http://www.tribalfootball.com/editorial-verbeek-must-cap-newcastle-superkid-inman-ahead-scotland-762451 I just read this article, and now I have a few questions, why haven't we done more to reach out to these lads and bring them in to the Australian camp? Pim, we get it, your leaving, but at least do right by us and cap these lads before it is too late. One last thing, is it me or is Pim already acting like he is gone, and does not care how we do in the cup, like he wants to start his new job in Morocco already?
Probably another article planted by a football manager who thinks that a cap will ncrease the fees available to a player who has yet to do anything. We give national team caps to those that earn them. If this kid wants to play for Australia then he needs to get himself to the stage where he will be picked on his merits. If he wants to play for Scotland then he will play for Scotland. If he wants to play in a World Cup then I know which country is more likely to offer that chance, but maybe 2018 will be a better target for him. On your other points Pim has capped many young players in his time here, including getting a couple to stop playing for other nations youth teams. I'm also not sure what give you the impression he doesn't have his mind on the World Cup.
As above. Players have to earn national selection. Besides, we've been down the road of capping players who aren't that good before (Neil Kilkenny, Max Vieri). I've always been of the opinion that if they are weighing up whether to play for Australia or not, then don't. You shouldn't have to think about it. And as almango said, nine times out of ten it's just a fluff piece orchestrated by some manager to drum up a bit of interest in one of their clients. But we've also been the beneficiary of a few of those decisions. Verbeek pulled Rhys Williams away from Wales and Dario Vidosic from Croatia. The writing may have been on the wall anyway - Wales won't make a world cup in the near future and Croatia aren't what they used to be, but the fact still stands that they were weighing up whether or not to represent another nation and Verbeek convinced them otherwise. I actually laugh every time I think of Vidosic. Mostly at the stupidity of Graham Arnold. Like Bruce Djite, he's good enough for the Socceroos but not the Olympic squad. I'm convinced that man has bellend somewhere on his birth certificate.
I'd hate us to be a country that devalues the jersey by going around indiscriminately cap-tying every youngster we can get our hands on. In the long term it would possibly even work against us, because it sends the message that we're capping people 'just in case', not because we think they've actually got a future with the national team.
Maybe so but how close were we to losing Rhys Williams? He was on the bench for the Welsh national team!!! One substitution and we would've never seen him in the green and gold!
god tribal football go on with some crap.... "destined to make his premiership debut next season" has he even played a league game in the championship this season? not to mention newcastle will bolster their squad to compete in the EPL again....
Unless you have a young player with impeccable class and ability such as a 16 year old Harry Kewell then rolling the dice on capping young guns is always going to be a Craps Shoot.
This. Even if we lose out of a good player here and there- that's just what happens, and it maintains the value of the Aussie jersey.