for 2 irish players from Cork City. One a midfielder and one a striker. Its on newsnow. Sorry i cant do links on me phone. Would someone kindly do me the honour?

http://www.newsnow.co.uk/A/356519959?-1898 Hope this works.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/cork-reject-insulting-healy-and-behan-bid-95792.html

If the bids were seen as "insulting" then sounds like the deal is dead unless Cork are just playing hard to get.

Thats the Irish for you! I once remember a weekend stag doo in Dublin and a young lady also said she was insulted by my offer. Even a second improved offer only attracted a slap on the face so I assume the above bid is dead!

Northumberland

Ah but ladies sometimes say no, when they mean maybe.

Healy would be a good signing.

He was the player called upon by Mick McCarthy as replacement for Roy Keane if he was dropped. As we know he went to the World Cup and Healy therefore didnt. Signed by Sunderland from Celtic in 2003.

Broke his leg twice while at Sunderland once in training on way back to fitness.

Not a cartwheel signing but close, IMHO

turner stated a couple of times that the new captain could be someone he is trying to bring in to the club. I think that person would have been healy. I wonder if our bids were just to test the water?

Not an impressive playing record for a 29 year old

http://www.soccerbase.com/players_detai ... erid=15183

not forgetting to factor in that soccerbase has not got his playing details for the last 3 years while he has been in ireland!!!

Not being pedantic but he's only been in Ireland for 2.5 years. So a 26.5 year old that had only started 57 league games on the mainland is also not too impressive. Come back Willie Boland all is forgiven.

i like the spin you put on it. Another way of looking at it is he has played over 100 times at a much higher level (celtic & sunderland) despite suffering from a broken leg on two seperate occasions! would be a very astute signing if we could pull it off.

The 'mainland'....Ireland is hardly the Farne Islands.

Behan is meant to be a good player, scores spectacular goals apparently! Could be a good signing and id love us to get Healy

If its an opening gambit of a bid, its all leaving it a bit tight on time considering we play our opening warm up game on Monday in Holland. It would be nice to have the team mostly in place by then supposing there are more coming.

Its not that I have reached a new level of worry about the squad - I've been panicking for several weeks now!

Somebody give me a few definate rumours to tide me over or at least reply with one of those soothy head smilies.

i would say the majority of the squad was in place and certainly would not panic if the season started today. We are short of a left back and a reserve striker. There are a couple of other positions that we still could improve, however i imagine that will only happen if we manage to interest very good quality players.

We may return with an increased bid ,as the Northern Echo reports them as in financial difficulties. They were in examinership (think thats administration) but have come out of it, but still in difficulties.

He plays for the same team as Father Jack on Craggy Island...

Maybe not, but when was the last time we had a 29yo with 12 caps playing for us?

I'm not saying he's not good enough I'm saying will he play enough games for us. Its his appearance record that doesn't look too good. Brownie has already had more first team starts at the age of 22 than Healy had at 26 and thats with two cruciate ligament injuries. Barnsley obviously didn't rate him too highly - Bradford City didn't take him on - what's changed since then?

thats like saying monkhouse isnt good enough because a league 2 swindon town didnt want him!

Or that Matty is good enough because Swindon and Carlisle wanted him

precisely. One mans junk....

Therein lies the skill of the manager/scout. Is he a Gordon Watson or a Paul Robinson?

neither he is a midfielder lol