why is anothony stokes over-looked.

As the Rangers man said, even Lennon doesnt trust him in the big games. I'd put Noel Hunt above Stokes in the pecking order, but wouldnt change any of the 5 strikers in the squad.

Take the goals out of his game(yes I know thats the main job of a striker) and he gives you nothing. His link up play, touch and passing is pretty poor along with his attitude at times. He also thinks he's better than he is.

He's been a decent partner for Hooper and his goals have helped us win the league but if we want to progress we either do it by selling Stokes or playing him off the bench. We need a big striker who can hold the ball and bring other into play, especially when we go one up front away from home in Europe. Stokes has gives us the goals we need but doesnt have any of the other qualites we require in a stiker.

In the summer if we sold one striker I would sell Stokes, and I include Samaras in that.

Should he be included in ROI squad? Maybe. Should he start? No chance.

Scotland is a mickey mouse league? Well it aint the best but considering the amount of SPL players doing fairly well in England the jump up in class cant be that much. There were 5 former SPL players in the Wigan side that recently defeated Man U, Charlie Adam was also a joke fugure up here but now he's an £8m player. Ricardo Vaz Te also bombed at Hibs, now he's helped fire West Ham to the play off finals. The SPL aint as mickey mouse as you think.

i meant mickey mouse as in two horse race....

and to take noel hunt over stokes....no way....

i meant mickey mouse as in two horse race....

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La Liga must be a mickey mouse league then.

And the epl has only had 4 winners since it started , hardly what you would call competitive

Well if thats what you meant then most top leagues in Europe are mickey mouse, yours included. Although I dont see why that would matter when picking a striker for the Euros whereas quality of league the goals are scored in would.

alright forget what i said about mickey mouse

this guy scores goals ..simple as....

Simple he fell out with Trapatonni and doesnt work hard enough when he doesnt have the ball!

I'd agree that he is better than Cox.

But Trap won't take him as Stokesy did not appear for that tournament last year and subsequently blew his chance under Trap.

As a number of SPL fans have said above, Stokes is far too 1 dimensional, scores goals, but can't link up the play and has no awareness of his teamates around him... if this wasn't the case Lennon would actually try playing him in the big games, but instead he always gets benched.

Cox however, scores goals and links up the play brilliantly, he's been very unlucky in that he's been stuck behind Shane Long and Peter Odemwingie this season at WBA (two strikers who would easily walk into the Celtic 1st XI)

But ask anyone who actually watches the Ireland team regularly and they will tell you that Cox has easily been our most impressive forward in internationals over the last 12months both starting games and being used as an effective impact sub, he offers something different to the rest of our strikers and will definitely be used by Trap at Euro 2012.

To say Stokes deserves to be in ahead of him or any of the others guys is laughable.

What about Noel Hunt? Leon Best? Connor Sammon? Jon Daly? Andy Keogh? (both banging the goals in for Dundee Utd and Millwall now) all ahead of Stokes...

Stokes is way down the pecking order and he knows exactly what he has to do to prove himself on the international stage... leave the SPL comfort zone! It's that simple.

Trapp is narked cos hes heard a rumour that Stokes and Hunt are going to declare for the North!