Phil Bardsley

[greendeiseboy]

Just read on elevenaside.com that he qualifies for us as well as Scotland and obviously England. He has yet to make his mind up on who he wants to represent.

If he is keen on us i'd be happy if he did but by the sound of it he might take a bit of persuading.

Personally i dont like people who have to be persuaded to represent us as usually these lads have only a tenuous link to us although some do go on to do well with us like Holland and Aldridge.

So it will be intersting to see how this pans out.

[tetsujin1979]

According to football365, he's first priority is to play for England, then Scotland, and he doesn't even mention qualifying to play for Ireland
From http://www.football365.com/story/0,17033,8652_3224409,00.html

It was then [on loan at Rangers] that he spoke about his international future, revealing that then Scotland boss Walter Smith had approached him at United's training ground to gauge his interest.

Bardsley said at the time: "It's something I'll consider. My main priority is England at the minute but there's always a great chance for me to play for Scotland."

[RockofGibraltar]

he wud never get near the england team

[boovidge]

he played for rangers, forget him ;)

[OwlsFan]

he played for rangers, forget him ;)

He plays for Sunderland: forget him ;)

[boovidge]

just checked on the Scotland forums. Theyre all furious over his comments about Scotland being his back up choice. It also appears that his father was born in Glasgow on holiday and returned to england very shortly afterwards.

[Seagull-4-life]

Won't get a sniff of an england place.
MAybe all the irish lads at sundireland will persuade him to don the green jersey

[NeilMcD]

yeah no thanks please we are not that badly off.

[irishfan86]

From a practical point of view I'd have him over any of our current fullbacks.

Very solid player.

Obviously his comments may hurt the sentimentalists among us, but he is a very good player and is only going to get better.

I for one would love to have him in the setup.

[NeilMcD]

Sentimentalists my hole. Sorry is it not right that a player should actually want to play for us before we consider them. I don't know what your dating routine is like but I would not like to be the 3rd choice with a girl and I certainly don't want Ireland to be third choice with a player who would be lucky to be a thirdy choice right back with us.

[back of the net]

Won't get a sniff of an england place.
MAybe all the irish lads at sundireland will persuade him to don the green jersey

well if ireland is his 3rd choice (thats presuming there are no other countries he can qualify for) behind england and scotland, then phil can go jump - sounds like another kevin nolan to me

[Seagull-4-life]

well if ireland is his 3rd choice (thats presuming there are no other countries he can qualify for) behind england and scotland, then phil can go jump - sounds like another kevin nolan to me

No I agree with you. I'd rather have Stephen Kelly or whoever than some lad who plays for us because he's not good enough for anyone else.

[Wolfie]

What this squad needs is someone to fill the dearth of half-hearted, lethargic and non-commital qualities that are so much in short supply these days.:rolleyes:

[Ash]

Convince him to declare, cap him once and then leave him out in the cold
I'm harsh, but fair ;)

[SunderlandBohs]

Yeah if Kelly, O Shea and Joey O Brien are injured and Finnan and Carr don't come out of retirement then he might just be a useful benchwarmer for McShane!
Have you seen the difference between Bardsley & McShane? Bardo is twice the player McShane will ever be! Bardsley would get into the the Ireland squad no problem. But he shouldn't. Let's not go back to the days of filling the squad with Englishmen who don't give a crap about the team.

[Paddy Garcia]

Let's not go back to the days of filling the squad with Englishmen who don't give a crap about the team.

Who are you talking about ? I'm not aware that we ever had a team filled with Englishmen who did not give a crap? Which team was this?

[SunderlandBohs]

Who are you talking about ? I'm not aware that we ever had a team filled with Englishmen who did not give a crap? Which team was this?
Come on. Even the most die heart fan has to admit so players only want to play for Ireland to get a few caps. Clinton Morrison , in his first spell at Crystal Palace, said it himself. If he could get in the England squad he'd play for Ireland. How can someone whose great great great grandmother came from Kildare have the same spirnt as a player born & bred in Ireland. My great great grandmother is from Poland. That doesn't mean I consider myself Polish!

[tetsujin1979]

Come on. Even the most die heart fan has to admit so players only want to play for Ireland to get a few caps. Clinton Morrison , in his first spell at Crystal Palace, said it himself. If he could get in the England squad he'd play for Ireland. How can someone whose great great great grandmother came from Kildare have the same spirnt as a player born & bred in Ireland. My great great grandmother is from Poland. That doesn't mean I consider myself Polish!

Clinton's original claims to be Irish may be dubious, but he plays with more spirit than some Irish born players. I'm proud to have him play for Ireland.

[Wolfie]

Clinton's original claims to be Irish may be dubious, but he plays with more spirit than some Irish born players. I'm proud to have him play for Ireland.

Scored a few crucial goals under Kerr - most notably Swiss away and Israeli's away.

I think he's certainly worth drafting back into the squad. We're not overladen with strikers that are hitting the net at club level.

[Morbo]

Come on. Even the most die heart fan has to admit so players only want to play for Ireland to get a few caps. Clinton Morrison , in his first spell at Crystal Palace, said it himself. If he could get in the England squad he'd play for Ireland. How can someone whose great great great grandmother came from Kildare have the same spirnt as a player born & bred in Ireland. My great great grandmother is from Poland. That doesn't mean I consider myself Polish!
That makes you only 7/8 Irish then, get the Feck off this board.
Seriously though I disagree that someone who isn't born in this country can't play with the same spirit as someone born here, Cascarino had no Irish in him yet he played with a hell of a lot more spirit than the likes of S.Ireland and other less than committed Irish born players

[nijboyle]

I think he's overrated with a big gob on him, needs to let his boots do the talking for a change, Morrison that is. As for Bardsley, he would be good cover for some of the crap that we have at the minute

[Paddy Garcia]

Come on. Even the most die heart fan has to admit so players only want to play for Ireland to get a few caps. Clinton Morrison , in his first spell at Crystal Palace, said it himself. If he could get in the England squad he'd play for Ireland. How can someone whose great great great grandmother came from Kildare have the same spirnt as a player born & bred in Ireland. My great great grandmother is from Poland. That doesn't mean I consider myself Polish!

As has been stated Clinton cares a lot more than many of our home born players.

[SunderlandBohs]

But is it not the same as an Irish person following an English club instead of an Irish club? Peolpe get stick on here all the time saying you can't be loyal to a team from another country or in a town you never lived. What's the difference between them and footballer playing for country he never lived in or visited before?

[livehead1]

I think he's overrated with a big gob on him, needs to let his boots do the talking for a change, Morrison that is. As for Bardsley, he would be good cover for some of the crap that we have at the minute

Do you watch Ireland games? Clinton always lets his boots do the talking when he don's the green. Always gives as much or more than his teammates and his dedicated to the Irish cause. An example of this can be seen where he was one of only a few senior Irish players who could be bothered to attend the U21 game.

[tetsujin1979]

An example of this can be seen where he was one of only a few senior Irish players who could be bothered to attend the U21 game.He was at the B game VS Scotland at Dalymount as well.

[Lionel Ritchie]

I don't know what your dating routine is like but I would not like to be the 3rd choice with a girl.... Frankly I've been further down the pecking order and gladly taken the points.:cool:

[Dr. Ogba]

Do you watch Ireland games? Clinton always lets his boots do the talking when he don's the green. Always gives as much or more than his teammates and his dedicated to the Irish cause. An example of this can be seen where he was one of only a few senior Irish players who could be bothered to attend the U21 game.


outshone Robbie on regular occasions when playing with him aswell.

[Deckydee]

We will see if Trap wants him back. 14 goals is a good start

[Paddy Garcia]

Far from a "big gob" he actually held his tongue over the last 12 months, when he could well have complained about the crap selection policy which saw him dropped.

Plenty of others were though free with their comments, such as Hunt about the non-selection of his brother.

[Morbo]

Or Finnan complaining about being played out of position and others complaining about how long the selection took, my opinion of Morrison has gone up these last 12 months, instead of complaining about being dropped he was knuckled down and let his form do the talking like a professional should and made it very difficult for the next manager to overlook him

[irishfan86]

No criticism of Clint here, sure he's got a bit of an ego but he's likeable enough.

He claims that he's found a new dedication to his football after becoming a father, let's hope he keeps having kids.

[drinkfeckarse]

Getting back to the topic. I've only seen him play once or twice for Sunderland but I remember watching him a few times last season for Rangers and he looked very average. Solid enough but his passing wasn't great and wasn't a great threat getting forward.

[tetsujin1979]

Getting back to the topic. I've only seen him play once or twice for Sunderland but I remember watching him a few times last season for Rangers and he looked very average. Solid enough but his passing wasn't great and wasn't a great threat getting forward.
I think you can completely disregard his performances for Rangers, he didn't get along with the manager and left after a falling out with him.

[drinkfeckarse]

Why would they be disregarded????? He played a number of competetive games for them and was average in what I saw of him.

[boovidge]

No criticism of Clint here, sure he's got a bit of an ego but he's likeable enough.

He claims that he's found a new dedication to his football after becoming a father, let's hope he keeps having kids.

and lets hope he sticks them on the foreign births register incase one of them takes after Tony Cascarino and becomes a good footballer ;)

[Seagull-4-life]

If he says he wants to play for Ireland, snap him up because he would be important to us end of

[lionelhutz]

Bardsley looks like a hatchet man to me. I've seen him a few times this season and sometimes he's very rash with his challenges. He should have been sent off Sunday for a horror challenge on Pienaar. Alot worse than Taylor on Eduardo.

He does look solid enough but still not good enough to start for Ireland

[Armando]

Bardsley looks like a hatchet man to me. I've seen him a few times this season and sometimes he's very rash with his challenges. He should have been sent off Sunday for a horror challenge on Pienaar. Alot worse than Taylor on Eduardo.

He does look solid enough but still not good enough to start for Ireland


I agree with you he should have went for tackle on Pienaar, but in his defence once he realised he missed the ball he bent his leg as much as humanly possible to lessen the impact....otherwise he would have definitely snapped Piennars leg.