He came on for the last half hour at Villa Park last night. Hourihane & Hogan both on the scoresheet for Villa - http://www.skysports.com/football/a-.../report/375087
http://www.readingchronicle.co.uk/sp...ic_of_Ireland/
O'Neill's assumption seems fair enough based on those comments. Certainly no other credible explanation offered.
No one is really any better informed as to why he turned down the call-up.“It had nothing to do with feeling English or Irish, it was a personal thing between me and my family which we thought was best.“There are no ifs and buts about it, it was just how I was feeling at the time."
When asked if he could represent Republic of Ireland in the future, he replied: “We’ll see how it goes”.
It is hardly difficult to read between the lines
"We’ll see how it goes” .....no we won't, he is a player we could do with, but not under these circumstances.
Some wag made me laugh .................
https://twitter.com/rfcethan_/status/989189852557119490
He is young . Better to give him some time to decide . I wonder does it make it slightly harder to get a contract if you are playing international football for the ‘ Not so Big ‘ countries . Afterall there are only so many going to play for England and ; Perhaps clubs may prefer their players not playing international football .
We would need some clubs and players coming clean as to how the land lies about playing international football especially for what are not considered the ‘ big international ‘ teams . Current players may be reluctant to tell all .
It would be interesting to hear the story from retired players and especially fairly recently retired players .
If that is Kelly’s logic I’d say it’s poor. A good showing at international level can mean big money for a player. I’d say Hendrick’s performance at Euro 2016 was a big reason for his 10 million pound move to Burnley that summer.
Using Stutt's guts and my own gastric band, I feel Kelly will end playing for us. I get O'Neill's stubbornness on the issue, I just hope there is someone who can do some mediating and convince Kelly to come on board. He certainly would be a handy asset.
It seems the relevant quotes have come from his club, which is unusual.
I read that in the buildup to the Turkey game, Kelly was playing hurt. The club is in a relegation battle and was probably telling Ireland to feck off as they're trying to protect the player. Maybe it's as simple as short term protection of an asset and the conversation will change after the Championship season.
If that was the case why not just say that though? Occam's razor and all that. If he had of said that to O'Neill he would have been fine with that and said sure we'll see how you're getting on for the next meet up then end of May/ start of June or something like that. Instead it's all ifs, buts, maybes and hedging bets with a touch of Grealishesque notions and Stephen "my two grannies" Ireland nearly thrown in.
Not to be making mountains out of molehills with his situation as of course the decision is up to himself but similar to Grealish, he's got potential, is getting poor advice from his agent to hedge his bets and he's barely avoiding relegation with Reading to League 1 and has about 30 or more other lads ahead of him in the queue to play for England. Unless he gets plucked from Reading and starts tearing it up at a bottom half of the table Premier League club in the next 2/3 years he's about as much chance of getting a game for England as Grealish has.
Yeah, he is turning into a fine player. Serious talent.
Agree 100%, he's always had the talent, seems to have gotten the head down and matured a bit the last year or two after his vaping and partying escapades after he broke into the Villa first team squad.
I still think though he'll at best get a couple of caps unless he really gets the head down and pushes on. In recent times the English have dropped (for want of a better word!) to looking at our top potential level of talent coming through but they still have the sheer numbers for lads to compete with to get into the senior squad.
Anyway it's the Kelly thread! We'll see what happens come end of May but I'd say we'll see no sign of him with us then either, if anything it'll be the autumn at the earliest, especially given MON's comments on it.
He has the ability and potential to make an impact pretty much straight away if he decides to keep with us with us losing lads who are retiring etc. Think we've a lot of potential over the coming years in midfield with possibly Rice anchoring, McCarthy & Hendrick (if he can get out of his funk for us) as the now senior pros in the middle and then Browne & Kelly if he sticks with us coming through. Likes of Myler, Arter & Hourihane there too gives us some decent options in CM to play around with (or over!).
Didnt make the England Squad
When I see his name up on the board I am hoping he is back on board . Is it time to move on ?
Played very well at Old Trafford this afternoon. He had the most touches of any player on the pitch (116), also most passes (90) and most tackles/interceptions (10). Solskjaer seemed to say a few words to him after the match also and mentioned that Reading had some quality players in his interview. Reading were the better side in a lot of ways but lacked a killer instinct around the box so United ran out fairly comfortable 2-0 winners.
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