Jump to content

Begovic: "I have my issues with Canada"


sstackho

Recommended Posts

Some cryptic comments in an interview with Begovic.

Amir Begovic enjoying his time at Yeovil

489 words

17 October 2008

Western Daily Press

default

70

English

Copyright © 2008 Western Daily Press. All Rights Reserved.

Yeovil Town's on-loan Portsmouth goalkeeper Asmir Begovic admits he would consider a third spell at Huish Park in January.

The Canadian's three-month loan deal comes to an end early next month when he will have to return to Fratton Park.

Loan rules dictate that he cannot then re-sign for the Glovers until the transfer window re-opens in January. But that is something Begovic would like to do.

He said: "I am keen to leave the team in a strong position.

"I have enjoyed my time immensely and playing the games has done me the world of good. I am enjoying playing more and more.

"Hopefully things are good with the club.

"I am not too aware of my options but if I could stay and play more games, that would be fantastic. I need to sit down with the gaffer."

When Begovic does go back to Portsmouth, his compatriot Josh Wagenaar looks set to make his league debut for Yeovil.

Wagenaar was an unused substitute for Canada's World Cup qualifier with Mexico this week, but he is not expected back in time for tomorrow's trip to Northampton Town.

Begovic has 11 Under-20 caps but is yet to play for his country's senior team.

"I have my issues with Canada that are personal and that is another thing," he said.

"For me to play well with my club has nothing to do with the national team.

"I would like to play for Canada but it has never been down to me.

"It is down to the people running the team.

"I don't want to say too much about it but I would like to play for Canada."

Begovic's priority is to keep a first league clean sheet with the Glovers after two weeks without a game because of the international break.

"It works both ways," he said. "We have a lot of games and we wished we had gone into the break after a good result but it wasn't to be but we are fresh and we have some good games coming up so everyone is looking forward to them."

Yeovil's next four games are against teams in the bottom half of League One - Northampton, Crewe, Leyton Orient and Huddersfield.

"They definitely are winnable," said Begovic.

"They are against teams around us and we don't want to fall back and there is no reason why we can't get three points at Northampton.

"If you win a game you can move up four or five places. If we can get a result at Northampton it will really spur us on for the next couple of games.

"At the beginning of the season you are always optimistic but I still think we can do better.

"I think we have probably had the hardest start of any of the teams."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I hate Dale Mitchell as much as the next guy, but great me, there are only 18 call ups or so for each match. Quit the crying about not being called -especially when you play for Yeovil. At least you weren't like poor Julian De Guzman and Owen Hargreaves, who were cut from a U-17 team! If the comments focused on the problem that we don't fill the international calendar (the real problem for not enough caps to go around) I would have more sympathy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Asmir always had the thought of playing for his birth nation in the back of his mind. When I interviewed him earlier this year, he still was talking about playing for Bosnia. However, he loves Canada and has always wanted to play for the national squad.

As for his complaint, he can't really be complaining in my opinion. He has had very little success lately, and doesn't deserve a call-up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've commented that there were quite a few players on the U20's who were very unhappy and disillusioned with DM and everything that went down with that team.

I don't know if Asmir is one of those guys but he may be. Possibly, his comments reflect some hard feelings toward Dale, the CSA, etc... I'm just speculating because I don't know Asmir at all. I do agree with those who have posted that Asmir really doesn't warrant a call-up to the MNT at this time, based on current results. In fairness, I haven't seen him play for Yeovil so I don't know if his defence is seive-like or if he's struggling but the results have not been stellar from what I can tell.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote:Originally posted by youllneverwalkalone

I hate Dale Mitchell as much as the next guy, but great me, there are only 18 call ups or so for each match. Quit the crying about not being called -especially when you play for Yeovil. At least you weren't like poor Julian De Guzman and Owen Hargreaves, who were cut from a U-17 team! If the comments focused on the problem that we don't fill the international calendar (the real problem for not enough caps to go around) I would have more sympathy.

YOU ARE VERY MUCH WRONG. a wise and smart footy manger can call at least 20/25 players per game, it is up to the manager ALWAYS ,

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote:Originally posted by Massive Attack

I wonder if he may have gotten a bit jealous seeing his teammate Wagenaar get the call?

In reality, calling either Wagenaar or Begovic shows what a sorry state the keeper situation is for our country.

Well, Jamaica's starting keeper was a League Two keeper for most of his career and except for Mexico and USA, I would suspect that Josh and Asmir are of similar quality to most CONCACAF teams 3rd or 4th keepers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The better question to me is why call up Wagenaar, who hasn't even gotten to look at the first team as long as Begovic has been in town?

Given Begovic's prior experience with Mitchell, the question at least needs to be asked. And Begovic is certainly entitled to ask it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

After Sutton and Onstad pulled out we were left with either Wagenaar or Begovic. The only other keeper I can think of that could have been called is Kenny S. but he isn't even a starter at Tromso.

By all accounts, Wagenaar has been the better keeper than Begovic at Yoevil. Begovic plays more because of the stipulations of his loan deal, not because he has been outplaying Wagenaar. I could be wrong, but Wagenaar is destined to be Yeovil's #1 once Begovic's loan deal ends.

As I stated above, Canada's keeper situation is pretty bad at the moment.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote:Originally posted by Lord Bob

The better question to me is why call up Wagenaar, who hasn't even gotten to look at the first team as long as Begovic has been in town?

Given Begovic's prior experience with Mitchell, the question at least needs to be asked. And Begovic is certainly entitled to ask it.

There's a "gentlemen agreement" between Yeovil and Pompey that Asmir would be loan for cheap as long as Yeovil would play him if healthy.

Also, it should be noted that Wagenaar played in a few Cup games so far. Yeovil fans haven't been impress with Asmir so far and they would like to see Josh getting a shot at the starting position. So, I'm not sure it was a shocking move to call Josh over Asmir since there's no real difference between the 2 (you could also argue that Josh has more experience with that group than Asmir since he's been called for a few camps and has one cap).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As much as they probably aren't going to play, i think it's important that we start bringing some younger guys in who we are eventually going to count on.

The way we call guys up currently, it's going to lead to a drastic change at some point when most of our players get too old and we have to call a completely new group.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote:Originally posted by Free kick

And you are sure about that?

You can switch country until your 21st birthday. Asmir turned 21 in June so he can't play for Bosnia unless he has filed all the paperworks asked by FIFA before he turned 21 and no one has reported about it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote:Originally posted by loyola

You can switch country until your 21st birthday. Asmir turned 21 in June so he can't play for Bosnia unless he has filed all the paperworks asked by FIFA before he turned 21 and no one has reported about it.

Yes and obviously he hasn't filed those papers or he wouldn't be talking about Canada to the papers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...