Swansea star makes Ireland bid

[pete]

eleven-a-side.com

Swansea City’s in-form striker Lee Trundle has sent a come and get me message to Republic of Ireland manager Brian Kerr as the third division’s top scorer wants to play for the boys in green.



[SIZE=1][thread unworthy of National Team section][/SIZE]

[Éanna]

saw him score a few goals last night on ITV's nationwide round up. looks handy, but nothing great. whats really bugged me is his comments in one of the tabloids saying div3 is better than the eL. So why they not playin in europe so

[Shelsman]

And as perfect evidence that the eL is better than the English 3rd Div, Liam George couldn't get his game at Pats ( and when he did he couldn't score ), yet now that he is playing for York he is scoring regularly.

This guys comments annoyed me too. It's not as if he's ever been at an eL game ( as far as I know ). I think it's time an eL club went on a pre-season tour to England and played lots of 3rd Div teams and hammered the lot of them!

[MikeW]

Whatever about the eL being better than division 3 in england, you can't really use isolated cases like Liam George playing for York and not playing for Pats to prove the point. Remember Colin Hawkins couldn't get a game at non-league Doncaster yet is a regular at Bohs now. It proves nothing.

As far as comparisons go, I think the top few sides in the eL would definitely be able to compete in the 3rd, maybe hold their own in division 2 (Bohs, Cork if they went fully professional, maybe Shels - their bottling it in Europe wouldn't fill me with confidence however and possibly Pats would all do well in the 3rd and higher in some cases). The rest of the eL would really struggle - remember division 3 in england is fully professional while the eL has only two fully professional sides. There's a clear gap in standards between the top teams in the eL and the rest. I mean there's no way that UCD, Drogheda, Derry and a few opthers would survive in england the way they are now.

[pete]

Yeah can't judge individual leagues on players failing in one or the other - easy to pick examples from one or the other side to suit any argument. Also sometimes players football is suited to one particular style.

Hard to judge the eL yet until get more fulltime pro clubs. eL squads would not last a long nationwide season.

eL squads are probably current made up of players good enough at a variety of standrads from Premiership to below Conference level.

[Dodge]

Just on Hawkins, he was a regular until he fell out with the manager who wanted him to play midfield. There was personalities at play there...

[Slash/ED]

The fact a third divison player wants to play for us is pretty laughable really, that's about as much thought as I'd bother putting into it.

[Bluebeard]

I reckon that trying to compare the football in the eL and English Div 3 is like comparing it between the Bundesliga and Uruguay. The fact is that the style of football required for success in one is completely different to the other. Not to say that one is better than the other, but the competitive nature of each is differently manifested.

Just look at the players who have gone either way. Irishmen have failed in Division 3, who have done alright in the el, and in European competition. Similarly, there are cases where there have been players come here and fail. Invisible as it may seem to us, there appears to me to be a whole different type of playing involved.

I would imagine, for example that were David Beckham to be loaned by Real Madrid - where he appears to be doing quite well both domestically, nationally and internationally - to Carlisle, he might not stand out so well. Though, obviously, this is no excuse for Roddy Collins failing there, seeing as we all saw the Rod Squad.

I'd like to see how Swansea City would fare out in the eL. Would they be up to the style of football played here? (We don't always have to wonder how our teams would fare in England you know, we're allowed to put the sock on the other foot too)

In a nutshell, I don't think that we are comparing like with like. That said, I still prefer the eL any day. The Blues don't play in Division 3!

[pete]

Originally posted by Bluebeard
I'd like to see how Swansea City would fare out in the eL. Would they be up to the style of football played here? (We don't always have to wonder how our teams would fare in England you know, we're allowed to put the sock on the other foot too)

They played city in a friendly 4-5 years ago & back then could see their players so much bigger (rugby style 6+ footers) than city. There skill levels did not look anything better than city who would barely have started pre season training either. Very hard to tell anything on 1 match though.