this is not trueOriginally Posted by Drumcondra 69er
A bit pedantic but he does refer to England & things Enlgish as "us" and "we" on his talksport morning program,(I suppose it would sound silly if he was saying "you across the water" when talking about England), not that it makes a blind bit of difference .
Townsend, who was born in Britain and has an English accent has given far more commitment to Irish football than the likes of Stephen Ireland, - born in Ireland and has an Irish accent - ever will.
Quoting years at random since 1975
Never was a truer word spoken. Tets said it earlier - some of the attitudes on threads like this are just embarrassing. How anyone can say that Townsend isn't Irish after what he gave us on the pitch is beyond me.
If Andy had been a bit sharper and had a few more Irish grand parents he would have came back with "Well Wayne Rooney is a fake Englishman" and the show could have ended in a jolly old fist fight
(in which case my money would be on Townsend)
Quite right, if anyone deserves the title fake Irishman it is Stephen Ireland.
So much sh1t being talked in this thread its unreal.I have cousins that were born and raised in England, their parents we brought up over there but their Grandparents were from Galway. They are all football mad and if any of them were good enough they would have a serious hard time choosing between England and Ireland to represent.Ive watched Ireland games with them and England games and they dont have any less passion when watching one or the other.They are all extremely proud to regard themselves as Irish but equally proud to be English.They have more passion for the Ireland football team than most other people I know and I promise if anyone told any of them that the had no right to call themselves Irish or wouldnt have the right to play for us they would be extremely angry. There might only be 4 million or so people on our small island but world wide there would be a hell of alot of upset people if they were told they didnt have the right to call themselves Irish
Its really not that complicated!!!
Without meaning to be petty yes it is.
Have seen it in his mirror column, have heard him use it on Football Focus.
He also refers to Ireland as 'we' and actually had the gall to pretend he was worried that England might win the World Cup on the Last Word last night.
The man is a media whore.
well, i've never heard it even once in the hundreds of times i've heard him talk about international footballWithout meaning to be petty yes it is.
Have seen it in his mirror column, have heard him use it on Football Focus.
He also refers to Ireland as 'we' and actually had the gall to pretend he was worried that England might win the World Cup on the Last Word last night.
The man is a media whore.
If it wasn't for Ireland's goals in the last campaign we would have drawn to Wales and San Marino and lost against Cyprus and finished second last in the group probably losing the 3rd seed we got for this campaign in the process.
My point is he did a lot for us in the short time he was playing, he definetly was committed for the team in that timeframe too.
There was any number of postings i could have quoted to make this point, so I won't bother. Suffice to say a lot of people are pointing out that Andy Townsend gave his all for Ireland. I have no disagreement with that. It does not worry me that as an Englishman we disappointed him in 1988 either.
Andy Townsend is an Irish legend. What sticks in my throat is that despite receiving 70 caps for Ireland, Townsend still hasn't decided if he is English or Irish. I'm sure Jayo McAtter might have been cheering on England in 1990, but your never going to hear him refer to England as "we" today.
Some people have got a national identity that is genuinly torn between 2 countries, but when you have 70 caps for Ireland, and none for England, you should know that your Irish.
I'm not saying he is a fake Irishman. He is a fake Englishman. To quote someone with a similar conflict, "being born in a stable does not make one a horse"
Have never understood this antipathy towards our players that might happen to have an English accent. I remember one of my teachers in national school passionately pointing out that these players, perhaps Cascarino aside, all have Irish blood coursing through their veins, however diluted.
This country has had a long history of emmigration & I for one don't think that two generations is stretching that lineage. Moreover, it wouldn't make sense for those who work as pundits to keep banging on about their Irishness, no less so than Terry Wogan etc.
Perhaps it's because my dad spent a large part of his childhood growing up in London but I consider each and everyone of them has an equal right to call themselves Irish. We shouldn't let the view of outsiders colour our own.
And you ask me to help you??!! Man is evil!!!! Capable of nothing but destruction!
As a person who is married to a foreigner i could give a little johnny feck if my son doesnt declare for ireland
You mean you COUDLN'T give a johnny feck right?As a person who is married to a foreigner i could give a little johnny feck if my son doesnt declare for ireland
yeah my mistake
2nd article I googled.
http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/opin...cle145575.html
"James is still the keeper who makes fewest mistakes, has a presence and gives his defence confidence.
As for the rest, Green is a good shot stopper but does not always inspire confidence on crosses. Green is being given a good run but still has not nailed down the place.
Foster, meanwhile, has not played enough games at the top level for us to be sure yet, although he has all the attributes."
To be fair to Lawrenson on anything that might get printed in the Mirror (or the Irish Times for that matter) he doesn't actually write them. Some junior hack rings him up and asks him 3 or 4 questions (in this case the question about England's goalkeepers). The journo then writes up an article using selective quotes. In all likelihood Lawrenson probably never reads the piece but, if he does, I would hope that he gives them a bollocking for putting "us" in. I've always felt that he goes out of his way to say "england" rather than "we" when he's on the BBC - he may may forgotten once or twice though.
"There's man all over for you, blaming on his boots the fault of his feet" - Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot
As someone who really is as fake an Irishman as is really possible (OK I do have my 1/16th) I can understand Townsend's ability to laugh it off when it is said in jest (which it seems Sheringham sort of did, he seemed to sort of pause and think "is this over the line" for a second). Even if not said in jest it wouldn't bother me too much. I'm not really Irish but I support Ireland. Obviously its not the same as playing for Ireland but I guess the concepts are sort of alike.
Anyway, I have dug up the clip (Thanks to Tiggzz of Maxxed for capping the post game). There does seem to be a moment there where Townsend looks like he could punch Sheringham. To be honest I'm not really sure what caused him to bring up Townsend's Irishness (or lackthereof, I'm not making an judgments), as he was talking about Capello's style of management, how close he is with the members of the squad and how there are no players who are certain to be in the squad. I suppose it could have been the "giving Sven the runaround" jibe or perhaps he implied that Sheringham was picked not because of his form or ability but for another reason (though he sort of smiled when he said it), I'm too tired to tell right now.
Here is the clip for download for those of us who don't bother watching England matches:
http://www.mediafire.com/?tzzjzm0amnk
My Guarantee
Am looking for old Irish matches on VHS, PM me if you have some and I'll upload them here
Hard to say there...I think Townsend was shocked more than anything.
While it would have been nice for him to say something along the lines of, "I'm proud of my time playing for Ireland," or what have you, what would it prove, especially if things escalated on national television?
The way it was handled, it will fade from the public consciousness apart from die hard freaks like us that analyze every detail, but we don't really matter.
If Townsend kicked up a fuss over it, it could cost him punditry jobs.
Right now he's the safe, predictable guy that churns out non-offensive, consistent stuff, and various media companies are happy to employ him.
If he blows up over a little dig (after he had one himself), it gains him nothing really...
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