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1

Trapattoni will announce the squad for these fixtures tomorrow and it’s been confirmed that Richard Dunne won’t be included - hardly a surprise.

So it’ll be Clark, St Ledger and O’Dea vying for the place alongside O’Shea in the centre of defence. St Ledger has recently returned to the Leicester first team squad after a prolonged absence with a serious hamstring injury but I’d be surprised if he’s played enough football to be ready for these games.

The likes of Seamus Coleman and Marc Wilson have also recovered from injuries, which saw them miss the last friendly. It’ll be interesting to see if Darron Gibson accepts a call up too but I doubt poor Stephen Kelly will feature.

Sweden away is on Friday 22nd March followed by the Austria game at home on Tuesday 26th.

2

The Irish team used to pick itself under Trap until recently. Now it’s not clear who’ll play anywhere really other than a couple of regulars - O’Shea, McGeady, Keane presumably. And I imagine it will be Whelan and Andrews in midfield considering both seem to be fit. And is it Forde in goals now?

Then there’s the likes of Coleman, Ward, Wilson, McShane, Clark all vying for full back spots, the guys mentioned above going for centre back. McCarthy in the reckoning for midfield and Brady and a couple of strikers competing for the opposite flank to McGeady with the same guys competing to play up front.

3

I hardly give a bollocks who plays where, or who the senile cunt calls up, to be honest. Are we going to the 51 before the Osterreich game, yeah?

4

I’m going to Sweden purely for the beer, the craic, to act the fool, to sing at the top of my voice on the metro and to save money by buying cheap cigarettes, which surprisingly, Sweden has… Playing the stereotypical drunken Irishman abroad is how I validate my nationality and myself. I don’t give a shit about the football because Ireland are going to get smashed.

5

Anyone care to enlighten the board on the Irish qualified keeper who lined out for Newcastle last night in the Europa league? Surname is Elliott I think.

6

Talk is that Gibson will be turning down a call up. That would be very disappointing and it’s hard to retain much sympathy for him if he insists on protesting against a selection decision that went against him. We could really do with him in the squad these days.

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Shane Long is the latest injury worry for Giovanni Trapattoni, as the Ireland manager prepares to announce his squad this lunchtime for the World Cup qualifiers against Sweden and Austria.
http://cache.tcm.ie/media/images/s/ShaneLongIrelandScoresNov10Sportsfile.jpg

By Liam Mackey
West Brom manager Steve Clarke fully expects the striker to be named in the Irish panel but appears resigned to losing him for tomorrow’s game against Swansea City.

Long has aggravated an ankle injury which he originally sustained in the game against Sunderland on February 23. And although the Tipperary man was able to play against Chelsea last weekend, he has now suffered a fresh setback.

“I am sure he will be selected for the Irish squad and I am ever the optimist,” said Clarke.

“Shane was able to play at Chelsea but the unfortunate thing for us is that he has aggravated it again. He trained Monday and Tuesday this week but has not trained since, so he is going to be doubtful for Swansea.”

In brief comments ahead of today’s official squad announcement, Trapattoni yesterday confirmed that, as was fully expected, long-term injury absentee Richard Dunne will definitely miss out on the upcoming qualifiers.

There are also major doubts about Keith Andrews’ inclusion in the squad given that, despite making good progress with a torn thigh muscle, the Bolton midfielder has recently suffered what appears to be a serious flare-up of a recurring Achilles problem.

Better news for the Ireland manager is that both Everton’s Seamus Coleman and Stoke City’s Marc Wilson are once more fit enough to be named in the squad.

The media at FAI headquarters today will also be seeking clarity on the status of Coleman’s Everton team-mate Darron Gibson. Both Trapattoni and Everton boss David Moyes recently hinted the midfielder is ready to end his self-imposed international exile, a development which, if confirmed, would have added significance in the event of Andrews missing out.

Trapattoni will also be expected to field questions on the war of words between himself and Reading defender Stephen Kelly which erupted in the wake of last month’s friendly against Poland.

Meanwhile, the FAI have announced that Georgia will provide the opposition for Ireland in a friendly at Aviva Stadium on Sunday, June 2, kick-off 5.30pm.

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Interesting on Gibson there. RTÉ were pretty much saying the exact opposite.

9

Watched the second half of the Newcastle match last night and he made a couple of decent saves. Presume Steven Harper is injured as he wasn’t even on the bench which would make Elliott third choice at Newcastle.

His Wiki says he is 26 and played under 19 for Ireland, it was only his second ever game for Newcastle.

10

is Keane actually fit enough to start both these games? He hasn’t played at all since the end of the MLS season.

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Dude, he assisted for three goals and scored the fourth for the Galaxy in their season opening romp at Chicago Fire last weekend.

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[quote=“chewy louie, post: 745762, member: 1137”]Watched the second half of the Newcastle match last night and he made a couple of decent saves. Presume Steven Harper is injured as he wasn’t even on the bench which would make Elliott third choice at Newcastle.

His Wiki says he is 26 and played under 19 for Ireland, it was only his second ever game for Newcastle.[/quote]
He sounds brilliant.

13

Squad of 29 just announced, which will be reduced to 23 next week.

No Gibson.

Kelly is in.

Everyone else you’d expect to see in it is there, except perhaps Andrews (presumably injured) and Cunningham (not sure if he’s injured but thought he did all right against Poland).

14

I like Keith Andrews punditry style-caught the last 10 minutes of his co-commentary on the United Norwich game on Saturday and I like the cut of his gib.

15

News of Gibson’s “return” is reminiscent of the time we were told on this forum by an admin that Trap would pick Andy Reid again after the 2010 World Cup qualifiers.

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That’s fucking shite behaviour from Gibson in fairness. 9 months protest about not playing in a dead rubber match, or did he think he’d done enough in qualifiers to start? Because he’s sadly mistaken if that was his impression.

Tough one now because we can’t really afford to shut the door on him now at a young age, and he did make a big effort to play for us in the first place. But there’s no avoiding the fact that he’s carrying on like an arsehole now.

17

Sweden’s team that drew with Germany was:

[team442=Isaksson, Safari, Olsson, Granqvist, Lustig, Larsson, Elm, Wernbloom, Holmen, Elmander, Ibrahimovic]Sweden v Germany[/team442]

Not familiar with two of those midfielders (Wernbloom who plays with CSKA Moscow and Holmen who plays in my beloved Istanbul for my non-beloved Istanbul). They did bring on Kallstrom at half-time and Toivonen wasn’t in the squad at all as he was injured so presumably he’ll come in to one of the midfield or forward posititons.

A draw away to them would be an excellent result but not very hopeful.

Non-interesting fact: Jonas Thern’s son seems to be knocking about the fringes of the squad.

18

Johan Elmander has been left out of the Sweden squad for the Ireland match due to injury

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I know it was alluded to in a few newspapers a while back but Brian Kerr said on Setanta at the weekend that he was speaking to Shay Given, who informed him that he explicitly made it known he wanted to be considered for Ireland selection again. They were both studio guests for TV3’s coverage of Manchester United-Real Madrid last week (so it makes sense that they would have spoken) and Kerr said Given was hoping to be named in the squad for the Sweden and Austria games.

Granted David Forde made a couple of decent saves in the Poland friendly last month - one from his own botched clearance - but he’s never convinced me (on admittedly a limited amount of viewings) and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him make a howler in Sweden. I’d definitely have Westwood ahead of him despite his lack of games at club level and I’d definitely have recalled Given too, even though he’s only coming back because he can’t get in the Aston Villa team.

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[quote=“Bandage, post: 747084, member: 9”]I know it was alluded to in a few newspapers a while back but Brian Kerr said on Setanta at the weekend that he was speaking to Shay Given, who informed him that he explicitly made it known he wanted to be considered for Ireland selection again. They were both studio guests for TV3’s coverage of Manchester United-Real Madrid last week (so it makes sense that they would have spoken) and Kerr said Given was hoping to be named in the squad for the Sweden and Austria games.

Granted David Forde made a couple of decent saves in the Poland friendly last month - one from his own botched clearance - but he’s never convinced me (on admittedly a limited amount of viewings) and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him make a howler in Sweden. I’d definitely have Westwood ahead of him despite his lack of games at club level and I’d definitely have recalled Given too, even though he’s only coming back because he can’t get in the Aston Villa team.[/quote]

Would Given be content to come back if he isn’t first choice though? While he was an excellent keeper for us he also demanded that he start pretty much every friendly match during his time in the set up. Couldn’t really see him willing to come back to be second or third choice