Surely this trip is an exception? Are we to throw out Westwood, McShane, O'Shea, Wilson, Ward, McGeady, Whelan, Hendrick, Brady, Arter, Gibson, Hayes, Doyle, Walters and Rooney?Originally Posted by TheOneWhoKnocks
Haha just seen this. I'd say he's went full Robbie.
I'm pretty sure I remember Robbie Keane coming out with similar in the past.
They're both fulfilling their duty as team leader.
If you don't want to play for your country for whatever reason when you're fit and able and have two legs, there's the door for lack of a better expression.
Surely this trip is an exception? Are we to throw out Westwood, McShane, O'Shea, Wilson, Ward, McGeady, Whelan, Hendrick, Brady, Arter, Gibson, Hayes, Doyle, Walters and Rooney?
They tweeted this yesterday https://twitter.com/eirSport/status/869547225520668673
It's changed on the Sky guide to 1.30am too.
http://m.independent.ie/sport/soccer...-35773106.html
"The Derryman did not name any culprits".
I love how virtually the entire article is about McClean and then it throws Arter under the bus in the final paragraph.
Hmm, wasn't aware of that.
Just checked the FAI's website and the fixture list states a kick-off time locally of 8:30PM, which would indeed be 1:30AM Irish time, right?
When and why was the kick-off time changed? Or was incorrect information spread around originally?
I would say he is talking about previous form
Missing for Georgia and Moldova = available for club next game
Missing for Wales and Iceland = available for club next game
yep 8.30pm is 1.30am our time.. strange but true
Can I just ask, why were you so confident that he would be fit for the Austria game? He missed an equally important game against Wales when you felt he could have given himself more of a chance to play. Why would he be so eager to recover in time for Austria but not Wales?
Five.Jon Walters, too, has started what, 2 league games all year?
In relation to who went to America and who didn't, I think, in the main, O'Neill has made it clear that he was worried about the fitness levels of the Championship players who finished up on the 7th May, compared to those in the PL, which didn't end until the 21st May. It's not just about game time, Walters and co. would have been training with their clubs for an extra two weeks while their Championship counterparts had presumably downed tools completely.
Fair play to McClean and Randolph but everybody's situation is (or at least might be) different. Walters isn't getting any younger and he's had his injury troubles over the last year, so I would have definitely been more surprised to see him in the squad for the U.S. trip. In fact, if he got injured over there the decision for him to travel would have been mind boggling I think, especially with our lack of forward options for Austria.
Last edited by DeLorean; 31/05/2017 at 2:21 PM.
Well, Bournemouth don't have any league games coming up for another three months for a start.
Fair enough re: Walters. Idk where I got the two from.
Maybe he completed two league games.
Still a minor concern when he will almost certainly be flogged over 90 minutes against Austria.
I think the crux of what McClean is saying is that he makes himself available for every friendly and can't understand others who don't do the same.
He's a throwback and a rare skin is James.
We've been over this already in the Arter thread.
Back in October, Roy Keane expressed absolutely no doubts over the veracity of the hamstring strain that caused Arter to miss the Georgia and Moldova games: http://www.the42.ie/harry-arter-irel...09699-Oct2016/
Irish medical staff had been in touch with Bournemouth then and were clearly satisfied that Arter wasn't fit to play.
More recently... Arter picked up an injury against West Ham on the 11th of March and missed Bournemouth's game against Swansea on the 18th of March. Our game against Wales was on the 24th of March and the game against Iceland was on Tuesday the 28th of March. Arter missed both of those games as he was undergoing a rehab programme to help him recover from the injury. Bournemouth's next game was the following Saturday (the 1st of April) against Southampton and Arter wasn't deemed fit enough to start. He was brought on as a second-half substitute. He was clearly injured as he missed the Swansea game and also tends to start every game he's fit for Bournemouth.
There's relevant info on that here: https://www.transfermarkt.com/harry-...GB1/verein/989
Also, didn't Arter play through the pain barrier against Holland before the Euros? I was pretty sure he was on an injection. Maybe someone can confirm that? He was definitely carrying an injury anyway that eventually caused him to pull up in training a few days later before the Belarus friendly. He missed the Euros due to that.
When he missed the Switzerland and Slovakia games, he had come over to Dublin and had been assessed by the FAI physio and doctor, who, along with Martin O'Neill, advised him to use the international break for recuperation: https://www.eirsport.ie/arter-disapp...reland-absence
Arter was keen to play through the pain on that occasion and expressed this to O'Neill, but both O'Neill and the doctor advised him against playing.
I got the impression O'Neill intentionally left most of the first-team squad at home as he didn't require their services. This is supposed to be a trip for trying out peripheral and Championship-based players, no? According to Liam Mackey anyway, O'Neill "had previously signalled that he would allow most of his Premier League and regular first-choice players an end of season break before coming into camp for the friendly against Uruguay".
My understanding is that Randolph was brought as an exception because he hasn't played much for West Ham lately and both himself and O'Neill felt he could do with game-time, whilst McClean seemed to insist that he wanted to go as he felt he could do with the game-time and was really eager to be part of the squad anyway, so they brought him along even though he wasn't in the original plans. I say he wasn't in the original plans because Roy Keane had said McClean probably wouldn't even get a game in the US and spoke about "letting him" travel rather than having asked him to travel: http://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/s...an-451000.html
For anyone to be questioning the commitment and professionalism of players who haven't travelled to the US is just nonsense. Those who haven't travelled, haven't travelled because they're either injured or weren't needed/wanted and have been given time to rest after a long season.
For what it's worth, I've no idea why they brought Wes as I'm sure he could do with rest and we especially don't want him picking up an injury. Maybe he's regarded as so crucial to creating attacking openings that leaving him behind wasn't an option.
Last edited by DannyInvincible; 31/05/2017 at 3:25 PM.
Interestingly, in that Examiner piece by Liam Mackey that I've quoted above, Mackey also stated:
Was there any reason given as to why Westwood wasn't brought along in the end then?
Nestor Araujo is out for El Tri. Rafael Marquez is back after a March injury.
Big debate nationwide after the teams disappointing 2-1 loss to Croatia the other day. You might expect something like this for the massive showdown that awaits:
Javier Hernandez
Carlos Vela /Hector Herrera /Hirving Lozano
Guardado/ Marquez /Miguel Layun/ Erick Gutierrez
Moreno/ Diego Reyes
GK--Ochoa (though they have multiple choices)
Former Ireland midfielder Keith Andrews believes James McClean's comments about the commitment of some footballers is a sign of his growing maturity and leadership within the international setup.http://www.newstalk.com/keith-andrew...reland-tacticsOn McClean's remarks, Andrews found them "refreshing" and added that he liked them because "it shows the passion that he has" to play for Ireland regardless of the occasion.
Tony O'Donoghue says that kick-off will be at 1:36AM Irish time in this RTÉ report from New York: https://www.facebook.com/rtesoccer/v...5825398838448/
What an odd time for a game to start, yet Tony says it so casually, as if there's nothing unusual about it whatsoever. If he's correct, I assume it's to allow TV channels to do a few minutes of build-up before hand from 1:30AM.
It's getting further and further past my bedtime
GAA terminology here but Wessi & McClean are going well in training...
https://www.instagram.com/p/BUxoTFulE4Z/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BUzQorUl9Jn/
MON: I'll experiment like a college kid at Woodstock, by God.
https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2017...ico-v-ireland/
PS Irish Team Members strolled through Central Park before. Sources tell me Ice Cream was in the equation.
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