Queen screwing Ireland over again

Roy Queen is at it again.

For those who are not aware of the story, basically Anthony Stokes did not show up at the airport for our Under 21s flight for tonights friendly against Germany.

Don Givens rang Stokes and asked him where he was. He told Givens that he was at home and did Queen not get in touch with him.

Stokes explained that he picked up a knock during Sunderland’s 3-0 capitulation to Chris Hutching’s Wigan Athletic. Queen told Stokes twice that he would get in touch with Givens and explain.

And what do ya know…Givens never got the call.

Disgraceful behaviour by Queen but what do you expect from a man who clearly wants Ireland to fail

If that’s true then that’s awfully poor form by Keane irrespective of whether he thinks Stokes and other Sunderland players should have been in the senior squad.

Might have an element of truth to it considering Stokes and Keane aren’t really getting on at the moment. Keane blamed Stokes and Yorke for the Wigan defeat and said they had then wrong attitude for Sunderland.

Still why would Stokes outsource the phone call to Keane? And why would Keane offer to make the call for him?

doesnt bode well for stokes career & it appears the traitor is getting back at him for his poor performance & annoying the FAI which is a bonus to him - not sure why stokes wouldnt call but am not familar with the procedure- shocking that you cant trust your manager & he would lie to you - might be worth bidding for stokes now

Oops hadn’t looked in this thread when I posted about Stokes on another. Stokes has started two of Sunderland’s three games so I thought that was encouraging but if Keane’s after stabbing him in the back like that there’s only going to be trouble for him. He shoud get out of Sunderland. Any chance of a Celtic bid? It’s hard to know who else might go for him.

I wouldn’t say there’s much chance of Celtic bidding for him - he turned Celtic down because of wages the last time. He hasn’t gone on and improved at Sunderland so the wages he’d be offered would presumably still be the same which would rule him out.

He said he rejected Celtic because of his role within the squad (i.e. first choice or not but I don’t believe Keane promised him anything different in that regard).

Of course the speculation about Keane blaming him for the Wigan defeat might not be correct but it looks likely from what I’ve read.

Poor chap got ahead of himself really. Making wage demands after a decent spell with Falkirk is just daft and smacks of him receiving poor advice. Is his Dad his agent or something?

He certainly has some involvement. He might not be his direct agent but he’s certainly his representative.

To be fair to the guy I think he’d have joined Celtic if there was nobody else involved. He got offered twice the money elsewhere and when Celtic wouldn’t match that he had a decision to make. It’s not as clear cut as just naming his price straight off but I think the way he went about it was all wrong.

I thougth it was a genuine decision from Stokes about playing first team football. From his view point he was far more likely to play at Sunderland than Celtic. What are you basing the money story on rock? I don’t think Celtic would go in for him now. Strachan didn’t seem keen on him at all after he decided to join Sunderland.

I’m basing the money issue on conversations he had with journalists with the time. He said that he was prepared to join Celtic but when he got there for talks they offered him half what Charlton had promised him. He wasn’t prepared to take that on the advice of his father so they found out Sunderland were interested and spoke to them.

This was all on thefreekick.com at the time. http://www.thefreekick.com/index.php?option=com_fireboard&Itemid=75&func=view&id=5450&catid=1#5450

His Dad tries to pick up the best young Irish schoolboy players and gets them to sign him up as their agent. Apparently he qualified as an agent after seeing Anthony progress up through the ranks and go to Arsenal a few years back. It comes across as being a bit opportunist. Won’t slaughter Stokes on a forum read by so many millions of people as it’s unfair on the lad but by all accounts he’s not meant to be the brightest spark. I fear he may regress due to his attitude and the advice he receives from those around him. No way should Celtic go near him.

Keane takes rap for Stokes mix-up
sports@irish-times.ie sports@irish-times.ie

SOCCER: Roy Keane sought to take responsibility yesterday for this week’s spat between the Republic of Ireland under-21 manager Don Givens and Sunderland striker Anthony Stokes by claiming the situation was the result of confusion, “which stemmed from my end, really”.

Stokes had angered Givens by failing either to join the squad that was travelling to Furth for Tuesday’s friendly with Germany or to inform the manager he was unavailable. Givens expressed particular surprise that the player had been in Dublin when they spoke by phone rather than with his club receiving treatment for the groin strain he said lay at the heart of his withdrawal.

During their conversation Stokes suggested Keane had said he would look after things last Saturday when the decision was taken he would not be able to play for the under-21s and Keane has now backed his player’s version of events, at least partially.

“It’s a mix-up in communication,” said the Sunderland manager yesterday. “I’ve spoken to Don and he is fine about it, it won’t happen again. He (Stokes) had a problem with his groin and I thought he would go over there, report in and see the medical staff. He thought he hadn’t to do that and didn’t get in touch with anyone.”

Keane, however, was subsequently quoted in the Sunderland Echo as providing the paper with a fractionally different take on events. “Anthony was expecting us to get in touch with the under-21s to explain the situation,” he is reported as saying.

“We were expecting Anthony to let them know anyway.”

In both instances, Keane insists it was an oversight on the part of the club that will not be repeated. He also says the situation with Givens has been “resolved” although not to the extent, it seems, required for Stokes to be called into the squad for the forthcoming European Championship qualifier against Portugal at Turner’s Cross on September 7th which the Ireland manager named yesterday.

Predictably, perhaps, Givens has chosen to stick with the players who were in Furth where the Irish earned a highly creditable 2-2 draw with their hosts.

“We were very happy with the performance and the result in Germany,” he said as he named his squad of 18 in Cork yesterday. “We had four new faces in the squad for that game, all of whom are in the squad again for the Portugal match. We have also introduced another three new players into this squad, so that shows the talent that is coming through.”

Among the players included are Darren O’Dea of Celtic, Charlton goalkeeper Darren Randolph and Tuesday’s hero, Stephen Gleeson of Wolves.

Keane, meanwhile, confirmed that senior international left back Ian Harte has been training with Sunderland for the past three days and may sign for the club. The 29-year-old is a free agent having parted company with his Spanish club, Levante, by mutual consent.

“Harty has been here since Tuesday,” Keane said. “The quality he’s got is there for everybody to see and he has settled in here. We’ll monitor it and we’ll probably have news in the next 48 hours, we’re looking to make a decision.”

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND UNDER-21 SQUAD: Randolph (Charlton Athletic), Quigley (UCD), Nolan (Blackburn Rovers), O’Dea (Celtic), Keogh (Bristol City), Dennehy (Everton), O’Halloran (Aston Villa), Powell (Bohemians), Gleeson (Wolves), Cregg (Falkirk), Quinn (Sheffield United), McFaul (UCD), Collins (Huddersfield Town), Treacy (Blackburn Rovers), Rooney (Stoke City), O’Brien (Celtic), Clarke (Ipswich Town), Sammon (UCD).