Alexei Lalas, Abel Xavier, Ricky Villa, Mickey Droy (?) and George Berry of Wolves. They'd all be up there. And our own Tony Grealish of course.
Chuck Norris!
Back on topic - I doubt that Mick called purely to check on the availability of players. With the Wolves - Sunderland game coming up and the media hype that was inevitably going to build up to it (Sky Sports have alreday moved it to Sunday for live coverage - Paddy Power were taking bets on whether or not they would shake hands) I reckon Mick decided to bite the bullet (so to speak) and have a word with Roy to nip this in the bud before it gets blown out of all proportion. And fair play to him for doing it.
Pity then he was such a s*it manager....
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Spot on, forget about Saipan and all that crap. I'll never forgive him for the match we drew away to Macedonia (Euro 2000 qualifiers) when we were 1-0 up and literally coasting to victory and he decides to be "tactical" and bring on Matt Holland for his bloody debut then we go and sit back, concede, and subsequently not win the group that was ours for the taking...
Actually, on top of that, I'll never forgive him for actually giving Matt "the Invisible Man" Holland his debut in the first place....
"Well I think they'll be a little disappointed with that" - Matt Holland on TV3 after 5-2 drubbing by Cyprus
Not Matt Hollands fault, and a mistake subsequent managers failed to learn from.
Disagree about Holland - goals against Portugal & Cameroon and many highly visible performances were much appreciated. If you want an invisible midfield look no further than those games we have played since he retired.
I always thought Holland was tidy enough. Nothing spectacular but simple and effective.
Top Breeders recommend drinkfeckarse....
Good man, Bill. Always the constructive comment.
Rubbish manager ok - one competitive home defeat (his last game) in 6 years as the Irish manager and qualification for a World Cup for only the third time in our history. Also got to the last 16, something Scotland has never done, and lost out on penos only. Respected by all his players but one.
Matt Holland - certainly can't be blamed for that defeat in Macedonia. Wasn't there some stupid handball in the box? Scored great goals against Portugal and the Cameroon.
Forget about the performance or entertainment. It's only the result that matters.
Lets be honest here the only reason Holland looked alright for Ireland was that most of his appearances were alongside the aforementioned R.Keane. How he has been considered a premiership footballer for so long will always remain a mystery to me...
"Well I think they'll be a little disappointed with that" - Matt Holland on TV3 after 5-2 drubbing by Cyprus
qualified for a tournament at his 3rd attempt mainly due to roy keanes desire to play in one. too many horrible performances to mention. Iceland at home? malta away?(yes they nearly bet us) croatia away? russia away? swiss at home? belgium away? spain in WC? and the little matter of his fantastic club record where he has managed 3 clubs. relegating sunderland twice and millwall went down the season he left them with much help from him.
Crap manager and no matter how many ridiculous "facts" you are goin to throw out there owlsfan(as ****in usual) you would convince me that what I saw with my own eyes wasnt fact.
Conveniently papering over the cracks my friend! I'll admit that it was a great strike and he scored a couple of other goals for us (Portugal most notably) but lets be honest here our midfield in WC 2002 was nothing short of terrible. I can remember in most games we played (even Saudi Arabia!!!) the opposition's midfield waltzing through ours on several occasions, thanks to the invisible man himself and his slightly less invisible partner (Kinsella)
Sorry am not trying to open up a Saipan can of worms here - just making my point that Matt Holland is, in fact, crap...![]()
"Well I think they'll be a little disappointed with that" - Matt Holland on TV3 after 5-2 drubbing by Cyprus
Isn't it amazing the spin that can be put on things? When McCarthy left Millwall they had just been knocked off the top of Division One table - they were relegated at the end of the season under Bruce Rioch which strikes me that McCarthy had been doing a great job there.
Every Manager will have poor performances. Let's look at the 5 games you mention out of
the 68 he was manager for. Switzerland (our first ever home defeat under Mick) and Russia came at the end of his tenure. Belgium away was a great performance and but for an incorrect decision by a linesman giving the throw in to Belgium, we may well have won that game. I was at that game and the Spanish game you mention which we lost on penos - if that was a "horrible performance", I am not sure what you expect from the side? Croatia was brutal ok.
Mick Mc took over an ageing Irish team and had to rebuild from almost scratch. He did a great job. Got us to two play offs and qualified us for Korea/Japan. He also got Sunderland to one play off and then got them promoted, despite the club being debt ridden and having no money to spend.
I saw Irish teams with far more talent than Mick's teams finish bottom of their group or fail to qualify for anything.
You are negative about everything Irish other than Roy Keane![]()
Forget about the performance or entertainment. It's only the result that matters.
Re: Holland playing for us now
Now we all like a laugh but that's just taking things too far.
Top Breeders recommend drinkfeckarse....
I really am hoping that there's more than a hint of sarcasm to that post or maybe you had a couple of drinks when posting that...I would never EVER have Matt Holland back near an Irish team, can't pass, can't tackle, never stamps any authority on any game - he's basically an anonymous player and wouldn't even be good enough to warrant a place in this squad if he was available.
Saying that our midfield did well in 02 is purely rose-tinted memories - sure even the Saudi's dominated our midfield for long periods! (Yes the same Saudi team that lost something like 8-0 to ze Germans)...
"Well I think they'll be a little disappointed with that" - Matt Holland on TV3 after 5-2 drubbing by Cyprus
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