Darron Gibson

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Originally Posted by Colbert Report

Meyler didn't go to Poland and spend the entire time on the bench. Look at it this way, Gibson can spend a week at home with his family and friends or fly nine hours out to the middle of Asia to watch a football match that he can catch on telly just as fine from the comforts of a pub or his living room. Ye all need to keep in mind that football is his job, and not necessarily his passion. Just because we all love football and watch it for fun, doesn't mean he has to. I don't blame him one bit. He was humiliated by the fact that Paul Green was sent on at the Euros instead of him and based on what I have seen, he had every right to be.

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Whatever about Green coming on against Spain (and that is the manager's discretion to make such a decision in light of prior commitment demonstrated by Green), Gibson wasn't even a dead cert to make our Euros squad in the first place. What about Stephen Kelly and David Forde? Should they just pack it in as well or would they be less entitled to have such a high opinions of themselves?

I'm not angry at Gibson or demanding that he shows up for us; he can do whatever he wants. I just think he's a petulant fool who's made a staggering error of judgment, although that's assuming his international future means anything to him...

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Originally Posted by youngirish

What an immature child. However it is starting to worry me this seeming lack of interest in playing for Ireland that many of our players have been cultivating over the past few years. This has become especially prevalent during Trapattoni's reign.

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Is it more prevalent though? What players are you referring to specifically? There's no lack of interest of epidemic proportions, or is there? And I'd imagine things are no worse than in past times. Plenty of players have pulled out of friendlies for us due to slight (to be undoubting) injuries over the years. Suspect commitment to international friendly fixtures and the like is nothing new.

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Originally Posted by jbyrne

reality is green has always played better for us than gibson.
gibson is the only 6 counties player that the north didnt mind "losing" to the republic and that says it all really.

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They did mind. The IFA were busting Sepp Blatter's balls about Gibson a few years ago. The NI faithful even dedicated a lengthy chant to Gibson at a game in which he wasn't even featuring last year!:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipLc-SnVZvs

Any updates on his injury, by the way?

Trap warns Gibson that others are queueing up to take his squad place for good: http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/inter...tional-future/

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Giovanni Trapattoni has warned Darron Gibson that there are plenty of other midfielders queuing up to take his place in the Republic of Ireland squad should the Everton player decide to prolong his international exile.

The Republic begin their World Cup qualifying campaign on Friday when they visit Kazakhstan.

But they will be without Gibson, who has made himself unavailable for the game, and for the friendly against Oman four days later.

Shorn of Keith Andrews through suspension and injury victim Paul Green, Trapattoni was thinking about slotting Gibson in to his midfield, but the 24-year-old refused a call-up as he is still suffering from the disappointment of Euro 2012.

Gibson put in a series of fine displays since moving to Everton in January, but he was left disillusioned with Trapattoni and the Republic set-up when he did not make it off the bench during the dismal Euro 2012 campaign.

Trapattoni said he respected Gibson's decision, but also insisted that the Republic would cope without him.

"In the past we were frightened about missing players, but now we already have a squad," Trapattoni said.

"He can think about it or we go with other players. We have David Meyler, Marc Wilson, then there is Glenn Whelan, James McCarthy. All can play (in midfield), and coming back we also have (Keith) Andrews. When we come here, if there are players who are not coming, we build the other team.

"We have been watching also new players, maybe we will discover a new Irish player. He has to decide whether he wants to play or not."

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The midfielder, who was born in Northern Ireland but opted to play for the Republic, told Trapattoni he would not like to be considered for the upcoming international fixtures during a telephone conversation on Friday.

"I spoke with Gibson for a long time," Trapattoni said. "He explained to me that he was disappointed. I understood but I said to him that we were all disappointed after the defeats in the Euro campaign, but I said that this is a time for a new opportunity (for the Republic)."

Trapattoni defended his decision to overlook Gibson for the entire Euro 2012 campaign, claiming that he could have played the midfielder against Italy in the final group game but did not want to make it look as if he was making changes to favour his home nation.

"It was impossible to change," the 73-year-old said. "With 20 minutes to go in our match Italy could have gone out and Croatia could qualify. If we changed it and we lost it would have looked like I favoured Italy."

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Peculiar reasoning if that's genuinely the only reason Trap didn't give Gibson game-time against Italy. I'd imagine Gibson's main issue was with Trap favouring Green from the bench against Spain, however. I'd have been more interested in Trap outlining the reasoning behind that decision. At least he and Gibson conversed over the phone, mind!

Also, Trap clearly sees Wilson as being able to fulfil a midfield role if needed.

FFS. Instead of giving players like Westwood, Gibson and McCarthy competitive playing time against Italy Trap worried about how any changes would be viewed. Incredible stuff. I'd love to hear Jack Charlton's and Mick McCarthy's views on these comments. No wonder Gibson is calling a halt to this nonsense.

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Originally Posted by DannyInvincible

Trap warns Gibson that others are queueing up to take his squad place for good: http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/inter...tional-future/



Peculiar reasoning if that's genuinely the only reason Trap didn't give Gibson game-time against Italy. I'd imagine Gibson's main issue was with Trap favouring Green from the bench against Spain, however. I'd have been more interested in Trap outlining the reasoning behind that decision. At least he and Gibson conversed over the phone, mind!

Also, Trap clearly sees Wilson as being able to fulfil a midfield role if needed.

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It's very poor reasoning.

Indeed. Essentially, Trap placed a concern for his own reputation above a team selection decision. Does this justify Gibson's sense of aggrievement? I think perhaps. Although, opting out of World Cup qualifiers still isn't the mature way to deal with it.

I suspect Trap just didn't trust him and is using this as an excuse. In which case I think Trap's judgement is flawed.

Gibson should have had some game time in Poland. He didn't. He should get over it and realise he's got a hugely privileged life and try to prove Trap wrong.

We were eliminated prior to the Italy game, it was a glorified friendly and irrelevant who he played. Nobody was entitled to play in it as some sort of appeasement for not being involved in the actual important part of the competition. Same with coming off the bench against Spain, our campaign was over at that stage too. The only significant selections were the starters for Croatia and Spain which bar Cox was identical to the squad that qualified. People need to stop getting hung about who played in the trivial parts of that campaign, playing anyone at that stage was an empty, trivial gesture that doesn't deserve any stock to be placed in.

We played 135 minutes of meaningful time in the Euros. v Croatia and the first half against Spain. You can spot the joker fans a mile off who believe our problems were in the irrelevant 135 minutes we played in the second half.

Irrelevant to what? Every minute of every game is important.

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Originally Posted by DannyInvincible

Irrelevant to what? Every minute of every game is important.

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Exactly. Italy had still to get to the knockout stages and it was an ideal match to play the likes of Westwood, Gibson and McCarthy in a competitve game against a serious side with something at stake.

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Originally Posted by Noelys Guitar

Exactly. Italy had still to get to the knockout stages and it was an ideal match to play the likes of Westwood, Gibson and McCarthy in a competitve game against a serious side with something at stake.

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Certainly. And then there's the other argument to field your strongest side available in order to achieve a result to benefit our ranking. Not necessarily saying that one or the other is correct, but no match is ever irrelevant. However, letting a fear of how a team selection decision might be interpreted by the rest of Europe influence the making of such a decision isn't justifiable. Maybe I'm overplaying Trap's comment and such a fear didn't really colour his thinking. He could well have been using it as a convenient excuse to appease those siding with Gibson.

I don't think it had anything to do about ranking points.
I forgot about that Trap reason for playing the/his first team against Italy. It makes obvious sense. He did mention it before the game, so it wasn't a post-game excuse of convenience. Though changing one player for Gibson would hardly have fired up the masonic conspiracies.
Anyway, that's a side issue. It isn't a valid reason for Gibson to put a pause on his international duty.

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Originally Posted by geysir

I don't think it had anything to do about ranking points.
I forgot about that Trap reason for playing the/his first team against Italy. It makes obvious sense. He did mention it before the game, so it wasn't a post-game excuse of convenience.

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Which reason are you referring to specifically?

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Originally Posted by DannyInvincible

They did mind. The IFA were busting Sepp Blatter's balls about Gibson a few years ago. The NI faithful even dedicated a lengthy chant to Gibson at a game in which he wasn't even featuring last year!:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipLc-SnVZvs

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the song refers to hating gibson and in a match we were involved in they had a banner proclaiming to the fai to hands off their players but to keep gibson!

I saw that banner and it was clearly tongue-in-cheek. To claim they'd otherwise be uninterested in Gibson were it not for his decision to play for us simply doesn't add up. Gibson was the first player from the north to play for us with whom the IFA took serious issue. They evidently cared quite a bit as his switch to us was used to help launch the IFA's issues with the eligibility of northern-born Irish nationals to play for us into the public spotlight before they eventually used Shane Duffy as another media scapegoat and took Kearns to CAS: http://www.irishexaminer.com/archive...uad-41159.html

The level of vitriol directed towards Gibson by certain NI fans would suggest they feel some sense of entitlement with regard to dictating for whom he should play and bear him ill-will for not choosing to play for them. They dub him "turncoat", "defector", "traitor" and so forth. If they didn't mind him switching, they'd have simply ignored him and gotten on with their own business.

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Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin

Who? Gibson and... Andy Reid? Hardly a comprehensive list of people who can pass the ball. James McCarthy is the best passer of the ball we have and he's fine, despite the ridiculous criticism he's been subject to from fans and the Irish media.

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If that's the only issue you take with my post, I'll cede it to you!

Gibson has turn his back on Ireland and if i was manager, he would never play for me again. You cant have that in your set-up, its a shame cause he is playing well but he is acting like a spoilt child!

When all the emotion over Gibson's rash decision has settled down, the question needs to be asked would the Irish squad be stronger with him and even Stephen Ireland? For me the answer is yes, and Trap's reasoning as mentioned above plus Long's supposed 'injury' suggest me that he is not really communicating effectively with the players.

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Originally Posted by swinfordfc

Gibson has turn his back on Ireland and if i was manager, he would never play for me again. You cant have that in your set-up, its a shame cause he is playing well but he is acting like a spoilt child!

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A really good manager will recognise when a really good player is acting like a child and accommodate them in a positive way. I think Trap is doing that with Gibson. He could exclude him completely and alienate him for good, but he has made all the right noises so far to keep him in the fold.

It would be interesting to hear more on this from Gibson himself, although I don't expect that will be forthcoming. Before jumping to conclusions, is his disappointment with the nature of our general performance (as Trap appears to be suggesting in his comments, perhaps somewhat artfully), the fact he didn't see any game-time whilst the likes of Green did (I think this to be the most likely or pivotal factor) and/or as a result of a personal grudge with Trap (as many appear to be deducing, although I don't think this is a fair assessment)? Does Gibson see himself ever playing for Trap again, for example? I think he may well. There's nothing to suggest that he has a specific problem with Trap as manager. This comment from Trap, assuming we can take it at face value, would suggest there has not been a falling out between the pair and that Gibson's decision is not down to feeling like a victim of Trap the supposed alienator:

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"I spoke with Gibson for a long time," Trapattoni said. "He explained to me that he was disappointed. I understood but I said to him that we were all disappointed after the defeats in the Euro campaign, but I said that this is a time for a new opportunity (for the Republic)."

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Could Gibson's move be interpreted that he cared so much and harbours such disappointment from the Euro's that he had to take this step? In a patriotic context,Gibson should have remained in the squad, even if only to warm the bench. But as it stands the chances are he would have started anyway due to injuries. Or perhaps Gibson was given the indication or had the feeling that Trap would select McCarthy in his stead?

Either way it's a very curious situation. Breaks in relationships never work and often lead to a break-up. I hope this isn't something similar. Gibson is a better player than Whelan I feel but McCarthy is potentially the best from our current lot. Gibson has a long international career ahead of him so a Stephen Ireland-style retirement would be a blow. I don't think it will come to that. However, I do think that if he's not selected in the next squad then his position is fairly untenable.

Given our performances against Croatia and Spain, using different personnel would hardly have looked suspicious, or been considered 'weakening' the team by anybody.

Without knowing what conversations Gibson and Trap had, if any, regarding the role he would be playing in Poland, it's impossible to know the extent to which his grievance is legitimate, but he certainly hasn't come out of it well. He comes across as arrogant and petty, and you have to wonder if he expected a different kind of response than what's happening now.

Does anyone for a moment think Gibson's disappointment is being saddened at the poor display of the team rather than personal disappointment of not getting his perceived deserved time in the limelight?

This is all starting to get a little bit too much lke Saipan for me. I'm out.

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Originally Posted by osarusan

Given our performances against Croatia and Spain, using different personnel would hardly have looked suspicious, or been considered 'weakening' the team by anybody.

Without knowing what conversations Gibson and Trap had, if any, regarding the role he would be playing in Poland, it's impossible to know the extent to which his grievance is legitimate, but he certainly hasn't come out of it well. He comes across as arrogant and petty, and you have to wonder if he expected a different kind of response than what's happening now.

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Agreed, surely leaving an ineffective midfield unchanged and then putting Paul Green on would be the best way to smooth Italy's path.

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Originally Posted by Murfinator

Does anyone for a moment think Gibson's disappointment is being saddened at the poor display of the team rather than personal disappointment of not getting his perceived deserved time in the limelight?

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No, because there were many reports after the competition that he was livid with Trap and was considering his international future. This ties in perfectly with that.

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Originally Posted by Murfinator

Does anyone for a moment think Gibson's disappointment is being saddened at the poor display of the team rather than personal disappointment of not getting his perceived deserved time in the limelight?

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I'd say Gibson is one of those guys that would be happy with a 5-1 defeat as long as he scored the goal.

I think that was murfinators point lads.

I'm just left wondering, if he and Trap had a call on Friday where grievances were aired etc, why retrospectively "punish" the manager or the setup, by saying you were too disappointed from the summer gone by? That's kinda what he is trying to do, like a child trying to get one over after being ignored by their parents. Surely, the call must have been along the lines of darron asking was he going to feature this time around, Trap may not have given him the assurances he wanted, and then Gibson does this. If you knew you were going to be picked, why jeopardise that or your future or "punish" someone else? Even for a petulant, egotistical, spoilt brat like Gibson that seems a bit OTT. If, of course that was the case.

Trapattoni's press conference yesterday suggests Gibson could be in line for a longish sabbatical. Says he 'should want to be with Ireland' and got a bit exasperated in true Trap style. Tardelli also seemed to indicate Gibson would've played.

I really cant fathom why he would do this if advised he was going to play, if he has any bit of patriotism in him.

But it would not surprise me given his character. Who normally rooms with Gibson btw?

I'm hopeful that meyler(silent e stutts ;)) now takes his chance, because one thing that Trap is is consistent in his selections.

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Originally Posted by Murfinator

Does anyone for a moment think Gibson's disappointment is being saddened at the poor display of the team rather than personal disappointment of not getting his perceived deserved time in the limelight?

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As Stutts says, no. Trap seems happy to imply that this is the case, perhaps rather craftily, as it depersonalises things from his perspective, but it doesn't add up for me. Plus, the words coming from Everton and David Moyes appear to suggest that Gibson's disappointment is primarily rooted in a lack of game-time: http://www.evertonfc.com/news/archiv...reland-future-

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Gibson, who picked up a thigh strain in the Blues’ 2-0 defeat at West Brom, is disappointed with a lack of playing opportunities for his country – particularly at Euro 2012.

Moyes said: "He's not played recently and travelled to all the games including the Euros. I'm very disappointed he's not been selected and maybe he feels that way too. I think he's spoken with the manager."

But the Everton boss added: "The club always encourages players to play for their international teams. He will play again for Ireland I have no doubt about that."

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Meylr?

Gibson - in terms of ability, not attitude - has divided opinion here like few others in the last year or two. I've always thought he's a classy player and, in particular, would do very well in a 3 man midfield for us. But McCarthy is the man with most to gain post-Euros and I think if he can hit the ground running then we're quids-in. We're back down a level or two from the standard we were playing at the Euros so I think we can continue to make do with what we have and McCarthy ought to improve things. If Meyler (point taken on pronunciation!) can establish himself as a midfield option, and also Wilson, then I think we can have no reason to miss Gibson. We need mobile players who aren't afraid of the ball and who can snap at ankles. We also need positive characters.

As a related aside, I was impressed by Arsenal yesterday. The XI they had on the pitch seemed like they were all playing for each other and, unusually for Arsenal, all seemed to be positive characters.

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Originally Posted by paul_oshea

Who normally rooms with Gibson btw?

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I've no idea but would have guessed O'Shea if pushed.

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Originally Posted by DannyInvincible

Which reason are you referring to specifically?

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Afair, that we should be seen (by Croatia) to be playing our best team in our last game even though our hopes were gone and not using the game to give honourable members of the squad a run out, that Trap being Italian would have eyes on him, that we should be seen to be above suspicion.

Imo, Trap certainly had a duty towards the spirit of the competition but he could have balanced that somewhat with his duty to the Irish squad, with one or two changes.

Very astute move by Gibson. At this stage everyone knows that the best way to increase your reputation as a footballer is to not be in / be on the edge of the Ireland squad. Watch his reputation as a footballer soar now just like Andy Reid's did. And as another stick to beat an increasingly unpopular manager with, he'll soon be the white Pele.

On a more serious note, I'm absolutely disgusted with Gibson. Just when he finally looked like a player that might offer something to the team he throws the toys out of the pram.

Well Im happier than this is Darron Gibson we are talking about and not James McCarthy.

James is key to our future midfield, not so sure about Darron, who at this stage has had a number of opportunities. In fact Trap appeared to favour DG in the early days, for example he started in the one nil win at home to Cyprus in Traps first game and was pretty ineffective that night.

I can understand DG's annoyance with not making the team during the Euros. I think he also joined the squad early and requested to be released to go to Whelan's wedding but was refused. But with his improving performances for Everton, it surely was only a matter of time before he got some game time again and very good chance of it in this game with Andrews out. Very immature and petulant from DG, you have to wonder if it was a competitive game against Wales or Sweden or Faroes (ie somewhere alot closer) would he had felt so disappointed.

Maybe Darron, like Ronaldo, is suffering from professional sadness: http://www.joe.ie/football/football-...drid-0028029-1

The Indo is reporting that Gibson threatened to quit the squad after the Spain game. Had to be talked out of it (I believe by Alan Kelly and John O'Shea). I agree with Elroy that McCarthy is a better all round player than Gibson. But our midfield is threadbare and Gibson will be missed. It was interesting to hear Trap say he would continue to follow Gibson ie he will never play again as long as I am manager.

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Originally Posted by DannyInvincible

Maybe Darron, like Ronaldo, is suffering from professional sadness: http://www.joe.ie/football/football-...drid-0028029-1

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I see his dads anniversary is this week, could just be knobhead journos blowing things out of proportion as usual.