Piece in the Indo this morning about him claiming he's better than some of our current strikers (I won't mention David Connolly) and should be in the squad. As an exile I know next to nothing about him. What do our resident League of Ireland boffins make of him?
I'm no Eircom League man, but from my limited experience of him I reckon he hasn't the pace for international football, could be wrong though.
He's a proven goalscorer though - he got 35,40 goals a couple of seasons back, and almost the same again last season. I'd like to see him being given a chance at least in a friendly.
ah! the age old debate. can an eircom league player ever become an irish international. alas, in the current climate i think not. while roddy collins is doing his best to take the cream of the eircom league to carlisle they haven't exactly set the third division alight. roddy was glen's manager at bohs and i'm positive would have bought him if he could. the nearest irish player was can compare glen crowe to is richie foran (ex-shels, now at carlisle under roddy). richie is a good little player - certainly too good for the third division. a few first division clubs came sniffing around (coventry and preston) but nothing came of it. in my opinion glen is slightly better, primarily because of his temprament - he isn't a hot head like richie. if glen were to move to england and eventually sign for a first division club (he's still young enough) then it could eventually get a game with ireland. the crux of the matter is that mick (and the fai) simply don't rate the eircom league and don't take the players seriously. their argument is that while he is prolific in a cr@p league he hasn't proven himself at a sufficient level. the eircom league is officially ratest as one of the worst national leagues in europe. the fai have a lot to answer for on that score - but that's a different debate. fitness wise glen would be okay, bohs have one of the best set-ups in the country. players regularly match english first division players at bleep-tests. finally, if we're talking about glen crowe playing for ireland i'd like to throw our own kevin mchugh's name in as well.
I'd say he's possibly as good as an English First Division striker, which, in the context of the Irish international team, pushes him close to the "worthy-of-a-look" category. Even a squad call-up would give him a chance to impress the manager close-up. Pace is a bit of a problem, alright, and he needs to work a lot on his shape. In his first season at Bohs, he was too large and readily marked out of games. But under Roddy Collins, he changed that summer into the most dangerous predator in the league. He's consistent, powerful, takes up great positions, and not afraid to try an early shot. He scores a lot of bread-and-butter goals, which may not get the pulse racing, but definitely win matches and stack up to an impressive tally by the end of a season. My feeling is that if he got a chance at international level and succeeded in making an impression, than that could springboard his career. However, he must get that chance soon or he'll be the wrong side of 25. There is a whole argument you could get into about lower-division players who have caught the eye playing for their country, e.g. Earnshaw and Wales. There is another whole argument about an institutional bias against domestic players. But I'm too tired by half to get into either of them! (Blasted Rovers )
A friendly call up isn't out of the question, but one man deserves a call up more imo, and that's Alan Lee of Rotherham. Playing absolutley brilliantly this year, second top scorer in division one which means he could make a squad player to be used in injury crises for Ireland imo. Worth a go, this years Richard Sadlier, but lets hope he doesn't have the injury nightmare session Sadliers currently going through.
Announced today that he's getting his chance under Givens due to squad withdrawals. Good luck to him. Assuming he now gets a run out, it may just prove to be no more than a one-off chance under a one-off manager, but many would give a lot to get such a break. If he has the balls to go out and shine and things go his way on the day, who knows... At least he knows some of the players from underage international football, so it shouldn't be that big a deal for him to join the squad.
Carr is out!? NOOOOOOOO. I hope this is just Hoddle taking him out because he wants to limit his games.