Who is this guy? I'd heard very little of him up until recently but he seems to have overnight become a first team regular in the Blackburn side, saw him live today and he looked relatively decent, a bit quiet but nearly got a goal but for a great save and played some nice passes. Does anyone, like a Blackburn fan, know anything about him? Will he keep his place in the side? Is he an option for one of the upcoming friendlys? Always nice to see some options emerging, can't be a bad thing anyway.
I believe I read somewhere that he's from Monaghan... He was on loan at Blackpool earlier this season. Other than that I don't know much about him. Good to see another Irish player in the Premiership, though. And he was replaced by Alan Mahon.
He made a few appearances last season as well...plays as an attacking central midfielder, IIRC. I'm not sure if he's good enough to become much more than just a squad player internationally, but I've only seen him a couple of times, and it's early days yet.
Looks like Douglas won't be getting his chance in the upcoming friendlies, according to Kerr... http://www.eleven-a-side.com/boysingreen/story.asp?newsid=10437
Douglas is an average enough player although he's done ok for Rovers and is holding down his place in the first team well. He's a good solid player, does the simple things well but is being played on the left by Souness whereas his preferred position is in the centre. Probably won't keep his place with the return of Ferguson, Thompson, Flitcroft and Reid but is doing very well enough at the moment. He should definitely be given his chance to play for Ireland. He's playin against top class opposition every week, is holding down a first team place and is doing quite well why shouldn't he. After all he is playing at a higher level than other players who are getting the chance such as Kavanagh, Andy Reid, Colin Healy, Gary Breen and Alan Lee. Fairness says he should Kerrs stupidity says he won't. Rory Delap holds down a place at Southampton and is regarded as one of their finest players but after a poor start to his international career he is constantly ignored and over-looked by players who shouldn't be there.
Spot on about Delap, his omission in central mid field when people like Kavanagh play there is sheer madness.
So Pmannion, based on your signature you must be a Spurs fan these days ...with Kelly, Doc, Keane and Carr , not to mention Mark Yeats on the bench every so often Fello Yiddo!! Come on you Spurs!
whilst we are talking spurs......robbie keane to Parkhead....any chance? read it the paper yesterday closey
despite the fact he's struggling to get into a poor spurs side I'd rather see him stay in the premiership than move to Scotland. Although given their current form spurs may not be in the premiership much longer!
Can't agree that he's worth a run in the Irish squad at this stage. Still pretty raw and gives away what seems like hundreds of free kicks needlessly in every game. Might have a future in a year's time but probably not. However, if he's anything like his uncle (Barry McGuigan) he'll probably decide that he's British and declare for Nortern Ireland if he thinks it'll further his career!!!
This is deceptive as, although Spurs have a poor team at moment, they have some top quality attackers in Keane, Kanoute and Defoe. I think its pretty shocking that it is Keane that it is dropped as soon as they stop scoring goals. He has been their most consistant and outstanding performer for the last two seasons and I can't see any evidence that Defoe and Kanoute are the miracle cure. Why are Spurs managers so utterly blind to the fact that new strikers are NOT going to solve their problems?! They have an extremely light-weight midfield that gets dominated almost every time I watch them play. Although the return of Redknapp should help somewhat, they must seriously consider off-loading dead-wood like Poyet and Anderton who seem to command very high wages but offer little on the pitch. Their defence is also very poor with Ledley King (the most over-rated player in the league), Gary Doherty (who turns about as fast as a double-decker bus) and Tarricco (spends more time committing fouls than anything else) commanding regular starting spots. I hazard a guess that if Keane had not signed for Spurs, they would have been looking at a very uncomfortable relegation-threatened season last year. --------- With regard to Douglas, he is indeed very very raw. He is certainly not up to international standard at the moment as his first inclination when receiving the ball seems to be to hoof it as far away as possible. He obviously does have some talent though and I hope that Souness helps it to blossom and develop.