Staunton & FAI insult to eL players

**EalingGreen** · 11/10/2006, 12:37 PM

Originally Posted by Soper

I've always thought that Sanchez thinks that both the EL and IL, in particular the EL are the same as they were when he was manager.Idon't think he can comprehend the improvement made, particularly in the full time set ups in the EL

Fair enough, you may be right. But Brian Kerr knew enough about the EL and he didn't pick too many players from there. Any idea why?

**EalingGreen** · 11/10/2006, 12:45 PM

Originally Posted by OneRedArmy

You are opening up and Irish League vs Eircom League debate, do we really want to go down that road? Whatever about the relative strengths of the Blues and Glens, I get more exercise putting out the washing that Mannus or Morris do against the likes of Loughall and Limavady.

It wasn't my intention to open up any such debate on the relative strengths of the two Leagues. Rather, when EL fans questioned the selection of an English "3rd Division" keeper over the EL's best, I drew an analogy with Sanchez preferring a "4th. Division" keeper over the IL's best.
As the Setanta has demonstrated over the last couple of years, Morris and Mannus easily bear comparison with the best keepers the EL has to offer.

**Jerry The Saint** · 11/10/2006, 1:15 PM

Originally Posted by EalingGreen

Fair enough, you may be right. But Brian Kerr knew enough about the EL and he didn't pick too many players from there. Any idea why?

To be fair, I don't think Brian Kerr ever had to deal with quite the number of withdrawals as the current squad has had. I think you've made some good points and I don't think I'd put any national league players in our first-choice squad of 22. The problem with the current setup is that they don't consider any local players to be in the top 35-40 players available to us or, as Dodge said, in the top 3-5 players in their position.