Marvin Elliott situation is "ludicrous" says Bristol City head coach Sean O'Driscoll
Bristol City head coach Sean O'Driscoll today stoked the flames of football's on-going club-versus-country row.
Four City players have been on international duty this week, Albert Adomah, Greg Cunningham, Wes Burns and Marvin Elliott having represented Ghana, the Republic of Ireland, Wales and Jamaica respectively.
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Marvin Elliott: Not due back in Bristol until late Friday morning.
But it is Elliott's situation that has especially upset O'Driscoll, who describes Jamaica's decision to call him up for Wednesday's World Cup qualifier in Mexico as "ludicrous."
Elliott is not due to return to the UK until late on Friday morning and O'Driscoll fears he may not be able to start the midfield enforcer against Nottingham Forest at Ashton Gate on Saturday, even though Neil Kilkenny and Cole Skuse are currently side-lined by injury.
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In an exclusive interview with The Post, O'Driscoll fumed: "Marvin Elliott does not come back until 11am tomorrow morning and that is ludicrous. We're paying his wages and may not be able to play him because he cannot get back early enough.
"If I could hire a private jet and fly him back from Mexico myself, I would.
"He has played 90 minutes on the other side of the world and it is impossible to expect him to be fit and fresh to play for us on Saturday.
"Do I play him or don't I play him? He has done no training with us, he has done no work on shape or organisation, but he is just supposed to turn up and play. It's not ideal."
He added: "It is a similar situation with Greg Cunningham. He only got back here this morning and he has had to had a recovery day rather than work with the rest of the squad.
"We've had four players away this week and it has definitely not helped us."
3 Comments
by katachua
Monday, February 11 2013, 1:26PM
“So he came back Friday lunchtime and scored a cracker Saturday afternoon - so much for jet lag ;-)
Nice one, Marvin!”
by seanl
Thursday, February 07 2013, 7:15PM
“Didn't Maloney sign for us on a Thursday, then make a starting debut on the Saturday!?
Sounds like a bit of huff and puff, and although its not ideal, its not the end of the world as he knows the team. A couple of hours (if that) going through team tactics, opposition tactics etc etc that the players and managers go through prior to a game can all be caught up on Saturday morning no? He's an experienced player, so surely he should be treated like a man instead of a boy, and asked if he feels fit and fresh enough to play first thing Saturday. Like I said, its not ideal, but something thats out of both of our control now. Pointless whinging about it imo.”
by Braap
Thursday, February 07 2013, 3:41PM
“Such is life when you have international footballers in the squad.
Perhaps in L1 we won't have this problem.”