Caleb Folan

**Raheny Red** · 09/03/2007, 4:15 PM

When I first read the thread title 'Caleb Folan', I thought it was a petition for a Celeb Forum on here

**kingdom hoop** · 15/03/2007, 4:02 PM

first i heard of folan being 'irish' was when i saw his name in the squad. a quick bit of research reveals he scored 15 goals in 105 games for chesterfield, enticing wigan to pay half a million for him in january. thats hardly a goalscoring record to entitle him to a call up given better scoring rates of connolly, morrison, lee.

the reasons for selection would appear to be stan's insatiable hankering for having a look at 'new' players. but more pointedly folan is apparently a bruising 6'2 sort of striker who may well have a niche in our squad. at 24 and having scored a few premiership goals he may well have potential. not having a clue about the player i'll say no more...

**Pablo** · 15/03/2007, 4:30 PM

yet another joke of a decision. He's not Irish. is it any wonder the national team is a laughing stock supported by idiots dressed as leprachauns and shaking inflatable shamrocks.

An embarisment.

**tetsujin1979** · 15/03/2007, 4:38 PM

Kerr was barracked for not bringing in new players to the squad, Staunton is getting the same abuse because he's bringing players into the squad.
And i'll take any bets that Folan gets more caps than Macken, even though Staunton has a far superior selection up front than Kerr or McCarthy

**paul_oshea** · 15/03/2007, 4:46 PM

i wonder what they are thinking on inis mor today? would they be happpy to see a black lad from the island included in the squad?

**paul_oshea** · 15/03/2007, 4:50 PM

inis mor, is more irish than "pablo"

**billybunter** · 15/03/2007, 10:22 PM

Whether right or wrong, any "irish" striker plugging away in england must be really demoralized when they see folan get a call up. Connolly banging them in , Morrison back to a a bit of form - it must be a serious slap in the face in all fairness.....

**DeNiro** · 15/03/2007, 10:42 PM

Would agree with that. It's smacks of panic as well. What more does Connolly need to do? In all fairness Morrisson must be wondering about it as well. It becomes a problem if he blocks the development of Andy Keogh and Stephen Ward, but if he bangs them in for us we won't complain.

**livehead1** · 16/03/2007, 12:18 AM

Originally Posted by Pablo

yet another joke of a decision. He's not Irish. is it any wonder the national team is a laughing stock supported by idiots dressed as leprachauns and shaking inflatable shamrocks.

An embarisment.

you dont make sense. The team is a 'laughing stock' because they are atrocious. So anything or anyone that may alter this is more than welcome.

**dr_peepee** · 16/03/2007, 12:30 AM

What's been seen from Folan to say he's gonna alter things. I'm all for taking a look at new players, butr it has to be productive, and the inclusion ogf Folan at the expense of players on the back of some good form is counter productive. Folans scored a couple of premiership goals? So what? See Jon Macken, Micky Evans, Sean McCarthy.

**tricky_colour** · 16/03/2007, 2:41 AM

Grandfather from Innis Mor and grandmother from Galway so he is at least 50% irish, and more Irish than any other nationality I would imagine.
2 goals in 5 games in the Premiership that's a 40% strike rate which is very creditable albeit on a small sample data. His 15 in 102 games (15%) doesn't
look quite so impressive (47 were as a sub). Anyway he got 8 league goals in 19 starts (+ 4 as sub ) this season +3 in 3(1 sub) in the Carling Cup.
I make that a total of 13 in 27(4) starts which is 48% strike rate overall this season. Which is fairly impressive overall considering where Chesterfield are (propping up league 1).
I had a look at the Chesterfield boards and they seemed very positive towards him, he seemed to be well liked <quote> "I certainly wasn't one of those booing him that all of a sudden were chanting his name". He seems to have potential anyway and one would imagine Paul Jewel saw something in him.
He seems a good buy at £500,000 when he currently has a better strike rate than his existing strikers!! It will be interesting to see how he gets on at Wigan and Ireland.

**danonion** · 16/03/2007, 3:17 AM

Originally Posted by tricky_colour

Grandfather from Innis Mor and grandmother from Galway so he is at least 50% irish, and more Irish than any other nationality I would imagine.
2 goals in 5 games in the Premiership that's a 40% strike rate which is very creditable albeit on a small sample data. His 15 in 102 games (15%) doesn't
look quite so impressive (47 were as a sub). Anyway he got 8 league goals in 19 starts (+ 4 as sub ) this season +3 in 3(1 sub) in the Carling Cup.
I make that a total of 13 in 27(4) starts which is 48% strike rate overall this season. Which is fairly impressive overall considering where Chesterfield are (propping up league 1).
I had a look at the Chesterfield boards and they seemed very positive towards him, he seemed to be well liked <quote> "I certainly wasn't one of those booing him that all of a sudden were chanting his name". He seems to have potential anyway and one would imagine Paul Jewel saw something in him.
He seems a good buy at £500,000 when he currently has a better strike rate than his existing strikers!! It will be interesting to see how he gets on at Wigan and Ireland.

I don't follow your logic on him being 50% Irish. I have a father from monaghan and a mother from limerick, yet I have an American accent, am I 100 % Irish or half american?. Irish is what you consider yourself and are considered by others. I have been to Irelnad 21 times in my 18 years, so I do in fact consider myself that, but has this fella been to Ireland? If you asked him his nationality when he was at Chesterfield I dont think Irish'd have cross his lips. His calling up is an insult to the Irish coming through the youth system and those plugging away in the championship. He's only an inch taller than Morrison for ****'s sake

**citizenerased** · 16/03/2007, 11:05 AM

Folan can give us that height aggression and physical presence we desperately lack up front, i think it was a good call up. Another thing of note, is that he works his socks off and gives 100%, and seems unfazed by big occasions...that cant hurt either

**Nailer77** · 16/03/2007, 11:10 AM

Originally Posted by danonion

I don't follow your logic on him being 50% Irish. I have a father from monaghan and a mother from limerick, yet I have an American accent, am I 100 % Irish or half american?. Irish is what you consider yourself and are considered by others. I have been to Irelnad 21 times in my 18 years, so I do in fact consider myself that, but has this fella been to Ireland? If you asked him his nationality when he was at Chesterfield I dont think Irish'd have cross his lips. His calling up is an insult to the Irish coming through the youth system and those plugging away in the championship. He's only an inch taller than Morrison for ****'s sake

* He qualifies for Ireland

* He wants to play for us

* He's a Premiership striker

* He's got qualities our other strikers don't

* It doesn't matter if he didn't call himself Irish before, as long as he puts in 100% on the pitch thats all that matters.

Thats enough for me, lets at least take a look at the lad. If he's not good enough so be it.

**Soper** · 16/03/2007, 1:26 PM

Ah grand, sure he plays in the Premiership, everything will be fine.

**gustavo** · 16/03/2007, 1:32 PM

As Paddy says , its all much of a muchness although a lot of them there have the capacity to improve.

**Jerry The Saint** · 16/03/2007, 2:03 PM

Something strange about the report on fai.ie...

The English-born forward qualifies for Ireland through his grand-parents, both of whom are from the West of Ireland.

So, wait... if he only has two grandparents...I know they do things differently in the West but

**cavan_fan** · 16/03/2007, 3:35 PM

Originally Posted by billybunter

Whether right or wrong, any "irish" striker plugging away in england must be really demoralized when they see folan get a call up. Connolly banging them in , Morrison back to a a bit of form - it must be a serious slap in the face in all fairness.....

I love the irony that Morrison should be disappointed!

**zinedineontour** · 16/03/2007, 8:09 PM

I think the biggest joke of this call up was that Staunton has said that he has not seen the lad himself playing for Wigan and he hasnt even spoken to the fella.. Then he says he wont pick players in the championship yet picks stokes who has barely played for sunderland ahead of connolly . So he must think Gibson is playing in a better standard of league in Belgium than the Championship ? Staunton is getting more of a joke by the day..