Originally Posted by
Drumcondra 69er
I know what you mean but sometimes you have to build for the future, had we qualified for WC 98 it's unlikely McGarth would have been fit so the logic would have been to try and blood a sucessor. Harte wasn't that bad at that stage as is being made out, naive and inexperienced yes but he was doing alright when given a chance a Leeds and was up to the level of making the PFA team of the year a couple of years later (albeit at full back). Centre half was a problem position for us at the time, all our big hitters in that position had grown old together (McGrath, Moran, O'Leary and McCarthy himself) and bar Babb no one was really coming through (see Kerneghan's caps total for proof). You could argue that a group in which we weren't looking like getting close to winning but had 2nd pretty much nailed on would be the ideal time to blood younger players.
Dunno what relevance Tommy Coyne has to this discussion btw....
