Comes across a nice well spoken lad. Hes a welcome addition. I remember seeing him play a couple years ago before I knew there was any connection and he really stood out during the game. His name was noticeable too, but he kept popping up doing good things all through the game.
Its really not that complicated!!!
Could be the trigger for good things !
Yep. Always happy to see a strong link and a kid who's happy to be here. And who knows about the country.
although I recall Liam George saying Gary Doherty was Donegal through and through but hadn't a clue about Ireland, whereas he was only 'half-Irish' and was obsessed with knowing as much as he could about Ireland
Folding my way into the big money!!!
Gary Doherty…
A friend of mine was on trial at Spurs when Gary Doherty and Stephen Kelly were at the club, back when he was an underage international.
Said Stephen Kelly was incredibly nice, went out of his way to be helpful and just made them feel really welcome and Gary Doherty was the exact opposite.
My friend, who’s father is Arabic and his mother is irish was on trial with another lad from his club who I’d say most on the forum would know of. There was an incident in digs with an Israeli kid who Spurs had signed kid for big money who they had been training with. He found out my friend was part Arabic and started insulting him and calling him names and saying things about Arabs in general. The other irish kid went straight up to him and punched him, which defused the situation.
They got sent home and Gary Doherty wrote a letter both to their club and to the FAI complaining about their behaviour, saying they had let everyone down and asking that they not be allowed go on trial again. He had a load of big trials lined up and was devastated by it.
Both players signed for premier league teams the following summer that they had already been on trial with but my friend felt very aggrieved about Gary Doherty being involved in it and was still bitter about it a decade later.
The club he ended up signing for were not a club he would have gone to - and he felt it wasn’t a great environment at the time but he had less options that he could have expected. He also felt that it soured relations in the FAI and he got a bad name for something he had very little to do with.
He got a serious knee injury in his last year at the academy and the club were having massive finance issues and they released him rather than paying for the knee operation he was supposed to get done in Colorado.
He ended up signing for a LoI club but for him and his family, it was a real sliding doors moment in their life, his teammate punching the Israeli kid and Gary Doherty escalating the situation.
My dad namechecked Gary Doherty in his speech at my wedding. I think it was an ad lib moment.
https://kesslereffect.bandcamp.com/album/kepler - New music. It's not that bad.
He moved to England when he was very young I think, so he probably doesn't remember living in Ireland.
Folding my way into the big money!!!
McAteer had a decent game for Leicester tonight against West Ham, including an assist in a 3-1 win. Hopefully he might get a decent run now in the Premier League under RVN after a promising start. Another one I think we'd maybe be hearing a bit more hype about if he grew up in Ireland, but to be fair we haven't seen a huge amount of him since he declared for us. Definitely seems to have something about him though.
It's actually been a very decent Nations League for us in terms of expanding the squad, we've cap tied five players who had eligibility and realistic opportunities to play for other countries or international teams -
McAteer - was also eligible for the north
McGuinness - was eligible for the north
Szmodics - was eligible for Hungary
Azaz - was eligible for Israel
Cannon - was eligible for England Under 21 up until next year's Euros finals.
(We also cap-tied Jack Taylor against Greece but I don't think England were exactly banging down the door to get to him!)
Last edited by Eirambler; 03/12/2024 at 9:51 PM.
He fell away in terms of form and injury issues. Spoke about being very unhappy about his treatment from the club after they let him go. He's at Waterford now I think.
Behind a pay wall, but this sounds interesting from the headline anyway. (The url might even break the censor function actually)
Edit - it has. Change **** to shit
https://shorturl.at/Udh8v link shorteners are handy for things like that.
Probably not kosher to post links, but the usual paywall remover sites are also functioning for that page. A simple web search will find them for you.
A few choice quotes.
On being injured:
On being pushed out:“I had been dealing with an injury that season, my Achilles was inflamed, where it meets the heelbone, it was going back to 2020. I wasn’t too worried about it. I got to the end of that season, went away with the Ireland under 21s, had my break and thought it would settle down. I came back for pre-season and it got worse, I needed eight weeks out to get right. I came on in one game and I was in bits. I knew it wasn’t good, the issue wasn’t going away and that’s where my life turned for the rest of my time at Leicester.
“We got to February 2023, we had Peterborough in a friendly, I was struggling, even in the warm up. I came on in midfield but I was walking around like an old man. I was 21 and I couldn’t get near players. My game is getting up and down the pitch, getting balls into the box, supporting the attack, but after that game I just couldn’t move. So it went downhill from there.
“There were days when I couldn’t even find out what I was supposed to be doing. I’d go into the training ground in the morning but there was no plan for me. Other players who were injured had their detailed plan, a schedule sent into the rehab group chat and I wasn’t on it.”
Last edited by John83; 04/12/2024 at 10:09 AM.
You can't spell failure without FAI
Starts again the day. Another talent to be, inevitably, wasted by the chronically mismanaged Irish national team.
Back from injury as a second half substitute in the cup game against QPR.
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