You'll never walk alone / beat Maik Taylor


Legendary goalkeeper Elisha Scott was one of only three Northern Ireland internationals to play first team football for Liverpool. Scott played his final games for the reds in the 1930s, around about the time when Aghadoey born forward Sam English also turned out at Anfield. Despite Jim Magilton’s best efforts it is now over 70 years since a Northern Ireland player played a senior fixture for Liverpool.

Is this about to change? Various sources are suggesting that another Northern Irish goalkeeping great, Maik Taylor, is poised to join the reds in the twilight of his career. Rafa Benitez views 36 year old Taylor as a reliable and experienced understudy for first choice Pepe Reina. Despite the lack of first team opportunities which Maik might face, it would be tremendous for Liverpool supporting GAWA to see him between the sticks at Anfield.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Might be nice if I was a Liverpool fan but I don't think it's good for Maik or the GAWA. I would have thought the last thing he needs at this late stage in his career is to spend most saturdays sitting on his arse on warming the bench. I'd imagine he'd be better having regular football in the Championship than a couple of matches a season (maybe) in the Premiership.
13 May 2008 at 17:05
Owen Polley said…
I don't think when you get to Maik's age Beano that regular football is such an issue. He knows the ropes. He'll be ready for NI.
14 May 2008 at 09:56
Hernandez said…
Looking at the broader picture I think now is the time to start looking at a successor to Maik. I don't see any outstanding candidates coming through which is a worry. Mannus?
14 May 2008 at 12:55
Anonymous said…
I find this utterly amazing, given Liverpool's widespread support in NI and when you consider the amount of players from the Republic who have lined out in the red in recent years. It's hardly down to a lack of quality players, as both Man Utd and Arsenal have had their fair share of NI players over the years. 70 years is a long time! Is there any kind of plausible explanation or theory as to why this is so?
15 May 2008 at 14:16
Owen Polley said…
I don't think there's any reason as such CW. Players from Northern Ireland regularly join Liverpool, but it just so happens that none has made it to the first team. I put it down purely to coincidence.
16 May 2008 at 09:08
Dinamo said…
Over such a long time, statistically it is extremely odd that no NI players have played for liverpool. Even part-time fans could list NI players at almost every other GB club. If we look back to the days before Big Tom from the Alabama Hobos bought over the franchise (in order to cash flow his US businesses with the brain-dead scouser replica shirt sales but that's another story), we note the many Scotch and RoI players who turned out.
Strange indeed that the talent from our wee country went to Leeds Manchester and everton.
17 May 2008 at 23:03
Anonymous said…
Starting to see a pattern with Rafas choice in keepers with receeding hairlines!
19 May 2008 at 01:46
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Football fever in Russia

Russia Blog is getting excited about Euro 2008. Indeed it is drawing parallels between Guus Hiddink and Peter the Great in terms of successful Russo-Dutch exchanges of expertise. Meanwhile, in Moscow, fans have been taking to the streets in order to celebrate the national team’s achievements.
Read more

Stormont might not collapse but paramilitaries continue to disfigure Northern Ireland

Image
The devolved institutions in Northern Ireland are supposedly ‘teetering on the brink’ of collapse yet again.  After repeated failures to agree a balanced budget or implement welfare reform created months of uncertainty, the Executive’s future is now in doubt because the PSNI believes members of the IRA were involved in murdering a republican hit man.  Despite its apparent seriousness, this particular predicament is unlikely to bring the shaky edifice at Stormont crashing down. The IRA was supposed to have disbanded its military ‘structures’ and decommissioned its entire arsenal of weapons back in 2005.  It was on the basis of this understanding that power-sharing resumed in 2007 and the DUP entered government with Sinn Féin.  From the outset it was a fairly flimsy pretext.   Less than a year after John de Chastelain, the retired Canadian general, oversaw decommissioning, the Independent Monitoring Commission reported that the IRA retained a substantial haul of arms.
Read more

Walker loada rubbish

Former BBC employee Brian Walker has overrun Slugger O’Toole lately with countless poorly structured, poorly written posts. It is possible quickly to recognize and avoid these by subjecting each Slugger piece to a cursory inspection and identifying those which feature characteristic lack of paragraphing and a tenuous grasp on the technicalities of linking source articles. Although I generally evade Walker’s posts by this method, occasionally (and unfortunately) I have persevered and found that their content is as unrewarding as the style in which they are written. Today, for instance, I inflicted upon myself Brian’s thoughts on a mooted Fianna Fail / SDLP merger . In actual fact, he is right to welcome news that the Southern Irish party has dropped this proposal from its agenda; however, the logic by which he arrives at this conclusion is parochial nonsense. To summarise, Walker believes that pursuing realignment with larger parties, whether they are from the rest of the UK or fro
Read more