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Brown For Northern Ireland

Henry

By Henry,
in AFC and Scottish Football

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Henry Newbie

Henry

Posted
Posted

No quotes, Daily R*nger. :hunbash:

 

Worth discussing nonetheless.

 

PRESSURE piled on Aberdeen last night when Craig Brown was revealed as a target for Northern Ireland.

The Irish want the Dons boss to put them on the road to the 2014 World Cup.

They aren't fazed by the fact Brown will be 74 when the tournament kicks off in Brazil because they want Motherwell skipper Stephen Craigan to inherit the job in the long term - and have identified the former Scotland manager as his mentor.

Nigel Worthington yesterday announced he is to quit the Northern Ireland job after their final Euro 2012 qualifier in Italy tonight.

Attendances at Pittodrie this season have plunged as Aberdeen toil.

Last month they were humbled by Second Division East Fife in the League Cup and they are ninth in the SPL - just a point clear of rock-bottom Inverness - with only two wins from their 10 games so far.

They could lose an entire team at the end of the season but Brown swears he isn't worried - because he reckons no one has money to snap up his out-of-contract players.

Scott Vernon, Jamie Langfield, Rory McArdle, Darren Mackie, Youl Mawene, Isaac Osbourne, Andrew Considine, Kari Arnason, Josh Magennis, Mohamed Chalali and Yoann Folly are in the final years of their deals and free to talk to clubs in January.

But Brown said: "I don't see any movement in January as very few clubs have funds to buy players in that window.

"You can see that all the way up to Rangers at the top of the SPL. There is no one out there who is likely to buy a player in January.

"I hope Vernon wants to stay. He is a very good finisher and I have already said he can be a 20-goals-a-season striker.

"However, my main priority at the moment is to get the team up the table."

But Aberdeen's troubles haven't put the IFA off Brown, the last man to steer Scotland to a major finals.

During his eight years in charge, he took the national side to Euro 96 and the World Cup in France in 1998.

Last season, he joined Aberdeen from Motherwell where he worked with Craigan.

The 34-year-old defender quit playing for Northern Ireland in July, having earned 54 caps.

The IFA insist they will make no formal moves until after a board meeting later this month.

But last night president Jim Shaw said: "Stephen Craigan is in the mix and we won't be ruling anyone in or out at this stage."

As well as Brown and Craigan, a string of candidates for the job have emerged.

Martin O'Neill, former Brechin boss Michael O'Neill, Jim Magilton and Walter Smith are among the names in the frame and ex-Northern Ireland striker Ian Dowie admits he wants the hotseat.

Dowie hasn't managed since he failed to keep Hull in the Premier League at the end of season 2009-10.

He said: "The proudest moment of my playing career was captaining my country and I'm always happy to help."

Keeper Maik Taylor, who will start against Italy for what is likely to be a farewell appearance at the age of 40, spoke up for Worthington on behalf of the squad.

He said: "You won't find a player with a bad word to say about Nigel. He was very open-minded and always looked for feedback to see where we could improve as a team.

"You know how small the pool of players is and I don't think he could have done any more than he's done.

"Whoever comes in is going to have to call on a lot of younger players to step up earlier than they may have hoped."

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NorthernLights24 Newbie

NorthernLights24

Posted
Posted

I seriously think Calderwood would be a good shout for NI.

 

The fans would love him being a Rangers man and the fact he is bright orange.

 

It would be interesting to see how Calderwood would do if ever given the chance as an international manager. He loved to tinker with our team purely based on the opposition we were facing. I recall Josh Walker given a man marking role on Allan Johnston one time at Rugby Park. Another one I remember was how he said he changed the formation we were going to start with against St Mirren at Pittodrie after seeing the St Mirren formation/team. Calderwood would relish the amount of planning and tinkering he could do with an international side.

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ollie1903 Apprentice

ollie1903

Posted
Posted

Sure that the World Cup Qualifiers for 94 Roxburgh was in charge for most of them and Brown took over once it was clear we weren't going to finals. In Euro 2000 we lost to England in the playoffs and the 2002 Euros we were nowhere near.

Brown took over in November '93 when qualification was over. Got us to Euro'96 and WC98. We should never have been in a play off for Euro2000. If it wasn't for a terrible draw in Lithuania and a painfull draw in the Faroes we would have qualified ahead of Portugal as best runners up. And if i recall we were 2-0 up against the Czech's only to throw that away in the last 15/20 minutes and clutch defeat from the jaws of victory.

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Betty Swallicks Experienced

Betty Swallicks

Posted
Posted

Brown took over in November '93 when qualification was over. Got us to Euro'96 and WC98. We should never have been in a play off for Euro2000. If it wasn't for a terrible draw in Lithuania and a painfull draw in the Faroes we would have qualified ahead of Portugal as best runners up. And if i recall we were 2-0 up against the Czech's only to throw that away in the last 15/20 minutes and clutch defeat from the jaws of victory.

 

 

You know it Ollie min.

 

Yet folk say he did a brilliant job wi Scotland.

 

As for his club record bar winning the 3rd div wi Clyde and a spell at 'well its been terrible.

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ollie1903 Apprentice

ollie1903

Posted
Posted

Thought we missed out on qualification to 2002 to Belgium did we not? 2-0 up then drew 2-2 or am I totally wrong? Van Buyten was our nemesis that day.

We did. 2-0 up against the Belgians only to draw 2-2. We actually only lost 1 game in that group. What really did us in was the 0-0 draw at home with Croatia which was quite probably the worst games of football I

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spamspamspam Enthusiast

spamspamspam

Posted
Posted

No more than a pish poor excuse for the daily ranger to highlight how poor a season we've had so far...

 

Humbled by East Fife... crowds at an all time low... blah blah fucking blah

 

Why they bothered making up a story to go with the digs is anyone's guess. They should just list the digs in a nice easy to read format so the unwashed masses can walk round glasvagas tonight with something to talk about. England arent playing so the huns have nowt much else to do bar slate their favourite non-rivals while dodging the blarney fairy's game and this gives them the sticks to beat us with.

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