Anelka, Wanchope and Fowler!? Anelka is quality, fair enough, the other two are pretty useless at this stage to be fair. If he can get into the City team then fair enough otherwise no. If we have to cap fourh choice strikers we may aswell give up.Originally Posted by eirebhoy
The debate is academic. He's satisfied Brian Kerr that he's worthy of a place and under FIFA regulations he qualifies to play for Ireland. I feel we have to be pragmatic here. Macken obviously wants to pull on a green shirt now and in doing so increases our options at a time when we could use them. Let's see how he does.
PP
Semper in faecibus sole profundum variat
You have to be joking if you think Morrison would be any better than 4th choice at City. Ok, you admit Anelka would be ahead of him. Wanchope has scored 27 goals in 51 starts (13 sub appearances) for City, He also has 36 international goals. Fowler may not have had the best of seasons last year but he still scored twice as many as Clinton.
Macken is just as good, if not better than Morrison, its as simple as that. Unless you can provide evidence to prove otherwise you have no case. He certainly has the attributes to form a better partnership with Robbie.
Wait a week and see if this won't read similar for Morrison Slash/Ed....
Forsell, Heskey and John!? Forsell is quality, fair enough, the other two are pretty useless at this stage to be fair
I'm with PP on this. There have been enough threads lamenting our lack of striking talent, he seems genuine in his desire to play for us (to me anyway) so I say give him a shot
Cork City: Making 'Dream Team' seem realistic since 2007.
Morrisons consistently held down a regular place in a premiership side and played well and scored at international level. Macken has failed spectacularly to do the first part and I seriously doubt he can do the second part. Morrison didn't score many last year but he actually played very well by all accounts, I remember Savage calling him Birminghams most important player. Macken is a reserve striker.
Not to bring up the argument of the merits of the EL yet again but Jason Byrne should be in there long before Macken aswell, as should Heffernan.
I have no problem with his "Irishness" or his willingness to play for us. I have problems with his lack of ability, not only can he not get within an asses roar of a regular place in the City team anytime I've seen him he's been dire.
S/E, why can't you understand that his injuries have prevented him from becoming a first team player?
He joined Man City in March 2002 and played in the City's last 8 games of the season, scoring 5. He then injured his knee in pre-season. He came back in January 2003 (he hadn't played since April 2002) and in his first game back he injured himself again and didn't play until April. So, injury forced him to only playing 1 match for a full year. He injured himself once again during pre-season of 2003/2004 and missed the first 2 months of the season. During this year and a half any player would find it hard to get back into a team containing Anelka, Fowler and Wanchope.
Macken's first start for City since April 2002 came against Leicester in January 2004, he scored. He played in 14 (started 7) of City's 21 remaining matches.
Doing that bit of research I have realised that he isn't behind any other striker (except possibly Anelka) at this moment in time.
Give him a chance and see how he does.
Like I've said, if he gets in the team then fair enough, he could be a good player for us, if he's fourth choice striker at a **** poor premiership club yet again then us relying on him is an embarassment. I'd like to see him actually break into the side before actually calling him up but if he does get his game this year then he'll add something to the side.
Barrett, Doc, Colgan and Lee all played bit parts for their clubs last season. Finnan, Miller, Quinn and Morrison are all far from guaranteed a place in the first team for their clubs this season. Macken is just as much a part of the team as any Man City forward. He also had a very good pre-season scoring 3 goals and definitely has a chance of starting this weekend.
This guy has more quality then morrison or ratboy(who i rate the better of the 2).
I saw him for City against Spurs last season and he scored the injury time winner in the Worthington Cup to knock out Spurs after they came back from 3-0 down.
Maken was the man that night ....make no mistake.
just the right player to partner Robbie in my opinion.
Give him a chance.
For the record he scored 21 goals for Preston in 2000/2001, 15 in 2001/2002 ( 5 for City ) and out for a whole season and 4 goals last year for City.
He was born in England of English parents so I have no doubt he always has considered himself English. But once he scores for Ireland and does his best we will forget all that as we always do and why not?
Is he better than Connolly? or Lee? or Morrison? - these questions don't really make any sense. He will be given a job to do and lets see whats he makes of it.
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Nationalism is an infantile disease, the measles of mankind
I wouldn't be too sure.
"I have always had a desire to play for the country of my family background and nationality but until now have never been given the opportunity."
He also has an Irish passport which means he puts his nationality down as Irish on forms contracts, etc.
Why does he have an Irish passport if he considers himself English? It wouldn't make it any easier for him to get into the Irish squad by having an Irish passport so I assume he has it a long time.
There are players in the Ireland squad that would class themself as English but I have a feeling he considers himself Irish.
BTW, Brian is just like any of us and won't take any prisoners trying to boost their rep. He had a few meetings with Macken which I'm sure is not the case with Irish born players.
How long has he had the Irish Passport? He doesn't need an Irish passport to visit the auld sod, there is only one reason an Englishman would get an Irish passport that I can think of.
And I'm not knocking him or anyone else, I have no objection to him being in the Ireland Squad, but as far as I am concerned he is English.
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Nationalism is an infantile disease, the measles of mankind
If you asked me yesterday if I wanted Macen in the Ireland squad I would have said no (he could have been the best player in the world for all I cared) but as soon as he was included I try to convince myself he's Irish. I hate having English players like Morrison and McAteer in the team (an no, I don't class Kilbane, Connolly, O'Brien and others as English). Why do these players want to play for Ireland though? If I had an English, French, Scottish or Chinese granny there is no way I'd play for anyone but Ireland even if there wasn't a hope of me getting a call up.
I'm still not sure whether to class Macken as "English" yet though.
There's no need for an Englishman to get an Irish passport, but maybe he considers himself an Irishman and he wanted an irish passport.
Cork City: Making 'Dream Team' seem realistic since 2007.
Jaysus scan, keep your head down and your boots on, I got slated for calling those players "non-Irish", I hope you have a good life assurance policy.
On another note, I can't see why anyone would begrudge Macken his place in the squad. It is fair to say that he is not that good and he would probably rather be playing for England, but who cares? We need ALL the striking options we can get and thats the bottom line.
Last edited by carnstien; 13/08/2004 at 9:06 AM.
Amen to that.
Semper in faecibus sole profundum variat
Macken being selected for Ireland just goes to show how poor we are up front.
Apart from Keane and McGeady(in a couple of years) we have no one with any quality.
1) Connolly - consistenly crap
2) Doherty - not a footballer a cart-horse
3) Lee - an average 1st div player
4) Elliott - not even sure he'll make it as a 1st div player
5) Morrison - couldn't score in whor* house
What reason would an Irishman have for playing for England? All very well coming out with this once he's picked....
I had hoped that Kerr was above this type of thing. No issue with Connolly as it was never a question (he's just shíte), but I have no respect for the likes of Morrison and Holland who chose to play for "the republic".
If you attack me with stupidity, I'll be forced to defend myself with sarcasm.
Why? Because you saw him play poorly against Coventry? 20 yrs old. Top Scorer for Man City Reserves. Prolific at underage level. FIFA under 20 all star team. 2 half games for Sunderland, 1 fantastic goal.
thats another thing there is no country called "the republic" last time i checked............spot the mercenary when you hear this
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