Crikey, I'd somehow managed to miss (or forget) some of those. Pretty damning. Any time I'd heard him speak on the issue upon taking the job as manager, he seemed reasonably enlightened and forward-thinking - happy to accept reality and take ownership of the situation - but maybe he's since been infected by that wretched paranoid bug due to more frequent exposure to IFA victimhood. I'll have to reformulate my opinion forthwith. The ignorant moaning quoted in the Herald in May of last year is especially surprising considering his own association shunned the unique compromise offered by FIFA to put the rules aside and keep the IFA quiet.
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Last edited by DannyInvincible; 26/05/2014, 10:32 PM. -
In a similar vein.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sp...-30314097.html
Interesting comments on their Fbk page.Comment
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Probably views it as an audition for us.Comment
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Even their own players know their fans are paranoid!Originally posted by Ryan McLaughlin
I think it'd be very difficult for him personally to make a switch after those comments. He has more or less promised them his allegiance.Comment
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Saw that in the link, his loss...Comment
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Afternoon all!How strict is this policy? I know, for example, Sean Caffrey point-blank refused to get in touch with an obviously-interested Shane Duffy until Duffy first made the call to the FAI to formally declare interest, but didn't EG once claim that Brian Kerr had contacted Chris Baird years ago? Aren't the FAI OK about approaching players who've played for other associations at youth level though? Presumably, someone's recently spoken to England under-21 Harry Kane about the possibility of representing us if O'Neill has been keeping tabs on him. Why should the FAI treat the IFA with some special deference anyway? This is the organisation that brought the FAI and Daniel Kearns to court in order to try and deprive Irish players of the option of declaring for us.
Don't worry, I''ve not decided to declare for "foot.ie" again or anything(!), but when Googling for something else, it brought this Forum up, and searching further for the item, I noticed the above reference to me (in bold).
Anyhow to clarify, I'm pretty certain that some time after the event, Chris Baird disclosed that he had been approached by the FAI soon after he broke into the first team at Soton. Dunno if it was Kerr himself, but this would have been around May 2003 - a few months after Kerr took over the ROI Seniors.
And on the topic generally, Kieran McKenna (Spurs youngster) said the same in his local paper, though it wasn't more widely reported that I saw, and Shane Ferguson was definitely approached by Mick Martin to switch at the time he fell out with Nigel Worthington. (Many mistakenly assumed he had fallen out with NI/IFA).
Meanwhile, in a an article/profile on Paddy McCourt in the Irish Post of 08 February 2014 (never uploaded onto their website), journalist Garry Doyle noted the following:
... there are pockets of Derry where Celtic are hated but Paddy is loved, his allegiance to Northern ireland buying their loyalty. He could have gone elsewhere, having been courted by the Republic of Ireland in 2002, before he quietly rejected the FAI's advances and accepted the invitation from the then Northern Ireland manager, Sammy McIlroy, to join up with his squad for their April 2002 international against Spain.
Interestingly*, the article continues:
Seven years would pass before McCourt would win his second cap - and even though he received a bullet in the post from a Northern Ireland address when he was on Celtic's books - but he has no regrets about the country he chose to play for.
"Northern Ireland's fans have always been superb to me", he says. "And long may that continue. It is the way it should be, because we are playing for our country. People [in Derry] understand why I wanted to play for Northern Ireland. They know it's a sport, that people want to play international football. I play for Northern Ireland and love it. Fans respect that. It's football... [not politics]"
Incidentally, I also noticed the Daily Mail piece on Nigel Worthington and Paddy's fellow Derryman, James McClean.
Whilst it gave interesting background on NW's reasons for calling McClean up etc, it failed to note another aspect of the case.
Which is that McClean - who had played several times for the NI U-21's previously - actually accepted the Senior call-up when it came, as was reported, before then changing his mind 2 or 3 days before the game. (When NW called him up a couple of weeks before the game, there is no way he would have done so on the basis that the player was permitted to wait another 10 or 12 days before saying 'Yes' to the invitation.)
I don't know whether his late change of heart was because he suddenly realised that since the game in question was a World Cup qualifier (vs Faroes, I think), and so would tie him to NI, or because he had heard from the FAI in the meantime, now that they were alerted to the possibility of losing him. Possibly both?
Anyhow, considering his immeasurable quality of causing trouble wherever he goes, and whoever he meets, I don't care whether McClean turns out to be the "Derry Diego" - you're welcome to him!
Meanwhile, I am completely grateful that we got the "Derry Pele" instead.
* - Well to me, at least!Comment
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Wowzers, look who's (briefly?) pulled his head out of the sand!
How's about ye, EG? How come you never replied?
Last edited by DannyInvincible; 29/05/2014, 6:55 PM.Comment
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Hard to believe it was 2011. Time flies eh...Wowzers, look who's (briefly?) pulled his head out of the sand!
How's about ye, EG? How come you never replied?DID YOU NOTICE A SIGN OUTSIDE MY HOUSE...?Comment
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To put this into perspective, McCourt received his first senior cap with NI as an 18 year old playing for Rochdale (a league 1/ league 2 team at the time, and he didn't receive his next cap until 7 years later .... ). His inclusion in the NI squad, a team ranked 91st in the World by FIFA in April 2002, was noted at the time as a "surprise". At the time of McCourt's first cap, Ireland, a team ranked 19th in the World, were preparing for a WC. But sure maybe the Republik were on the look out for a new left winger - Damien Duff was decidedly average at the time after all.Last edited by ifk101; 30/05/2014, 9:22 AM.Comment
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was sure mclaughlin was going to play for us. Pity.. Seamus playing the right back role must have frightened him off!!Comment
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