Next 4 years, the good news

[cavan_fan]

Stan may have one advantage over his predecessors in the age of his squad. If you look at the ages of his possible starting 11 you have

Given - 30
Finnan - 30
Dunne - 26
O'Brien - 26
O'Shea - 25
Duff - 27
S reid - 25
Kavanagh - 33
Carr - 30
Keane - 25
Doyle - 23

so it's likely that between now and the next WC only Kavanagh will retire. This gives 4 years to build in and hope some new players come through.

I think one of the problems we ahve had over the past 4-6 years has been reitrements - Keane, Quinn, Stan, McAteer, Cunningham, etc etc. We've always been building a new team. Now we have a chance to keep the same nucleus for 4 years.

The only flaw in this is that in 6 years or so we will have a mass exodus. It's possible we could lose Given, Dunne, O'Brien, O'Shea, Duff, S Reid, Keane, A Reid and Morrison at the same time.

What this highlights is that the generation of now 20-24 year old has been largely disappointing. I guess we are looking at Miller, Partridge etc here.

So all Stan has to do is make the most of a fairly talented generation and bring through the next one at the same time!

[tricky_colour]

6 years is a long time, you only have to find about 1 player a year and so
you could be looking at todays 14 year olds or perhaps younger. Also some
players are 'late developers' look at Richard Dunne, Keegan was going to get rid of him a few years ago and now he is player of the year.

[theworm2345]

David Connolly is 28, 29. I believe he should be starting up front if Doyle isnt playing. I already know what most of you think of Connolly, but right now, he is arguably (Stephen Elliott and Clinton Morrison are probably behind him) he is the 3rd best striker available. Plus, his World Cup experience wouldnt hurt either

[LeixlipRed]

When has connolly ever shown any desire or heart while wearing an Ireland jersey? I vaguely remember one friendly where he was a class act but other than that he's been nothing short of pathetic (barring obviously his explosive entry onto the team back in the mid 90s). Id have Lee, Doyle, Byrne, Tabb, Dixon and Gary Breen's mammy in their before him to be honest

[theworm2345]

When has connolly ever shown any desire or heart while wearing an Ireland jersey? I vaguely remember one friendly where he was a class act but other than that he's been nothing short of pathetic (barring obviously his explosive entry onto the team back in the mid 90s). Id have Lee, Doyle, Byrne, Tabb, Dixon and Gary Breen's mammy in their before him to be honest

I already know what most of you think of Connolly

He played with heart against Cyprus if I remember correctly, granted it was about 3:30 in the morning for me then, but nonetheless, here is a good question, when has he NOT shown heart? (evidence would be nice)

http://theworm2345.footballclips.net...nnolly%202.wmv
Theres a video of him scoring in a friendly, thats pretty excited for a friendly match that means nothing (I have another video of him, but I dont think there is a celebration in that one)

He is tied for 3rd as our top leading active scorer (9, with Morrison). Think back to the last friendly we had (besides Sweden) against Italy, August 17th against Italy, Andy Reid scored, didnt even smile (I have that video if you want) and then March 29th against China, Clinton Morrison scored a pretty good goal, and showed equal or less emotion. (I have that video as well, if you need evidence). There is a chance its only when he scores. If thats not what your talking about Im sorry.
Dont forget, Im not saying he should start, Keane (obviously) and Doyle (heart, skill, desire), but he is a very good 3rd (or even 4th) striker, can you deny that he deserves it more than Terry Dixon, Alan Lee, or Jason Byrne?

[as_i_say]

finally a bit of sense with regards to connolly. as a striker playing for a premiership team can someone tell me why he wasnt in the squad for chile?i know he was injured for a lot of last season but did make several substitiyte appearances for wigan towards the end.

if there was ever one player shunned more wrongfully when others have been included over the years, its connolly.

wouldnt have him near the first 11 when keane is fit but otherwise he has got to be considered. we are not england ffs.

[bwagner]

Must agree with Connolly , Cant think why staunton has snubbed him over dixon, fair paly to stan for tryin to bring in new players but please throw out the right ones........breen, kilbane etc

[eirebhoy]

Must agree with Connolly , Cant think why staunton has snubbed him over dixon, fair paly to stan for tryin to bring in new players but please throw out the right ones........breen, kilbane etc

He didn't snub him for Connolly, it could have been any U17 player called up but McCaffrey chose Dixon.

[jbyrne]

fair paly to stan for tryin to bring in new players but please throw out the right ones........breen, kilbane etc

kilbane has 70 caps... yes 70.... and yet some people insist on taking every opportunity to knock him. all those managers who picked him cant be wrong. ok.. he's no duff, keane or shay given but he has rarely let us down and has been an important player for us for a while. who else in the squad couldve moved from left mid to left back ending up at ctre back like he did on wed and still be one of our better performers on the night?? he's filled in a number of positions at differant times for us and would be missed from our current squad of players

[bwagner]

Jbyrne ...not tryin to start a big arguement here but ...we have not been able to qualifly with the group we have had so therefore most of the team just are not good enough and have had their change , i say drop a few of them and make them fight to wear the green.some of the younger lads have no fear and 1 or 2 may turn out to be real gems...garvin , foley ?

[jbyrne]

Jbyrne ...not tryin to start a big arguement here but ...we have not been able to qualifly with the group we have had so therefore most of the team just are not good enough and have had their change , i say drop a few of them and make them fight to wear the green.some of the younger lads have no fear and 1 or 2 may turn out to be real gems...garvin , foley ?

i dont disagree with this but you are barking up the wrong tree with kilbane. no one is prouder to wear the green or tries harder than him imo. as i said he was one of our better performers on wed so why drop him. we have to have better to replace them with better and i'm not convinced that a lot of the new players being mentioned are actually better options

[theworm2345]

garvin , foley ?

Owen Garven is a good player on Ipswich, and he is only 18-19, so why wouldnt he be called?

Must agree with Connolly , Cant think why staunton has snubbed him over dixon,

Im not worried about the friendly, but when the Euro 08 qualifiers roll around, that is when Ill worry

[brine3]

Connolly gets way too much stick from the supporters. Robbie Keane meanwhile gets away with murder.

[gustavo]

,Maybe thats cos Robbie = Legend
Connolly = petulant dwarf
having said that though Connolly does take a certain amount of undeserved critisism and i would have had him slightly ahead in the pecking order than he has been in the last two years.

[Stuttgart88]

Can't agree about Connolly being worth a squad place, though I do agree he's harshly perceived at times. But any time I've seen him this season he's snatched at his chances and generally looked ordinary at best. To be considered for Ireland he's got to (a) improve his standing at Wigan and (b) having done so, get more clinical in the Premiership.

theworm's video clip was the Turkey (friendly) game when we drew 2-2. Robbie was injured at the time & his delight was because this was his opportunity to get into the team against Switzerland. He took it but, along with everyone else, was anonymous in Basle. Conniolly's actually got a few decent goals for us. He scored a good one against Cypris in October '03 but does anyone remember his miss earlier in that game, a header which he put wide of an open goal from 6 feet?

Right now, Robbie is our obvious no. 1. At this point I'd tend to put Morrisson with him if we were playing Germany tomorrow. Robbie & he know each other's game & Morrisson has a knack of getting goals.

Doyle still has work to do to play his way into the team, though I've no doubt he's good enough to do so. Elliott has a lot to offer us and I hope he can get back on track. Connolly is behind all of these and not different enough to any to justify a squad place. For example, if the same half chance fell to Elliott, Doyle or Connolly, I'd prefer it to fall to the first two.

In my opinion one of Byrne, Lee and even Daryl Murphy is closer to a squad place just for his physique. Maybe also Stephen Ward.

It's funny, but in Jack's era when we were more of a force, there really were very few players that could moan about not being in the squad. These days, although the first XI isn't as strong, Stan can pick a 29 or 30 man training squad and there are still at least half a dozen players who could justifiably complain about not being in the mix: Clive Clarke, Damien Delaney, Connolly, Delap, Mark Kennedy, Doherty, Daryl Murphy, Graham Stack, Stephen Hunt.

[eirebhoy]

I think Connolly is the type that really needs the right partner, a bit like Defoe. Jol said Keane and Defoe don't work together but I think Defoe just doesn't do as well with Robbie as he does with the bigger players. Connolly is rubbish when he plays with Keane but even partnering someone like Doherty he's a much better player. In fact, that Turkey match you mention, if Doherty wasn't so selfish in trying to get himself a goal (rightly so considering the importance for them) I think Connolly could have got a hattrick. His goals/games ratio partnering Shipperley at Wimbeldon was exactly 2 goals every 3 games (42 in 63). The right partner and he'd score as much as any player we have.

[Stuttgart88]

And I remember you backing up your argument with Connolly's with and without Robbie stats, and it made sense. In the meantime though, Doyle and Elliott have emerged and early indications are that each can either play with Robbie or has something to offer that Connolly hasn't . For example in Doyle's case, he's such a good athlete he can compete in the air.

The fact that we have so many players of a certain standard not getting in the squad is a good sign. If the U19s and U21s didn't have games last week there were an awful lot more players who could have got a look in.