For fuck sake, get a grip. Just cos he played for Celtic for a while ye have this retarded ever ending loyalty to him and McGeady. O’Dea (at international standard) is truly awful, absolutely useless. Clarke has played well by reports of games I have not seen. What I did see if him he is clearly far superior to O’Dea.
Stop smoking weed.
The ball hopping in this thread from Rocko, and to a lesser extent Bandage, is suplime.
+1
Rocko got me going last night a bit when he named off a litany of shit clubs the Austrians play for and trying to say they were playing at a higher quality than the likes of Stoke and ok, fair enough i took the bait but not before destroying his argument, now with the O’Dea gag i realise he has only been wumming all along…
At least we’re lucky that we have one world class centre-half in John O’Shea.
True.
[quote=“caoimhaoin, post: 753148, member: 273”]For fuck sake, get a grip. Just cos he played for Celtic for a while ye have this retarded ever ending loyalty to him and McGeady. O’Dea (at international standard) is truly awful, absolutely useless. Clarke has played well by reports of games I have not seen. What I did see if him he is clearly far superior to O’Dea.
Stop smoking weed.[/quote]
Smashing post Kevin.
Clark has been a continued disappointment for Ireland. He was beyond hopeless the other night. I’ve stated many times that O’Dea wasn’t good enough for Celtic and shouldn’t be good enough for Ireland. But he has played when we’re stuck and he has played decently for Ireland, above his natural level. He has experience of playing alongside O’Shea and I’d have kept him in the team for that reason if St Ledger wasn’t fit. He certainly wouldn’t have made the mistake that Clark made the other night.
O’Dea is a very honest but limited footballer. But he has been very solid for Ireland over the past couple of years including good performances away to Russia and Macedonia where O’Shea beside him had a nightmare and was blessed not to give away two penalties. I wouldn’t be a huge fan of O’Dea but he has done relatively well for Ireland, he was poor against Germany but the whole team was terrible that night. He is no world beater but has done very little wrong in an Ireland jersey
From what I have seen of Ciaran Clark for both Villa and Ireland he looks a poor player and I have little faith from what i have seen of him, very little pace and is prone to diving in and making rash decisions. He got MOTM in the friendly v Poland, mainly due to the fact he scored a goal and there was no real standout performer, his distribution that night was terrible.
I didn’t see either the Austria or Sweden games aside from brief highlights so can’t comment on his performances there but i don’t think he has all that much going for him and would be very surprised if he became a decent player as I just can’t see where he has scope for improvement. He has put in some truly awful performances at left back for club and country as well
I think it’s just a classic case of Irish begrudgery really. Any players making it at the highest level of the world game in the Premier league are distrusted while those operating at an inferior standard like O’Dea, St Ledger, Green, Keane and Sammon are lauded.
Not really. I would much prefer to see someone like Alex Pearce in the side, who like Clark is playing for lower EPL side but is having a far better season and looks a far better player than Clark.
So would I. It’s Trap who’s picking him though.
Yes, but your point was that someone in the EPL isn’t trusted. The reason many distrust Clark is because he is a pretty shit footballer, nothing to do with the level he plays at. I hadn’t all that much time for O’Dea a few years ago and don’t think he is much of a footballer but credit where credit is due he has for the most part been very solid when playing for Ireland.
chewy’s correct about Darren O’Dea’s Ireland career to date - he’s played a number of qualifiers, including challenging away fixtures, and been more than adequate, with his only below par performance being in the Germany home game. He played and scored in the last competitive game prior to this qualifying double header as part of a defence which earned a clean sheet (in Torshavn against a classy Faroe Islands side) so he didn’t deserve to be discarded. O’Dea’s also a big game player, probably aided by his exposure to very big derby fixtures in his career to date (Celtic/St Mirren; Ipswich/Norwich; Leeds/Huddersfield; Toronto/Monteal).
Lads, Alex Pearce is a shocking player. He reminds me of Gary Doherty both in features and ability as a centre back.
From what I have seen of him at Reading this season at Reading he looks a decent enough player. Was in very good form around Christmas
I might have caught him on a couple of bad days. He was hilariously bad in a recent home defeat against Aston Birmingham City Villa.
I find it surprising that O’Dea wasn’t selected as undoubtedly his form at international level has been better than Clark’s. Don’t know how you could argue otherwise Kev but please do give it a shot!
One of the things I liked about Trap when he first took over was that he put far more emphasis on how players did playing for Ireland as opposed to how they did for their clubs. As a result players like St Ledger,Kilbane,Whelan were all rewarded with extended runs in the side despite having poor enough club form. It also gave likes of O’Shea the kick up the backside he perhaps needed and he had a string of excellent games for us. Players realised importance of putting it in and that it was no longer enough to be guaranteed a spot just because you were playing for a superior club or in a superior division to anyone else. Downside to this is that perhaps Trap has been a bit slow to introduce new players like Coleman, McCarthy and McClean. That said there is always a clamour for guys who aren’t in the team and often the outcry is way over the top. A Reid was a world beater at one stage when he wasn’t selected.
In short just because Clark plays at a higher standard than O’Dea doesn’t mean he should be picked ahead of him. We placed far too high of an emphasis on club form over international form prior to Trap and players were continually selected regardless of how they did for Ireland. That rot shouldn’t creep back in.
[quote=“Raymond Crotty, post: 753206, member: 25”]I find it surprising that O’Dea wasn’t selected as undoubtedly his form at international level has been better than Clark’s. Don’t know how you could argue otherwise Kev but please do give it a shot!
One of the things I liked about Trap when he first took over was that he put far more emphasis on how players did playing for Ireland as opposed to how they did for their clubs. As a result players like St Ledger,Kilbane,Whelan were all rewarded with extended runs in the side despite having poor enough club form. It also gave likes of O’Shea the kick up the backside he perhaps needed and he had a string of excellent games for us. Players realised importance of putting it in and that it was no longer enough to be guaranteed a spot just because you were playing for a superior club or in a superior division to anyone else. Downside to this is that perhaps Trap has been a bit slow to introduce new players like Coleman, McCarthy and McClean. That said there is always a clamour for guys who aren’t in the team and often the outcry is way over the top. A Reid was a world beater at one stage when he wasn’t selected.
In short just because Clark plays at a higher standard than O’Dea doesn’t mean he should be picked ahead of him. We placed far too high of an emphasis on club form over international form prior to Trap and players were continually selected regardless of how they did for Ireland. That rot shouldn’t creep back in.[/quote]
Did you make the singing section Tursday night Lar?
Unfortunately I was working so no.
Raymond Crott = Larry Duff 
Did we, though? McAteer was doing nothing at club level but was usually picked by Mick and rewarded us richly.
Finnan was always solid/excellent at club level but was shunted around the place or not played by Kerr and Stan.
Duffer would start even if he hadn’t played at club level for weeks due to injury.
Just three off the top of my head.