IRELAND CAPTAIN ROBBIE Keane has played down talk of unrest in the Irish squad ahead of tomorrow’s qualifier.
The LA Galaxy striker, who has been declared fit and will start alongside Jon Walters against the Faroe Islands, was responding to questions about a reported bust-up between defender Stephen Kelly and assistant manager Marco Tardelli.
He explained disagreements over team selection is the norm in football and that, during a career that has brought him to the likes of Tottenham, Liverpool, Wolves and Inter Milan, he has encountered them on a weekly basis.
“There’s always going to be rifts in the camp. When players aren’t playing they are going to be disappointed. It’s normal, it’s natural. Every week in club football it happens. Last week before I left at LA Galaxy, it happened. When I was at Tottenham it happened.”
The 32-year-old backed Giovanni Trapattoni to remain as Ireland boss and has called on for big response from the players after the humiliation of Friday’s defeat to Germany.
“Like everybody in the whole country – all the lads, everyone is disappointed with the result. We’re certainly embarrassed. We’ve had a good record.
“The good thing about football is that there’s always another game. We accept criticism and know there will be some. We’ll do our best and hope to get a result and rectify it.
“We owe everybody. I don’t need to tell you the job he (Trap) has done for the country. We have to stick together. Our main priority is Sweden and Austria.
“We need a massive reaction. When you lose in the manner that we did on Friday we have. We’re playing in this game as favourites but it’s easier said then done. All the players, playing and on the bench.
After the game the senior players have to say something and try to rally the players. Myself, John O’Shea and Keith Andrews have been trying to rally the troops.”
Keane has shaken off an Achilles probable and makes the starting XI after missing out against Germany. On his recovery, he added: “I trained yesterday with the lads for the first time. I felt okay. When you’ve got an Achilles problem it’s not 100%.
“The doctors have been great. When you play on plastic pitches, which I don’t think should be allowed in this day and age, but hopefully it will hold up.”
Well done. Great Cause
Could have come first if he didn’t stop to take the bloody selfie….Great man. Great cause. Lovely story.
Selfie mehole. Soon as the picture was taken, he hopped on a sleigh with 12 huskies pulling him along, and cracked open a bottle of powers
The only reason he didn’t win was because he spent the first 3 days going in the wrong direction.
Wow! There really are some fantastic human beings around! And he is one!!
What a lazy fecker.
SECOND?
Fair play to him, great cause and a great performance to match
I know, whats with the article he didn’t even win like?
Hadn’t have slept those 6 hours he might have won lazy fecker. Congratulations though that’s some achievement.
And the race is from where to where?
Exactly! Any chance of including what’s actually involved in the race?
As his medal says “finisher” coz most people can’t finish the toughest course in the world (probably) And that little boy will smile ear to ear after he recovers Fair fox ta ya man fair fox ta ya.
Respect …. Wow ….. Well done
Cmon the tribesmen
North to Alaska/Johhny Horton
Sam crossed the majestic mountains (mush)
To the valleys far below (mush)
He talked to his team of huskies (mush)
As he mushed on through the snow (mush)
With the northern lights a-runnin’ wild (mush)
In the land of the midnight sun (mush)
Yes, Sam McCord was a mighty man (mush)
In the year of nineteen-one (mush)
………And so is Gavan Hannigan a Mighty Man too.Well done Gavan!
There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee.
(Robert Service poem).
@Pat Gorman…….
The Spell of the Yukon
I wanted the gold, and I sought it, I scrabbled and mucked like a slave.
Was it famine or scurvy — I fought it; I hurled my youth into a grave.
I wanted the gold, and I got it — Came out with a fortune last fall, —
Yet somehow life’s not what I thought it, And somehow the gold isn’t all.
No! There’s the land. (Have you seen it?) It’s the cussedest land that I know,
From the big, dizzy mountains that screen it To the deep, deathlike valleys below.
Some say God was tired when He made it; Some say it’s a fine land to shun;
Maybe; but there’s some as would trade it For no land on earth — and I’m one.
-
-A Great Week-end to You Pat Gorman.
Who came third?
Great cause but to come second should be ashamed of himself
Phenomenal performance!! Tough race to finish let alone finish 2nd, well done
Superb Gavin , I suppose they’ll expect you to win the all Ireland for Galway now.
Fair dues man :)
If your not first your last!! Great achievement.while fitness is important its the will and desire to keep going that is most impressive,well done.
Well done. Inspirational.
Amazing stuff.. but yes we need more info please !
Some achievement. . Well done. .
Where in galway is he from?
He came second out of 2
people were still finishing 3 days after he finished!, more detail about this gruelling event is needed in the article.
The Yukon!
The land of the Sourdough.
One of the toughest places on earth.
Recommended Good Read:
Micí Mac Gabhann’s “Rotha Mór an tSaoil”.
That procedure not available here in Nirvana, no?