He has been playing left back for Wolves. Do you think he can still do a good job for us? He is 28 now should be at his peak - I thought this feller was going to be a world beater when he was a t Millwall. I think if he can stay away from another injury he might force his way in. Hope he has a terrible game tommorow against QPR with Martin Rowlands running rings round him.
No. One of the best parts of the Kerr era is we haven't had to see this clown in the green for some time.Originally Posted by robbie_B
He has never looked like a clown when I have seen hin play
usually impressive. I have never seen him play left back but
I would feel more confident with him there than some of the
orther options.
I wouldn't. He's the ultimate first division player. Will look amazing there yet time and time and time again he has spectacularly failed to make the step up to premiership level and has been consistently poor and lazy for Ireland. I'd have Harte back in a shot over him.
Mick McCarthy's baby sitter, not premiership standard, very inconsistent.
No, and the fact we're even close to considering him really highlights how bad things are for us at left back. Ian Harte was a liability in many ways, but there's an argument for him being Premiership class, he got away with his frailties for so long. With the right partner on the left of midfield he could be good, but Duff isn't good enough defensively for him to cover up.
I remember a lad called Keith Foy who I thought was going to grow up to be half decent at left back. Shame it didn't work out.
Ade
Yeah Keith Foy was decent at forest for a season and then just seemed to not want it enough. Had a problem with his weight and general fitness so Forest got rid. I think Harte deserves a crack in the friendly games.
I tried to find out about Keith Foy, he went on a free transfer to
Doncaster but I don't think he ever played a game for them
and is not listed in their current squad.
Anyway here is a pic of him
http://www.ltlf.co.uk/players/foy.htm
He looks a little overweight wouldn't you say, or is he
just 'big boned'.
Makes Andy Reid look slim.
Oops
He left and signed for St Pats, who eventually let him go to Dublin City who quickly let him goto Monaghan United I think, one of the lower teams in the eircom league first division. I think he's still with Monaghan.
Am I correct that Keano was not too happy when he was droppedKnow he was a bit of a 'lad'.... :but no-one knocked him after a classic strike v.Yugoslavia in'99......the Andy Reid of his day
! Love him to see him back in the squad,If he's matured,as had some decent talent
from the squad by Mick because of some off the field activities?
Unsure,as yer man says below,he was a 'McCarthy'player,so would have a feeling RMK's not exactly campaigning to get him back!
I seem to recall Kennedy and Phil Babb got into a spot of bother, possibly
related to drink but I do not recall clearly, anyway I think McCarthy dropped
them. I beleive Keane wanted them back.
Anyway this is the incident.
http://forums.tcm.ie/archive/index.php/t-7831.html
Sorry about the length, would have posted a link but the Irish Times charge you for their archive and you can't access it without a password. Shame about Kennedy but he blew it himself, absolutely no one else to blame but himself, he got more chances than most. He played some cracking games but I largely remember him being disappointing. Throw in a boozy attitude towards the whole thing and you're left with a ropey career.
Fading Leaves Bring Sparky Memories
Locker Room: There are unsuspected pleasures that come with being untidy and disorganised. It's true that quite often you lose important things under the great chaotic mountains of the junk you accumulate for no good reason, but just as often when you go looking for what you need you get sidetracked by the discovery of interesting things you'd forgotten you had.
I have a rainforest's worth of notebooks stacked up all around me. Most of them are only half-used as I tend to leave home without one whenever I actually need one.
Then there's the problem I have with my pretentiousness. Usually it's not enough for me to buy a simple spiral-pad notebook with pages that flip over the top. Nope. I might decide that going to a minor game in Parnell Park requires the immediate purchase of a moleskin-covered collection of parchments assembled by Tibetan monks using wood pulp and the saliva of bald eagles. This I intend to use for scores and scorers, before beginning the great Irish novel after tea. Pretentious to a fault, that's moi.
Then the notebook gets tragically buried in a landslide of junk and only sees the light again when a small, furry rodent creeps out from underneath the paper alp having reconstituted its DNA from the moleskin.
This happened just the other day. There was a life-threatening avalanche of junk, and while poring through the debris I found a notebook which I'd bought in Riga, Latvia, in 1994. Nothing written in it but a few rain-blurred pages of reporting on an under-21 game between Ireland and Latvia. No memory of the game at all, but I can remember getting the notebook.
Funny thing was, there were adjectives hung like doodles down the margin as to how I would describe Mark Kennedy. As such the notebook was like a double find. I'd forgotten I owned the notebook. I'd forgotten about Mark Kennedy.
And who hasn't forgotten about him? As Ireland stretch their legs and find their strength in the new era, Kennedy isn't mentioned in any of the blueprints. Too much squandered promise. Too many "incidents". Too erratic. Too petulant.
Too yesterday.
Ten tears ago! Phew. Back then Mark Kennedy seemed like something that you could take to the bank. He'd had that season before he was shaving properly when he scored 49 goals for the Millwall youth side. He'd got into the full team at 16, scored four crackers in his first 13 games. He would be on his way to Liverpool the following summer. The most expensive teenager ever! Wonder stuff.
On that under-21 team which played in Riga he was the blue-chip prospect. Others who played that day have had mixed fortunes. Willie Boland, Alan Moore, Tony Sheridan, Phil Hardy, Shay Given, Gary Breen, Brian Launders, Dave Greene and Graham Kavanagh have had their various triumphs and failures, but, oddly, it is Kavanagh, then with Boro and Ireland's best player that day, who should give Kennedy most cause for hope. It's never too late.
It's been a long road, some of it spent unwisely perched upon a car bonnet in Harcourt Street, more of it spent in Wilmslow police station declining to submit to a breathalyser test. Those odd moments of madness have overshadowed what was once a monumental talent.
You could look at Kennedy's career in two ways. You could argue he was lucky. Mick McCarthy became manager at Millwall and took to the youngster straight away. He lived for a while in the apartment attached to the back of McCarthy's house in Bromley and used to baby-sit the manager's kids.
That fondness of McCarthy's for the kid they called Sparky transmuted itself into loyalty, and Kennedy got into Irish teams when Mick had a rule requiring his players to be playing first-team football at the time. He got forgiven more often than most, quicker than Phil Babb after the Harcourt Street incident, quicker than most after he was sent off in a qualifier in Iceland and McCarthy was heard to bellow, "Sparky, why do I ****ing bother?"
And often he rewarded McCarthy's faith. At the end of the World Cup qualifying campaign which was Mick's first task in charge we had a two-legged play-off with Belgium. In the first leg at Lansdowne Road Kennedy stank the place out. He was impressively awful and he was taken off after 33 minutes.
The next weekend in Brussels, McCarthy risked derision by picking him again. We lost, but Kennedy was superb.
He enjoyed that patronage and benefited from it. It looked like becoming a pattern. Roy Evans watched him score a remarkable cup goal for Millwall against Arsenal and reached for his chequebook.
Kennedy was the costliest teenager ever and Liverpool were his childhood sweethearts. The avuncular Evans would nurture him and let him grow. Good move, we all said. He was earning £3,000 a week, the tabloids said. Wow! we all said.
He made his full international debut back in the Charlton days in an away game against Austria. He was wonderful. Things could only get better with talent like that coming through.
He made his Red debut one day at Anfield against Leeds (ah), and when he came on Leeds were a goal up (ah, again). Kennedy arrived and drove a 30-yard screamer against the underside of the Leeds crossbar. It bounced down onto the line and somehow stayed out. Those centimetres were the difference in becoming an instant folk hero or a passenger.
Looking back, he had more bad luck than good. Liverpool never knew what they wanted from him. He started five games, none of which Liverpool lost, but he never fitted in and was finally left to moulder in the reserves.
He had a brief spell at QPR on loan but they couldn't afford him. He went to Wimbledon, having been charmed by Joe Kinnear, and made just 11 starts as he found himself in a queue behind Michael Hughes.
He escaped to Manchester City and was the player of the year in their promotion drive of 2000, getting picked on to the PFA's First Division team of the year. He scored four goals in his first six games there and was credited with 17 assists for the season.
Then, for the Premiership season the next year, Joe Royle decided the team would play differently. Kennedy was shelved. Royle left eventually amid rumours of there being a drinking club within the club.
Kennedy was never fancied by Kevin Keegan, who didn't see himself using wingers. He was sold to Wolves, where he continued his pattern of looking a much better player in Division One than he does in the Premiership.
He's been cursed with injuries too. Twice on the first day of the season at Anfield he got Achilles' heel injuries. Injury kept him out of the 2002 World Cup, for which he was picked despite only having managed two qualifiers. And he had played just two league games for Wolves this season before incurring ligament damage.
For somebody called Sparky he never seemed to make the brightest decisions. He visited tabloidland more often than was wise, and my clearest memory of him on a trip was seeing him emerge triumphantly from the duty-free shop at Keflavik airport in Iceland brandishing some brand-new Callaway golf clubs.
The team were moving on to Lithuania for a midweek game. Kennedy had been sent off just hours previously and should have been in disgrace. Instead, he arrived out beaming with the golf clubs in his hand only to be met with derision and rolling eyes. Man comes to the most expensive country on earth to buy his golf clubs!
It seems unlikely we'll ever see him again in an Irish jersey.
We are blessed with left-sided players, and although when he played up front Kennedy was the sort of striker we could use right now, it's been a long, long time since he was asked to perform there. The goals which provided spectacular punctuation to his game have dried up a little. He's scored 20 in his 211 league appearances since leaving Millwall in March of 1995.
So there you are. Mark Kennedy. Coming back from injury this weekend. His birthday falls at the end of each season and he was 28 last May. Maybe four years left of a long, long career. Anything salvageable? Call Graham Kavanagh and ask.
Sobering reading. Thank you for posting it.
Has Staunton ever looked at this possiblity, can;'t be any worse than what we have as fringe players at present, could of been one of the greats in the premiership, brillant crosser of the ball etc,
Damien Duff, Andy Reid... even Killer would give Kennedy a run for his money. Plus this O'Brien lad looks like one to watch.
I think Kennedy has missed his chance; he's not getting any younger and is unlikely to see the Premiership again.
Greece 1 - 0 Germany
Socrates (89)
I think its only me and you...do you perhaps also want Connolly in? You would be my twin
Has Staunton ever looked at this possiblity, can;'t be any worse than what we have as fringe players at present, could of been one of the greats in the premiership, brillant crosser of the ball etc,
http://foot.ie/showthread.php?p=512736#post512736
My Guarantee
Am looking for old Irish matches on VHS, PM me if you have some and I'll upload them here
as far as I know Kennedy is playing centrally for Palace this season. can anyone confirm?
Has Staunton ever looked at this possiblity, can;'t be any worse than what we have as fringe players at present, could of been one of the greats in the premiership, brillant crosser of the ball etc,
Says it all about him really...could have been but never was...
No, no, no, no ,no.... and no again!!
No Kennedy's, no Kavanaghs, no Breens, no Dohertys, no Morrisons, no Hartes NO NO NO !!
None of these players offer anything to an Irish team. They have all had their chance and shown to the best of their abilities the worst of their ability.
Each one is a liability and liabilities cost games. Replace each one of these with the emerging talent, tell them they have a chance to stake a claim within the squad let them do the rest
Limerick 3:7
"Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again"
A little harsh on one or 2 here,
Breen gave a great deal to the team, admittedly too old now but wouldnt but him is same breath as Kennedy.
Doherty has had very few chances in Defence which is his real position. Although I'm not sure I can watch his weird run whcih seems to be like a kid pretending to be an aeroplane.
Harte for a while was one of our star players and I always feel he suffered most by the Leeds collapse.
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