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Wigan manager (and former team-mate) Maloney wants James McClean to stay on for at least another year after his contract expires this summer, to help to lead the Wigan Athletic rebuild - whether in the Championship or League 1. (Wigan Today, 28 April).
It will be League 1 if he stays. No question he's a Championship level player - but at the same time we know every Championship team would think twice before signing him and we know it's not for footballing reasons. A strong chance he stays at Wigan I suspect.
If you read on in the quotes it sounds like he's considering going back to Derry. However, as mentioned in the papers today, that makes his chances of getting the additional two caps a little slimmer unless he gets them against Greece and Gibraltar. Which, injury barring, I think he will.
I would have thought he has another season or two in the Championship in him before another season or two at Derry. He is a machine. But he may not want to take that risk of not being capable or not doing himself justice at Derry at the age of 35 or 36.
It will be good craic at the Aviva in June when he gets his 100th v Gibraltar.
Would be great to see him return to play at home for a few seasons this summer. He'd still have it in him to give a good few seasons to Derry given his fitness. Given how so many fans of other teams love McClean I think Eirambler is probably right in that he'd stay with Wigan if he remains in England. The vast majority at Wigan seem to love him and vice versa it's somewhere that he looks to be happy at.
At this stage in his career I don't think playing LOI or League One is gonna make much difference in terms of being called up for Ireland. Exceptions were made with Knight and Hourihane as no other League One players were called up. Think the same exceptions would be made for McClean especially till this campaign is over.
Once this campaign is over surely we'd be looking to move on from someone that'll be 35 next year and turns 36 after the first round of 2026 WC qualifiers.
The best of the worst.
Blackpool were marginally worse, to be fair!
Wigan the worst, but that due to a points deduction to be totally accurate.
Anyway, let's give Manning his long deserved chance...
Signs a new deal with Wigan. They released their retained list and McClean is listed as being contacted for the 23/24 season.
Will probably get to 100 caps in June. However, if O'Dowda and Manning start next season well he may struggle for further appearances after that. Especially as Doherty can cover that position also. May pick up a few more later in the year though as Kenny has always liked him and doesn't seem to be a big fan of Manning.
Turns out he signed his new deal back in the summer and was never out of contract this summer. Similar to Keane who signed a three year deal last summer and no news about it till someone asked Maloney about it last month.Quote:
Originally Posted by JR89
Wigan will start the 2023/24 season in EFL 1 on minus 8 points, because of failure to pay staff on time this month (BBC Sport, today).
They seem quite an unstable club just now.
Preferable that McClean and Keane go elsewhere.
And, you know, every other player in their squad
HMRC have issued winding up petition against Wigan. Hearing date set for 26 July. I'd say lads can except no wages this Friday and being told find new clubs.
He'll wish he was back home in Derry.
‘Irish transfer news’ doesn’t really care about them thoughQuote:
Originally Posted by tetsujin1979
Id forgotten Scully was with Wigan. Its not that long ago an Irish manager was being told he didnt know what he was doing when he wasnt calling Scully up to squad.
How unreasonable of them. Parrott and Scully played League 1 in seasons 20/21 and 21/22. Parrott scored 12, Scully scored 32.Quote:
Originally Posted by Razors left peg
Any yet one of them played regularly in Championship this season while the other fell off the face of the earth. I wonder who the better player is?Quote:
Originally Posted by Snapshot
It's easy to fall after hernia surgery. But fair play to Troy for playing regularly.Quote:
Originally Posted by Razors left peg
https://www.itv.com/news/granada/202...an-mike-dansonQuote:
Originally Posted by JR89
And saved.
Again.
Great article on the athletic today ahead of McClean's 100th cap tonight
https://theathletic.com/4618457/2023...her-in-england
It's restricted viewing, copy & paste?Quote:
Originally Posted by tetsujin1979
Archive.ph is your friend
'tis indeed, after a trying verification process.Quote:
Originally Posted by tetsujin1979
"James McClean is on the verge of finalising a move to Wrexham" per Dan McDonnell....
If he's dropping to that level they must be paying him a pretty penny. Would have thought he'd make his way back to LOI before dropping to League Two.
They're the bookies favorites for promotion if you can put any stock in that,definitely an ambitious club that are looking far beyond being in League 2 or even League 1 for a long time....
Someone was saying on the forum a while back that they've been paying very well. Someone else had dropped further than I'd expected to help them get promoted back into the league. I guess all that Deadpool money has to go somewhere.
I guess that's it for his international career so. Even with his track record, surely selecting a League 2 player is a stretch.
Sorry to bring reality into this
But is that not the end of his international career!
Kenny and manning need to kiss and make up fast. Manning needs to apologize and Kenny needs to start picking him
Anthony Forde and Thomas O'Connor dropped down from League One to them last season. Yeah think that's him finished unless others are fitness doubts. So wouldn't be surprised to see him still make some squads this year.Quote:
Originally Posted by John83
Confirmed, 12 month contract at Wrexham
https://www.wrexhamafc.co.uk/news/20...igan-athletic/
End of his Ireland career?
There are few full internationals in League Two, but on the other hand McClean is a favourite of Kenny.
He has his 100 caps so I'm sure he happily walks away from international football now. On the bright side he's gonna be a great character for the TV show!
Yeah, I could well see that happen alright - certainly for the end of this campaign. But we do need to start moving on I think. Hard to go from playing Accrington and Barrow to playing France and Holland.Quote:
Originally Posted by tetsujin1979
TBF there's surely been a few players over the years that probably went from sitting on the bench at club level to playing big games. Think he'll be kept around the wider squad until the qualifiers are over and then we'll likely have seen the last of him.Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu