Originally Posted by
backstothewall
Wingers
Tonight it's the wingers. Kevin Sheedy was before my time, so Damian Duff is easily the best I remember. He's probably the best Irish winger since George Best, although Norman Whiteside might have run him close. Nordies though. Pah!
We have an odd problem when it comes to wingers, which will become entirely obvious when you look at the shortlist.
Damian Duff, Mark Kennedy, Ray Houghton, James McClean, Stephen Hunt, Robbie Brady, Jason McAteer, Wes Hoolahan, Aiden McGeady & Kevin Kilbane. Only 2 of them play on the right.
So looking at the right first, I don't like hammering square pegs into round holes, so it looks like it's 2 from 2, and a matter of deciding who plays between Houghton & McAteer. I hunted for another name to throw into the mix, and the best i could come up with is Stephen Ireland. At that point I gave up, because not making up bull**** excuses to go home when one of your teammates takes the **** out of your hairplugs is a more important part of being an international footballer than most people realised. 4 goals in 6 caps though; what a waste of talent.
I don't intend to go through the exploits of Ray Houghton or Jason McAteer. If you are reading this, even if you are too young to remember, you know. I mean ****: I don't remember a thing about Euro 88 but I know what Ray did against that lot over the way.
They were both very good players, and it probably comes down to where you were, what age you were, and how deeply in love with football you were when those goals were scored. For me, I was 11 years old in 1994. I had just finished primary school. MY folks had a caravan in Newcastle, Co. Down, which is where we watched the game. Not every caravan had a proper tv aerial, some just made do with round of those with rings yokes, or one of the bunny ear things. Not only did we have a proper one, we also had an RTE aerial. And that is why instead of watching with the passive neutrality of Brian Moore or Barry Davies, the soundtrack to that goal will forever be the jubilation in the voice of a prod from the Newtownards Road in loyalist east Belfast. It's a funny wee island.
And then the next morning we work up to the news that 8 miles up the road, 6 people had been shot to ribbons while watching the game over a few pints. And then the RUC helped the people who did it to evade justice. If you have Netflix I recommend "No Stone Unturned" for the story of the awful bit of that fantastic night for Irish football. It's a funny wee island.
Ray starts for me. I love Jason Mcateer, but for me Ray's goal against Italy trumps his one against Holland. That was a smashing Dutch team, but Italy lost the World Cup on penalties that year, and even now the names trip off the tongue. Baggio, Costcurta, Albertini, Donadoni, Baresi, Signori. They ended up chasing a goal and Gianfranco Zola was an unused sub. Given the fact that it was a World Cup game and the standard of the opposition, in my opinion it was the greatest victory in our history.
So to the left wing.
I'm scoring 2 off that shortlist quite quickly. Stephen Hunt and Robbie Brady.
Stephen Hunt: Good footballer, but the reason why I'm eliminating him is James McClean. McClean took all the good bits about Hunt and turned them up to 11. He did the same with the bad bits, but in my opinion McClean is the same, but more of it.
Robbie Brady: I just don't get it. He's a neat and tidy footballer, but no more so that someone like Conor Hourihane in my opinion. It's no coincidence that i made Hourihane the exemplar there, because he's better at set pieces as well. Brady can really ping them in once in a while, but for every one he smashes in there are another 20 that are awful. I get the feeling he scores all the time in training, but apart from one time he scored the third in a 3-0 friendly win over the yanks, I can't think of a time he scored one in a match. Even crosses from free kicks have an annoying tendency to hit the wall or just be too high.
He's also quite slow . I just don't get the attraction at all.
Mark Kennedy: Mark Kennedy is the next to go. He had all the potential in the world, but it just never happened. For all that he absolutely smashed that one in against Yugoslavia.
So i'm left with McClean, McGeady, Hoolahan or Kilbane
Aiden McGeady: McGeady has all the talent in the world. If only someone had taught him how to play football he could have played for Barcelona.
People sometimes talk about the curse of oil. How you're in trouble whenever they discover oil under your country because your entire economy will be destroyed because of having to exploit the oil, but it won't actually get you anywhere. McGeady has the curse of ability. It was always to easy for him as a kid, and by the time he got to Everton it was too late. If he had came through somewhere where there where a couple of other kids as good as him he would have had to learn the game to keep pace, bit at Celtic he could just drift into the first team without ever trying too hard. By the time he got to Everton, it was probably too late.
Kilbane, McClean or Hoolahan. 3 very different players.
People, myself included, like to talk about players who can "pick a lock". But the truth is there are 2 ways to get past a lock. Piking it is one option, but the other is hitting it with a sledgehammer. And I like both approaches which is why the next to go is
Kevin Kilbane: Smashing player. Good passer. Good enough to play in the middle for Everton when the legs started to go. Wasn't lightning quick, but he wasn't slow either. He could hit a good cross, and was a genuine threat in the air. I can't remember a specific example for us, but he scored more than one goal in his career by beating the full back to a header at the back post.
Which brings me down to Hoolahan and McClean. And then i have a thought. The challenge i set myself is a squad of 23. Jon Walters can play a bit of right wing. So could Steve Finnan. So although i'm not a fan of smashing square pegs into rounds holes, if it's a substitute situation, it should be considered. Chasing a goal, Wes Hoolahan and James McClean are both good options to look at from the bench. A locksmith and a sledgehammer.
So, with the greatest apologies to Jason Mcateer, I pick them both.
------------- Given ------------
Irwin McGrath Duffy Staunton
Houghton Keane ??????? Duff
-------- Keane Quinn ---------
Subs: Darren Randolph, Steve Finnan, Seamus Coleman, Richard Dunne, John O'Shea, James McClean, Wes Hoolahan, Jon Walters, John Aldridge, Alan Kelly Jr.
I realise this is the point when some people will probably start to disagree. It's getting tougher. I may have to bring in the brother for his opinion on the 3 slots left in central midfield.
