Wes Hoolahan (M Cambridge Utd b.1982)

[Fixer82]

He's pure class, that touch to take him through for the second goal was unreal.

Absolutely. Both goals pure class

[Fixer82]

Signed new deal with Norwich til 2018. Probably a good move. If he was with a Premiership club he mightn't get much game time.

[DeLorean]

Bit more here. High praise from Neil.

[tricky_colour]

Lovely goals from Wes, the second in particular, a joy to behold, I can well imagine some of our "strikers" buggering that one up.

The most pleasing things is there is no doubt in Wes's mind he was going to score.

When Wes sold that dummy the keeper put in an order for a dozen.

[Stuttgart88]

Easier to do at 3-1 down in a friendly than at 0-0 on 84 minutes in a must win Finals game obviously

[SkStu]

Scored Norwichs second as they took a 3-0 lead within 25 minutes at Ewood Park.

[paul_oshea]

Who were the centre backs for blackburn

[DeLorean]

Póg Mo Goal - Mythbusters: O’Neill Doesn’t Trust Hoolahan


I thought Duff's comments were a bit inaccurate myself and disappointing because they carry more weight than Dunphy's, or at least they generally should.

[OwlsFan]

I didn't see anything in that article attributing a direct quote to Duff about O'Neill not trusting Hoolahan. It said Damien Duff’s claim that O’Neill seems reluctant to praise Hoolahan in interviews appears more to do with the *****ly atmosphere that seems to pervade any chat between the manager and RTE’s Tony O’Donoghue.

[DeLorean]

Yeah, that's what I meant. I've heard O'Neill praise Hoolahan plenty of times so I thought Duff was kind of talking sh!te about that.

[OwlsFan]

Tony O’Donoghue was the same with Trapp, only far more vitriolic. I think he takes his lead from Dunphy. I can't blame MON for reacting aggressively. Which one of us wouldn't if we were questioned by an outsider on the way we performed our job? I would certainly tell them to what to do with themselves. These sort of questions do undermine the manager and MON has every right to react aggressively if he so chooses. If TOD has the right to ask the question then MON has the right to respond in any manner he chooses. It was interesting that TOD chickened out of mentioning Wes in the interview after the game so one up to MON.

[DeLorean]

Exactly. I can sense a hesitance with TOD now, where there was an eagerness to interrogate Trap. He was safe enough in the knowledge that Trap wasn't going to be able to articulate anything too destructive in return, but MON has the ability to make him look silly and insignificant.

[paul_oshea]

I don't agree at all, I just think TOD doesn't like the confrontation too much. O'Neill can get quite nasty quite quickly as he is ultra defensive. TOD has every right to ask him the questions, especially around players and an inability to hold onto a lead. Nothing TOD asked him the last night was unjustified.

[DeLorean]

Yeah but O'Neill had his back up from day one with regards Tony. He was obviously aware of the crap he used give Trapattoni and how he's basically a spokesman for Dunphy. If O'Neill was reading or hearing about Dunphy tearing him to shreds for not playing Hoolahan, and then one of the first things Tony asks is why Hoolahan is or isn't playing, then I think it's easy to see why he would be defensive. Personally I just think that O'Neill has zero respect for the RTÉ panel or TOD so he doesn't want to entertain them in the slightest, even if the questions do happen to be reasonable at times. They've made their own bed with their over the top analysis so I must say I kind of enjoy O'Neill's approach.

[tetsujin1979]

I didn't see anything in that article attributing a direct quote to Duff about O'Neill not trusting Hoolahan. It said Damien Duff’s claim that O’Neill seems reluctant to praise Hoolahan in interviews appears more to do with the *****ly atmosphere that seems to pervade any chat between the manager and RTE’s Tony O’Donoghue.

It says Dunphy said it

Shunned by the Italian, Hoolahan’s continuing absence for the first qualifier under Trap’s successor allowed Dunphy to continue to beat that drum, something he did throughout the Euro 2016 campaign. Except it wasn’t backed up by the statistics.
The pundit repeated his argument after the Polish defeat in the final game of the campaign that Martin O’Neill didn’t trust the player, except the Irish coach did trust him to play a role in all, or part of, eight of our ten qualifiers.

[OwlsFan]

It says Dunphy said it

The Heading of the Article is: "O'Neill doesn't trust Hoolahan" but reading the piece, it should be entitled "Dunphy says O'Neill doesn't trust Hoolahan" which is a big difference.

Interesting article below by Vincent Hogan whom I quite like:

http://www.independent.ie/sport/socc...-35119634.html

[osarusan]

I think that Tony O'Donoghue gets a very bad rap on here. I don't think there is more than once or twice I've ever considered him to have been over the top with his questions.

It all seems to stem from him asking Trap some tough questions (but reasonable questions, I felt - obviously others don't) when we were going through a horrible phase.

[SwanVsDalton]

Didn't the TOD/MON stuff start after an interview early-ish in MON's reign? Think it might have been after Scotland away, can't remember precisely but there was definitely a debate on there on whether TOD had been OTT (if I remember right, I think he had gone in a bit two footed and emotively, notwithstanding the legitimate critical questions that had to be asked).

Also, was TOD implicated in that complete hatchet job of Noel King when he was caretaker pre-MON or just Dunphy?

There is definitely a feeling that he gets his lead from Dunphy and I think, on occasion, TOD has conducted some interviews in a slightly unbalanced way that crossed over the line from critical analysis. It's also not great interview technique to rankle your interviewee so much you get nothing from them forever and ever amen.

[DeLorean]

I think that Tony O'Donoghue gets a very bad rap on here. I don't think there is more than once or twice I've ever considered him to have been over the top with his questions.

It all seems to stem from him asking Trap some tough questions (but reasonable questions, I felt - obviously others don't) when we were going through a horrible phase.

I think it stems from that too, in fact I've no issue with him otherwise. I felt he lost the run of himself during the Trap era, constantly asking the same questions that Trap had attempted to answer over and over. Just because it wasn't the answer that most of us wanted to hear doesn't mean he should have been harassed about it at every opportunity. Trapattoni was getting paid to do what he thought was best, not what Dunphy and even the fans thought was best. I remember him asking Trap if he would consider his position after the gut wrenching game at home to Austria as well, which I felt was uncalled for in its timing at the very least.

[DeLorean]

The Heading of the Article is: "O'Neill doesn't trust Hoolahan" but readingthe piece, it should be entitled "Dunphy says O'Neill doesn't trust Hoolahan" which is a big difference.

The 'Mythbusters' bit is an important part of the headline.