I'm not readily familiar with what I presume to have been Manblue's defence of Stephen Ireland's antics. Anyway, let's have a look at things without losing the run of ourselves because you appear to be holding McCarthy responsible for "a year of McCarthy-based drama, regardless of who manufactured it". I'm not necessarily suggesting that James McCarthy is and always will be an untainted angel exempt from criticism. I just think that the media get ahead of themselves at any instance there's even a hint of a story to be written about the lad, usually at the expense of the truth of the matter at hand. I think a lot of what's written about him is rooted in idle speculation due to his circumstances rather than due to his character. It's important to distinguish here so we can identify who is actually at fault for the "drama" as, ideally, we want McCarthy to appear as committed as he can be to us.
McCarthy has been committed to Ireland since the age of 15 yet his loyalty has been, in my eyes, unfairly questioned time and time again, and even now again after he's already been capped for us competitively. Committing to us from such a young age over his country of birth ought to command respect alone, but the racist nature of the abuse he had to face from the terraces in Scotland whilst playing with Hamilton week in and week out due to his decision and the fact that he didn't let it sway him, makes his commitment even more worthy of our appreciation. Maybe it is due to this that I'm content to give him the benefit of the doubt and accord him a bit of leeway. I admire the character it took to persist through what he could have easily chosen not to go through in order to play for us.
He's played with us through every level at under-age
re-affirming unequivocally his allegiance any time the media ever made a big deal about it. The roots of these questions weren't to be found in any fault of character, but rather due to circumstances which have seen McCarthy, a dual national, cast as a real prospect from such a young age where the only certain finality to the question of his allegiance in the media's eyes was a competitive cap, not to mention a surrounding media culture that survives on saturating the public arena with speculation, misrepresentation and quasi-information that has the cyclical effect of boosting interest and sales by leaving us hungry for more.
Essentially, the lad's circumstances have given the media four or five rich years in which to manufacture apparent twists and developments when the reality is that nothing ever changed in McCarthy's mind from day one, in spite of approaches from the SFA. The media are doing the very same with Shane Ferguson now despite him having clearly stated that he has not yet made any decision on his international future; whether it be with us or NI.
When McCarthy pulled out of the friendlies last year with Paraguay and Algeria after having made his senior debut in the Brazil friendly, albeit on the advice of Martinez, it was due to alleged fatigue and back spasms that were affecting his hamstrings. Doubt that if you must, but that's what the lad claimed. McCarthy's next senior appearance was in our game against Macedonia, of course. In the meantime, Noel King had been calling him into our under-21 squad, if I'm not mistaken, and he also suffered an ankle injury that kept him out of action for three months. This kept him out of our friendly with Norway. He had already been overlooked for our friendly with Argentina in November and for all of our Euro 2012 qualifying games, probably due to Trap's conservatism when it comes to competitive games as much as anything else as McCarthy had been playing a more and more pivotal role with Wigan in the English Premier League. When Trap was deciding his squad for our Nations Cup game against Wales, he said of his initial decision to omit McCarthy:
"It’s too tight. He only just returned from injury the other day. McCarthy is important. We need players in this position, who can play the No 10 or maybe behind. He was only on the bench on Saturday. Maybe he play reserve games. We also have other solutions, like Fahey, but we will continue to follow him."
He later called him into the squad after Noel King thought him fit enough for the under-21s but McCarthy was pulled out of the squad by his club due to concerns over aggravating the injury from which he'd only just recovered. Reportedly, he was gutted and had also received
a bad knock on the ankle in Wigan's preceding game against Blackburn. Of course, the media saw this as another ample opportunity to stir a panic and suggest that McCarthy was considering switching loyalties to Scotland. Clarity was demanded; completely unnecessary given McCarthy had never been the remotest bit unclear as to where his allegiance lay. Silly and ignorant comments from Martinez, who seemed more intent on trying to persuade McCarthy to put international football to the back of his mind as Wigan faced a crucial Premier League run-in, didn't help matters either, but everything coming from McCarthy, his family and his agent was suggesting that there was nothing to be worried about from our perspective. Sure enough, there wasn't; when his chance finally arrived to represent us against Macedonia in a competitive game, thereby irrevocably committing him to us, he declared his delight to have had the whole saga wrapped up once and for all. He started our next game, the friendly against Uruguay, and so we arrive at our current quagmire.
Clearly, the undisputed truth has yet to emerge. We've heard so many contradictory stories that it's hard to know what the facts are. McCarthy, his family and Wigan are claiming the lad is injured and will be out for three or four weeks. The FAI were initially claiming they hadn't been contacted in relation to this, but then it transpired that they had actually received word the day before Trapattoni claimed there'd been no communication in a press conference. Tardelli also alleged that McCarthy was contacted numerous times by Mary O'Brien of the FAI but McCarthy's father, Willie, flat-out denied this to be the case. As we've seen above, the FAI aren't immune to telling a lie in order to protect their position. Tardelli has said that McCarthy should have travelled to Dublin to be examined by the FAI's doctor although FIFA's regulations don't oblige a player playing in the territory of another association to do so at all, permitting them to undergo examination in the territory they are based. Strangely, Tardelli also commented that the scans sent by Wigan weren't conclusive or didn't show an injury serious enough to rule McCarthy out but later said that the FAI weren't doubting that McCarthy was injured, indicating that they believe he and Wigan to be telling the truth. Then we have the media reporting an alleged trafficking offence due to McCarthy apparently driving without a correct licence - a non-story really - but his family disputing this and claiming it was a case of an error being made over McCarthy's Irish driving licence. I'm open to correction on the aforementioned facts and details, but I believe them to be correct as reported, so as long as such confusion, contradiction and miscommunication reigns, I don't really feel like I'm in a fit position to cast blame for all this "drama" upon James McCarthy right now.
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