QuoteI heard he was allowed to play last night instead...
Proof Givens is clueless
U-21 Team for tonight.
Starting Line-Up: Henderson (Aston Villa); Foley (Luton Town), Kelly (Tottenham Hotspur), Fitzgerald (Bury), Sheehan (Leicester City); Cregg (Arsenal), Whelan (Sheffield Wednesday), O’Brien (Bolton Wanderers), Tabb (Brentford); Murphy (Sunderland), Doyle (Reading).
Liam Keanrey was first choice last year & i assumed his original omission was because he overage. However Given has now called him up to sit on the bench when hes arguable in much better form this year.
I heard he was allowed to play last night instead...
God
He played last night in Cork hardly ideal preparation for a game in Lurgan.
Givens wouldn't know much about preparation to start with.
The sooner the FAI stop paying that foreign league pimp the better.
If his statements and attitude don't get him fired surely his results will
Cork City: Making 'Dream Team' seem realistic since 2007.
If anyone's looking for proof of Givens' abilities, or lack therof, check out the Group Table. One of our best U21 squads ever and the results have been crap. Before that we were 12 or 13 unbeaten though, but mostly in friendlies.Originally Posted by tiktok
Pat Dolan or Roddy Collins for next U21 manager is my suggestion. About time an eL manager got a crack of the whip ( Brian Kerr aside ).
Roddy Collins? Are you kidding?
Wouldn't mind seeing if Pete Mahon/Eddie Wallace could double-job, given the success they've had with our young team and their knowledge of Irish underage football. Probably a complete non-runner though.
You've got a good point actually Stu. I reckon they'd be good.
Why has Don Givens been allowed to carry on at U-21 level despite being so crap?
I would. Can do without our management team being distracted by this.
We're not arrogant, we're just better.
Given always uses the excuse that its his job to develop players for the senior team i.e. winning not important.
While that's true to a certain extent Givens has achieved very little with the talent available to him. Has he ever been close to winning a group?
I think people overestimate our u21 team .. For example take the team England have at under 21 and compare it to ours . England have a good bit of premiership experience and we have very little . We hav a couple of potentially decent players but nothing amazing .. And think he was being kind to Kearney letting him play for Cork decent thing to do helping out a LOI club so it was ..
Just read on eleven-a-side.com that Kearney has been called up.
I would say that winning is not as important, seedings are not affected by losses.Given always uses the excuse that its his job to develop players for the senior team i.e. winning not important.
And as the losses are many thats some sort of comfort.
The question remains are the players developing?
Well they are getting older.
Apart from being one of Irelands top strikers (5 candidates there) and worth some sort of a pension in my opinion for those glory moments in the '70s, but is it necessary to give him ( and Bonner) a serious responsibility?
We could put Given in charge of security and discipline.
Roll calls at 6.30 am, saluting the flag and that sort of thing.
His job satisfaction would hit the roof with supervising those frigid Autumn dips on Portmarnock beach.
On discipline, for like leaving your mobile phone on, having to listen to Packie Bonner tell a bed time story while the rest of the lads are out on the tear. But that could be interpreted as cruel and inhuman punishment.
Or while Bohes are away, turn Dalymount into some sort of a theme park. Relive Irelands glory goals,
a live tour on the sacred sod, reanactment with Don and Ray, afterwards the original RTE reels (the ones without the crude overdubbing using Jimmy Magee's 70 year old voice)
Then Eoin and Ray take the mike for a sing song just like the ones we use to have after yet another drubbing on a foreign field.
England have so much strength in depth that you can't compare them to us. Its the same at senior level too. Player to player they will always be better.
Henderson - Brighton first team (Championship)
Stephen Kelly - Spurs 1st team last season. Has to do it again this season. (Prem)
Kevin Foley - Luton first team (Championship)
Fitzgerald - Bury 1st team (League 1)
McCarthy - Leicester 1st team (Championship)
Willo Flood - Man City reserves. Coventry 1st team most likely.
Potter - Liverpool sub. Won't get his chance in the centre. Probably better off moving on loan. Has set up a goal or 2 evrey time he's moved into the centre during games.
Whelan - Sheffield Wednesday vice captain I think. (Championship)
McGeady - Off form. When on form will get back into the Celtic team. (SPL)
Murphy - Reading 3rd choice atm.
Doyle - Sunderland backup atm.
About 5 years ago we wouldn't have had many U-21 players playing 1st team football for their clubs.
Northern Ireland went 2-0 up but Doyle then scored a brace (one was a peno) to make it 2-2. Match still in play.
I dont understand how the guy still has that job.
Apart from the ****e results, its the recent comments over Kevin Doyle and the Eircom league players that should get him sacked.
This is a quote he made about Eircom League players in the squad....
"Hopefully, they are only coming home for a short while and they will eventually return to England where the standard is higher."
I mean ..what the ****!!!!
Last edited by harry crumb; 16/08/2005 at 9:29 PM.
Meh. Steve McClaren manages coaching England and managing Middlesborough. Mahon knows about any player in Ireland and would know some about the underage scene in England through scouting there for players. He currently mixes managing UCD and a day job. Couldn't see the club agreeing to it though.
No-one's comparigng us to England. They are, though, looking at the players in our squad - who aren't bad, and some of whom are getting first team experience and even European experience - and comparing that to the results we're getting. I honestly think the team should be getting better results - especially when you compare the results of the other underage teams.
But there is a catch 22 - on another thread, people are praising the Dutch system for placing development above results, and yet here. people (different people, granted) are criticising Givens over results.
Someone somewhere else though made a very good point about his attitude to eL players - dropping a couple during our off season because they weren't match fit and then not re-instating them during the English off-season. That's nonsense.
Givens is a ****** of the highest order. Nothing other than a lowlife who gets a kick out of pimping young players to British clubs. The eircom League players have saved his arse on numerous occasions and he still slags the league off. I can't wait to be sat right behind the dugouts for the Ireland-France game to tell him EXACTLY what I think of him.
GIVENS OUT
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