We're in a bit of a hole now with all these injuries.
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We're in a bit of a hole now with all these injuries.
Bizarre... I feel like we're not being told the hole story.
So, you're hoping they'll fill you in?
Apparently Steve Bruce told he he wanted him to play in the hole ;)
http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/socc...jury-1.2136802
Brady "desperate to feature" against Poland.
Hmmm... so which is it?Quote:
Originally Posted by The Irish Times
Does it mean Delaney was offered a call-up but refused it on the basis that he would be fourth or fifth-choice centre-back?
http://www.the42.ie/robbie-brady-pol...05073-Mar2015/
Bruce expects Brady to be available for Poland match; should be in match day squad tomorrow against Chelsea.
It mustn't have been that big a hole.
Fit enough to make the bench v Chelsea:D
http://www.independent.ie/sport/off-...-31109879.html
"A laminate white sheet was eventually sourced, there was an exchange between the pair, positions on the sheet were pointed out and Robbie took his place at left-back. This was happening less than a minute before kick-off in a huge qualifier and one has to wonder why.
Martin O'Neill's tendency to name the team 90 minutes before kick-off is odd. A player, particularly in Brady's situation, should know early on where he's playing, who is in front of him and who is beside him. Brady and Aiden McGeady took a good 20 minutes to figure things out on that left-hand side".
Pretty sure that McGeady didn't have a clue where he was supposed to be playing or what he was supposed to be doing after the Scotland game had already kicked off.
Slightly perturbing..
Hahahahaha such horse****
I heard this a few days ago my mates were on about it, I didn't notice it, but its odd to say the least.
I read that this morning and thought it sounded like nonsense, or like The Indo preempting an oneill out campaign in anticipation of worse results. And just because oneill doesn't announce his team until late doesn't mean the players only get told at the same time.
What is difficult to understand about "Robbie, you're playing left back"? Some people are such professional miserabilists. Who the f knows what Brady was asking? The Indo probably doesn't.
Generally-speaking, naming a team late on can ensure the whole squad remains motivated in training throughout the week, whilst it also denies your opposition a needless advantage. I know he loved organisation, but Trap's policy of publicising his starting eleven so early always baffled me, even it was extremely predictable anyway. Why would you give the opposition information like that unless you were obliged to?
But as if Brady wouldn't have trained at left-back at some point during the week anyway or as if the first inkling he had of what he'd be doing if he was to start was when Martin drew it out for him on a page whilst the rest of the team were being photographed before kick-off... That's simply not plausible. The story isn't an April Fools, is it?!
Yet another example of how football and rugby are treated in the media, methinks. Schmidt tactical genius and God-like figure despite this campaign being Trap reincarnated as a rugby coach (pragmatism versus flair for the first few games) but with better players, O'Neill an uncertain numpty who can't even explain basic positions to his players who are as thick as ten planks anyway. Or more subtly, look for the good in the rugby, emphasise the bad in the football.
Still, at least we're not Gaelic football which by all accounts is about six weeks away from becoming extinct.
Sadlier, Niall Quinn and Eoin Kelly talking about just that on Second Captains Live now.
What? Rugby versus football, or O'Neill being utterly clueless?
Rugby v football, they've moved on now but basically talking about how soccer players always have their salary mentioned and rugby players never. It's easy to put in a tackle and make yourself look like you're trying really hard in rugby, not so in soccer, etc.
Good, about time people started raising this issue. I've just been watching BBC news and they made big fuss over Raheem Sterling and what his peers earn. Sterling says he's only interested in trying to win things. Either way, so what if footballers get well paid? They are the actors in the world's most popular TV drama. Nobody gives a hoot if Brian Whathisname in Breaking Bad makes a fortune, but footballers are no different.
How many actually make a lot of money around the world anyway? 2,000? 3,000? I'd bet Barclays pays more people over a million a year than the whole global football industry. I wouldn't bet much mind you! But I'd say you could come up with a neat statistic showing just how few footballers earn a packet versus better performers in media, finance or whatever. I'd say maybe 500 million people worldwide know who Robbie Keane is. Over a billion people are said to have watched the Man U v Chelsea CL final. Do the players not deserve a penny each?
Anyway, I loved Mary Hannigan on Monday: "thanks to the rugby guys for filling the gap between November and now". Ken Early had a good piece that could have gone further (Zebo and Murray allegedly bedding a girl together) and Declan Lynch ran a piece saying that rugby being the sport of "Official Ireland" leaves him disconnected.
Nobody ever mentions Formula one drivers' salaries either, and they're routinely at the top of the highest paid sportspeople in the world. Schumacher was on 50 million a year at one point! Why do footballers get called out for their earnings?
there might be something to the laminated sheet story
Brady wasn't in the lineup photo
http://inpho.ie/cache/inpho/52/99/07...O_00915614.jpg
Never had a problem with how much soccer players earn.
If there's that much money in the game I'd rather it go to the players than Sky, shareholders etc.
I think the real issue people have with soccer players is the diving and play-acting. That, for me, is what really takes away from the sport.
The only way around it is heavy punishment for the perpetrators, even if posthumously.
I read today that FAI will be fined for us getting so many yellow cards against Poland.
No mention of anyone or any association being fined for the cynical things that went on on the pitch.
Probably to do with football's popularity (there is saturated coverage of every little detail) and it being the "working man's game". The gap is possibly seen as more obvious or significant between the humble, working-class roots and those who work their way into the game's elite because there's just so much money in it. Is it to do with a sort of begrudgery of the vast accumulation of wealth perhaps? Many of football's followers possibly view footballers' lifestyles as more repugnant and at odds with their ideals and sense of community. They probably don't bother themselves so much about wealthy stars from other sports; they aren't their heroes, after all, which also kind of shows the peculiar sort of bipolar relationship football fans have with those who play the game they love. I have no real issue with footballers earning what they can get, I might add. Fair play to them. There's an awful lot of money in the game because it makes an awful lot of people around the world happy, and they're its actors, after all. As Fixer says, rather the footballers get it than others in the background. Those who follow the likes of rugby and Formula One (more middle-class?) probably don't begrudge affluence (or probably aren't as suspicious of it) in the same way many football fans might (be). Not that I'm necessarily suggesting that resentment is an irrational or inappropriate response either. We live in a terribly unequal society and it's naturally a great source of social discontent.Quote:
Originally Posted by tetsujin1979
Ah, yeah, I wasn't seriously doubting that he'd been over talking to O'Neill; I just think it a bit silly to assume he was only then learning what he was really being expected to do at that moment.Quote:
Originally Posted by tetsujin1979
Footballers are knackers, that's why the middle classes are outraged at their earnings.
So Brady was over talking to O'Neill. So, what? Are we really being asked to believe he didn't know where he was playing? All the media were reporting he was likely to play LB all week cos that's where he had been training. Stephen Quinn was quoted about him playing LB.
No, let's make a crisis out of a good comeback and a good second half.
I can just see FIFA turning up at players' funerals and going up to their grieving widows: we're taking 5,000 Swiss francs from you for your husband diving against Ireland 54 years ago :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Fixer82
ya it's completely true but I thought the point of ridicule here was that it didn't matter he missed it. to be it's a formal part of the process and pre match process - the fact he was still at the point of needing info from Mon with respect to where he was playing or formation or whatever is pretty poor.Quote:
Originally Posted by tetsujin1979
I saw that pic after the game and wondered why it was slightly lopsided not knowing he actually was getting last minute advice from Mon!
whenever anyone mentions how much a player earns, it always reminds me of Chris Rock's "rich VS wealth" routine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdmW0rnvF_s
Which made me think of the Formula One post above - but also this: people will question a player's wages, but not the wages of the guy who pays him + twenty two other squad members every week.
Players' salaries aren't normally an issue until the likes of Ashley Cole make silly comments about their pay. I still think his comments were amazing. ON Brady's perfromance against Poland, to me he looked completely confused as to what to do until McGeady changed wings. Once this happened he seemed to be more assured as to what the game plan was. He showed enough promise over the whole game to be played there again. particularly if Bruce continues to play him there.
I think the whole team looked nervous confused for a half hour.
Not arguing with that comment , but I felt once this move occured, Brady felt more certain of his role and after three times of viewing the game I have become more adamant in my belief!Quote:
Originally Posted by DeLorean
The thing is when salaries are generally discussed, they are discussed in a sneering jealous context, "he's a selfish so and so" "blackmailing the club" "cashley cole" , or equating money with performance, "disgracefully lazy sod, he should run around a bit more considering what he's paid".
If high transfer fee or high salary made footballing excellence, then life would be very straightforward.
The actual context for discussing the exorbitant salaries and subsequent rise in inequality is in another place altogether and that place has absolutely nothing to do with the individual footballer who would be certifiable if he said "Im not worth that worth boss, just pay me half".
Yeah I'm not disputing yours either. I remember in my own (brief) full back days I'd gain in confidence and positional awareness as the game wore on anyway. I recall constantly looking across at my centre backs following their line and trying to develop an understanding with the wide midfielder in front of me. Poland could have been set up slightly differently to what was prepared and it might have thrown him for a while. Even if they weren't, I don't think it necessarily points to a lack of communication or preparation on the part of the management, probably more Brady's own lack of experience and learning the role at such a high level.Quote:
Originally Posted by gastric
I don’t know why people think footballers’ pay is fair game for criticism. There are much higher paid people in many other areas, some for less effort and talent than a footballer (hello, Ashton Kutcher). A quick search brought up these recent examples of high pay, some in under the radar sports (here anyways) and a few non-sports areas.
Highest paid TV actor (2014) Ashton Kutcher, €26 (Mark Harmon was joint 5th on a measly $19m. Now who was it who said we’re in TV’s golden age? Seriously?)
Best paid in baseball (2014): Ryan Howard, $25m
Best paid academic in the US (2013) David N. Silvers: $4.33m (Clinical Professor of Dermatology and Pathology and Director of the Dermatopathology Laboratory at Columbia University, and all round Smartie Pants. I'm an academic, but I get paid weakly, very bloody weakly.)
Best paid in European basketball: Theodoros Papaloukas €3.5m
Average EPL salary (2014): £2.3m
Tenth-highest paid Irish CEO (2014): Gene Murtagh, Kingspan, €2.6m
(I think from here down is where the bulk of the Irish squad would come in this list)
Average championship salary (2014): £486,000
Most expensive stud cover fee: Frankel c. £100,000
Biggest advance for an Irish first-time novelist: Kathleen McMahon, €500,000 (I think John Connolly may have gotten even more back in the ‘90s, but I can’t find that info)
We don't even know what info he was receiving/sharing/seeking, so we're simply in no position to criticise from ignorance. Even if Brady wasn't sure of something, you'd rather he sought clarification then, before kick-off, than him not asking (and later possibly getting into difficulty as a result) for fear of looking stupid. A player spoke about how the instructions were much clearer now under anglophonic O'Neill. I think it was Gibson who, a few days earlier, had said that the players know exactly what was expected of them now, which he felt was a big improvement on the confusion that he claimed riddled Trap's instructions.Quote:
Originally Posted by paul_oshea
Perhaps Brady saw where one of their right-sided players had just positioned himself or he saw who exactly he'd be up against, having previously not been certain, and was seeking advice based on this new information. Martin O'Neill doesn't receive details of the Polish strategical line-up before the game, does he? The names of both teams were released and shared pre-kick-off, but the exact positional or tactical line-ups surely not. UEFA supplied the media with two line-ups that were in a 4-4-2 format. They had Hoolahan on the right wing for us. So who knows what the two were talking about? We can't really draw any conclusions. A manager passes instructions to his players throughout the whole game in order to deal with scenarios that develop and circumstances as they arise. It's called adapting to the situation.
I don't think the matter is ever that far away from the football-following public's curiosity. I remember English teachers often used to raise it ("Are footballers wages justified?") as a class debate or discursive essay topic back in school. It's one of life's big questions, it would seem...Quote:
Originally Posted by gastric
What exactly did Cole say?
Do the vast wages remind football fans of the unspoken reality that their beloved club is to a large degree a business with employees instead of loyal servants?Quote:
Originally Posted by Eminence Grise
in his autobiography he said he nearly crashed his car when his agent rang with his new contract offer of £55,000 a weekQuote:
Originally Posted by DannyInvincible
I got that from an Arsenal fan's blog: http://the-cannon.com/2006/09/11/ash...-book-extract/Quote:
Ash! Are you listening?” said a virtually hyperventilating Jonathan. “I’m here in the office and David Dein is saying they aren’t going to give you £60k a week. They’ve agreed £55k and this is their best and final offer. Are you happy with that?” When I heard Jonathan (Barnett) repeat the figure of £55k, I nearly swerved off the road. “He is taking the ****, Jonathan!” I yelled down the phone. I was so incensed. I was trembling with anger. I couldn’t believe what I’d heard. I suppose it all started to fall apart for me from then on. I’d trusted Mr Dein to push the deal through.
So, good amazing or shocking amazing?Quote:
Originally Posted by tetsujin1979
I suppose, if he had crashed the car, he could always have blamed it on Jermaine Pennant.
At least he remembered he had a Mercedes.
Porche by comparison are forgettable.
The great thing about sport is that the best paid sportspeople in the world are, by a fairly objective criteria, demonstrably among the best in the world at what they do, unlike so many other forms of entertainment where ability is subjective and hype and advertising can go on indefinitely without being found out.