The United Kingdom is fractured when it comes to football. Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland all field separate international teams. All four operate separate domestic leagues with four teams from Wales, Cardiff City, Swansea City, Newport County and Wrexham competing in the English Football League.
I find it odd you think itâs noteworthy that a British person is working in England
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People who call them that would be incorrect. You get that confused identity a lot when it comes to sport. Seemingly a lot of people in Carrickduff, Co. Carlow support the Wexford hurling team and even think theyâre from Wexford.
They call themselves team GB geoff, its on their kit
Incidentally, today is the 18th anniversary of Australia voting as loyal subjects of Her Majesty to remain part of the Commonwealth - 6 November 1999. Happy celebrating.
The Aussies love the English,
You may think it quite strange,
Cos we sent them off Downunder,
With only balls and chains.
And when they see the English,
They always shout and scream,
But when they had the chance to vote they voted for The Queen
God save your gracious Queen,
Long live your noble Queen,
God save your Queen,
Send her victorious,
Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over you,
God save your Queen
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Iâm not British you retard. And itâs no longer the British isles.
Jeffrey is often tiresome and regularly wrong. But youâd have to feel sorry for the chap here. Hoisted by his own petard.
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Good interview with Paddy Mulligan on the TImes todayâŚ
âJames McClean has shown real moral courageâ
Paddy Mulligan gives his strident views on Bloody Sunday, Eamon Dunphy, Martin OâNeill, Christian Eriksen and Wes Hoolahan
Paddy Mulligan was sitting in his London home on the night of Bloody Sunday. His telephone rang, a familiar voice on the other end of the line. âPaddy, itâs Eamon Dunphy.â
They had known each other since childhood, Mulligan the hard-nosed Home Farm defender, Dunphy the skilful playmaker from Stella Maris. âHe was an excellent schoolboy player,â Mulligan said. âBut a very poor international. I laugh when I hear him talk now about moral courage because all I can remember of Eamonâs days in an Ireland shirt were the number of times he would pull out of tackles. It was embarrassing. Even now, he just plays to the gallery, saying what he thinks the public want to hear. I never warmed to the fella much.â
There was so much anti-Irish feeling fired towards us then that you had to keep your head down
Nor was he warming to the idea that Dunphy was putting forward this time, the question of whether Irish players should wear black armbands the following Saturday in respect of the unlawful killing of 14 civilians on Derryâs streets. âLetâs be clear about this,â Mulligan said. âWhat happened on Bloody Sunday was awful. Horrendous. But there was so much anti-Irish feeling fired towards us then that you had to keep your head down. It wasnât a comfortable place to live.â
All this came back to him last week. As he sat across the coffee table in a city-centre hotel, it was hard to believe that the grey-haired raconteur with the dodgy hip was once the man who Dave Sexton took to one side and said, âToday, Paddy, I want you to take care of George Bestâ. Quick and intuitive, he brought the simplicities of the playground to a tough game, one in which he came off the bench when Chelsea met Real Madrid in the 1971 Cup Winnersâ Cup final.
âThere were some real lunatics in that Chelsea team,â Mulligan, right, said. âTalk about a drink culture. That week of the Cup Winnersâ Cup final, we drew with Real on the Wednesday, replayed the game on the Friday, and four or five lads went on the tear on the Thursday. There is no logic in football. No way should we have won that replay. Somehow we did. The day before the game we gave out hell to the drinkers but once there was alcohol involved, they didnât pay any attention. Alan Hudson should have been a great player. But he drank too much. Put it this way he, was no Johnny Giles. Gilesie was the best midfielder of his generation but he didnât get the credit for being that at the time, simply because he was Irish. There was serious bias against us back then.â
Tensions between the countries may have eased considerably since but the events of the past two Saturdays served as a reminder to Mulligan of how the Irish issue remains unexplained to an English audience. Remembering how he felt on that January evening 45 years ago, there is something about James McCleanâs principled stance in refusing to wear a poppy because of Bloody Sunday that he finds deeply admirable.
McClean refuses to wear a poppy because of Bloody Sunday
âDunphy talks about moral courage, but the meaning of those words exists in that young man,â Mulligan said. âI mean, heâs the only player in England not to wear the poppy emblem. A large part of me thinks he should because he is living in their country, making a living from their clubs, so therefore you go by their customs. But James is from Derry. His beliefs are strong even though heâs getting hell for it. I like that in him. I like the fact that, as a player, he gives his all and, as a person, he stands up for what he believes in.â
Like McClean, Mulligan spent a large chunk of his career at West Bromwich Albion, moving there a few months after the Birmingham pub bombings, when 21 people were killed by the IRA. The subsequent years were harrowing. âYouâd drive to training and thereâd be at least one, maybe two, Special Branch cars trailing you,â he said. âSame coming home. One day, after an international, when we beat France 1-0 in 1977, I was detained at the airport for an hour. All we did was chat about football. They knew who I was. They were asking about the game, saying what a great win it was for us. But they were checking you out. It was a tough time. And yet, it was a great time. That was a golden time for English football. Youâd so many great players â George Best was the Lionel Messi of our era. And the others, Dave Mackay, Denis Law, Kevin Keegan. You have to remember that it wasnât just Liverpool who were winning European trophies back then. Chelsea, Manchester City, Arsenal, Tottenham and Nottingham Forest all did too.â
The Forest team he liked, particularly their curly haired right-sided midfielder who appeared alongside Mulligan in the Shamrock Rovers XI that played Brazil in an exhibition match in 1973. âIâve always got on fine with Martin OâNeill,â he said, âeven if he can be a bit of a cold individual at times.
Mulligan is not worried about Denmark but says Ireland must take their chances
âYou have to say that he and Roy Keane are doing a reasonable job, getting nearly as much out of the team as is possible. Then again, when they were asked questions during the Euros, against Sweden and Belgium, they didnât have the answers. Yes, they beat Italy but which Italian team was it? You had Gianluigi Buffon, a man I admire by the way, coming out like a clown after the game to celebrate with the Irish lads. Italy were already through and didnât give two hoots about the result. Yet we eulogised the performance.
âGetting on to this campaign, the victories away from home were impressive, but when you look at that Welsh team we beat, as soon Gareth Bale and Joe Allen were taken out of their team, they were limited. Weâre limited too by the way. All you can ask is the players give 100 per cent for the cause and they do that. Will that be enough against Denmark? Maybe it will be, because even though there is all this hype around Christian Eriksen, when I saw him play for Tottenham against Manchester United just over a week ago, he was anonymous. If people are going to say he is a world-class player, then he has to produce it in a testing environment. Eriksen didnât at Old Trafford. So forget about him. Ireland have a chance. The key thing is that when chances come, we have to take them.
âUnfortunately, though, our main centre forward, Shane Long, is very hit and miss. So we have to be realistic about the whole thing.
Mulligan feels that Giles, right, was the best midfielder of his generation
âMartin is economical in how he sets up his team and takes flak about not playing Wes Hoolahan but the more I think about that, the more I agree with him. The lad is a nice little player but when you look at someone like Cesc FĂ bregas and then look at Hoolahan, you have to realise they are centuries apart. Any time FĂ bregas gets the ball, his first instinct is to pass it forward whereas Hoolahanâs first look is sideways and his second glance is backwards. If your job is to be a playmaker, you have to be able to pick a pass. Iâm in the minority on this one, I know that, but OâNeillâs decision has been vindicated.
âIn general Martin has done quite well but we seem to be getting very much like the English. We raise our expectations so high but any analysis of the team has to take into account the fact we are a small country competing with rugby and GAA. Germany have 70 million more people living in their country and last I checked, the GAA wasnât that popular over there. So we need a bit of perspective. Weâre doing OK.â
Life is treating Mulligan OK too. Over tea with him and his partner he is clearly grateful for the longevity of his career that took him from Shamrock Rovers to Chelsea, Crystal Palace, West Brom and 50 caps. And then, after 17 years in the game, it all came to an end. His darting runs became slower. His energy wasnât quite the same and at 35 management beckoned.
Giles had resigned as Ireland manager, Alan Kellyâs tenure had been brief so a contest emerged between him and Eoin Hand to see who would become the boss. âI lost by two votes,â Mulligan said, smiling. âOne vote was lost on an away trip. We were bored. One of the FAI officials had his back to us. I picked up the bun I was eating and fired it at him, hitting him in the back. Ray Treacy smiled, as did I. A few years later, the official voted for Eoin rather than me. The last laugh was his.â
Mulligan earned more than Englandâs World Cup captain
After making his senior debut for Bohemians, Mulligan moved to Shamrock Rovers in 1963 where he won six trophies, including four FAI Cups. He signed for Chelsea in 1969 and negotiated a weekly wage of ÂŁ80-a-week. âI spoke to Bobby Moore a few years later, told him what I was on and he said, âcount yourself lucky Paddy, that was ÂŁ20 more a week than I was earningâ.â
By the time he left English football in 1979, Mulliganâs earnings had risen to the princely sum of ÂŁ120-a-week. âWe werenât rich,â he said.
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I heard he was lethal from close range.
Not sure if this was posted anywhere yet.
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good on James
Calling out that snitch Kimmage
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Thatâs a lovely quote from Enid Bagnol
Cunts are out to get him
MI 5 ???
Heâs beginning to sound like a bit of a dick.
That response to a lad who helps pay his wages was pig ignorant.
What you on about