Adam Idah F. Celtic b.2001

[pineapple stu]

Comes in with 25 minutes to go against St Johnstone with his side 4-0 up to score a late sixth.

Calling Svengali Stu to judge that one!

[Razors left peg]

Comes in with 25 minutes to go against St Johnstone with his side 4-0 up to score a late sixth.

Calling Svengali Stu to judge that one!

It was a lovely finish to cap a brilliant team move.... so that should help the Cantankerous goals committee

[Acornvilla]

Scores 4 goals between 3 competitions in a week, you'll take it!

[John83]

Scores 4 goals between 3 competitions in a week, you'll take it!

Idah for the golden boot!

[Razors left peg]

Idah for the golden boot!

It's a Golden Welly in Scotland

[John83]

I meant the europe-wide one!

[Snapshot]

It was a lovely finish to cap a brilliant team move.... so that should help the Cantankerous goals committee

St Johnstone.

[samhaydenjr]

I wonder did Swedish football fans question the quality of opposition that Henrik Larsson faced when he was banging them in at Celtic, or Australian fans re Tom Rogic or Scott McDonald, or Japanese fans re half their forwards... you see where I'm going with this.

Look, Idah may not quite have hit the heights we hoped he would when he got that FA Cup hat-trick. But Celtic liked him enough after his loan spell to pay almost 10 million pounds for him and he's scoring every 65 minutes he's on the field for them. He took a while to register his first international goal but has since scored four in under 18 months, which means he's hit that mark at a younger age than Stapleton, Aldridge, Cascarino, Quinn, Doyle or Walters. That should be enough to make him a suitable back-up to Even Ferguson, at least

[Snapshot]

Interesting point, Sam.

Larsson was brilliant. It was a different Euro era for Celtic, being still relevant and, of course, certain of qualification. Some historic victories, especially at Anfield and Blackburn along with a UEFA Cup final loss in Portugal(?). Many other highlights I can't recall. It being a bygone era is underscored by the Blackburn-Celtic game(s) being dubbed The Battle of Britain! Larsson's goals also ensured Rangers didn't win ten-in-a-row. An absolute imperative!

I don't know how his fellow countrymen appraised Larsson's time in Glasgow tbh. Good question. I mean, weekly domestic drubbings of such as Partick Thistle, Hamilton Accies and Morton. I doubt the Swedes knew, understood or cared about the historic underpinnings of Scottish football.

Celtic now pose relatively little Euro threat but retain duopoly muscle which makes mush of SPFL domestic standards on a weekly basis. On Adam Idah, I wish him well. My unforgivable sin is I believe he should have avoided the SPFL trainwreck. On one thing we agree, he's no Henrik Larsson. More's the pity.

[pineapple stu]

. He took a while to register his first international goal but has since scored four in under 18 months, which means he's hit that mark at a younger age than Stapleton, Aldridge, Cascarino, Quinn, Doyle or Walters.

Stapleton, Aldridge, etc didn't have games against Gibraltar and Andorra to bump up their goals tally at that age. They had better options ahead of them and Ireland played fewer games then too.

The Henrik Larsson comparison is equally irrelevant. There was only 8 SPL players at the last Euros, all of whom were in the Scotland squad which had the worst record of any team at the Euros, and most of those 8 were on the bench too.

It's almost as if football has changed in the last 25 years.

Idah is what he is and that's not his fault; he certainly works very hard but ultimately is quite limited. He's well behind Ferguson, Parrott and Sammie in the forward options I think

[pixiehead]

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[Trequartista20]

Stapleton, Aldridge, etc didn't have games against Gibraltar and Andorra to bump up their goals tally at that age. They had better options ahead of them and Ireland played fewer games then too.

The Henrik Larsson comparison is equally irrelevant. There was only 8 SPL players at the last Euros, all of whom were in the Scotland squad which had the worst record of any team at the Euros, and most of those 8 were on the bench too.

It's almost as if football has changed in the last 25 years.

Idah is what he is and that's not his fault; he certainly works very hard but ultimately is quite limited. He's well behind Ferguson, Parrott and Sammie in the forward options I think

Four of Stapleton's ten international goals came against Luxembourg and Malta.

Famously, eight of Aldridge's nineteen international goals came against Latvia. Also well-documented is his taking 20 matches to register his first goal - in a friendly against Tunisia. He scored three against Turkey and two against Malta - his second and third favourite opponents.

Those teams were absolutely regarded as minnows in those days, and in some cases still are.

Similarly, Cascarino won caps against Malta, Albania, Liechtenstein etc.

Ireland have generally played around ten matches a year since the mid 80s, so I'm not sure how it can be claimed playing more matches now than ever before. The most matches Ireland have ever played in a single calendar year is 14 in 2011 - thirteen years ago, and incidentally at a time when Doyle and Walters were regulars in the squad.

https://www.the42.ie/an-in-depth-loo...85515-Sep2024/

If idah is 'well behind' Parrot, someone must have forgotten to tell Ireland's management team. During the last international idah played in both matches, despite not being fully fit. Parrot saw no game time at all.

Since coming back from his knee injury, Idah has played in all 15 Ireland matches he has been available for, starting the majority (eight).

[pineapple stu]

Those games were not comparable to Gibraltar and Andorra - of those games you mention we beat Malta 1-0 and Luxembourg 2-1 (and 2-0 in the other qualifier). The 8-0 was a freak result, as evidenced by the fact it's still our record win. The back-pass rule helped sides like that keep the score down (again, two 2-0 wins over Malta in 1990 qualifying, and they made plentiful use of the backpass rule).

Latvia were not Gibraltar/Andorra either; they were clearly a step up who regularly won 3/4 games in qualifying. They beat Austria at home and the North away in the 1998 group for example (plus Liechtenstein home and away).

Tunisia were beaten by Cameroon in the final play-off round for Italia 90 qualifying, when Africa had only two qualification spots. Clearly not minnows.

Stapleton scored 20 goals, not 10.

In 1986 we played 7 matches. 8 matches in 1987, 1989, 1991 and 1995 (obviously more in the years we reached major finals). 6 games in 1998. We played 8 games in half a year in 2020, 12 games in 2021, and 10 games a year every year since then. So definitely playing more games than in the Stapleton/Quinn/Aldridge era.

I think the lack of minutes for Parrott was commented on after the last window. And his form then also has him ahead for me. He's a starter in a better league, whereas Idah is a bench option still. I think Parrott is starting to show a good knack for being in the right place at the right time to get a tap-in, whereas Idah has always struggled with that. And the move to Celtic and a new coach may change that of course.

Bottom line though - the sort of stats sam quoted don't have any consideration of whether they're meaningful or just coincidental. They're irrelevant.

[Olé Olé]

I wonder did Swedish football fans question the quality of opposition that Henrik Larsson faced when he was banging them in at Celtic, or Australian fans re Tom Rogic or Scott McDonald, or Japanese fans re half their forwards... you see where I'm going with this.

Look, Idah may not quite have hit the heights we hoped he would when he got that FA Cup hat-trick. But Celtic liked him enough after his loan spell to pay almost 10 million pounds for him and he's scoring every 65 minutes he's on the field for them. He took a while to register his first international goal but has since scored four in under 18 months, which means he's hit that mark at a younger age than Stapleton, Aldridge, Cascarino, Quinn, Doyle or Walters. That should be enough to make him a suitable back-up to Even Ferguson, at least

Don't know what the questions were but Australian fans found few answers in Scott McDonald's 26 goalless caps.

[pineapple stu]

Don't know what the questions were but Australian fans found few answers in Scott McDonald's 26 goalless caps.

To add to that - on the "Japanese fans we half their forwards" bit, Kyogo was left out of Japan's 2022 World Cup and 2024 Asian Cup squads. Hatate was left out of the World Cup squad.

[Fixer82]

i think Idah suffers a bit by being a big lad. I see him as a poacher in and around the box. But for Ireland he's given the role of lone frontman who has to try to hold up the ball. And he's really not strong in that area. Unfortunately, the way we are at the moment I don't think there's room for a poacher who excels in the box

[Stuttgart88]

Anyone with half a brain can see what type of player he is. Although Idah was off the pace and lacking match fitness for the England game the strategy seemed to be to lump it up to him frequently. This wouldn't have worked even if he was match fit. He didn't once read the flight of the ball right and Guehi was first to it every time. I honestly think JOS just sees a big black lad and thinks he's the next Emile Heskey. I have zero confidence in JOS as a coach or a strategist or even in his ability to recognise his players' key attributes. That's why I'm really underwhelmed by the reliance HH has on JOS, seemingly under pressure from Canham. I was quite positive about HH's appointment but I want to see him become his own man pretty damn soon.

[Stuttgart88]

It was a lovely finish to cap a brilliant team move.... so that should help the Cantankerous goals committee

The finish was very similar to Michael Thomas' famous goal at Anfield in 1989. Not quite the same order of magnitude but similar in how he dug it out from his feet and guided it inside the post with a soft push with his next touch. "It's up for grabs now, Idah!!!.....to make it 6 against St. Johnstone"

[Snapshot]

Anyone with half a brain can see what type of player he is. Although Idah was off the pace and lacking match fitness for the England game the strategy seemed to be to lump it up to him frequently. This wouldn't have worked even if he was match fit. He didn't once read the flight of the ball right and Guehi was first to it every time. I honestly think JOS just sees a big black lad and thinks he's the next Emile Heskey. I have zero confidence in JOS as a coach or a strategist or even in his ability to recognise his players' key attributes. That's why I'm really underwhelmed by the reliance HH has on JOS, seemingly under pressure from Canham. I was quite positive about HH's appointment but I want to see him become his own man pretty damn soon.

Mudder-a-jazus. John O'Shea is now to blame for Idah's ineptitude at international level. Also, your comment about what JOS "just sees" isn't too clever.

[Stuttgart88]

I don't really care what you think, so hey...