Finnan unhappy with 'impatient' Irish

[jmurphyc]

Stephen Kelly had a bit of experience by then and maybe could have got a call up.

Didn't Kelly get a call up to the tournament in London in 2004 by Kerr and then pull out? I thought so but I could be wrong.

[Stuttgart88]

Yep, few of those were really good enough in their younger years to warrant regular selection for the senior team. Dunne & S. Reid were regularly omitted though and both were in their early 20s at the time and were good enough in my opinion.

Anyway, it'll be intertesting to see the next few squads. Is Brazil announced today?

[tetsujin1979]

Typical EB has them on file. Andy Reid, Liam Miller, Alan Lee, Alan Quinn, Paddy Kenny, Martin Rowlands, Aiden McGeady, Stephen Elliot, Jon Douglas, Clive Clarke, Joe Murphy, John Thompson, Jason Byrne, Michael Doyle and the one and only Jon Macken. Off the top of my head Paddy McCarthy, Graham Stack and Kevin Doyle got their first callups under Kerr but they were only breaking through at that stage.
Of those, Murphy, Thompson, Byrne, Michael Doyle and Macken only got one cap under Kerr. Byrne barely got 5 minutes on the pitch in a dire 0-0 away to Poland. Kevin Doyle was on the bench in the 1-0 away to Cyprus. Didn't come on though.



Joey O'Brien had started 1 game for Bolton by the time of Kerr's last game. Stephen Ireland had started 2 for City. Wayne Henderson had just started his loan spell at Brighton. Stephen Kelly had a bit of experience by then and maybe could have got a call up.
Ireland wouldn't have played for Kerr anyway.
Kelly was on the bench against the Czech Republic: http://www.soccerbase.com/results3.sd?gameid=417993

[citizenerased]

yeah some time this afternoon

[jmurphyc]

I read in the paper this morning that Venables...er Givens is naming the squad today.

[Morbo]

Mick deserved to get axed for a multitud of reasons two bad defeats in first two games..he had lost the team after the world cup..sabotaging our world cup campaign..his position was untenable...

You should be axed for 2 bad results? I don't think you are ever going to make progress if you sack a manager after two bad results, hell even the likes of Fergusson and Wenger have often had a run of 3 or 4 bad results in a row.

The only player he lost was a certain Cork man and I don’t think it was worth sacking the manager just to get him back on board because he was already past his best at that stage and even when Kerr got him back we still didn’t qualify, in fact we did worse than in any of McCarthy’s campaigns.

I knew people who wanted Ireland to lose against the Swiss because they wanted McCarthy gone so they could get Keane back, those were the same type of people who booed them at half time against the Swiss which made the game feel worse an away game to the players and I believe partly contributed to the loss.
The only reason his position was considered untenable was because of certain fair-weather fans(almost all of them Man U supporters too)

[citizenerased]

You should be axed for 2 bad results? )

No he didnt qualify for france 98 or euro 2000 due to incompetent managment. the only team we beat in the world cup was saudi arabia, he set-up and sent home our best player.

if it wasnt for keane we wouldnt have qualified for 2002 world cup.

thats why he was sacked ... as always irish fans look back on everything with rose tinted glasses

[jmurphyc]

as always irish fans look back on everything with rose tinted glasses

Isn't that what you're doing though?

[Dr. Ogba]

uh oh.............


*runs for cover*

[Morbo]

No he didnt qualify for france 98 or euro 2000 due to incompetent managment. the only team we beat in the world cup was saudi arabia, he set-up and sent home our best player.

if it wasnt for keane we wouldnt have qualified for 2002 world cup.

thats why he was sacked ... as always irish fans look back on everything with rose tinted glasses
So he should be sacked in 2002 for failing to qualify in 98 and 2000 despite having qualified in 2002? great logic there.

Talk about putting a negative spin on the 2002 world cup, sure we ONLY beat Saudi Arabia, but we didn't lose a game either and against Germany and Spain I consider that a job well done, getting to a penalty shootout agaist Spain is damn good result as it gives you a 50/50 shot of knocking out one of the best teams in the world and we would have a relatively easy 1/4 final had we won that shootout.

If it wasn't for Given we wouldn't have qualified either, without McAteers goals we wouldn't have qualified, there is probably numerous other players who if we lost we wouldn't have qualified, I'm sick of Keane being the only one who gets any credit for getting us to the WC2002

He set Roy up? What the hell has McCarthy got to gain by setting Keane up? I don't want to start a flame war between the pro Keaners but the idea that McCarthy delibertly set Keane up just so he could send him home just makes no sense

[inexile]

i think its amazing to see that still 6 years later people are still arguing over this point, just goes to show how much it shook the country!

on topic, i cant blame finnan for retiring he played 50 times for us always gave his best, often played out of position and he will be 34 by the time the world cup comes around, i personally think thats fairly reasonable.

[Morbo]

Well it started the chain of events that led to Stauntons appointment so its a bit hard to forget when we are still paying for it today.

So is it unresonable for the fans to expect Finnan to help us qualify for a major competition while he is still in his prime? I think one of the problems with International football is that it is becoming normal to retire at 31

[inexile]

Well it started the chain of events that led to Stauntons appointment so its a bit hard to forget when we are still paying for it today.

So is it unresonable for the fans to expect Finnan to help us qualify for a major competition while he is still in his prime? I think one of the problems with International football is that it is becoming normal to retire at 31

i dont think its unreasonable personally morbo, i can see why some people do but i believe he gave us good service, always applied himself wherever he played and despite being one of the best players in his position in england never really got an extended run there, he never went public about his now obvious dissatisfaction with that situation.
also he is struggling more and more with injuries at the moment and with a new manager due to come on board maybe he feels the time is right

[boovidge]

He set Roy up? What the hell has McCarthy got to gain by setting Keane up? I don't want to start a flame war between the pro Keaners but the idea that McCarthy delibertly set Keane up just so he could send him home just makes no sense

And also, if he set him up why did he give Roy a passage back into the squad if he apologised?

[citizenerased]

He knew Keane wouldnt apologise...why would he apologise...mccarthy aint a big thick yorkshire pudding like many think...!

[danonion]

No he didnt qualify for france 98 or euro 2000 due to incompetent managment. the only team we beat in the world cup was saudi arabia, he set-up and sent home our best player.

if it wasnt for keane we wouldnt have qualified for 2002 world cup.

thats why he was sacked ... as always irish fans look back on everything with rose tinted glasses

Set up Keane? That is going beyond ridiculous. If anything Keane set himself up, knowing the consequences. Its far more likely Keane wanted to get sent home than McCarthy wanting to send him home.

[NeilMcD]

Lads we dont need another Saipan debate.

[WembleyGreen]

Finnan has a point and it's obvious he's fed up of being played out of his best position by our last two 'geniuse's' of managers. He's a good player and the last time I looked we weren't exactly over-abundant in right backs! Nothing to with this thread but check out this little gem of a website! Ealing green will spitting feathers when he sees this.
http://www.republicofirelandyears.com/index.htm

[Colie]

McCarthy was booed off in his last match in charge fella.That's my point is that it started there & got way way worse. There was none of the "Fuch of McCarthy you stupid cnut" & "Right son are ye ready to boo as hard as ye can now".

Maybe I was in the wrong section but I didn't see any personal abuse hurled at Staunton or any objects thrown. I personally don't think he was that badly treated by the fans.Deffo in the wrong section mate. He got slaughted down in the eL section.

Beating Cyprus and SM before the 95th minute with a team of 9-10 PL players, is unrealistic expectations, is it?? Not when you've paid several hundred €'s to watch it, it isn't. Oh Yeah. The Celtic tiger rears its ugly head again. It's the old 'cash Vs expectations' ratio. I wish it was really really cheap to get to all the away matches, then you guys would have a much better time.

[Stuttgart88]

There's a link to a recorded interview with Ronnie Whelan on the RTE website.

Out came to old cliches "we have no divine right to qualify for a world cup, expectations are too high". Des Cahill asked the question.

If this type of tripe is perpetuated in the media, rational fans will just continue to be treated as idiots.