Trapattoni picks final 25 man squad for Slovakia and Russia
Giovanni Trapattoni has cut his Republic of Ireland squad to 25 ahead of our Group B matches against Slovakia and Russia next month.
Paul McShane and Seamus Coleman have not recovered from injury, and are omitted, while James McCarthy, Marc Wilson, Jon Walters, Ciaran Clark, and Damien Delaney have been dropped in favour of more experienced players. Aiden McGeady is included despite injury, and Trapattoni faces a nervous wait to see if the Spartak Moscow winger will be fit in time.
“Picking the final 25 players for the squad has not been an easy task,” Trap admitted. “Unfortunately some players have been left out. We will continue to monitor their progress with their clubs, and call them up if necessary.”
James McCarthy can instead be called up for Noel King’s under 21 squad who face Hungary and Turkey in Euro 2013 qualification. Ciaran Clark, although 21, cannot be called up as “Players are eligible to play in the competition if they were born on or after 1 January 1990″, and he was born in 1989.
Ireland Squad:
Goalkeepers: Shay Given (Aston Villa), Keiren Westwood (Sunderland), David Forde (Millwall)
Defenders: John O’Shea (Sunderland), Kevin Foley (Wolves), Stephen Kelly (Fulham), Stephen Ward (Fulham), Stephen Ward (Wolves), Richard Dunne (Aston Villa), Kevin Kilbane (Derby), Sean St. Ledger (Leicester City), Darren O’Dea (Leeds Utd)
Midfielders: Glenn Whelan (Stoke City), Darron Gibson (Manchester Utd), Keith Andrews (Ipswich), Keith Fahey (Birmingham), Damien Duff (Fulham), Aiden McGeady (Spartak Moscow), Stephen Hunt (Wolves), Liam Lawrence (Portsmouth), Keith Treacy (Burnley)
Forwards: Robbie Keane (LA Galaxy), Kevin Doyle (Wolves), Shane Long (WBA), Simon Cox (West Brom), Andy Keogh (Leeds Utd)
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McCarthy pays the price for the messing about. He probably wasn’t going to play in either of the games anyway and he can’t play for Scotland now so I guess it makes no difference. It’s just really strange that every time the international break comes along he plays 90 minutes for Wigan on the weekend, is injured for the Ireland game midweek and funnily enough is all better for Wigan again by the weekend. I really think Martinez has a problem with players going on international duty especially for friendlies. I wouldn’t blame McCarthy too much. He’s young and is probably really influenced by Martinez.
Clark is a different story though. He’s played well in his couple of caps and was genuinely injured during a couple of call ups. Not sure why he’s not making the final squads. He versatile and can play center back, left back or midfield.
We won’t mention the others named who are just not good enough to be Irish International players. We all know who they are.
Trapattoni is amuppet…WTF no Delap or Barry Maguire…he should be sacked straight away…….Delap should be first name on Irish Teamsheet….drop Robbie Keane
Woo, Russia going to dominate our midfield again. Kilbane over Clark… Gibson?
I agree–I dont see why Wilson and Clark didn’t get call-ups from Keogh did? McCarthy probably is being looked over both because of his young age and his impetuous excuses.
I’d like to see Anthony Stokes included, he’s in amazing form. Hopefully he hasn’t burned all his bridges with Trap.
Wilson missed out because he’s withdrawn from several squads at this stage & Ward has taken his place. Clark has been a good lad and turned up when called with the exception of the May games when he had a definite injury so I think he has the most cause for grievance, can only assume that Trap feels we’re covered well enough at centre back and full back and wants to go with the players he knows and trusts the most for these 2 games.
I think McCarthy’s been unfortunate, I don’t believe that he’d fabricate injuries to avoid playing for Ireland after what he had to go through for making the decision in the first place (and then turning up repeatedly for our youth sides). If he’d been available for the various friendlies he’d probably be a member of our starting lineup by now but he’ll get many more chances in the future I’m sure.
I’d much rather have a fit Jon Walters who’s ready to fight hard for the side like he did against Wales in the Carling cup than have Andy Keogh there.
Clark,Wilson and McCarthy are Premiership players. They’ve shown fairly inconsistent levels of support to the Irish cause. So Trap’s gone for O’Dea, Kilbane and Andrews in their stead. If he reckons playing championship players instead of premiership players as the way to beat Russia and Slovakia then who are we to argue?
I don’t have a problem with Wilson, Walters and McCarthy’s omissions because they probably would have pulled out anyway but Ciaran Clark is really getting the short end of the straw. I think that everyone agrees that Kilbane shouldn’t be getting called up anymore but what can you do?
I think this is pretty predictable trap selection he was always going to keep kilbane in the squad, im interested to see if ward starts though (i doubt it). Also im sure weve all began to understand that trap likes to groom players for competitve matches through friendlies so jack there was never any possibility of delap or barry mcguire hgetting included in this squad (same for mccarthy, wilson). As for keogh he has turned up for every friendly match hes been included in as far as i can remember and this is why trap includes him
McCarthy is young and needs to grow up a little. In time I’m sure he will. If your manager or the FAI calls your cell phone and leaves five or six messages, you have to respond. Although you take Wigan at their word that he was hurt (in truth – I believe nothing that Martinez says), by not returning phone calls McCarthy demonstrates that he couldnt be bothered the past few games. Trap has been in this business a long time, he understands when a player is making himself available and when a player is just along for the ride. Trap is letting McCarthy know he cannot take Ireland for granted.
I’ll agree that McCarthy and Wilson can’t complain too much and Clark has a legit grievance.
I also agree that Trap uses friendlies to groom for competitive games, so it’s unlikely we’re going to see call-ups that weren’t from previous friendlies, but I’d still rather have seen Rory Delap, Barry Maguire, and Anthony Stokes all called up.
Can’t say I agree with the poster who suggested dropping Robbie Keane. He’s still class.
I actually think that Trap and the FAI are testing McCarthy’s level of commitment by making him available to the U21s. Theory being if he hasn’t been showing up for the seniors then there’s no way he’s going to bother with the U21s. If McCarthy is a no show for the U21s or comes up with a mysterious injury following Wigan’s game this weekend
then I think we can safely say his days in an Ireland shirt under Trap are all but finished which would be a pity because he is a great talent. If he does show for the U21s then I’d imagine Trap will draft him back in for the next Friendly game. The fact that we never had any problems with him coming for internationals while he was with Hamilton leads me to believe that Martinez is the cause of all this. He’s had Rodallega on the bench since the start of the season probably because he defied him and went off to play in the Copa America. He saying it’s because he needs to recoup but Rodallega didn’t even play many minutes in the Copa.
McCarthy and Wilson should be in the team ahead of dynamic duo of Whelan and Andrews or Gibson. Walters is twice the player that Keogh is. Clark should be in there ahead of O’Dea, Kelly and Kilbane.
Having said that I think if we don’t get at least 4 points from the 2 upcoming games then I think Traps days with Ireland will be numbered and maybe we will finally get to see our strongest play under a new manager.
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