Why was Hodge withdrawn at HT last night? Stinker?
Cause Wolves were **** and hadn't one proper attacking midfielder on to support attacks. Don't know what they were expecting with a midfield trio of Neves, Moutinho, and Hodge. Didn't have a stinker but someone in midfield had to come off for a midfielder that was gonna make runs into the box.
Signed a new 4 and a half year contract at Wolves.
Irish by birth ,Harps by the grace of god.
And his pal off the the MLS!!!
Kennys quote that he wished it was Ronan getting the gametime looks worse all the time.Originally Posted by Diggs246
Joe Hodge: Let me be clear – I only want to play for Ireland’
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/jo...land-w0nl8fl3x
Is there any chance that he might “do a Declan”?
“No, I only want to play for Ireland.”
Hand on your heart?
“Hand on my heart. I don’t have a problem saying that I want to play for Ireland. I am clear on it. I don’t have a problem coming to do an interview like this because I am not fazed by that question. Up until I was 16 I played for both and never turned down a call up, but when I had the choice I picked Ireland and I wouldn’t turn back on that.”
Does the question annoy you?
“I don’t get too much of it. I think all the lads on the Under 21s know that I’m committed to playing for Ireland, but yeah it does get annoying because I have never given any suggestion that I would play for England. I have never turned down a call up for Ireland or done anything like that.”
Hodge and Kenny share the same Dublin-based agent and should have plenty more in common before too long. On Friday, perhaps the Ireland manager wanted to congratulate him on the new Wolves contract he is signing or perhaps it was to sound him out about a senior call up for the internationals in March – or possibly both. Either way, Kenny is keen to keep him on side. Eyebrows were raised when Hodge wasn’t included in the last senior squad back in November, but not by the player himself.
“Hopefully Stephen picks me,” says Hodge. “If he doesn’t then it doesn’t change anything for me. I will keep working hard and try to get in the squad and, if that doesn’t work, then get in the squad after that.”
Last edited by The Fly; 21/01/2023 at 11:53 PM.
Thanks for posting.
"I'm fully focused on playing for Ireland," he asserted. "There's no decision to be made. If I didn't want to be playing for Ireland, I wouldn't be here."
https://m.independent.ie/sport/socce...-36723118.html
I'm just posting the above as it sounds quite similar to what Hodge has said. But I believe Hodge, I think he's an honest fella. Still, I think Rice was influenced to a certain degree by the Irish set up at the time of his decision to commit treason. Having Kenny in charge can't be helpful in keeping Hodge but hopefully he gets called up and plays against Latvia or France.
Did your dislike for Kenny make you miss the fact that himself and Hodge share an agent?
I don't dislike Kenny and I don't know what sharing agents has to do with anything. It's the shambles of a set up and his ridiculous comments that wouldn't help if someone was having a word in his ear about England.
Hodge not in the squad today as new Wolves signings are called in. Will have to see how this all plays out but he may end up with very little game time unless he goes out on loan.
Your a millionaire but your dropped
What a weird week for the lad
Of course sharing the same agent is relevant. Cognitive dissonance is real here.
As I mentioned previously, Wolves were always going to bring in midfield reinforcements this window (they have), Hodge will need to go on loan to continue optimal development. He has been a passenger in the premier league thus far and below the standard required. A good loan move is needed.
Of course he’s irish and his loyalty is not in doubt. He does not and will not have England as an option. Irish senior caps will be better for his status than some bit part England under 21 caps.
Still good for Kenny to include him in upcoming friendly and help his development, but if he hasn’t played much senior football by the time selection rolls around I would say it’s “mandatory.”
Spot on there, he's not good enough for England so we don't have anything to worry about. He'd have shown it by now like say Collins and Ferguson have on their early starts. So we've nothing to worry about him jumping ship as there won't be an option.
Assuming he gets a loan deal hopefully he can improve And be more involved
I'm not bothered too much about Kenny's remarks given the above but what's worrying is that his judgement of a player might not be so good. Ronan was turfed out pretty quick by those who see him everyday and know he's not good enough yet Kenny saw him as the one we need
I'm a bloke,I'm an ocker
And I really love your knockers,I'm a labourer by day,
I **** up all me pay,Watching footy on TV,
Just feed me more VB,Just pour my beer,And get my smokes, And go away
"Does not and will not" - did you ever consider getting into scouting if you are such an all knowing assessor and predictor of young players?
I appreciate his comments and take them at face value. My issue is more with the ceiling you are so confident in placing on him in terms of his potential as a player and how far he would go as a club player - regardless of how that translates to international level (but were I to estimate top half Premiership would be enough for England caps then I could conclude that you believe top half Premiership is beyond him).
Either way, I look forward to seeing how far he will go for club (who knows) and country (Ireland).
In another thread you say "but if we find one more young lad in the middle". Would that be a creative/ attacking midfielder - a Connor Ronan type of player, perhaps? Kenny didn't say Ronan was the one we need, rather inferring that type of player. Hodge is competing with Cullen for a position in the team imo (and presumably Kenny's opinion as well).
Kenny’s statement was more like “Ronan might be better than some of Browne, Smallbone, Sykes, McGrath” - who made the last squad - and “the team is missing a creative midfielder of real quality”.
Hodge is competing with the likes of Cullen, Hendrick and Molumby. And his comment after Hodge played his first 45 mins of premier league football was basically “Hodge isn’t quite ready yet”
Since then he’s had 4 starts and 3 sub appearances across all competitions, was on the bench unused another 6 times and not included in the squad once. He’s grown with that playing time and he’s a better player now than he was before.
In my eyes, he should in the next squad but there’s 2 months till that. So if Coventry were to get a championship loan move and shine or Kilkenny was to move to Blackburn and do well, they’d also be competing for that same slot.
He saw him as the type of player we need ahead of a 6 type or general 8. I still don’t think there’s much wrong with that assessment. Help me understand… We have a cartload of midfielders in the squad with greater experience at a similar standard where Hodge is in the discussion. Kenny is really just saying “we’re covered here”. We don’t have that in the McGrath/Ronan role. We need a player like Ronan to break through because it’s a position where we have a paucity of options.
Regarding judgement, Wolves blocked a loan move for Ronan in the summer because of his preseason performances (and coming off a great spell with St Mirren) and now is looking for a move for himself - he’s hardly being “turfed out”! This is the first time in 6 years that Wolves appear to be open to it being permanent but last November (when the comments were made) Ronan was still someone who Wolves had recently decided they were keeping in the first team squad.
Anyway - all of the above to say I’m not following what the problem is with Kenny’s assessment of what we need, where we need to strengthen and that Ronan is one of the preferred candidates.
Last edited by SkStu; 22/01/2023 at 3:22 PM.
He's only a few weeks from 25 also, with several managers there having kept him around, he must have been very close to the level to remain that long at a PL club who have spent & do favour continental signings. So to say he was 'turfed out pretty quick' by those who see him every day could not be further from what actually happened here.
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