I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety nine just persons, which need no repentance. Luke 15:7
I can only welcome this development as long as the lad is now committed to the original Irish side. Surely by playing at Mourneview he will be throwing in his lot with us! Another about face and he'd be giving Paisley a run for his money!
Seriously though, I'm told by Blackburn fans that he's an able young player, so this must be good news.
Re. your comments on Gibson's quality of play on my blog - I can only hope you're right that he's not as special as the southern media are saying. I've yet to see the lad play.
Certainly Northern Ireland are not badly off for either central defenders or midielders. Presumably Worthington might have liked an extra option to play a more conventional holding player alongside Davis, but then we'd have been sacrificing the tenacity of Johnson or the creativity of Sammy Clingan.
I can only welcome this development as long as the lad is now committed to the original Irish side.
If he's happy to play for us, that'll do for me. Maybe a controversial thing to say, but I'd guess he's happy enough to play with the lads he's gone up through the youth teams with rather than specifically N.ireland....I think for many players in many countries this loyalty to teammates you've played with for years matters more perhaps than your loyalty to "your" country. Watch teams like Spain, Bosnia-Herz., Romania and Slovakia and you'd struggle to pick out those players who perhaps (politically or culturally) would feel no loyalty to the national side they're playing for. The reason they give their all is because of their team-mates with whom they've developed a loyalty. I suspect that in the future this is going to become more of a case with us as well and it's up to the IFA to ensure that the junior teams are run more professionally.
Don't get me wrong with Gibson, he's a good player, there are very few mugs who progress through the MU youth teams, but he's certainly not the Keane Mark2 he's been marketted as in the ROI. For many Northern Irish ROI fans the fact that he's born in Derry and playing for ROI seems to be a good enough reason to build him up as the New Pele which in the end will harm rather than help his career development.
My prediction is that he'll move in within a year to the likes of Wolves or Sheff Utd, one of the bigger clubs in the League, I can't really see him making the breakthrough at Utd.
2 comments:
I can only welcome this development as long as the lad is now committed to the original Irish side. Surely by playing at Mourneview he will be throwing in his lot with us! Another about face and he'd be giving Paisley a run for his money!
Seriously though, I'm told by Blackburn fans that he's an able young player, so this must be good news.
Re. your comments on Gibson's quality of play on my blog - I can only hope you're right that he's not as special as the southern media are saying. I've yet to see the lad play.
Certainly Northern Ireland are not badly off for either central defenders or midielders. Presumably Worthington might have liked an extra option to play a more conventional holding player alongside Davis, but then we'd have been sacrificing the tenacity of Johnson or the creativity of Sammy Clingan.
I can only welcome this development as long as the lad is now committed to the original Irish side.
If he's happy to play for us, that'll do for me. Maybe a controversial thing to say, but I'd guess he's happy enough to play with the lads he's gone up through the youth teams with rather than specifically N.ireland....I think for many players in many countries this loyalty to teammates you've played with for years matters more perhaps than your loyalty to "your" country. Watch teams like Spain, Bosnia-Herz., Romania and Slovakia and you'd struggle to pick out those players who perhaps (politically or culturally) would feel no loyalty to the national side they're playing for. The reason they give their all is because of their team-mates with whom they've developed a loyalty. I suspect that in the future this is going to become more of a case with us as well and it's up to the IFA to ensure that the junior teams are run more professionally.
Don't get me wrong with Gibson, he's a good player, there are very few mugs who progress through the MU youth teams, but he's certainly not the Keane Mark2 he's been marketted as in the ROI. For many Northern Irish ROI fans the fact that he's born in Derry and playing for ROI seems to be a good enough reason to build him up as the New Pele which in the end will harm rather than help his career development.
My prediction is that he'll move in within a year to the likes of Wolves or Sheff Utd, one of the bigger clubs in the League, I can't really see him making the breakthrough at Utd.
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