Tommy gets to very few games in person so I suspect he'll be doing his commentary from a small room in Bristol, Connecticut (ESPN HQ).
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the same photo, from a slightly different angle, is in the Independent
http://www.independent.ie/multimedia...ts_862267d.jpg
Should we close this thread now? :D
this thread is only beginning. :cool:
I was expecting to see Martinez jump out of the crowd to try and persuade him to change his mind.
Was it just my imagination, or did I hear a couple of 'boo's from the crowd when McCarthy made his first few touches?
I don't think we will ever see the likes of this on Foot.ie again. A player with a 135 page thread before he even makes his compettive debut.
I just want to say, phew! Glad he's been pinned down to play for us. Now let's hope he can force his way into the team as soon as possible, we need his quality in the centre of the park.
Now lets hope he will play him as he is the future.
How long until Dunphy decides he's a spoofer?
Dunphy will never admit he's a spoofer. And, God knows, he's been given plenty of opportunities!
For his verdict on James, I give it till last orders, or closing time at the veeery latest....
Agree seemed to give a huge boost. Felt it all the way here actually. Found it uplifting. We cheered.
And Gastric who the hell where those announcers? That was the ESPN3 feed. God I worship ESPN for adding free Intl football to their arsenal but I am not sure I have ever heard such bad announcers! They talked to each other and laughed 90% of the time! If i ever encountered the two of them in a bar I would leave them the hell alone..... I Had the bar put on the RTE radio right quick which was a complete PITA! For once it was in sync with the play though thankfully!
He seems keen and has put the issue to rest once and for all. Welcome home James.
How do people feel about his pre-planned substitution purely for the reason of getting him stuck with Ireland? Doesn't it seem a bit dis-trusting of the player to need to do something like this? Surely if he's committed to Ireland he'll wait however long it takes for him to break into the first team and if the management doesn't believe he has the commitment to do that maybe he shouldn't be here in the first place.
One of his post-match comments got to me a little. He said when he got on the pitch he "tried to do what I do for Wigan". And adding in his strange position and getting wires crossed with other players at times it felt like he wasn't in tune with the team plan at all, which is understandable given the lack of time he's been involved but it isn't understandable why Trap is playing someone in a competitive game unfamiliar with the gameplan IMO.
Here's what he said in full after the match:
“I’m delighted to have come on, but just as important is the three points,” said the 20 year old. “Hopefully now we can kick on and end up top of the group. They got the goal back, but we still dug in, and it was a real team performance, everyone was magnificent. I was a bit nervous on the bench, but the boss gave me a shout. I was delighted to get on the pitch, get amongst it, and get some game time under my belt. It’s great to get a big cheer from the crowd, I thought the crowd were magnificent tonight. The boys made me feel really welcome all week, and in training. I just went on and tried to do what I do for my club. A few [family members] came over and will be happy, and there will be a few back home watching too. The most important thing was to get the 3 points, and we went and done it, and we’re all delighted in the changing room.”
From : http://greenscene.me/2011/03/ireland...-match-quotes/
I don't see anything wrong from that. Seems like a guy who was happy to be involved.
Linked with Liverpool and Chelsea in this mornings papers. Chelsea wee mentioned in the January transfer window, but the Liverpool link is new. The price quoted is £8 million
I've never wanted to see a team relegated more than Wigan this season - McCarthy should get a great move for himself, Martinez will hopefully **** off somewhere and Sammon would benefit from a season in the Championship. I also have a particular personal dislike for Gary Caldwell. Its a win, win, win, win!
Given how the media has run and run with the story I thought it made sence to play him. Plus the substitution was logical enough in terms of closing out the game. It may only have been 6 minutes but he looekd comfortable when he got on. I expect him to get a good amount of game time in teh next 3 games and think he'll be pushing for a spot v Macedonia in June. It's a myth that Trap doesn't introduce new player during a campaign, he will as long as he's seen them in friendlies beforehand. Lawrence, Andrews and St Ledger weren't in the team at the start of the last campaign for example yet were fixtures by the end of it.
Bad move to go to Chelsea, we need him to play week-in, week-out.
I didn't get that impression at all.
He was brought on to close out the game. Pretty straight forward I thought.
Bear in mind we were a little hamstrung by Doyle's early substitution so it was probably inevitable that he would have come on as late as he did in the circumstances.
Honourable mention to LFCSixty/Eighty by the way, really like that chant, a few of us were trying to get it going in the SS last night, hope it catches on! :)
McCarthy himself has on several occasions expressed a desire to put the issue to bed and get the monkey off his back. I reckon he's as pleased as anyone that he woke up this morning a confirmed Irish international.
Absolutely. He needs first team football to keep tapping his potential and I can't see him walking into that Chelsea team. I wouldn't be surprised if Liverpool were looking at him as a long-term replacement for Gerrard.
He did quite well when he came including a cheeky shot on goal and a solid tackle. It is clear that he wants to be here. All of the naysayers (myself included) were wrong. Let's just relax and enjoy the fact we have a potentially top class player committed to playing for Ireland!
Biggest cheer of the night when he came on. Delighted that all the crap over the last few months (none of which arose from James's own comments) is now put to bed. Heres to a big future with us, hope we see more of him on Tues night.
In fairness Shelvey has been highly touted since his Charlton days. Remains to be seen if he'll make it though.
Shelvey turned down an invitation from Ireland a year or two ago and claims he was offered a full cap so it doesn't look like he has any interest in playing for us.
He looks a decent enough player but the word I got from my Charlton insiders was that he was a stand-out at youth level because he was just enormous. They reckoned he didn't have much improvement in him. That said, I saw him in a Europa Leage game and he looked to have a bit about him, including a great delivery.
McGeady and Keane on James' competitive debut.
McGeady: "I was talking to him in the dressing room and he just said he was delighted that he came on and that's it put to bed now. He was getting phone calls from all sorts of people asking if he was going back to Scotland, but he said it was never in doubt and he was never going to do that. Now it's sorted."
Keane: "He's delighted more than anyone, to be honest with you, he's delighted just to get it out of the way. I was speaking to him before the game and he was desperate just to stop people talking about it. He's an Irish player now - there was never any question about it anyway because he always wanted to be. It was other people in the background slowing things up. But he is happy now because he was desperate to play for us."