, you missed a glorious "insert Cillian Sheridan plug here" opportunity there...

I take this as read, in fact both Sheridan and Dixon are big lads, it's the Cavan genes.

[youngirish]

I take this as read, in fact both Sheridan and Dixon are big lads, it's the Cavan genes.
Are they mean bas*ards aswell?

[zinedineontour]

we should be playing our form strikers and connolly is deffinitely that .. And a little bit off the point but as mentioned earlier if people think Stokes was dropped just for a training mix up they are a long way off the mark. Connolly is full of confidence and on great form so should be picked end of. We dont have a wealth of choice and connolly keane and doyle should be fighting it out for the 2 striking positions.. But no lets just pick andy keogh in the squad or stokes who have not scored for their new clubs yet ..

[eirebhoy]

zidane - I appreciate you backing Connolly up but you're using Stokes unfairly to help your argument imo. You're a Sunderland fan, you should know that Stokes has scored for you. You should also know he played very well on the left wing against Birmingham. You said last week that he was dropped from the squad for disciplinary reasons, that's fair enough. He certainly wasn't dropped from the squad due to form. You know that.

[as_i_say]

care to expand on the stokes discipline incident-havent heard about this

[youngirish]

we should be playing our form strikers and connolly is deffinitely that .. And a little bit off the point but as mentioned earlier if people think Stokes was dropped just for a training mix up they are a long way off the mark. Connolly is full of confidence and on great form so should be picked end of. We dont have a wealth of choice and connolly keane and doyle should be fighting it out for the 2 striking positions.. But no lets just pick andy keogh in the squad or stokes who have not scored for their new clubs yet ..
Connolly fighting it out for one of our two striking positions with Keane and Doyle? Is glue still the in thing up in Sunderland? Zinedineontour you wouldn't even utter a whisper about Staunton touching Connolly with a barge pole if he wasn't a regular starter for your beloved Sunderland. I don't remember you harping on about his inclusion in previous squads when he was playing for Wigan or Leicester. Try not to be so partisan you remind me of Phil Thompson watching Liverpool on Soccer Saturday.

As for the reason Stokes being dropped, who gives a sh*t? All he's done so far is score a few goals for a rubbish team in a rubbish league and as I said at the time I could bang in goals against Dunfermiline and Inverness if you stuck me up front for a few games. He's done nothing at a decent level yet and until that changes the fact he's been kept out of the team by Connolly should mean nothing whether it's due to ability or otherwise.

[nui-harp]

Connolly fighting it out for one of our two striking positions with Keane and Doyle? Is glue still the in thing up in Sunderland? Zinedineontour you wouldn't even utter a whisper about Staunton touching Connolly with a barge pole if he wasn't a regular starter for your beloved Sunderland. I don't remember you harping on about his inclusion in previous squads when he was playing for Wigan or Leicester. Try not to be so partisan you remind me of Phil Thompson watching Liverpool on Soccer Saturday.

As for the reason Stokes being dropped, who gives a sh*t? All he's done so far is score a few goals for a rubbish team in a rubbish league and as I said at the time I could bang in goals against Dunfermiline and Inverness if you stuck me up front for a few games. He's done nothing at a decent level yet and until that changes the fact he's been kept out of the team by Connolly should mean nothing whether it's due to ability or otherwise.

Dont be such a ****.......if u are such a great player then why arent u in contention for the ireland squad??? he was talking about Connolly on his current form....and in recent times he's shown better form than most irish strikers, all be it in the championship.

[youngirish]

Dont be such a ****.......if u are such a great player then why arent u in contention for the ireland squad??? he was talking about Connolly on his current form....and in recent times he's shown better form than most irish strikers, all be it in the championship.
Since when do you have to be a great player to score goals against the opposition I mentioned? I thought this was the point. I'll try to make it clearer next time. I'll stick an explanation at the bottom.

[eirebhoy]

Stokes is still the 2nd highest scorer in the SPL. :D Seriously, I think youngirish just likes to troll. I've posted plenty of facts to show that only proven strikers have scored at a similar rate to Stokes in the SPL. He likes to ignore that. And it's pretty obvious to me how good, and intelligient, a player Stokes is. If a player could score around 20 goals a season in the SPL and managed 3 goals in 25 Championship games you'd be wetting yourself to mention it to me. ;) See if you can work out who I'm referring to. :)

[youngirish]

Stokes is still the 2nd highest scorer in the SPL. :D Seriously, I think youngirish just likes to troll. I've posted plenty of facts to show that only proven strikers have scored at a similar rate to Stokes in the SPL. He likes to ignore that. And it's pretty obvious to me how good, and intelligient, a player Stokes is. If a player could score around 20 goals a season in the SPL and managed 3 goals in 25 Championship games you'd be wetting yourself to mention it to me. ;) See if you can work out who I'm referring to. :)
John Hartson isn't far off that though I think he has 6 goals and slighly less appearances (but not much).

[eirebhoy]

John Hartson might aswell be retired. :) Suprised he even has 6 goals tbh. He puts on weight 10 times the rate Ronaldo does. ;)

[tricky_colour]

care to expand on the stokes discipline incident-havent heard about this

It was alledged he was dropped because he was late for training although Keane says this was not the case and that he chose the strike force which was most suited to the opposition on the day. Who knows what the truth is but I guess Stokes will be a little more punctual just in case ;)

[zinedineontour]

zidane - I appreciate you backing Connolly up but you're using Stokes unfairly to help your argument imo. You're a Sunderland fan, you should know that Stokes has scored for you. You should also know he played very well on the left wing against Birmingham. You said last week that he was dropped from the squad for disciplinary reasons, that's fair enough. He certainly wasn't dropped from the squad due to form. You know that.

I agree regarding stokes and the reasons he was dropped was not for lack of form and yeah he did score against plymouth sorry .. Taking stokes out of the argument though connolly is the form Irish striker at the moment and cause i support sunderland obviously I have more interest and see him on a more regular basis but his work rate is first class and why a form striker in a decent league should not be in the ireland squad is beyond me ?? people keep harping on to his previous times with the squad but we should pick those who are full of confidence and playin well ..

[theworm2345]

Staunton is at the match, so I hope Connolly does well

[stojkovic]

Connolly is a fat little **** who thinks he's the best striker in the world since Batistuta. The fat little **** got sent off and cost us qualification. Move on. Once keano gets them promoted Connolly's on his way to another mediocre championship side. He's found his level (and Clinton) . Full stop.

[theworm2345]

Connolly is a fat little cnut who thinks he's the best striker in the world since Batistuta. The fat little cnut got sent off and cost us qualification. Move on. Once keano gets them promoted Connolly's on his way to another mediocre championship side. He's found his level (and Clinton) . Full stop.
Last time I checked, not only was he not fat, hes also on the best team in the championship (certainly in the last month)

[carloz]

Connolly is a fat little **** who thinks he's the best striker in the world since Batistuta. The fat little **** got sent off and cost us qualification. Move on. Once keano gets them promoted Connolly's on his way to another mediocre championship side. He's found his level (and Clinton) . Full stop.

This is a stupid post. He was a kid oin the Belgian game, he made a mistake, its time to get over it. And if you want to blame anyone blame the linesman during that game who gave Belgium a throw that resulted in Luc Nilis's goial when it should have been Irelands throw. Keane has been singing Connollys praises. Wigan invested good money in him a couple of seasons back and if it were not for injuries he might have made it with them. And what makes you think he thinks he is 'the best striker in the world since Batistuta'. Are you basing that on what the genius that is Don Givens said

[stojkovic]

Yeah pretty much. Givens said that Connolly claimed he was Irelands number one striker, Robbie and Clint were on form at the time. Connolly, to my knowledge, did not deny that he said this.

After early promise Connolly lost form and is now playing at the level his talents deserve. He is identical, in many ways, to David Kelly. Excellent in 'Division Two' but not good enough for the top flight. He'll be on his way in June to Watford, Charlton or West Ham.

[zinedineontour]

Yeah pretty much. Givens said that Connolly claimed he was Irelands number one striker, Robbie and Clint were on form at the time. Connolly, to my knowledge, did not deny that he said this.

After early promise Connolly lost form and is now playing at the level his talents deserve. He is identical, in many ways, to David Kelly. Excellent in 'Division Two' but not good enough for the top flight. He'll be on his way in June to Watford, Charlton or West Ham.

why the **** would keane sell our best striker in the summer ? The lad has improved immensely throughout the season and has been class. Will be deffo in our team next season premiership or championship ..

[stojkovic]

why the **** would keane sell our best striker in the summer ? The lad has improved immensely throughout the season and has been class. Will be deffo in our team next season premiership or championship ..well i cant wait to see the little angry ant knocking them in at Old Trafford and Anfield next season.

[theworm2345]

well i cant wait to see the little angry ant knocking them in at Old Trafford and Anfield next season.
He goes from fat and pompous to little and angry, your brilliant

[brine3]

Connolly deserves to be in the squad on current form. People like giving him abuse because he got a red card ten years ago.

He was never given a fair crack in the Ireland team by Mick, and always got the short end of the stick. I remember an away match against Andorra with Robbie and Connolly up front. Connolly was playing well, putting in the effort and Robbie was abysmal. The goals weren't flowing so Mick wanted to bring on a tall fella (Doherty, Quinn?). He took off Connolly. Totally unfair. Robbie Keane gets special treatment, Connolly only gets special bad treatment.

I've never thought that Connolly was a world beater, but he's a decent player with a good eye for other players and well able to pass the ball.

[lionelhutz]

Connolly deserves to be in the squad on current form. People like giving him abuse because he got a red card ten years ago.

He was never given a fair crack in the Ireland team by Mick, and always got the short end of the stick. I remember an away match against Andorra with Robbie and Connolly up front. Connolly was playing well, putting in the effort and Robbie was abysmal. The goals weren't flowing so Mick wanted to bring on a tall fella (Doherty, Quinn?). He took off Connolly. Totally unfair. Robbie Keane gets special treatment, Connolly only gets special bad treatment.

I've never thought that Connolly was a world beater, but he's a decent player with a good eye for other players and well able to pass the ball.

I don't think its because he got a red card ten years ago that people dislike him as a player. Its more likely cos he's a useless striker. All he's ever done for Ireland is score a few goals against the likes of licheinstein.Don't know the exact figures, but i'm pretty sure if you take away his goals against the worst team in the qualifying groups, his strike rate at international level is abysmal

[pete]

Stephen Ward is the best player in the Championship last month so I suppose he gets in ahead of Connolly?

[theworm2345]

Stephen Ward is the best player in the Championship last month so I suppose he gets in ahead of Connolly?

Ward had 3 goals, Connolly had 3, just one of Connolly's was a penalty (which he got himself)

[eirebhoy]

Glad to see Ward win it. He really impressed me in the lone role for the U21s. I don't know why he wasn't rated highly by supporters.

[carloz]

Its more likely cos he's a useless striker. All he's ever done for Ireland is score a few goals against the likes of licheinstein.Don't know the exact figures, but i'm pretty sure if you take away his goals against the worst team in the qualifying groups, his strike rate at international level is abysmal

As opposed to the great Robbie Keane. Other than his World Cup goal versus Germany he never ever does it at the top level yet he rarely gets the abuse that Connolly gets. I think you might want to inform Roy Keane about Connolly being a 'useless striker'. He has been Sunderlands moist consistent player for the last three months. He has rarely got a great chance with Ireland and to play him with Keane will never work. Would like to see how he would work with Doyle or Stokes.

[pete]

How many people here have actually seen Connolly play for Sunderland..?

[stojkovic]

Connolly deserves to be in the squad on current form. People like giving him abuse because he got a red card ten years ago.

He was never given a fair crack in the Ireland team by Mick, and always got the short end of the stick. I remember an away match against Andorra with Robbie and Connolly up front. Connolly was playing well, putting in the effort and Robbie was abysmal. The goals weren't flowing so Mick wanted to bring on a tall fella (Doherty, Quinn?). He took off Connolly. Totally unfair. Robbie Keane gets special treatment, Connolly only gets special bad treatment.

I've never thought that Connolly was a world beater, but he's a decent player with a good eye for other players and well able to pass the ball.
I agree with you about Robbie getting special treatment. Ireland aside for a moment, he has scored 15 a season for the last couple of years in the Premiership and is the ONLY Irish striker to do that. However for Ireland he hasnt done it since WC'02. Now that we have other strikers playing in the top flight (Doyle, Long) and promising young lads coming through (Stokes) I would like to see him stripped of the captaincy and made to fight for his place(like at Spurs), the hunger might come back.

Connolly is not good enough and never was. One word proves it - Excelsior !

[theworm2345]

How many people here have actually seen Connolly play for Sunderland..?
I have, also, he has won a few man of the matches even when he doesnt score

[zinedineontour]

How many people here have actually seen Connolly play for Sunderland..?

seen him a lot this season and his all round play has been excellent and he has not had a regular striker alongside him until stern john has come in .. They seem to have struck up a good partnership. Heading over to Barnsley on sat hopefully we can work our way into the automatic places soon enough .. After Nugent Connolly imo is the best striker in the championship at the moment

[theworm2345]

seen him a lot this season and his all round play has been excellent and he has not had a regular striker alongside him until stern john has come in .. They seem to have struck up a good partnership. Heading over to Barnsley on sat hopefully we can work our way into the automatic places soon enough .. After Nugent Connolly imo is the best striker in the championship at the moment
He scored again, and Barnsley said he had "a fine display".
Anyone wondering about the never seeing him play thing, their match is live on TV this Tuesday and I encourage you to watch (I will make a torrent of the game if many people want)
Wolves vs WBA is also on tomorrow, another game I encourage you to watch
EDIT: They canceled Wolves vs WBA?! :mad:
Lets hope the Baggie **** lose

[limerickblue]

Well all do we can all see that roy keane is managing to get the best out off dave connoly, but i dont think that stautan will be able to get him playing for ireland, because i am not to sure if he ever saw eye to eye with steve.
also i belive roy will get stautan sacked

[eirebhoy]

also i belive roy will get stautan sacked
:confused:

[limerickblue]

Sorry i never explained did i... Well he has now got over 6 irish players at sunderland and stauntan wiil try and find ways off excluding player. roy will complain about why his quality players cant get in the squad.then the peoples republic off cork will take steve hostage untill hes sacked.

[zinedineontour]

was at the barnsley game and connolly was superb. His all round play was very good and best player on the pitch. Liam Miller had a decent game and seems to be full of confidence now.

[stojkovic]

BARNSLEY :rolleyes:

[danonion]

BARNSLEY :rolleyes:

Not a huge step down from Wales.

[OwlsFan]

Connolly is scoring goals in the Championship against Barnsley etc, Keane is scoring goals in the Premiership and the UEFA Cup. Therefore we should play Connolly :rolleyes:

[tetsujin1979]

The title of the thread is "David Connolly should be called up", i.e. that he should be in the squad, not necessarily starting. When it was started, Keane hadn't hit the scoring streak he's on at the moment, whereas Connolly has been scoring consistently since November.

[as_i_say]

the problem for connolly is that he is always considered too similar a player to keane. keane has rarely had any prolonged injury when ireland have had games and in fairness keane has always played at a higher standard.

connolly more than deserves a call up to the squad the way he is playing, but robbie is playing very well at the moment so barring injury (which he actually is at the mo!!) connolly deserves a shot.