Simon Cox and Darren Randolph added to Ireland squad
West Brom striker Simon Cox and Motherwell goalkeeper Darren Randolph have been drafted into the Republic of Ireland squad to face Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Macedonia. Damien Duff and Keiren Westwood have been forced to withdraw with injuries.
At Wednesday’s press conference in Athlone, Giovanni Trapattoni had said that he was worried about Duff’s fitness, and today’s announcement has confirmed that the Fulham winger will be out for the rest of the season with an achilles injury. Coventry City goalkeeper Keiren Westwood has also been ruled out for the next month or more with a shoulder problem.
Darren Randolph has been called up to replace Westwood, and may see game time in one of the Carling Nations Cup games. With Shay Given only returning to fitness after having made his reserve return for Manchester City’s Elite Development Squad last night, Millwall’s David Forde may well start one or both of the Nations Cup matches.
Trapattoni also confirmed the declaration of West Brom striker Simon Cox at the press conference, and with his passport and papers being processed by the FAI, he should be available for the friendlies. The 23 year old striker has not been a first-team regular in the Premier League this season, but has made 21 total appearances in all competitions, scoring 4 times, including a late equaliser against Spurs last month.
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Cox has 1 PL goal this season and Wes Hoolahan cant even get into the squad. Getting a bit tired now of Traps squads
Trap is a lazy sod. McShane, Keogh, Kilbane, Treacy (harsh but will now be a league 1 player) etc. – he must be joking. Also the recruitment under Trap is dire.
“Recruitment under Trap is dire” – of the 33 man squad announced for the Carling Cup games, I count 15 that made or will make their debuts under Trap, i.e. close to half of the entire squad… How much recruitment do you want him to do exactly?
I agree I’d like to see Hoolahan get his shot. Keough should not be there. But Trap is getting too much criticism. He was right to start Kilbane previously although I disagreed at the time. That was shown when Clark played and frankly was a bit shaky. Trap said Clark just needs some time to get used to international football. Ease him in gradually. Nothing unreasonable about that. In the past 6 months he’s brought in Foley, McCarthy, Coleman, Clark, O’Dea, and others. It would ne nice to see O’hara or Noble or Nolan but none of them are keen to play for us. Thats not trap’s fault they are mercenaries.
A year or two ago everyone was screaming that Trap wasnt doing enough to bring in Andy Reid or Steven Ireland. Well, his judgment was correct there – Reid is playing horribly at Blackpool and is again overweight. Steven Ireland, well, he’ll be lucky if he’s even in the championship within three years.
Get in O’Hara, Noble, Chambers and Stearman & get rid of McShane, Keogh, Green(would have been picked but for injury), Kilbane etc. and I’ll be happy.
Lads will ye see a bit of sense. You’s are calling for english lads who obviously couldn’t be bothered playing for us to replace lads who are committed to the cause. I don’t care if Keogh and McShane are crap they are committed to the Irish jersey and I for one am going to support them. Noble’s agent wanted a guaranteed spot in the team, do you really want him wearing our jersey? These lads are mercenaries.
Is Wes Hoolahan the new Andy Reid. Over the last few days hes just got better and better. How many of you’s have actually seen him play this season?
The criticism of Trap is ridiculous, when he took over we were pure shite and at least now we’re a hard to beat team with commitment and with a great chance of qualifying for a major competition, we’ve come a long way from losing 5-2 to Cyprus and we’re never gonna play like Spain even with such great players like O’Hara and Stearman onboard!! Just get behind the team and stop sharpening your knives waiting for failure
We do seem to moan an incredible amount about our squads, much more so than any other nation. Yes Hoolahan probably should be there, but at the end of the day he is 29 and hasn’t kicked a ball in the Premiership yet, he is not really ever going to be a key player for us. I understand everyone is pissed off about Keogh but he has dropped down the ranks with Trap. At the beginning of Traps reign he was always in or around the starting 11
Ooh Aah everytime I see Stearman he reminds me of a blond McShane. He strikes me as a walking mistake in defence. Noble and O’Hara obviously do not want to play for us at this stage, time to give up on that ghost. While I too would like to see Chambers, Im guessing we are still waiting on his paperwork
http://greenscene.me/2011/03/forests-luke-chambers-set-for-ireland-call/
What Cox has done to warrant being named in an Ireland squad beggars belief.
Keane, Doyle, Long, Walters and Folan are all ahead of him in the pecking order so as long as he doesn’t get past the bench I could care less.
Jimbo i have seen Hoolahan play this season and he was the best player on the park. Clearly the people who voted him in to the Championship team of the year have seen him play quite a bit too.
I think he does have the potential to be a key player for us and at least deserved a chance to prove it or not. The Nations Cup would have been the perfect opportunity to give him a chance with little at stake. We will never know now. But what I do know for sure is Andy Keogh and Caleb Folan will never be key players for us.
As for having a great chance to qualify for a major tournament, I very much doubt that under the current management. Yes we are hard to beat, but we are unlikely ever to be positive enough to win enough games against the better teams or even those as the same level as ourselves. Perhaps you could argue that is the level we are at, but we will never know for sure if we do not pick our best players.
I do agree though we shouldn’t be wasting time on players not 100% committed to the cause.
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