McCarthys final insult

**pete** · 21/08/2002, 10:04 AM

RTE:

Stockport defender Jim Goodwin and Arsenal striker Graham Barrett will make their senior international debuts for the Republic of Ireland against Finland in Helsinki tonight.

For those of you not aware - Goodwin is warming the bench for an english 2nd division team.

fonzi · 23/08/2002, 1:07 PM

sick sick sick....and thren Mc Carthy has the audacidy to come out and say that there wil be changes !
what changes?-hes still playing players who warm benches week in wwek out for gods sake!
where the hell is glen crowe,ollie cahill and john o flynn??????????????????????

**MikeW** · 23/08/2002, 1:55 PM

Glen Crowe deserves a shot, at least in a friendly, but john O'Flynn has only played a handful of games for Cork City and is only 19, its an under 21 call-up he should be looking for. Be honest, how many City fans had even heard of John O'Flynn before he signed for ye? 3 or 4 games is ridiculously early to make demands of an international cap.

Outside of Glen Crowe I can't think of another el player who's good enough to be honest. At the very least only full-time players should be considered, also anyone who plays for Shelbourne should be immediately discounted - they weren't good enough to beat a team from Malta, that says it all really. I'd love to see home based players getting called up, but only if they're good enough, and at the moment I don't think thats the case. The league here is in a sorry state because of the FAI's apathy and the power the British media has over us.

**pete** · 23/08/2002, 2:06 PM

Obviously its way too early for John O'Flynn to be suggested for an international cap & maybe even too early for an u-21 callup although if he keeps going as he has then he be a certainty.

Crowe is probably the only eL player in with an international chance & at that wouldn't be in first 3-4 striker choices.

However McCarthy is ignorant of the eL, never watches it, never comments on it & IMO wouldn't promote Crowe to the iriush squad even if missing his first 10 forward choices! IMO McCarthy would drag out some english conference player with a great great granny before selecting Crowe while he plays in Ireland.

**MikeW** · 23/08/2002, 2:14 PM

Yeah I agree that McCarthy is ignorant of the el, actually I think he's ignorant of any league that isn't in britain to be honest. His comments about Parma's interest in Gary Breen prove that. You're right, he'd probably drag Mickey Evans out of whatever meat packing plant he's working in these days and give him a game before he'd give Glen Crowe a shot. Christ, I shouldn't have mentioned Mickey Evans there, its embarassing to even think that he got an international cap - even if it was only for 5 minutes.

**Shelsman** · 23/08/2002, 5:05 PM

On the bright side three eL players were capped by Don Givens on Tuesday. I thought it was madness that Jim Goodwin got a cap ( surely there are better centre backs in the eL ). The only reason I can think why he was given a chance was because of his age. Most of the top centre backs in the eL are 24-30.

The odd thing is that I was tempted to email the Irish Times and give out about the fact that they print a stats table called 'McCarthy's Men in Britain' which includes the English Second and Third Divisions as well as the Scots First, Second and Third Divisions - I was going to argue that McCarthy would never choose a player from those divisions ahead of the eL ( e.g. Glen Crowe called up ahead other Irish Strikers in those divisions last year ) but obviously I am wrong.
As I said, the only reason I can think that he gave Goodwin a chance was because he is still young and could yet move to a big club.

I made comments before about trying to raise the profile of the eL by getting our U21s to play ( and hopefully beat ) good teams and if this is done regularly then I think Don Givens will go to these matches and pick more young eL players for his U21 squads. He has already done this by selecting players after seeing them play for the eL U21 side vs Celtic U21. It's up to the league to organise these matches on a regular basis.

It was interesting to note that Don Givens apparently said that Wes Houlihan was the best player for the U21s on Tuesday but that didn't stop Barret getting in ahead of him for the senior team ( can't complain seeing as he did get a good goal ).

Overall, IMO, I think that eL fans should be happy if we manage to get three players into every Ireland U21 squad that is announced.
The only possible contender for a full cap is Glen Crowe ( maybe John O'Flynn in time ) but I wouldn't rate Crowe ahead of Keane, Duff ( although I see him as a winger ), Morrison and Connolly, but I would rate him above any other Irish striker in England.

**RamblersWeb** · 23/08/2002, 6:05 PM

how long before shaun maher gets called up then seeing as how he is playing well for bournemouth in division three!!

*smirks*

Seriously though, was delighted to hear Givens comments about Houlihan... and heard that he impressed Mick too

If the development of the U21 League continues apace then this can only be a good thing but realistically these players in addition to the eL senior players need to being brought FULL-TIME

Clubs should be told you've 3 years or you're out - no merssing about. That means full time administrators on each club as well as squads. If the 3rd division in England can do it there's NO reason the eL cannot.