He announced today he will no longer play for Ireland to prolong his Charlton career. A real shame that but not totally surprising. He was saying last week how disappointed he was not to have played in a few more friendlies at least. A super keeper in my opinion, and one of the best in the Premiership over the last few years.
i can't decide if i'm surprised or not surprised i doubt if sitting on a bench hurts your career but he's probably sick of it. as good as he is realistically he'll never displace given for the no.1 shirt. i'd expect kerr to make a move for paddy kenny of sheffield united now - his folks are from donegal.
http://www.charlton-athletic.co.uk/news/latest_news.jsp?fileRef=news.200304253144 “Obviously, I would have liked to play more often than eight times in the past four-and-a-half years, and there has been a lot of travelling without any football at the end of it. “But this decision has not been taken out of frustration at not being Ireland’s number one, but rather through a desire to remain Charlton’s number one for as long as possible.” Sounds like he was not happy at not playing more. If he doesnt want to play for Ireland like Roy Keane, well good riddence. I guess Nicky Colgan will be no 2 now. Who will be number 3? Murphy or Kenny?
Kenny unless Hoult moves from West Brom and Murphy breaks back in, both super keepers, Kenny won supporters player of the year for United, a look at the season people like Browne and Thonge have had shows how good that it. Still gutted to be loseing Kiely, he's an excellent keeper, truly brilliant, and meant you were never ever nervous if you saw Given injured. Paddy Kenny wants to declare for us, but said he might declare for England as he's more chance of being in their squad, guess this will help change his mind, could appear as early as this week.
Murphys been called up, I guess Kenny would have needed to get passports/papers sorted out, hopefully Kerr has a word anyway.
Hopefully. I saw Kenny play in the cup and he looked quite good, from his name I guessed he would be eligible for us.
Well, slightly related, it all further highlights Don Givens idiocy, here is Murphy, who is now 4th choice keeper (Presumeing Kenny would have been called up with better notice) and he wont give him his game for the U21s! Unbeliveble. Joe Murphy is class though, and if Hoult moves he'll go right into West broms first team, and it looks like Hoult could move, I've rated him very very highly ever since I saw him as a teenager playing ina league cup final despite a broken hand and he's been very impressive every time sincew then, and you must be good when your first action ever in the premiership is coming off the bench and saving a peno at Anfield.
I'm sorry to see him go...he really was as dependable a deputy as you could ask for. It's a bit strange to pull out of the Norway squad now, considering that he would have won another cap anyway.
on the subject of replacement 'keepers, graham stack of arsenal who is currently on loan in belgium is playing a stormer. wenger, by all accounts, is having him watched at every game and there is every possibility that he'll be offered the chance to replace seaman next season.
I saw that in the Times, says he will get a good chance at being number one next season and will be Seamans main rival, beyond the likes of taylor. I still rate Murphy higher but thats only imo, if Hoult moves, which he should, Murphy will get the number 1 spot at West Brom, then if that's true and Kenny gets cleared we'll once again have a quality bunch of keepers.
I didn't think that Wenger rated him that highly, but if things turn out that way (and Seaman's still unsure whether or not he'll carry on) then it could be very nice indeed. I saw today as well though that Wenger's interested in Lomaia, the Georgian keeper...although then again he's been linked with half the netminders in Europe at this stage.
It also gives Don Givens a bit of vindication from the criticism for not picking Murphy, if Stack (who is in Murphy's place) really has such a bright future
good story on Dean from the Indepedent: Kiely exit benefits Charlton but bad news for Kerr QUESTION: How will you remember Dean Kiely? What's that? Can't quite nail a picture down? Never really knew the guy? Just kind of regarded him as part of the international furniture, without ever looking close? Like something beneath a sheet in the attic? Ornamental maybe? This is how reserve goalkeepers fade into the sunset. Quietly. They go as footnotes. 'Oh I see Dean Kiely's packed up international football. Any sign of the post yet?' No-one gets emotional. No-one is inclined to play the blame-game. Guy just says his piece and the earth keeps turning. Reserve goalkeeper packs it in; Peter Ebdon takes a pee; Minardi change their test driver. Except, of course, Kiely's departure is a big story. At least, it should be. If you were picking the best goalkeeper in the English Premiership this season, I imagine the names most likely to get you animated are Cudicini, Wright, Friedel, Given and Kiely. An Italian, an Englishman, an American and two Irish. Kiely has been immense for Charlton all season, though I suspect his professionalism was a mite offended by the concession of that late Steven Gerrard winner at Anfield on Easter Monday. He makes that kind of lazy dive about as often as Ruud van Nistelrooy misses penalties. And yet, because of Shay Given's excellence, Dean won just eight international caps in a span of four years. In fact, his time with Ireland was defined more by fleetness of tongue than deftness of save. Kiely started just one major international for Ireland, the Euro 2000 play-off tie with Turkey in earthquake-ravaged Bursa. He kept a clean-sheet too, though the admiration of his team-mates was won within the privacy of the dressing-room. That night, it is said, he responded to a 'dressing-down' from Roy Keane by giving the Corkman one of his own. And, from that moment on, Dean Kiely had a specific status within the Irish squad. He is a self-confident, independent man who managed to lighten some of the bleaker passages of Ireland's World Cup story last summer. Most notably when a deathly silence settled on that restaurant in the Saipan Hyatt immediately after Keane's walk-out. "Mick, can I offer my services to fill that midfield dynamo role?" he probed to explosions of nervous laughter. Indeed, he subsequently summoned perhaps the line of the tournament at a press-conference in Izumo when, exasperated by the notion that Keane's absence was dominating the players' daily dialogue to the point of distraction, he sighed "We didn't book this trip through Thomas Cook you know." Niall Quinn wrote in his autobiography of the goalkeepers, Given, Kiely and Alan Kelly being "a different breed, a separate tribe." And there was certainly a sense that, whatever timid instinct prevailed within the squad in dealing with a volatile captain, none of it was manifest in the goalkeepers. After all, Given had an audience (including Keane himself reputedly) swimming in mirth at Schipol Airport with his sardonic taste - excerpts from Today FM 'Radio Roy' sketches - in CD entertainment en route to Saipan. And, after that infamous training-ground bust-up in which Keane squared up to Packie Bonner and Alan Kelly, the latter came down to breakfast next morning wearing a balaclava. Goalkeepers are different, you see. They don't go with the herd, simply because they don't exist in one. Their survival depends on a depth of composure and self-possession not conspicuous - or necessary - in most outfield players. I've always felt that goalkeepers share a lot of common ground with boxers in that they exist on the fringes of our understanding. Jimmy Cannon once wrote of boxing thus: "The bums who get rum money for selling their blood to banks do it privately with only a nurse to watch them. Even they can regard the tortured act, this deformed philanthropy, with pride. "But pugs give their blood publicly and for money alone. Oh, it's a beautiful racket." Goalkeepers, like 'pugs', don't do privacy. Sure, in the most thronged of stadia, they are still - fundamentally - alone. But they exist almost as human parentheses. Everything they do is amplified. A beautiful, public, lonely racket. Dean Kiely can, clearly, live with that. What he cannot live with, though, is futility. In recent years, when Kiely slept, it is conceivable that he saw Shay Given's face on the back of his eye-lids. Because nothing short of a rampaging herd of wildebeest has looked likely to unseat the Donegal man as Ireland's number one. But Kiely's retirement is depressing news, as was that of Alan Kelly. Because a year ago, Ireland had call on three authentic international-class goalkeepers. Kelly, as the third, must have felt so far down the pecking order, he needed flippers and a snorkle. Alan is still capable of making saves straight out of Lourdes but, with Ireland, he probably sensed he'd be just as useful selling raffle tickets. So he retired on arrival home from Seoul last summer. And now, nine months on, Kiely has chosen to follow suit. It's actually a pretty shocking development for Brian Kerr, though the sportspages don't reflect that. You see, reserve goalkeepers tend to come and go without much tumult. No-one gets emotional. Until, that is, we need them.
This is terrible news for Ireland. I remember when he came on against Turkey a few years ago, I hadn't a clue who he was and was very very nervous. Since then, however, he has been fantastic for Charlton and has been as good a reserve keeper as we could have possibly wished for. Its a shame that he didn't get a few more opportunities, in competitive games, just to keep his interest and appetite but that's just the way it is unfortunately. As the guy in the last article says, we may only realise what a disaster this is, if Given gets injured or sent off in a really big game and we have to rely on an inexperienced and unproven keeper in his place...