Paul McShane, not included in Ireland's provisional squad of 23 for the Euros, starts today against Bosnia.

We've a defensive injury crisis of sorts at the moments, but there's depths that one should not sink to. Paul McShane on a football pitch is one such example.

Lovely weather for a game though.

I thought he was working at Maplins'




Great thread title by the way.

and we won. keith fahey has had to pull out. he's been replaced by Paul green.

This is going to be grim

Not necessarily. Andrews & Whelan are certain to start in centre midfield, given Gibson's poor performance there yesterday. Gibson will still be the first to turn to if there's an injury or a need for an extra man in the centre. It's highly unlikely that Green will make it onto the pitch at any time.

It's time to drop Kevin Doyle though. Any one of Long, Walters & Cox would be better at this point, with each having played well when given the chance over the last 12 months. In the same period of time, Doyle's performances have regressed terribly and I'd be stunned if he somehow managed to return to his 2008-10 form.

If Paul Green is in the squad then surely Joey O'Brien was worth a look as well.

But hopefully Green will be nowhere near the first team.

Gibson has aged 10 years in the last 12 months.

Joey O'Brien is an interesting one. I'm of the opinion that Paul Green should be nowhere near the squad, but then after Andrews, Whelan, Fahey and Gibson, I couldn't think of any other central midfielders available to us. Or at least I couldn't think of one who has already been capped. I'd prefer if Trap, like Eriksson with Walcott in 2006, threw an uncapped fella from the U21's into the party than take Green. But yes, O Brien would be better too.

It really is a damn shame McCarthy isn't there, but I can totally understand of course. I think he had played himself into Traps XI and will probably be a starter in the next campaign.

I've been keeping an eye on him at Wigan and his positional sense is brilliant. In many ways he is too good for Wigan. If Martinez goes to Liverpool I wouldn't be surprised if McCarthy follows suit.

yes, well with the help of god half the italian team will be carted off to jail just before our match, so it won't matter so much. Some guy had his room searched by the police this morning. I think it was Criscito

I dunno, last time Italian football was disgraced they won the World Cup.

Bryaniesta wrote:


And the time before that, too.

Silenzio stampa!

these players are cut from a different sackcloth though, and the police are now in their camp, rooting around and questioning people.

This is pretty hardcore. If I was Italian I'd actually see it as good news. That Italian police are raiding the Italian national team hotel on the eve of a major international tournament shows that the police are taking this stuff seriously. Which may or may not have been the case in the past.

James richardson has a good synopsis here.

Drugging team mates with sleeping pills. Wow.

I was watching The Charlton Years documentary on YouTube and was struck by how bad Packie Bonner was. He seemed to constantly come running out of his goal and get his angles all wrong. This couldn't be the same Packie Bonner that I worshipped as a child, surely.

Shame about Liam Brady's red card that saw him suspended for Euro 88. Stick him in that team and they might have won the whole thing.

The Charlton years were best summed up by Jack himself. He blamed Schilacci's goal in the Quarter-final in 1990 on Kevin Sheedy. Because Sheedy had the tenacity to play the ball into Aldridge's feet, instead of "knocking it ahead." Aldridge lost the ball, and Italy scored on the next attack.

When you think of the players he had at his disposal, it was fucking depressing stuff. Trap has had much poorer players to work with but has shown why he is a top coach.

That's epic.

Mr. Tayto is the man.

Evidently aftershocks of the latest Emilia earthquake were felt in Montecatini today. Trap must be sprinkling more holy water than usual.

Italy also cancelled tonight's Parma friendly against Luxembourg.

Paul McShane is in.

Trap saying Kevin Foley was too injured, but I think he just has a thing for Paul McShane. He's given Paul McShane number 13, which is quite a low number. Or maybe he just got Kevin Foley's number.

Is that big lad in the middle Simon Cox?

What's the status on Given? Is he training yet?