Alright, now I can stand in the Cussack Stand and shout "Forza Italia!" for 90 odd minutes without a hint of irony. You have made me see that supporting a team based on your country or community is silly unless they are some premiership side. So applying that Oirish Soccer Fan mentality to it's ultimate logical conclusion I will be supporting Italy at Croker and not that second rate rubbish.Originally Posted by shanekerins View Post
And as for 'Irish football fans should support Irish teams', with the greatest respect - who the f*ck are you to tell people who they can and can't support? .
What's the point in supporting second rate teams just because they are Irish...right?
Last edited by Boh_So_Good; 28/10/2008 at 12:10 AM.
Back to the original point of the thread: O’Brien should just knuckle down and get on with it. I can understand that he was frustrated at being overlooked in favour of Gibson. In my opinion, given our scarce resources in CM, he was the most obvious candidate to replace S. Reid, especially as Trap cited height as a factor. He’s a useful squad player to have because of his versatility but on the basis of what I’ve seen Garvan and O’Toole excite me far more as a midfield prospect. With these two coming through and Kevin Foley as right back O’Brien may not even be in the squad on merit soon anyway.
Some good man management is required in these situations. Brady should have a word with him.
I took offence to the “sitting in the stands like a fan” remark, thinking it was patronising.
I know Dean Kiely has retired himself once but contrast recent remarks about working with Trap and the potential to learn from him even at 37 was just too much to turn down, with O’Brien’s petulant rant.
On the Granny Rule being the herald of international mockery:
Alfredo Di Stefano - see point 2.
Irish Footballers
It wasn't a mockery then. What has made it a mockery now are a hunsdred small little things over the years:
Things like certain clubs behaving like they are bigger than their FAs, and the FAs of other countries, and advising players which country they should declare (e.g. Kevin Gallen), or regularly announcing players are unfit, when two or three days later they can play without any difficulty in the clubs next game;
Things like players being told they are gods, and paid accordingly;
Things like it being quite easy to earn 100 caps without ever reaching a World Cup or Continental Cup finals;
Things like football being a way of becoming an endorsement specialist and shagging galmour models, rather than something you do because it is in your heart.
Looking back at people like Paddy Mulligan or Dave Langan, or many others, they didn't earn shedloads and did it because they loved it, for club and for country. Dave Langan has had many difficulties in the recent past, while Paddy Mulligan is a security guard now - I do not think that the likes of Joey O'Brien forsees that as his future at the age of 60 odd, and I would not class him in the same calibre of Mr. Mulligan or Mr Langan. Granted he is only young, but even so. As far as I am concerned, Joey O'Brien, like a number before him, fails to concern me any more.
What does concern me is that in five years' time we'll have a whole brigade announcing that the current management regime are muppets for failing to bring back poor put-upon Joey and Stephen, and that they should all be sacked. Football fans memories seem to be no more than a season or two long - the absence our little pre-Maradonas will be seen to be the reason we have failed to be at least one notch higher than we are, and the push to bring them back will mask any longer term real inadequacies in either the playing squad or the way that football in Ireland has been run for a number of years.
That question was less stupid, though you asked it in a profoundly stupid way.
Help me, Arthur Murphy, you're my only hope!
Originally Posted by Dodge
here here oh blue one. great post.
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
Just wrote a lengthy and thorough response to this, and then deleted it because you're a waste of time. If you think supporting a LOI team makes you a better Ireland fan than me (someone who has spent the vast majority of his life outside of Ireland, but doesn't support a foreign team), good for you. If you think it gives you the right to tell people who they can and can't support 'full stop', more power to you. I'd rather have this discussion with someone with a more balanced and less patronising way of thinking, and thats the end of it as far as my contribution is concerned. Feel free to misquote me to your hearts content.
Anyway, if O'Brien has been accurately quoted, he should be left of of the squad until a full public apology is issued. Time for Trap to send a message, that he is the boss and if you don't like his way of thinking then get your head down, work hard and force your way into the side, or else you won't be considered. Prima donna footballers **** me off!
Yes I know what it supposed to mean, although it seems to emphasize conception and birth, rather than the growing up bit. But what makes Viera and Desailly less French because they weren't born there, than two other players whose parents are African? (I'll leave Henry and some of the others as they're from French possessions in the West Indies, and therefore, even the official line of the FN and Jean Marie Le Pen, is that they're French) They played for France and captained France, yet they are both (along with Trezeguet) from countries that weren't even former French colonies.
And growing up in France. What difference did that make to their identity? Yeah, I'm sure soon as they arrived they took an instant love of snails, frogs legs, and Maurice Chevalier films. I don't think it's wrong to question how actually 'French' these people are (even if it is perhaps often racist) when the same question is asked of how 'Irish' someone is who has two Irish parents, but happened to be born outside Ireland (and that is what the 'granny rule' includes).
One more point: But who the f*ck is this Joey O'Brien?
This is the cooooooooooooolest footy forum I've ever seen!
Shane, it was obvious what you said that they misquoted you, they took something completely out of context and made it into a "EL" bashing response, don't worry, most of you us knew what you meant
Lopez he is a good friend of the dub Gartside who plays for Bolton and is a bit arrogant like his fellow peers.
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
You can't always trust how these player interview things are slanted. Although O'Brien was quoted publicly on RTE, I would be okay with if he grew up a bit and sorted it out with Trap etc.
Why cant we all just get along ????
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