Apart from the "horrid" bit (a value judgement on your part), surely Huddersfield is no different to Wigan.
No, not much different at all. Except, like a lot of clubs in the Championship, they have some notion of being a massive club, whilst we know our place. I thought I made that clear in my last post!! In terms of fanbase, we'd be the same, but I'd love to know what their top earner is on compared to ours. I'd say it's at least 4 times as much.Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin
I'd say any notions of Wigan being a massively club are entirely based on the fact they were recently in the Premier League. I doubt any such notions would have existed before Paul Jewell came along. I'm sure expectations will return to normal.
I sense Owls Fan preparing a response.
The opportunities for having a poke at Owls are far too infrequent, that's why we try and provoke a response.
He's a hit and run poster these days with a good turn of foot ..... for a guy his age.
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist thinks it will change; the realist adjusts the sails.
http://www.scotsman.com/sport/footba...bals-1-2668096
This was posted by DI earlier.
Now, we have this:WHEN he was a player, Owen Coyle admits that pragmatism trumped over patriotism. So convinced was he that he wasn’t good enough to play for Scotland, he jumped at an offer to represent the Republic of Ireland.
It is a decision which almost took him to a World Cup finals, narrowly missing out on a place in Jack Charlton’s squad for the 1994 tournament in the United States.
Coyle remains fiercely proud of his Irish heritage but both his accent and his sense of footballing identity are firmly rooted in the land where he first made his name as a prolific striker and then one of the most highly regarded young managers of recent years.
Currently in between jobs following his dismissal by Bolton Wanderers last month, Coyle was back on home turf in Glasgow yesterday in his role as a Scottish Football Association youth ambassador at a Tesco Bank Football Challenge event at the Toryglen Regional Football Centre.
He may yet find himself being approached by the SFA for an altogether more elevated post as he has emerged as one of the leading potential candidates to succeed Craig Levein as the new Scotland manager.
Coyle has also been linked with the Republic of Ireland job in the recent past, amid speculation over Giovanni Trapattoni’s future, but it is clear he feels a strong affinity to Scotland despite his status as a former Irish international. “My mum will probably fall out with me here,” he smiled, in reference to his Donegal parentage. “But the simplest answer to whether I feel more Irish or Scottish is that at the time I was asked to play for Ireland, I was a part-timer with Dumbarton in the Scottish First Division.
“I was asked if I wanted to play for the Irish under-21 side back in 1987. At that time, the Scotland under-21 side was one of the best we’d had for a long, long time. Seven or eight of them were first-team regulars, a lot of them with the Old Firm – lads like Ian Durrant, Derek Ferguson, Derek Whyte, Peter Grant, Joe Miller, Robert Fleck and Ian Ferguson.
“I was 9st 7lbs at the time – before I bulked up to 9st 12lbs later on my career! So it was a very simple choice for me when Ireland asked me to represent them.
“My ambition was to play at the highest level possible and, if I’m being totally honest, I didn’t and still don’t think I would have been good enough to play for Scotland.
“But the Irish watched me play six or seven times for Dumbarton and my first game for them was actually against Scotland. It was a European Under-21 Championship qualifier at Tynecastle in February 1987.
“I remember big Alex McLeish and the St Mirren goalkeeper Campbell Money were the two over-age players in the Scotland team that night. In the first minute, I waltzed past Big Eck and then took the ball round Campbell and scored. Scotland still won 4-1, though. Robert Fleck got a hat-trick and Ian Ferguson scored the other one. As I say, they had a fantastic team back then.”
Coyle actually managed just seven minutes of action for the Irish senior team, replacing Tommy Coyne in the final stages of a famous 1-0 friendly win over the Netherlands in Tilburg just two months before the 1994 World Cup finals.
At that time, Coyle was perhaps at the height of his powers as a player with Bolton Wanderers and was regarded as a serious candidate for the Irish squad which travelled to the USA. But he lost out as Charlton named Coyne, John Aldridge, Tony Cascarino and David Kelly as the four strikers in his party. Coyle never won another cap for Ireland but has no regrets.
“I’ve got Irish parents and I’m very proud of that,” he added. “That will never change. But I’m Gorbals born and bred.”
At 46, Coyle knows he may be regarded by some as still too young for the Scotland job. But, while he understands the perception that international football is better suited to older, more experienced coaches, he does not feel it would necessarily preclude him from taking it on at this stage of his career.
“There is a lot of merit in that argument,” said Coyle. “International football management has always been associated with the older age group but I think it has changed a wee bit in recent times. Look at Michael O’Neill in charge of Northern Ireland, or Slaven Bilic when he was with Croatia. They are both younger coaches. I’ve always loved working day-to-day with players, I’ve never made any secret of that, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t listen to what the SFA had to say if they were to consider me.
“We’ll wait and see what comes up. There are fantastic candidates for the job, such as Gordon Strachan. There are a number of others out there. We’re very lucky in that respect and I’m pretty sure the SFA will get the right man.
“What I will say is that we have a good group of players and you want the national team to do well. There is no reason why we can’t do so again. I think everyone would now accept that to finish above either of the current top two in our World Cup group is going to be extremely difficult.
“We could probably win all our remaining games and still not do it. It’s not like club football, there are no transfer windows. The new man will have to work with the players currently available and the younger ones coming through.
“But whoever comes in would still want to finish as high up the group table as possible and then give us a chance of qualifying for the next European Championship in 2016.”
Contradictory or just a dual-national? A bit of both it appears.AS A highly-promising young striker back in the 1980s, Owen Coyle had a big decision to make on his international allegiance.
The Scottish-born striker opted to throw in his lot with Ireland and, in some sort of a prequel to the experience facing James McCarthyand Aiden McGeady in Glasgow on Friday night, the then Dumbarton player made his first appearance for Ireland in his native Scotland, Coyle on the wrong end of a 4-1 defeat for the Irish U21s in Edinburgh back in February 1987.It turned out to be a meagre return for Coyle: two U21 caps (1987), two B caps (1990-92) and a single senior cap against Holland (1994), meagre in the sense that a career with Scotland could have offered him more, though it's not a source of anger for the Glasgow man, now 48.
"It was a huge thing for my family to see me represent Ireland, and I finally won my one, elusive full cap against Holland in a friendly before the 1994 World Cup. It was a fantastic journey. I have no regrets," says Coyle.
McGeady and McCarthy have never expressed regret over their decision to opt for Ireland over their native land,. though many Scottish fans, encouraged by some rather loose and immature talk from people like Gordon Strachan and Gordon McQueen in the last week, will be given food for thought if they play against their native land in Glasgow on Friday night, though it seems as if injury will rule out McCarthy.
And Coyle, who got stick from Scottish fans when he wore the green jersey in an U21 game at Easter Road back in '87, feels that Scottish fans who jeer McGeady and McCarthy but welcome non-native Scots into their fold are being hypocrites.
"With all due respect, I feel it would be slightly hypocritical for Scotland fans to get too serious about it all because there are players in the Scotland team who were not born in Scotland. It certainly won't affect James or Aiden," Coyle believes.
"To be involved in football, you have to have a thick skin and these guys are two terrifically talented players who would play in the Scotland team all day long.
"Supporters maybe aren't aware of all the circumstances that lead someone to make such a decision either. It was a different era when I chose to play for Ireland and I think supporters who knew the game could understand it.
no abuse
"I was fine. I didn't get abuse. With the type of personality I had, I would like to think I would have been able to deal with it anyway," says Coyle, who took the offer from Jack Chartlon to join the Ireland fold in 1987.
"I had been born and brought up in the Gorbals within an Irish family in an area that was known as 'mini-Donegal'.
"We were brought up within an Irish culture and spent three months over the summer in Ireland," he says.
"It was probably much simpler for me. I love Scotland and I am proud of where I was born, but I was close to Ireland. It was not a tough decision to make.
"From a footballing perspective, I might also have looked at the Scotland squad and felt I would only make it onto the bench as well."
Sectarianism has a regular place at the table of the Scottish game and that, says Coyle, could play a part in the crowd's reception for McCarthy and McGeady on Friday.
"I would like to think that anti-Irish sentiment is not a part of our modern society. I hope we have moved on, but it would probably be naive to think that there won't be some people who come along to give them a bit of stick with something of an agenda. The main thing is that it doesn't get vitriolic," he added.
"It is pantomime, I think that sums it up. The game has evolved in many ways and the supporting of football has changed as well. When I played, fans would often applaud a member of the opposition team as they recognised his talent. It is different now, though, and some supporters do now come along to abuse players. If that is the case during this game, so be it.
"James and Aiden will probably get some stick, but it should be because the supporters are simply upset that they chose to play for Ireland above Scotland and nothing else."
I remember thinking he had whatever angle best serves his chances when either country had an opening for a manager before also.
Owen Coyle's stock as a manager has fallen a lot in 4/5 years.
Its not that long ago since he was " A bright new manger with a big future"
Some mangers cannot seem to get off the Merry go round but Owen Coyle seemed to get unseated earlier than looked likely only a few years ago.
He'll be back managing the likes of Scunthorpe United before too long.
Forget about the performance or entertainment. It's only the result that matters.
Once upon a time Scunthorpe was a dirty word around here.
Once upon a time Coyle had a bright managerial future.
Once upon a time this thread was relevant to us.
Forget about the performance or entertainment. It's only the result that matters.
He still has his matinee idol looks.
Clooney heavily linked with Blackburn job.
Jees its all going very well for him at the moment, an award from the Pope and now this.
I'm a bloke,I'm an ocker
And I really love your knockers,I'm a labourer by day,
I **** up all me pay,Watching footy on TV,
Just feed me more VB,Just pour my beer,And get my smokes, And go away
And many fans aren't happy!
http://www.90min.com/posts/3282530-f...ckburn-manager
I hadn’t realized Coyle is back from India and appointed queens park manager starting June 1. Apparently he has been heavily involved already helping them get promoted today to the Scottish championship. They’ve got money behind them and are ambitious so may be interesting to keep an eye on them
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