Why do they make all the black lads stand at the back? Very racist.
You think it would look better if they were all crouched beneath? Let the players stand whatever way they want.
Big lads at the back. Standard formula
Taken from John Fallon’s piece in today’s examiner - Interesting that he presented it without much comment or analysis
April 2020: “We haven’t been in a World Cup since 2002 and these are the things we want to rectify. Our ambition is to qualify for next year’s Euros in Dublin and the World Cup in 2022. There’s no point in being involved if you don’t have that kind of ambition.”
December 7, after being drawn against Portugal, Serbia, Luxembourg and Azerbaijan (along with hosts Qatar in friendlies): “We can’t rule it out but I’m not going to make sweeping statements that we’ll win the group. Looking to the first game against Serbia and taking it from there is how we view it. We want to qualify, whatever way that is.”
March 26, on eve of home qualifier against Luxembourg: “Aaron Connolly is very doubtful, you could say, with a foot injury. We’ll see how he is”.
An earlier tweet from the FAI Twitter confirmed how he was, namely ruled out, a status he confirmed himself by posting a picture from Brighton beach.
August 26, when naming his squad for Portugal away: “No,” Kenny responded when asked if his squad suggests a deliberate strategy of looking beyond the World Cup tilt. “It’s going to be tough to get back into contention to qualify, we’re not denying it but there’s nine points to play for and it would be nice to get nine. We know we’ve not started the campaign well.”
September 6, in between scraping a 1-1 draw against Azerbaijan and hosting Serbia, the week Ireland were eliminated from contention with three qualifiers left: “We didn’t try to not win the games — going close in Serbia and Portugal away, scoring first in both.
“I’ve made a decision — right or wrong —– that we would build this squad to be a really, really competitive team to qualify for the Euros in 2024.
“With Portugal and Serbia in the group, and the spine of the last campaign being ripped out of the group, did anyone think we were favourites to qualify or that we should qualify?
“There are a lot of people who say: ‘your job isn’t to develop the game here; just to win the next game but that’s near-sightedness.”
1 Like
I have been very impressed with Josh Cullen. Watched him a few years back with Ireland under 21s with himself and Rice in midfield and thought Cullen looked superior to Rice. It has taken Cullen a few years to break through but i think he will be in Premier League shortly.
I think he’s better off staying on the continent
2 Likes
In Belgium?
Well it would be great if he could get a move to Germany or Italy or somewhere but I’d have no issue with him continuing to play for a big club like Anderlecht and hopefully in the CL or EL if they can get back up to their former glories
He’s their stand out player this season by all accounts. They love him in Belgium.
Much harder bribe referees today as Anderlecht have discovered.
Typical EPL barstooler atttiude
Footix alert
2 Likes
they’re 8th in the table currently. Only 3 of the Belgian mens national team ply their trade in Belgium and I don’t think any of those are regular starters, it’s a poor standard
It would be great if a lot of our players got moves abroad similar to Cullen. In fact it would be fantastic.
It might happen more frequently because of Brexit now.
Would it be the same level of upper tier championship? I would say so, regular games have him really sharp if he was to move back to England he would end up sitting on the bench for some team battling relegation.
Maybe 3 or 4 games a season would be that standard. The rest no.
He was borderline breaking into the west ham team before leaving, I think he is a bit better than sub in a relegation fodder outfit.
Hopefully he might get a move to the Bundesliga out of it to a decent side
1 Like
Belgium are a lot better than us
what has that got to do with anything? the better players leave the Belgian league. Cullen would be better off moving to a better league, he is good enough to play in the EPL or the Bundesliga.
He’s 25 now? He’d want to be making a go at a higher standard alright.