THE Squad for Cyprus and Switzerland Thread

Hot of the Press the squad for the forthcoming matchs against Cyprus and the Swiss.

Squad: Given (Newcastle United), Colgan (Barnsley), Kenny (Sheffield United), Finnan (Liverpool), Cunningham (Birmingham City), O'Brien (Newcastle United), Maybury (Hearts), O'Shea (Manchester United), Carr (Newcastle United), Doherty (Norwich City), Breen (Sunderland), Miller (Manchester United), Quinn (Sheffield United), Keane (Manchester United), Holland (Charlton Athletic), Kavanagh (Cardiff City), Reid (Nottingham Forest), Kilbane (Everton), Duff (Chelsea), Lee (Cardiff City), Morrison (Birmingham City), Connolly (Leicester City), Keane (Tottenham Hotspur), Delap (Southampton).

No Harte, is he injured ?

No Macken or McGeady either

Given (Newcastle United), Colgan (Barnsley), Kenny (Sheffield United)

Finnan (Liverpool), Cunningham (Birmingham City), O'Brien (Newcastle United), Maybury (Hearts), O'Shea (Manchester United), Carr (Newcastle United), Doherty (Norwich City), Breen (Sunderland)

Miller (Manchester United), Quinn (Sheffield United), Keane (Manchester United), Holland (Charlton Athletic), Kavanagh (Cardiff City), Reid (Nottingham Forest), Kilbane (Everton), Duff (Chelsea), Delap (Southampton)

Lee (Cardiff City), Morrison (Birmingham City), Connolly (Leicester City), Keane (Tottenham Hotspur).

Macken, Dunne and Harte out again. Delap in.

Lets hope that Robbie comes through the next week ok , I hear he maybe on the bench for the spurs game this week.

Im feeling confident that we can get a good result in Basel.

:)

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Originally Posted by Fr. Murphy

No Harte, is he injured ?

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Probably still not match-ready, don't think the Primera Liga has started yet

Morrison looks like he's out... So Macken in possibly.

Breen, Doherty and Maybury... :eek: Some changes are needed here. I'd rate Dunne higher than any of them.

Midfield looks strong btw.

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Originally Posted by wallis

Im feeling confident that we can get a good result in Basel.

:)

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WHY DONT WE WORRY ABOUT CYPRUS FIRST ;)

Mod: Moving to National Team section, Threads merged

Kerr rarely calls in replacements unless maybe 3 players pullout. Only chance of Macken getting in would be if Morrisson & Keane were unfit.

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Originally Posted by pete

Kerr rarely calls in replacements

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He will for a competitive game though.

I hope Macken is NEVER picked by Kerr again.

He has made an appearance for us now, so the mercenary f*cker should now be left to ponder, for the rest of his career, on the fact that nationality is not something to parlayed about in the hope of getting an extra few bob a few times a year.

Shame on Kerr for playing this clown when the likes of Moore, Byrne, Crowe, O'Flynn, Doyle, Houlihan and Kearney are ignored......:mad:

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Originally Posted by patsh

mercenary f*cker...in the hope of getting an extra few bob a few times a year.

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Eh, you don't get paid for playing international football...

Lets say you were half Scottish but Irish was still your first nationality. If you knew you hadn't a hope of getting a game for Ireland, would you not play for the Scots. Remember half his blood is Irish.

BTW, he has done more at a higher level than the 3 strikers you have mentioned.

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Originally Posted by eirebhoy

Eh, you don't get paid for playing international football....

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Yes you do

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Originally Posted by eirebhoy

Lets say you were half Scottish but Irish was still your first nationality. If you knew you hadn't a hope of getting a game for Ireland, would you not play for the Scots. Remember half his blood is Irish.

BTW, he has done more at a higher level than the 3 strikers you have mentioned.

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If I was English and had played for England, but then realised that I wasn't going to get picked anymore so then I declare for Ireland, am I all of a sudden an "Irishman"? Was I "English" up to the time I decided I was wasting my time waiting for a call up?
Or am I simply going wherever someone is fool enough to take me?
A mercenary is a mercenary, no matter what pointless excuse you make for him.

patsh, you do not get paid for playing international football. Some less well off countries get a bit from their government to get them to play better (ie. Albania).

I don't think you'd have the same problem if he was born in Scotland as you skipped my example.

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Originally Posted by eirebhoy

patsh, you do not get paid for playing international football. Some less well off countries get a bit from their government to get them to play better (ie. Albania).

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As far as i'm aware every country pays their international players to play but i could be wrong.

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Originally Posted by eirebhoy

patsh, you do not get paid for playing international football.

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I think they do, though it may not compare with their club wages.

I doubt the FAI could even afford to give them anything. Do they get paid just for competitive games? Lets say they give 10 grand a player, that 230,000. I very much doubt it lads. Why would they pay players when they would quite happily play for nothing?

Whether they get paid or not, to suggest Macken wants to play for Ireland just to add a few extra grand to his 1m a year wage packet is absolutely ridiculous. Taking his comments in another thread into account I think patsh is just anti-English.

Footballers do get paid to play for their country but it comes in the form of expenses and prize money etc. However I agree that no player plays for a country in order to get money directly. They may do it thought to impove their image or their game so that they can get more money at club level. HOwever to accuse macken of doing it for money is not backed up by fact.

A little disapointed that Macken is not in the squad ahead of Lee and Connelly, I also reckon Dunne should be in ahead of Breen, who looked terrible Vs. Bulgaria.

Personnaly i'd like to see us start with:

Given

Carr.....Cunningham.....O'Brien.....O'Shea

Miller.....Keane.....Holland.....Reid

Keane.....Duff

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Originally Posted by eirebhoy

Lets say you were half Scottish but Irish was still your first nationality. If you knew you hadn't a hope of getting a game for Ireland, would you not play for the Scots. Remember half his blood is Irish.

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If Irish is your first nationality then you should declare for Ireland. Macken is a mercenary, looking to play for us not necessarily for financial gain but to improve his image in the game and probably to try and get him a game at Man City, not because he wants to play for Ireland.

Very good article on Macken by Dave Hannigan in the Echo the other night.
Basically stating that he is a mercenary and that it was good of Macken to turn out for us as he'd hardly have anything else to do on an International Wednesday night.

razor, maybe you'll have the decency to reply to what I said above:

Lets say you were half Scottish but Irish was still your first nationality. If you knew you hadn't a hope of getting a game for Ireland, would you not play for the Scots? Remember half his blood is Irish.

Personnaly i'd like to see us start with:

Given

Carr.....Cunningham.....O'Brien.....O'Shea

Miller.....Keane.....Holland.....Reid

Keane.....Duff

That is the team I would like to see Roos69 but I don't think it will happen. Here is the most likely starting XI

Given

Carr.....Cunningham.....O'Brien.....O'Shea

Holland.....Keane....Kilbane.....Reid

Duff....Keane

Not very attack orientated against a team like Cyrprus...and at home!

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Originally Posted by Fergie's Son

Not very attack orientated against a team like Cyrprus...and at home!

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You'd wonder why McGeady, who offers something completely different (in an attacking sense) on the right wasn't called up from the U-21's for the Cyprus game, I reckon it'll be because whoever starts the Cyprus game will start the Swiss match, Kerr just wants a settled team. If it was a standalone game, as opposed to a double header, we easily could have gone 4-3-3 with:

....................Given
Carr..Cunningham..O'Brien..Harte
.......McGeady..Keane..Duff
.......Morrison..Keane..Reid

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Originally Posted by eirebhoy

razor, maybe you'll have the decency to reply to what I said above:

Lets say you were half Scottish but Irish was still your first nationality. If you knew you hadn't a hope of getting a game for Ireland, would you not play for the Scots? Remember half his blood is Irish.

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I thought by saying "If Irish is your first nationality then you should declare for Ireland" that this would answer it.
It makes no difference if its Scotland, England or the Faroe Islands
Playing just cause you'd get a game at International level is ridiculous.
It makes a mockery of our country that we allow these.

Oh yeah and the answer being "NO"

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Originally Posted by razor

I thought by saying "If Irish is your first nationality then you should declare for Ireland" that this would answer it.

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I can honestly tell you that if I was 50% Irish, 50% Scottish and I knew there were 10 players ahead of me and I hadn't a hope of playing for Ireland, I'd definitely want to represent my father's side of the family and play for Scotland. It certainly wouldn't make me a mercenary and just because you feel differently doesn't mean you can tag Macken a bloody mercenary.

It makes a mockery of our country? The only people I ever hear comment on us having English born players are the English themselves (1% of the world's population). The other 99% of people couldn't care less otherwise you would have heard people comment on the amount of African born players in the French current and world cup winning team.

I think it is a little early to be calling McGeady up to the full squad in a qulifier. He looks good but he is definitely one for the future. Keane & Duff up front bothers me though. Unless we play a 4-4-1-1 I just can't see it working.

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Originally Posted by tetsujin1979

You'd wonder why McGeady, who offers something completely different (in an attacking sense) on the right wasn't called up from the U-21's for the Cyprus game,

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I just don't see what the hurry in introducing McGeady is. I'd like to see a full strength U21 side fulfill their promise and actually qualify for a U21 finals. I think this would be of great benefit for the senior side going forward.

Obviously the senior squad comes first but it's not yet blatantly obvious that McGeady has a role to play in the senior side right now.

If we were to go 4-3-3 I'd prefer:

Miller or Holland - Keane - Kilbane
Reid - Robbie - Duffer

It's about the only way I could be happy with Duff playing further up the pitch.

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Originally Posted by Fergie's Son

Keane & Duff up front bothers me though.

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Isn't this eaxctly what you proposed in your first post? :)

More expected than proposed :) Really don't want to see Duff up front as he really isn't a striker.

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Originally Posted by eirebhoy

I can honestly tell you that if I was 50% Irish, 50% Scottish and I knew there were 10 players ahead of me and I hadn't a hope of playing for Ireland, I'd definitely want to represent my father's side of the family and play for Scotland. It certainly wouldn't make me a mercenary and just because you feel differently doesn't mean you can tag Macken a bloody mercenary.

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National Identity is a very important thing and I wouldn't make a mockery of my Irishness by playing for Scotland. Of course it would make you a mercenary picking and choosing for the sake of an International cap and if you couldn't get a game for Scotland either why not keep trawling down through the family tree til you get a country you might get a game for.

I have no problem with the young fellas who really want to play for Ireland, who declare young, they could be born in Timbuktu for all i'd care.
The players I have issues with are these Johnny Come Latelys like Macken and Morrisson who declare cause its convenient and they think they'll get a game. Mercenary is about the only word for it.

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Originally Posted by razor

National Identity is a very important thing and I wouldn't make a mockery of my Irishness by playing for Scotland.

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I'm sure you'd feel differently if your father and half your family were Scottish because you would also be half Scottish. It might be hard for you to think of playing for another country because your (probably) 100% Irish but Macken is 50/50.

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Originally Posted by razor

The players I have issues with are these Johnny Come Latelys like Macken and Morrisson who declare cause its convenient and they think they'll get a game. Mercenary is about the only word for it.

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Well then I'm not quite sure you know the meaning of the word mercenary.

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Originally Posted by eirebhoy

It might be hard for you to think of playing for another country because your (probably) 100% Irish but Macken is 50/50.

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He might be 50/50 now but he was 0/100 up until he realised he might get a game for us.

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Originally Posted by eirebhoy

Well then I'm not quite sure you know the meaning of the word mercenary.

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I think I do.
Play International football for whatever country = higher profile in the game = better club = more money
Its sad that it works that way but it does.
They are not with us for the pride of the shirt but when it boils down to it for financial gain.

razor, until you have proof that Macken is playing for us for financial gain I won't listen to that. BTW, The same goes for the 0/100 thing.

Who was it that said:

"being born in a stable, doesn't make you a horse"

or words to that effect.

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Originally Posted by blobbyblob

Who was it that said:
"being born in a stable, doesn't make you a horse"
or words to that effect.

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Some King of England that was actually born in Ireland

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Originally Posted by tetsujin1979

Some King of England that was actually born in Ireland

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Actually, I think it was the Duke of Wellington.

the worst part is that Clint took AGES to decide if he wanted to play... "...should I really play :rolleyes: ??" And he's crap, but the fans give him loads of encourgement... Time to start scoring clint.

As for Macken... I wouldnt have called him up. I feel like a England B Team again. :eek:

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Originally Posted by thejollyrodger

As for Macken... I wouldnt have called him up. I feel like a England B Team again. :eek:

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Kerr said he won't call the 2G's up unless they are as good, if not better than what we've got already. Other than Keane can you name a better forward than Macken in the Ireland squad? Fair play to you if you feel we're the England B team but I won't be partying any less than usual when we win just because there's a few English born players in the team.

This is going completely off topic but there's a South African born athlete, Alistair Cragg, representing Ireland in the 5000m on Saturday. He's elibible because his great-granparents are Irish. Just goes to show. :)