Ken Early

It's implied.

Ken, are you still there? No, he's gone.

But anyway, this is great.

This story has come out also about this creativity guru they employ.

So it probably makes sense to lighten the load a little bit.

You were telling us.

Very magnanimous of you, Ken.

I want him in there way more than he's getting in at the moment.

[laughs] But more typical though, I only thought about that response about 10 seconds after he had, he had left the stage or whatever, and it was like, um, but it was, it was mad 'cause like the thing is though, there was whispers day before because the day of the press conference we all knew that there was a statement coming at that point, because there was beginning to get a couple of, uh, bits out from within the camp, uh, saying that they were working on it and that the statement was gonna come out on the day before the game.

So I was walk, I, I, I actually walked about 40 minutes, uh, from where they were staying in Dublin out to where the stadium was with, with Ken Early, and we were just having a coffee on the walk and just sussing out like, well, this is gonna be an interesting day 'cause they're gonna release this statement, and be interesting to see exactly what they say in it.

And then you get to the, we got to the stadium and it was literally 20 minutes beforehand.

They were like, uh, before they were due at, like, quarter past 10 local time, and then a message, it was mad, believe that, like a message came through to one of the other journalists from the FAI on WhatsApp, not even an official email or whatever to who was there, but just on a WhatsApp saying, "Oh, training, training's been delayed.

it, it's not lost on me that when we had David talking about this and, you know, it o- some of it probably sounds trivial to people, and some of it, and it, you know, people probably look at that Ireland, Israel situation in footballing terms and go, "It was just a game," or whatever.

And history may not record it in a way that gives it any kind of significance.

But the, the, the reality is, like, you know, the likes of David, the likes of Ken Early, it looked like these guys went out there knowing that they were gonna be treated hostile, uh, with hostility.

Yeah.

He just read Alan Reynolds.

Stephen Kenny also, subsequent, Branagh's quite annoyed.

Branagh did write

this one, yeah.

Yeah, subsequent to that pod going out, Stephen Kenny weighed in on Alan Reynolds' side.

Not so much on everything Alan Reynolds had to say, but just in terms of Rovers getting his leg up.

Yeah.

Your peak is sought.

Eoin, Murf, and Ken here, more commonly known as The Three Captains.

The Three Captains.

You're about to listen to an edited version of The Second Captains podcast.

Welcome to Lion Live.

Five one double five one is our text number, and Joe at rt.ie from wherever you are in the world.

Ken, good afternoon.

How are you?

[beeping]

Listen, it's been a tough couple of weeks for Ken chasing the Ireland football team around Europe.

So on Monday, Owen implored him to just come home, get back to the bosom of Dublin and relax.

Sounds like reasonable, restrained treatment of your team's star player.

But what does Ken do barely 12 hours after he landed back in his hometown? He goes to Drumcree Church with Branno, because that's the sort of tough nut you're dealing with.

Hello and welcome to this week's Second Captains Tasting Menu.

Uh, we'll hear from the good folk that Ken and Branno met in Portadown in just a few minutes.

But on today's show for World Service members, we were talking about the not insignificant matter of Man City against Liverpool this Sunday, which is shaping up to be a feisty affair.

Owen, was that your first time on with the, how were we, the flame-haired thrower of truth or something? Like, what's out? He has something.

Ken Early on the second captain.

Yeah, no, it was the first time.

I'm not sure if I'm 100% qualified to go on that podcast because I'm a casual football fan, but I do enjoy discussing the politics around Spanish football because it is, you know, politics and football go sort of hand in hand in Spain.

The fact that the team assembled was... sort of should never have been assembled to be that strong and that well paid is very very important but i think to take away say kevin de bruyne's assists from the record books would feel to me harsh and unfair would you agree with that because he's gone out he's gone out and done it he's he's hit that incredible cross he's hit that beautiful through ball like that's his artistry it's his hard work he shouldn't individually be penalized should he or should he

But is a true ball possible if it's, and I'm stealing Ken Early's point here, if it's Paul Dickhove run towards it rather than Sergio Aguero? Yeah.

Like this is, and I don't really

know how we think about that.