Damien Delaney

[FarBeag]

Don’t know what sort of reaction I will get to this thread but I am fairly certain it will be mixed. Anyway as we all know by now we have to agree that we have a big problem at the back. I personally don’t think that O’ Brien or Finnan will play for us again and i sincerely hope I am wrong but we need to find some defenders from somewhere. I think we could be ok at right back with Kelly, J ‘O Brien or O Shea to fill in but who will partner Dunne and who will fill the left back position.

Paul McShane is not getting a game for Sunderland. St Ledger and Mc Carthy are both playing football regularly. I know, I know, it’s only the championship but at least they are playing football.

Our biggest problem area is left back and has been for quite a while. Kevin Kilbane is an accident waiting to happen and Ian Harte is finished. Darren O’ Dea is not a regular at Celtic and the only other left back I can think of apart from the Mr. Versatile JOS and Steven O Halloran is Damian Delaney, I have seen this guy play on a few occasions and believe me he is a good player. He is naturally left footed, fast, and athletic and gets up and down the pitch.Is there any reason why we can't try him in this position in the next friendly, apart from the fact he does not play premiership football.We need someone and there is no one out there so why not?
If ye don’t agrees with me I would like to hear what the alternatives are?

[Razors left peg]

Don’t know what sort of reaction I will get to this thread but I am fairly certain it will be mixed. Anyway as we all know by now we have to say the least a little bit of a problem at the back. I personally don’t think that O’ Brien or Finnan will play for us again and I sincerely hope I am wrong but we need to find some defenders from somewhere. I think we could be ok at right back with Kelly, J ‘O Brien or O Shea to fill in but who will partner Dunne and who will fill the left back position.

Paul McShane is not getting a game for Sunderland. St Ledger and Mc Carthy are both playing football regularly. I know, I know, it’s only the championship but at least they are playing football.

Our biggest problem area is left back and has been for quite a while. Kevin Kilbane is an accident waiting to happen and Ian Harte is finished. Darren O’ Dea is not a regular at Celtic and the only other left back I can think of apart from the Mr. Versatile JOS and Steven O Halloran is Damian Delaney, I have seen this guy play on a few occasions and believe me he is a good player. He is naturally left footed, fast, and athletic and gets up and down the pitch.Is there any reason why we can't try him in this position in the next friendly, apart from the fact he does not play premiership football.We need someone and there is no one out there so why not?
If ye don’t agrees with me I would like to hear what the alternatives are?


I agree that he is definately worth a look. Seen him play a few times and looks a solid defender

[Pablo]

even when he First broke into the Cork City team you could see he had class.

Has to be worth a shot

[tetsujin1979]

John O Shea, Steve Finnan, Ian Harte, Kevin Kilbane, Darren O Dea, Steven O Halloran.

In that order 6 better alternatives to Damian. And if all those contract the rare left back plague at some point it's probably time to switch to 3-5-2. :rolleyes:
John O'Shea doesn't play enough at left full to be considered a left full, his last few games for United have all been at right full
In case you haven't heard, Finnan retired, and one of his principle complaints was being played out of position
Ian Harte played his first minutes of football in four months yesterday, he'll need to start producing before he's called into the squad, let alone the starting XI
Darren O'Dea and Stephen O'Halloran have both shown great potential in flashes over the last 18-24 months, but neither have played regular football this season, and we can all agree that this is what is needed to get into the starting side

Delaney has made the move up through the divisions from League 2 to Championship without any major hiccups, AFAIR he was in the League 1 Team of the Season when Hull were promoted. He's made the move to big spending QPR, gotten into, and kept his place in the starting XI. If this sounds familiar, it's because Stephen Finnan did the exact same thing. QPR is a team with more than 2 billion behind it now, and will be in the Premiership by the end of the 2008/2009 and it'll be nigh impossible to deny him a place after than

[FarBeag]

John O Shea, Steve Finnan, Ian Harte, Kevin Kilbane, Darren O Dea, Steven O Halloran.

In that order 6 better alternatives to Damian. And if all those contract the rare left back plague at some point it's probably time to switch to 3-5-2. :rolleyes:


Ah Ciaran come on. Can you not see some since here man? As I have already posted either these guys are injured, retired ,crap or not playing football. Delaney is a natural left back while the majority of the others you mentioned are not. Why do you think he is not good enough? Have you seen him play? Why are you so insistent than only premiership players are good enough. Why do you think Darren O’ Dea is better? I would be interested to hear your views on this.

[kingdom hoop]

Another day, another wind-up (surely he's not serious?) from Ciaran. :)

Anyway, apparently Delaney was superb yesterday - vying with Martin Rowlands for MOM in many people's eyes as it happens.

A few comments from reputable fans: "i think he is absolutley superb. someone should put a mileometer on the guy to see how much ground he covers during a game." "Delaney is rapidly becoming a real favourite of mine. Quite a character." "The lad's got an amazing engine - non stop dashing all around the park." "He is the epitome of how simple this game really is - pass and move."

Sounds a little Kilbane-esque with his energy and roving-ness! Only that he's taller, better on the ball, can position himself in defence, and can tackle. He'd struggle against someone of McGeady's ilk, but then again, so would Kilbane or Jos. Also, he played at CB for a good bit of his Hull career so he'd be good to have in the squad from a utility perspective.

[kingdom hoop]

Here's Ciaran showing Trap how to pick the Ireland team. (http://21centuryconnections.com/files/images/peg.jpg) :)

[FarBeag]

Finnan could come out of retirement obviously. And I can't believe you'd use John O Shea only playing occasionally at left back for Man Utd as a counter arguement for placing this guy ahead of him. :rolleyes:



Ciaran Have you seen him play or not because if you are looking at the Cork city left back this is not him? Finnan is not a left back and as far as I know one of the reasons he retired from International football is because he was played out of position. J ‘O Shea made a rare appearance for Man u yesterday and played at Right back. At present he is the only left full back we have available to us and I really pray that he gets called up just to P!ss you off.

[FarBeag]

Here's Ciaran showing Trap how to pick the Ireland team. (http://21centuryconnections.com/files/images/peg.jpg) :)



Class. :D:D

[sadloserkid]

I posted my squad in another thread, I'd really like to know who some of you clueless championship / Eircom League humping tools would put in instead of who I have.

People like Delaney or John Joe are fine if half our national pool are struck down by a tropical virus but otherwise not up to scratch until they can play against better opposition at club level. Again keep in mind that players like Delaney have never actually played against the calibur of opposition that they're required to have to be international standard.

I rarely post in the international forum but anybody who heralds Ian Harte as the answer to anything (even if you have him as the 5th best answer to Delaney's 6th) is asking not to be taken seriously. Harte can't get near Sunderland's team. He is on the books of a Premier League side but he is not a Premier League footballer.

All jokes aside how does Graham Kavanagh fall into your grading criteria? Is he to be considered a Premier League player because he's on Sunderland's books or a Championship player because he's on loan with Sheffield Wednesday? Harte was seemingly unwanted even on a loan basis by anybody.

You seem to operate on the criteria that a player on the books of a Premier League club is automatically better than a player on the books of a championship club. Now as a rule of thumb that's fine but it's far too simplistic a view to take in the overall scheme of things.

[jmurphyc]

I posted my squad in another thread, I'd really like to know who some of you clueless championship / Eircom League humping tools would put in instead of who I have.

People like Delaney or John Joe are fine if half our national pool are struck down by a tropical virus but otherwise not up to scratch until they can play against better opposition at club level. Again keep in mind that players like Delaney have never actually played against the calibur of opposition that they're required to have to be international standard.

Ciaran, I've posted numerous reasons as to why Championship players should be considered in another thread. I'm not talking about specific chamionship players in general, I'm just saying that we shouldn't rule them out just because they're playing lower division football than some of their counterparts. You still haven't replied to my post, and haven't been able to give any reason why they shouldn't be considered other than that they play in the Championship. As I said in the other thread, it's not as simple as just writing them off because they play in the Championship, but you continue to insult people who suggest these players and then list off 6 players who should play in place of them, some of whom are clearly not viable alternatives.

[jmurphyc]

Harte was playing yesterday. >_>

He's had 8 supurb seasons, 2 poor ones. He's only 30, don't dismiss him. Subtract a year and you could say the exact same thing about Duff.

You tell us not to dismiss him, but that's exactly what you do with other players. Anyway, on the evidence I and most others have seen he is no longer good enough for international football. At the moment he can't get a place in a Sunderland team. Before yesterday he hadn't played since mid November. We can't pick players who have been out of first team football for that long; look at what happened to Andy O'Brien in Cyrpus. If he starts getting regular games for Sunderland then I may revise my opinion, but I currently see no reason why he should be considered.

[kingdom hoop]

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[GavinZac]

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[carloz]

I worry that people are still mentioning Darren O'Dea. He cant break into an awful Celtic defence which says a lot IMO. He should be seriously down the pecking order

[geysir]

By people you mean Ciaran :)

Anyway, O'Dea is capt. of the u21's and is doing fine there.

[sadloserkid]

I worry that people are still mentioning Darren O'Dea. He cant break into an awful Celtic defence which says a lot IMO. He should be seriously down the pecking order

Have only seen him once in the flesh (The 21s game against England in Cork) and he looked very ordinary then tbh. I'm with carloz on this one. There are some fairly dodgy footballers floating around Celtic's backline. If he's struggling to usurp any of them he has some serious developing to do.

[geysir]

That's why he is the u21's, only Ciaran has mentioned O'Dea ahead of Delaney.
Suddenly people think O'Dea is being mentioned all over the place.
It's a non issue.

[Kingdom]

Like it or not, the championship is where the supporting cast of our squad are going to be playing. The majority of our starting 11 will be of the top divisions (either SPL or EPL) but I think the snobbery we have in our attitudes towards the squad players will have to end sooner rather than later.
We have 3 problem positions. We all agree on Left full, the honey mnsters centre back partner is another and for me right wing/midfield is the other.
There are two options: Pick a lower level player for the position or try putting a round peg into a square hole.
Damien Delaney and Martin rowlands both deserve a squad place. I've been thinking more about this as well with regard to the new formation Gio possibly will employ; so what if we have two championship players doing the holding midfield role? If they can pass to another Irishman 10yds away and they can tackle they're good enough for our team, nevermind the squad. The more I look back on it the more disappointly Lee Carsley was in the campaign, his distribution was disgusting in so many games, and after that he doesn't really offer that much.

[the-blue-harp]

seen him play today for qpr v southampton, have to say delaney impressed me with his running and attacking down the left. composed on the ball and able to pass it about, not lacking in confidence anyway, didnt make any defensive mistakes either. will be irelands steady left back in a few years imo.

[OwlsFan]

Will be irelands steady left back in a few years imo.


He's 27 so he'd want to get a move on. His positional sense at the back isn't great and Soton's attacking threats came from that side early on and they got a few crosses in that he should have stopped. Agree though looks comfortable on the ball and at 6' 3" would add some welcome height to our defence.

[the-blue-harp]

He's 27 so he'd want to get a move on. His positional sense at the back isn't great and Soton's attacking threats came from that side early on and they got a few crosses in that he should have stopped. Agree though looks comfortable on the ball and at 6' 3" would add some welcome height to our defence.

he's 27!! didnt know that, thought he was a lot younger for some reason. yea i know what you mean by the positional sense, defensively he wasnt magnificent but he seemed to be efficient as in he did enough. but going forward he really stood out for qpr.

[drinkfeckarse]

There are some fairly dodgy footballers floating around Celtic's backline. If he's struggling to usurp any of them he has some serious developing to do.


I personally think it's more to do with Strachan than it is his ability. I'm not saying he''s the next big thing but he's been a good centre half when I have seen him. Certainly no worse than McManus.

A blind man can see that McManus (who is an average player anyway) in particular is having an awful start to the season but Strachan will not drop him as he is the captain. Anyway, Loovens is also on the scene now so I think the time has come for O'Dea to put in a transfer request and get away from Celtic Park.

[eirebhoy]

Anyway, Loovens is also on the scene now so I think the time has come for O'Dea to put in a transfer request and get away from Celtic Park.
Loovens is back up for Caldwell. Strachan is big on the left sided, right sided centre half thing.

[Colbert Report]

He just needs a loan move to a Championship side. Then we'll see if he's worth worrying about, I haven't seen him do much, though he handled himself well two years ago against AC Milan, the match where Kaka scored the only goal after beating the entire defense by himself.

[tetsujin1979]

John Kennedy is out on loan at Norwich now, and Roeder is pressing for him to be included in the Scotland squad. Wouldn't be the worst thing for O'Dea to do the same

[drinkfeckarse]

Loovens is back up for Caldwell. Strachan is big on the left sided, right sided centre half thing.


Something which any sane man can see is flawed thinking. It's ok to play 2 right footed centre halves but not 2 left footed one's???? :o

[rambler14]

Has been dropped by QPR recently and the last few games including tonight he's been an unused sub.

[DeLorean]

And so it begins...
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11688_5412300,00.html

[Superhoops]

And so it begins...
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11688_5412300,00.html
Liam Miller must be next!

[drummerboy]

I remember when Delaney was playiing for Leicester in the Premiership and he committed a rather crude foul on Robert Pires, which ended with Pires on his backside. A furious Piries then started mimicking a donkey and gestured towards Damien. Well it was funny at the time.

[paul_oshea]

how do you mimic a donkey?

[John83]

how do you mimic a donkey?
Dunno, but I got heartily sick of his impression of a flying fish.

[OwlsFan]

how do you mimic a donkey?

He shouldn't go within an asses' roar of Portman Road.

[Diarmo]

Has anyone seen much of Delaney since he's moved to Ipswich. When I saw him against Serbia and Colombia, I thought he looked the part and would establish himself ahead of Kilbane, but it seems now that Nolan is ahead of him for the back up LB spot. Any ideas why?

[SkStu]

good question Diarmo - not sure myself. I was also very impressed with his performance against Serbia (didnt see the Colombian game).

[SwanVsDalton]

Played CB last night against Arsenal. Didn't see the game but the 5 Live commentators raved about his performance alongside McAuley. Could yet be an option if he gets a run of games and Ipswich start going places.

[shakermaker1982]

He won a lot of headers last night. Still worth a look at LB. I don't recall him ever having a shocker for us.

[Predator]

Played CB last night against Arsenal. Didn't see the game but the 5 Live commentators raved about his performance alongside McAuley. Could yet be an option if he gets a run of games and Ipswich start going places.It seems he's been playing at CB for Ipswich for quite a while now, with O'Dea often playing left back. I haven't seen much of him, but from the Ipswich v Norwich game a few months back, he did very little to inspire confidence, even though he scored.

[drummerboy]

I too saw the East Anglian derby and he had a very bad game as did O'Dea. DD scored the goal that sealed Roy Keane fate a couple of weeks ago with an sloppy OK. I would rather we tried some of the younger candidates for the left full position.

[OwlsFan]

I thought he did well last night. Ok, the opposition might not have been up to much but certainly put in a creditable perfomance in an area where we are not exactly awash with talent.

[tetsujin1979]

Trapattoni said before the Macedonia game that he was picked over Clark because he is a "stopper" type of defender, and he definitely played that role last night with some clearances early on

[Charlie Darwin]

It was O'Dea who played against Macedonia, wasn't it?

I thought Delaney made some good challenges and dominated physically but he and Kelly were caught out quite a few times by Feeney's runs in the first half and McGinn late on. I think Delaney will start with O'Shea in Macedonia though.

[tetsujin1979]

It was O'Dea who played against Macedonia, wasn't it?

I thought Delaney made some good challenges and dominated physically but he and Kelly were caught out quite a few times by Feeney's runs in the first half and McGinn late on. I think Delaney will start with O'Shea in Macedonia though.
crap, you're right. Delaney wasn't even involved! I'm an idiot, ignore the above

[SwanVsDalton]

crap, you're right. Delaney wasn't even involved! I'm an idiot, ignore the above

The mask of authority slips!

[EastTerracer]

Damien Delaney straight into the Crystal Palace team today for his debut after being released by Ipswich earlier this week.

[SkStu]

Scores 3rd goal of the season for Palace. I think it was a header from a corner.

[ArdeeBhoy]

Good on him, is he good enough for the EPL though?

[SkStu]

I think he could do reasonably well AB. He has always impressed me since his early days in the LOI and in his irish appearances. Actually his is one of the ommissions by Trap that ****ed me off in his first couple of years after what i thought were a couple of very promising performances. Pity he is 31 now.

[ArdeeBhoy]

Aye, hope you're right.