What is the latest with McGeady??
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What is the latest with McGeady??
I read that he is recovering from a calf injury. Based on some quotes from his manager a couple of weeks ago it seems he’s still in the plans at Sunderland unless something has changed since:Quote:
Originally Posted by Fixer82
“He has undoubtedly got masses of quality and he will be an asset for us.
“It’s frustrating for him but hopefully we will get to the bottom of it, whether that takes 10 days or two or three weeks we will get to that end point soon and he will be back available.”
https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/spor...epare-14974411
I think O'Neill is a little bit harsh on him, perhaps intentionally so. McGeady has been excellent in the championship the last two seasons and hasn't done much wrong for O'Neill. A lower premiership side like Huddersfield or Brighton would possibly have suited him better than Everton. He seemed very frustrated with Martinez
He was even more harsh on him over the weekend -Quote:
Originally Posted by Fixer82
Quote:
Originally Posted by Martin O'Neill
Full article here (subscriber only) - https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soc...-job-1.3606897
Quote:
Martin O’Neill: ‘If I couldn’t face criticism, I wouldn’t be in this job’
Republic of Ireland manager reflects on a 50-year career that started with GAA in Derry
He is, he strongly suggests with so much of what he says, a product of his past. The upbringing in Kilrea, the town of 2,000 or so near Derry’s Antrim border, his family, education and sport – the enduring love that became his livelihood.
Nearly 50 years after Martin O’Neill embarked on a professional career that has included some remarkable highs both as a player and manager, however, he still describes himself as “steeped” in the game he left behind.
Two of his brothers, Gerry and Leo, were part of the Derry team that reached the 1958 All-Ireland (he was there in Croke Park, aged six as they lost to Dublin) and he recalls the Down team that would become the first side from Ulster to lift the title a couple of years later.
“I grew up with this Ulster mentality that we had. We, as Co Derry people, had a grudging respect for Down who could come across the border and win, three times in the Sixties. It had never been done before but they went down against all the odds, against all the elements and generally against all of the refereeing decisions . . . So I’ve always had a respect for Down for being able to do that but I’d love to see Derry come back.”
In their absence, he says, he’ll be cheering on their neighbours next weekend, at the game if he can swing it, although it doesn’t sound too likely given that the Ireland squad will be assembling and Burnley will be on the box.
Still, he says, “I heavily love the GAA. It’s taken a bit of a hammering at the minute in terms of tactics, but this Dublin side can consider themselves one of the finest ever to have played the game, there’s no doubt about that. Obviously, I’ll be cheering on Tyrone, though. Derry and Tyrone don’t like each other but they’re in Ulster and I’m essentially an Ulster man.”
He was, he recalls, a good player himself, turning out for the hometown club his father had helped to found, and for his various schools and colleges. But in Belfast, he divided his energies between St Malachy’s, where he was studying, and Irish League club Distillery. Ultimately, his early success in soccer earned him a ban of sorts from the GAA, with an important schools match once having to be moved because of his involvement.
“We had to take it out of the county – two teams from Belfast playing against each other couldn’t play against each other in Casement Park. We had to take the game to Omagh because I was not allowed to play. Not to play at Casement Park was a massive disappointment,” he recalls with a lingering sense of regret, “but it was a long time ago, things move on.”
Contemplating
An awful lot has happened since. As he sits in his office at the FAI’s headquarters in Dublin he is contemplating how they have moved on since Ireland’s last competitive game, the 5-1 home defeat by Denmark that ended his side’s hopes of going to the World Cup in Russia and prompted a predictable wave of criticism, much of which flowed in his direction.
“When you lose a game, you have to accept criticism,” he says. “You are in the job to win games whether or not you think the odds are against you. If you win the matches, fine. If you don’t, you accept the criticism. That’s fine. If I couldn’t face that, I wouldn’t be in this job.
“Criticism has followed me for around for 45 years, at the end of the day. As a player coming in to hear some manager tell you what you should have done or whatever the case may be. Or as a manager coming in after having lost a match . . .”
He sounds pretty philosophical about it all, much more so than on the occasions when the rawness of defeat or disappointment is there for all to see in the post-match television interviews. But it’s consistently clear that O’Neill does not believe much of what is levelled at him by the press or pundits is really justified, and he quickly becomes animated when questioned about the often negative assessment of his team’s style of play.
“When I came into this job your overriding ambition, obviously, is to qualify for some competitions. And if we are not comfortable in being able to get the ball down and pass it, which is what you want to do, then you have to find ways of staying in games and winning some football matches.
“I don’t remember playing the proverbial ‘long ball’ at Aston Villa. We were a counter-attacking side because we had pace to burn. I would have said that that Aston Villa side was a really, really fine side – which I made. I bought the likes of Ashley Young – you wouldn’t have said that Ashley Young and James Milner were brutal boys who booted the ball. We played a really decent brand of football.
“And at Celtic, we had athletic players; they were strong but they were also quality footballers, really quality, that’s why we were able to do so well in European football. It would be nice [now] to have players to choose from the big league, but if we don’t have that then we have to try and find other ways to compete – and not just compete but to try and win. That’s what we did and we almost qualified for two consecutive tournaments.”
Aspire
He and his players, he suggests, both aspire to more but, he observes, “when you are away to a good side, it’s not easy to take the ball down and pass it.”
What he really takes exception to, though, is the suggestion that some of his own methods, most notably an inclination to only name his team in the run-up to games, has hindered his players from achieving their collective potential when playing for Ireland.
More than once, it has been claimed, players have been surprised by the role they have been handed in the team or even to find themselves in it. “That’s nonsense,” he says firmly. “Total nonsense. I’ve done it for years [but] the Celtic players knew exactly what they were supposed to do. Ask the Leicester players, they knew their jobs inside out. The players here know their jobs. I’m telling you – they know their jobs.”
He speaks at length about the issue and comes back to it more than once after the interview appears to have moved on. He cites not only his own success but that of his own former manager Brian Clough – and Roy Keane’s at Manchester United.
“Alex Ferguson won championship after championship after championship, but Roy Keane tells me he named the team an hour beforehand. He had trust in the players. Brian Clough stuck up a list of players on the Friday but would seldom name the team until the Saturday, so I am dealing with two of the greatest managers who have ever been in the game.”
In his own case, he points to the success he enjoyed in previous clubs and suggests that it would have been impossible for his teams to do what they did unless the players were comfortable and confident in their roles. “The only way you can do your job is to know your job, and the players who go onto the field in my time as manager know their job,” he says, emphatically.
Self-justification
When it is put to him one or two players have sounded less certain about that, he suggests that there might be a hint of self-justification about their comments.
“The Sunday after we had lost to Scotland [back in November 2014], Aiden McGeady said to some journalist that he didn’t know he was playing in that position, but he had played in that position for me at Celtic as a kid.“Aside from that, though, he came off the line for a corner kick but he was told to stay on the line until the ball was cleared; I didn’t see him saying, ‘sorry I messed up there’. He came off the line and they scored whereas if he had done his job, stayed on the line, he would have headed clear. But he came out afterwards and said he hadn’t known he was playing in that position and I think things start from things like that.”
If the press aren’t convinced, he says, others are. His employers were, for a start, clearly keen to keep him in the face of significant interest from English clubs.
“Stoke City wanted to take me because of the job I’d done with the Republic of Ireland. They didn’t take a loss against Denmark into the equation. They looked at the victories we had had over the years that I had been here and felt that I had been overachieving.”
He hopes to do so again. He is anxious to engineer another win over Wales and has dwelt, he says, long and hard on that defeat by Denmark and how he might do things differently. The Nations League is a stepping-stone, with another European Championship the major goal now. In sport here is always another championship to be chased, another point to prove, another score to settle.
Long interview with Martin O'Neill from Off The Ball: https://cdn.radiocms.net/media/012/a...dio_file83.mp3
The interview itself was recorded last Friday, so doesn't have any discussion on Declan Rice's situation
https://www.independent.ie/sport/soc...-37268158.html
To lose one , can happen , To lose two , unfortunate , To lose Three particularly Kelly who was hardly on the England Radar could be construed as careless .
Is it Martin and Roy ? Is it their style of football .
England must have secret agents and not so secret agents on the case . Hard to blame them . Are they even going after , as outside bets as Kelly ?
It needs to be considered ? It may be right or wrong .
In Kelly's case, i would say he is just a tulip. But the FA defo had their influence on jack and Declan
I don’t think the O’ Neill / Keane style of play is going to attract ball players . A lot of these young fellas are not used to getting a Crick in their Neck observing Hoofball overhead .
OBVIOUSLY THESE PALYERS NEED TO WANT TO PLAY AND O’NEILL / KEANE WON’T BE AROUND FOREVER . (unintentional caps,sorry )
After O’Neill / Keane we have to start playing football even though this may mean we don’t have short term success . Pitches (these days ) in Ireland / Britain allow players to play football . When the two dinosaurs die ( step aside ) out its time to start playing football .
I believe Arter is pulling out of the squad. This is getting out of hand. I think if he pulls out we shouldnt call him up again ( even though we need him). I also think Roy Keane should be sacked, not just because of this. Im just sick of hearing of him involved in incidents of an unhelpful manner
I believe you should quote, or link to, your sources.
I think young kids these days would be apprehensive about coming to play under Roy Keane as a trainer and MON as a technically challenged pauper. And to those kids I would say, too bad. If you can't man up enough to play the game and be talked to like a grown man (ie. take a verbal volley or two along the way) then who needs you. But that seems to be the way of it in all walks of life these day - kids need to hear 'constructive' criticism without the tongue lashing, whereas some of us 'older' folk took to it like water off a duck's back. It isn't going to change any time soon. What is more glaring however is the poisoned chalice which is the Ireland job. You could put a management team of Guardiola, Zidane and Mourinho together to come to the Aviva, and they would not be able to change our players that drastically. The acid test is the following: We play Wales on Thursday. Does anyone out there believe we'll see a brand new 'total football' game from Ireland - something approaching Manchester City's style or even Leicester City's style? We just aren't capable enough and when the chips are down the old reliable long ball game rears its head as it always does.Quote:
Originally Posted by seanfhear
At what point do we say enough is enough? The camp is poisonous that much is clear, FAI missed the perfect chance to fire the two and now will face the consequences.
There is no evidence that the camp is poisonous. Unless you have a sourceQuote:
Originally Posted by Cathalsmart
Think the management team have a lot to answer for. They should have stepped down after the Denmark match. We play the worst football in Europe, we are losing our best prospects under them and now we have a situation where players don't want to play for them.Quote:
Originally Posted by Diggs246
Arter pulling out of the squad, Rice pulling out of the squad, Kelly pulling out of the squad. Dont be so naive please, its quite clear what's going on here.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fixer82
So, there you have it. Seems Brian Kerr was not so wide of the mark after all! From what I have read and seen so far today, it seems we have a situation where Roy Keane was involved in an altercation with an Ireland player (this player has been revealed as Harry After) and that apparently Declan Rice got involved as a peacemaker. Source: https://twitter.com/offtheball/statu...39255033602048. Now both players have left the squad. So, it’s fair to say that something was said to both of them? What was said that could have such an effect? Remember who we are dealing with here…Roy Keane.
His time as Ipswich Manager was littered with issues with players..
https://www.theguardian.com/football...d-ipswich-book
http://www.eadt.co.uk/sport/roy-kean...shoe-1-3797639
His time as Sunderland manager, the VERY same. Find your own links :o)
The amount of arguments and trouble he has caused over the years:
1 Mick McCarthy, May 2002, World Cup
“Mick, I don’t rate you as a manager and I don’t rate you as a person. The only reason I have any dealings with you is that somehow you are the manager of my country.”
2 Alf Inge Haaland, April 2001
Keane uses the Manchester derby to exact his revenge for his foe’s reaction to his career-threatening knee injury in Sept 1997 at Elland Road. “Take that you xxxx and don’t ever stand over me again sneering about fake injuries.”
3 Old Trafford’s prawn sandwich brigade, Nov 2000
Following a 0-0 draw with Dynamo Kiev in the Champions League, Keane said: “Away from home our fans are fantastic. But at home they have a few drinks and probably the prawn sandwiches, and they don’t realise what’s going on.”
4 Fifa vice-president Jack Warner, Sept 2008
Keane said: “The man is a clown. The word 'clown’ just suits him. He’s probably a small man and he’s got a small-man syndrome.”
These are the ones that I found easily but these don’t mention, Patrick Vieira | Alex Ferguson | Alan Shearer & Peter Schmeichel - The list goes on and on
What I will also mention is his comments about the Irish fans in the EUROs a while back, as well the constant abuse of players and others (Hazard, English players and media, Iain Wright) in his role as a pundit.
If he has spoken to any of the players like the way he does above, then it is not damn wonder they are leaving the squad!
With this happening, there has to come a time, when we need to say STOP. We have had enough. This guy is nothing, nothing but a bully. If for one second, we find out that an Assistant Manager of the national squad is bullying our players in any way then he should be sacked immediately. He is nothing but trouble. This HAS NOTHING TO do with Declan Rices loyalty!
Now I am wondering about Liam Kelly and if anything was said to him too?? What the hell is going on??? -
Before I stop, one last link to get you thinking about this bully: https://talksport.com/football/32907...tional-future/
Rant over!
I have backed Roy Keane in every controversey for 20 odd years now (I was ****ed off at what he did in Saipan but even so, could see his point of view). If he is guilty of what you are suggesting - some sort of bust up with Declan Rice and Harry Arter - then he has crossed the line for the last time in my book. He should never be allowed near an Irish team again, even an underage one.Quote:
Originally Posted by Deckydee
There's not that much here at the moment. One article from the independent, and that's it. Until the squad convenes tonight/tomorrow and the FAI issue a squad update when it's trimmed, there's nothing else to go on.