Richard Sadlier...

[Roo69]

http://www.planetfootball.com/article.asp?id=162008&cpid=10&title=Injury+forces+Sadlier+to+retire

[Bluebeard]

That is a crying shame. I thought that Sadlier was possibly the best prospective strike partner for Robbie Keane, once he recovered his fitness. I think that, for all the talk of who should be the front two on Saturday and next Tuesday, this was the man I had most wanted to see there in the absence of Robbie.

So what next for him now? There is the follow-up to the Rod Squad for Setanta - follow a young man who had a bright footballing future in front of him, only to have it dashed away. Retired at 24.

[John83]

Shame.

[Grafter]

9 years after the last post.... my abiding memory of Sadlier for Ireland was in an under 21 game in 2001 - think it was against Holland or maybe Portugal? where he went on this mazy run dribbling past a bunch of defenders half the length of the pitch and coming close to scoring.... am I the only one sad enough to have the memory still in the dark recesses of my brain? Probably:)

[eL Bettor]

This match?
http://homepage.eircom.net/~tubby/Soccer_Pages/Match_Reports/IrlvHoll31-8.html

I was there, my main memory the great Dutch brass band, was a great warm up for McAteer inspired celebrations the following day!

[peadar1987]

I saw him play for Millwall against Stoke in August 2003, he came on as a substitute I think, must have been one of his last games. I remember being very nervous when I saw him warming up, but in the end he didn't do much. I wonder what he would have achieved if he'd stayed injury-free?

[CraftyToePoke]

I wonder what he would have achieved if he'd stayed injury-free?

We will never know but he was on course to measure up certainly, I think Keane with Quinn up top together has been missed and he was looking like stepping up to that role. How many more goals would Keane have too? What is certain is we would have been spared his punditry/printed word stuff, which would have been a nice bonus.

[osarusan]

How many more goals would Keane have too? What is certain is we would have been spared his punditry/printed word stuff, which would have been a nice bonus.

A bit unfair?

[CraftyToePoke]

A bit unfair?

About Keane or his media work ?

[osarusan]

Sorry, poorly qouted the relevant point. About his media work - Not that i agree with everything he says, but I think he sometimes gets unfairly criticised by people who think that anything negative = whinging (or more recently, = agenda).

[CraftyToePoke]

I don't feel he brings insight, Osarusan, I think he recently was badly exposed in a broadcast where you could see Brady struggling to remain civil toward him. I just don't believe you need to take it as far out to the left as he does to get a point across, we all know there are problems in that camp and are most likely in the latter days of Traps reign, the dogs on the street can see that without him taking a path on the matter so vehement and one tracked he only undermined himself in the end, I felt anyway.

His written stuff, before I stopped bothering with it also seemed tedious and formulaic, it always seemed to draw reference from some act of skullduggery he witnessed once in a dressing room somewhere, from those who always remained nameless which he would pad out and link however tenuously to his subject matter of the day. I thought it lazy at best, or maybe that was genuinely all he had to offer, in that case just not good enough for the papers and national broadcasters he is being paid by.

[osarusan]

I don't feel he brings insight, Osarusan, I think he recently was badly exposed in a broadcast where you could see Brady struggling to remain civil toward him. I just don't believe you need to take it as far out to the left as he does to get a point across, we all know there are problems in that camp and are most likely in the latter days of Traps reign, the dogs on the street can see that without him taking a path on the matter so vehement and one tracked he only undermined himself in the end, I felt anyway.

Given my location, I'll say that you see and read more of him than I do, but from what I have seen of him, I think his problem is that he starts out with what i feel is a reasonable and valid point, but having failed to get somebody (Brady, in particular) to agree with him, or to accept the point as valid, he starts to become frustrated, and ends up saying something 'extreme' out of frustration that is not actually what he thinks, which is then used to highlight him as being clueless.

[A face]

I don't feel he brings insight, Osarusan, I think he recently was badly exposed in a broadcast where you could see Brady struggling to remain civil toward him. I just don't believe you need to take it as far out to the left as he does to get a point across, we all know there are problems in that camp and are most likely in the latter days of Traps reign, the dogs on the street can see that without him taking a path on the matter so vehement and one tracked he only undermined himself in the end, I felt anyway.

His written stuff, before I stopped bothering with it also seemed tedious and formulaic, it always seemed to draw reference from some act of skullduggery he witnessed once in a dressing room somewhere, from those who always remained nameless which he would pad out and link however tenuously to his subject matter of the day. I thought it lazy at best, or maybe that was genuinely all he had to offer, in that case just not good enough for the papers and national broadcasters he is being paid by.

I really dont know how you can see that, the whole Brady debate was Brady being found out. Sadlier was right in everything he said. He is a breath of fresh air in the mix because Giles, Dunphy and Brady have run their course, they are tired and uninspired and its simply drool at times having to listen to them. Sadlier and Cunningham are worth every penny of the licence fee now.

[Mr A]

Am with CraftyToePoke on this one, Sadlier went too far and made a bit of a fool of himself.

I do like Cunningham though.

[dong]

Brady was the only one making a fool of themselves on that broadcast.
His point that the players should approach Trap on the style of play was ridiculous given what we know about his methods.
If Brady was struggling to remain civil then that's entirely his choice. He's pretty grumpy at the best of times although I generally enjoy him.

[barney]

I like Brady but he made an idiot of himself in that broadcast because he couldn’t be objective. Much like when Arsenal are discussed. Sadlier, as much as I don’t particularly like him, was right in what he was saying.

For Brady to say “The players should approach the manager” was nonsense. On the flip side, I’d bet he’d moan about player power too. At the end of the day, if any manager can’t see that there is a better way to play, then he isn’t the right man for the job. End of story. You can’t have players telling him how to play.

[nigel-harps1954]

I like Sadlier. Straight to the point and not afraid to speak his mind which is exactly the type of punditry you want.

I think Brady was definitely found out in that particular broadcast. His Trap defending can only go so far and he made a right fool of himself defending one of Ireland all time worst performances as nothing to do with the manager.

Sadlier has come across very well each time on RTE, whether it be MNS, or Ireland matches or whatever else he may do. But he's a person who knows the league, knows the inner workings of the clubs from his time with St. Pat's, and is a breath of fresh air really when you take into account who he's up against in the likes of Pat Dolan, Eoin Hand, and Pete Mahon, each of whom I believe to chat either complete drivel, or love to talk about themselves more than the actual matches.

[CraftyToePoke]

Just to be clear guys, I wasn't earlier offering Brady up as an example of how things should be either, and many here are quite correct in rubbishing his point that it was up to the team to approach Trap to change things in that TV debate. However I stand by what I said about Sadlier, he practically ended up frothing and lost all coherence when presented with an opportunity several of us here would have made a better fist of to push home several necessary points about Traps reign with a man who was once part of that management team. It was laughable.

[Grafter]

Some rare footage posted on youtube in last week of Sadlier, Duff, Keane, Healy etc ripping it up in Nigeria '99. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hme0zyMnnTg