QuoteWasn't it yer man Shaikh Saeed bin Maktoum? :POriginally Posted by nigel-harps1954
Anyone remember the name of the guy carrying the olympic flag for United Arab Emirates?
Me neither.
https://kesslereffect.bandcamp.com/album/kepler - New music. It's not that bad.
Wasn't it yer man Shaikh Saeed bin Maktoum? :P
Could have been Mohammad Allah Durka Durka for all I know.
https://kesslereffect.bandcamp.com/album/kepler - New music. It's not that bad.
I wish people would leave poor old mcIIroy alone. The lad is amazing and fair play to him. he feels British and thats the end of it. You cant make yourself feel Irish. Maybe I misunderstand your point about Pat Mceleney but I think from knowing one of his cousins that he would see himself as Irish in a "how were we abandoned in 1921 " sort of way so I would say he was very proud to play for ireland. I know he fell out with doolin but I would hope he would be involved at 21s in next campaign. Great half volley at weekend by the way!
Sorry Liam, meant Shane rather than Patrick. Shane being the brother who has declared for Northern Ireland. I take it from knowing the same cousin that Shane sees himself as Irish also? Henceforth, it's fair to say that he was enticed to play for Northern Ireland in order to improve his career opportunities. By extension, McIlroy is being offered the flag-bearing privilege for a country with which he does not identify with subsequent career benefits arising. I'm not taking anything away from McIlroy or his achievements, or even his beliefs, I just felt the comments made by Hickey were relevant to the context of much of the discussion in this thread.
I think Shane McEleney has been pretty open about the fact he's playing for Northern Ireland because he doesn't envision himself being involved in the ROI set-up.
Spot on I think it is an excellent chance for shane to play international football which is a huge achievement.I think it is a niall mcginn type situation.You play for the north drop your head at the anthem try and put all the sectarian stuff out of your head and enjoy playing against international teams. I think for most lads from nationalist communities playing football for the north is a career move which is great but there is always an affinity with the south. I am always disappointed for that reason that lads like gibson and wilson who went out of their way at a young age to play for us and had to deal with the opposition to that do not get more respect off irish supporters. McIlroy should get a barring order against that Hickey clown
Has Wilson been disrespected by the supporters? Gibson has but that's entirely of his own making.
fair enough i suppose. I kinda feel like they should be treated like heroes to be honest for making the move. i know most people wont agree with that but sure that is just how I see it and it is based on my views on history which wont be changing. Most lads I talk to could not care less that they switched to us. When wilson didnt show up last summer he seemed to get hammered by supporters even though it turned out his lady was sick in hospital.I know u think Gibson deserves abuse cause he said he did not want to be in the last squad but I still hope he comes back and I cant see how anyone can doubt his irish commitment considering as I said his efforts to switch to us.
Robbie brady fell out with doolin and didnt play for 19s in euros and conor slifford fell out with king and droped out of 21s but both of them are in senior squad tonight. My point been that these lads have been forgiven rightly for disrespecting their country cause it is not in the full glare of the whole soccer public yet lads like gibson, stokes and ireland are seen as traitors for exactly the same thing and unforgivable. Indeed ireland fell out with kerr when he was under 17s and refused to sit on bench for qualifiers in cork and didnt play underage again for kerr yet when he started playing for city I dont remember many supporters saying his behaviour was unforgivable and he should not be capped yet when problems arose later when his girlfriend had such a horrible time and he tried to protect her suddenly he was disrespectful to ireland and unforgivable.
Last summer conor smith of watford pulled out of under 19s qualifiers citing tiredness. I think he was right if he felt he could not do his best. With his new 4 year deal at watford hopefully he will progress to our senior side. Will there be uproar saying he should never be picked cause of his "disrespect"?I certainly hope not yet anthony stokes lads say should never play for us again for saying he was tired for end of season friendlies. Is that fair? Just forgive and forget and get best players on field and leave the falling out and pettiness for club football
Good post, liamoo. It's fair to say that the level or extremity of most fan opinions is directly correlational to and influenced by the level of media exposure afforded to respective fall-outs and misdemeanours. Most under-age issues will go generally unnoticed and very few could care less because it's not back-page news/they don't even hear about it.
Indeed. Some insightful comments from himself and Niall McGinn here: http://foot.ie/threads/147164-Eligib...=1#post1619124 and http://www.londonderrysentinel.co.uk...land-1-4224847
Last edited by DannyInvincible; 09/10/2012 at 8:00 PM.
I think that's over-egging it somewhat. They should be commended perhaps, but they haven't done anything heroic.
They ****ed off OWC...
Fair enough commended it is.
Exactly. The choice is and should be with the players until they get that competitive cap that ties them down. Not just in Ireland, but anywhere...
And regardless of any nonsensical age ties too.
Is Bruce still in the NI squad then?
Just on that whole affair; why is it that you cannot forgive Bruce for declining the original offer from the IFA to play for NI, yet, if I'm not mistaken, you've previously expressed support for the idea of northern-born players from nationalist backgrounds turning down initial IFA approaches if their hearts lie with the FAI, only to further advocate their later return to the IFA when things don't quite go as plan for them with the FAI? Is there any difference in the two scenarios?
It's the 'H' word, Danny. That dare not speak its name?
To the best of my knowledge he remains in the squad - he was on twitter telling the world how he couldn't wait to join up with the squad. and how his Granny from Bangor is chuffed to bits with his call up - aww bless!
Northern Ireland are, effectively, Bruce's 3rd choice. This is a player who, rather disparagingly, rejected a call up at Under 21 to throw his lot in with the South.
He has been capped at Senior International level by the South.
On reflection, it's perhaps harsh to blame the player for just wanting to play International football.
Maybe my frustration is more directed at the IFA - the same IFA who saw the defection of a player who had sat on the bench for Northern Ireland at Senior International level and switched to the South as a catalyst for them to go to the CAS, and embarrass themselves (quite apart from wasting money they can ill afford to lose).
This is rank hypocrisy from the IFA - or else, it is a "statement of intent", that "if you can't beat them, join them".
The IFA also show a flagrant disregard to players that never turned them down, when the call came - I think, for example, of one Centre Half who missed his sister's wedding to sit on the bench in a meaningless thumping in Amsterdam, for the honour of representing his country.
The presence of Bruce further demeans the Northern Ireland shirt in my opinion, and underlines, for me, why International football continues to lose it's special appeal - I say that as someone who was at every game played during the McIlroy years, home and away, when we were significantly worse than we are now. Then, inspite of our results, I was bursting proud to follow Northern Ireland.
I have advocated that anyone form Northern ireland who has ambitions of playing Senior International football for the South, should pursue that path from Under 19 onwards. If it doesn't work out, they can switch to the IFA, if so minded - once a player has played at Senior level for the South (or anyone else) I would not welcome them into the IFA fold.
I cannot bring myself to pretend I am supportive of Alex Bruce in a Northern Ireland shirt - there are other players more deserving.
I believe that fans will make the IFA well aware of their feelings about the inclusion of Bruce.
O'Neill has done himself no favours here.
http://foot.ie/threads/33837-Is-Alex...ght=alex+bruce
Last edited by Not Brazil; 11/10/2012 at 6:27 PM.
The Englishmen came over in the year 2005
But little did they know that we'd planned a wee surprise
Sir David scored the winner, and Windsor Park went wild
And this is what we sang...
Was what he said really that disparaging? He expressly stated that he had no intention of disrespecting NI by saying that we were a better side in his consideration. Can you really argue with that?
"When the chance came to play for the Republic, there was no decision really"Was what he said really that disparaging? He expressly stated that he had no intention of disrespecting NI by saying that we were a better side in his consideration. Can you really argue with that?
Now, there is no decision really on whether he should represent Northern Ireland in my opinion.
At the time of his decision, the gulf between the two sides was a lot closer - it was at the time of the post England "purple patch" for Northern Ireland.
The Englishmen came over in the year 2005
But little did they know that we'd planned a wee surprise
Sir David scored the winner, and Windsor Park went wild
And this is what we sang...
Bruce made his debut for the Irish U21s in February 2006. The North was ranked 102nd in the World at this date, while Ireland was ranked 27th in the World.
The North defeated England 1-0 at home in September 2005. This victory was followed up with a home defeat to Wales and an away defeat to Austria. The North finished its WC qualification group on 9 points from 10 games, indeed a "purple patch" for the North after going through qualification for the 2004 European Championship without scoring a goal.
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