A Championship move with a newly promoted side. Not bad for him. Maybe his club career hasn’t gone to plan but I actually didn’t mind the look of him when he was involved with Ireland.
He didn't do much wrong in an Ireland jersey. Would love to see him get another chance. It's a good move for him.
Folding my way into the big money!!!
Only 5 wins all season for an appallingly awful bottom-of the-table Wycombe side, and yet you just know that Horgan - not even a guaranteed a starter in that team - will be more or less the first name in the starting XI in Serbia. That's where we are right now.
So depressing.
I doubt Horgan will start against Serbia. But using him as a fall guy for our current up front ineptness is unfair. He was excellent against England and far from the worst against Bulgaria - out last two games. Neither Connolly nor O'Dowda - or any other forward - have come near either of those performances. He certainly isn't the future - but he doesn't deserved to be dismissed. If the England performance was a showcase of his ability - then his sitting on the Wycombe bench is a reflection of crap club management that has them heading for League One.
It's nonsense to say he's the first name in the starting XI as well. He might start, but Coleman/Doherty/Randolph/etc would be higher in the "first name on the teamsheet" stakes.
I wouldn’t be too surprised if he starts but that’s as much to do with the fact that, as of today, Connolly, O’Dowda, McClean and Brady are all injured. That just leaves Robinson and Horgan, followed by a group of league 1 or LOI wingers: Curtis, Harness, Duffy...
I’d imagine a front three of Idah, Connolly and Robinson will start if fit
For us it's unrealistic to line up with a front 3 in the first away game of the campaign against a stronger team.
We don't have the quality in the rest of the pitch to support that.
I don't believe that's necessarily the case at all. It's unlikely that both Coleman and Doherty will play, and especially given Randolph's rumoured disaffection, and his struggles with the ball at his feet, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Kelleher started.
Horgan has started the last several matches, and will very likely start in Serbia in my view.
I would agree that Horgan is likely to start and would have fancied his chances even without the inavailability of others.
That being said, I don’t see where the issue is in him doing so he is playing regular Championship football and has been one of our better players in the Nations League and England games.
Does ge deserve to be a starter for Ireland in a more general sense? Probably not.
Does he deserve to be a starter at the minute? Probably.
I mean, if you're going to assume three weeks out that everyone's going to be injured or is randomly unhappy, then I guess you can concoct a situation where Horgan is thr first name on the teamsheet. It's not really a rational way of doing things though.
I will agree that starting Horgan reflects badly on our squad at present. That's not his fault though; he's done reasonably well when given the chance
I wonder why we, as supporters, haven't managed to adjust our expectations. Horgan is getting a few games in the Championship and the potential for him to start for the national side is met with disappointment. Supporters are also keen to point out when a young players isn't going too well or someone is dropped. I'm not sure why people have to be fatalistic about our present options - we haven't had it great for a long, long time and I would think by now that many would have realised our standards and grown a tad more accepting.
I love coming on here and getting the news about players and their progress or even stagnation if that needs highlighting. But I find it very tough when the negative cloud looms a bit and complaints are flooding about the lack of progression of our younger players, transfers not working out perfectly or players being on the bench.
Horgan isn't very good, he's not young and can't get into what is the undisputed worst team in the Championship. There's no reason to get excited or optimistic about his inclusion in an important qualifier.
The fact that someone is saying he was excellent against England is an indicative of how bad things are.
My point is not directly relevant to Horgan and is more of a broader observation regarding the context for our footballers. But you have used Horgan to support your assertion regarding "how bad things are" - and this type of post crops up a bit in Horgan's thread and it's so negative.
Each to their own I suppose and all views are valid views. But if a fella struggling to get into a struggling Championship side is getting the odd appearance for us and that is prompting posters to say we aren't as good as we should be, then when will posters start to re-calibrate the level we should be at.
Let's be honest here, Horgan's recent involvement has been mainly down to management familiarity, he didn't get a look in under the last manager and if he was still in post he wouldn't be getting a look in now either.
He was largely unsuccessful at Preston and Hibs and he's not doing a whole lot at Wycombe either, he's 28 and he's not going to get any better than he already is. Was good in the league of Ireland, but that has to be taken in the context of it being basically the equivalent of the National League in England if we're being honest. Has done nothing much of note since he left Ireland.
Realistically, even with our current lack of high quality options, he probably shouldn't be making a 23 or 25 man Ireland squad.
For me Connolly, Robinson, McClean, Browne, O'Dowda, Brady and McGeady would all be ahead of him for starters and I'd probably be giving the likes of Harness and Shodipo a call up to an extended squad before for a look before I'd bother with Horgan again.
Its a fair enough point, much is made of having Coleman & Doherty but we once had Carr / Kelly / Finnan ( a CL winner ) and Kenna who won a league title at Blackburn but often couldn't get in the squad, for that spot alone. That was before you looked at the quality in other positions throughout those years, quality we really and simply do not have these days. The Scots have Robertson & Tierney arguably a better pair of players for example, but they are weak in the key positions like ourselves and overall struggle also.
This puts huge focus on our emerging players, that and the fact that we don't have huge quantities of those to talk about anyway. Pressure comes early in an Ireland shirt basically these days. Hence needing Molumby / Idah / Parrott / Obafemi etc to take to first team football like a duck to water which isn't happening and in truth was never likely to en masse.
Criticism is always there, when I talk to people but an answer to - well what would you be happy with ? - isn't always so forthcoming. Much of the core fan base now, were raised on Euro 88 to WC 94 golden age and those seem to be the expectations regardless of player pool limitations and its not inclined to drop from that.
Irish fans have also zoomed in on one player as a symptom of all that's wrong with Irish football. It used to be Glenn Whelan, for years before him it was John O'Shea. Hell, it was even Robbie at one point. It's just that, whereas before at least it was a Premier League player singled out for criticism, now it's players considerably short of that level.
I don't mean to target Horgan because I feel that's unfair because I don't think he's ever not given his 100% for us . I just don't think he should be anywhere near the team even in the sad state things are now. He's a limited player and likely to have minimum impact given his age and trajectory. I'd rather chance the arm with untested younger players like Harness, Shodipo or Ogbene as impact subs to see what we have to supplement Connolly, Robinson and O'Dowda.
I don't think we have a realistic chance of qualifying for 2022 and don't see Horgan featuring in the next campaign into his 30s, so would rather see some new talent be integrated into the squad.
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