How The Irish Fared

By Mark Stokes

ON THE COMEBACK TRAIL: Stephen Ward (left) pictured here with club and country colleague, Andy Keogh, is on the comeback trail after a long injury layoff. / Getty Images

Is he Roy Keane in disguise?

This week Stephen Ireland was blowing hot air again about his decision to ‘not’ play for his country, and making some outlandish statements to boot.

The Manchester City midfielder, some two years ago, fabricated a family tragedy in order to return from international duty to be with his girlfriend, who had suffered a miscarriage.

But the 23-year-old is still making noises about not returning to international football - a lot of effort in something he is apparently not interested in, one might surmise!

"I never enjoyed my time playing for Ireland," Ireland told an English newspaper.

"I will watch the game (versus France at Croke Park) but I don't feel guilty ever. No manager would sway my decision now. Even if they get to the World Cup, there's not a part of me that will think: 'That could have been me'.

(Editor’s comments in italics)

Just a word to the wise Stevo - if they get to the World Cup they won’t need you, they’ll have done it without you and were anyone to try to get you back, there would be a player revolt of hitherto unseen proportions. If your aim was to make yourself feel wanted among your international colleagues, you have failed miserably - you are in all likelihood public enemy number one among the Irish players!

The enfant terrible continued:

"They haven't tried properly to get me back. It's just lip service. Trapattoni rang me during the summer but it was more about him covering his back and having a press conference where he could say: 'I've made the effort, I've spoken to Stephen, blah-blah'."

Hold on Stephen, we’ll call in the United Nations and hold a peace summit - get over it man, your sense of self-importance is quite staggering. You are but a bad injury away from a shortened and unfulfilled career!

Ireland also launched an attack on the Republic's selection policy, claiming that players from Dublin were favored over those from his own city of Cork.

"Even now, I know for a fact the whole Irish set-up is exactly the same," he added.

You really thought that one through Steve, didn’t you? How then is Liam Miller (remember the player without a club for the longest time) still in the squad? And were not Denis Irwin and Roy Keane international players from Cork? There never was an embargo against Leesiders, Stephen - if lads from Cork weren’t picked in the youth set up back in the days of Roy Keane it was down to poor and uninformed coaches, nothing else.

Jump on your computer and Google Miah Dennehy. You’ll find that he was a Corkman playing and scoring goals for Ireland before you were born. Truth is Stephen, you never had legitimacy in your arguments, but you did have sympathy among some sections of the Irish public. But even that’s gone now.

You are no longer a rebel without a cause, just one without a clue.

Turning to players who actually want to play for their country Republic of Ireland U-21 international Owen Garvan was perhaps slightly preoccupied this week since being linked with a move to Championship high-fliers Cardiff City.

Garvan has been out of favor at Ipswich for the past three months but the promising 21-year-old was this week linked with a move away from Portman Road - he is reported to have turned down a loan move to Colchester United.

Latest reports however suggest that Cardiff manager Dave Jones is willing to take Garvan to south Wales on loan with a view to signing him permanently when the transfer window reopens in January.

Clearly, Garvan’s future appears to reside away from Ipswich with Roy Keane still insistent that the young Irishman does not deserve a place in his first XI.

Keane said recently: “Every fan has his or her favourite and those they have a soft spot for and Owen may be that player for many of our supporters. But he is not doing enough right now to get into the team.

“I watched him at Watford in the reserve match and he still did not do enough. Yes he has talent, but talent only counts for around five per cent of what is needed to become a success as a professional footballer.

“Owen has had his chances, and more chances could still come. But at the moment he needs to do more. And he knows that.”

And, judging by Garvan’s failure to seal a move to the top flight, something which was predicted more than two years ago, Keane may indeed be right.

Former Cork City striker Roy O’Donovan admits he will be looking to leave Sunderland permanently when the transfer window reopens in January.

O’Donovan never became a viable first team option since joining the Black Cats from Cork in the summer of 2007.

In that time%