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Tjay withdraws from Gibraltar squad (not injured)

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  • edited March 2023

    Is Tjay's accent a typical Gibraltarian accent? I'm curious, can't say I've heard many people from there speak!

  • He's realised that in a few years there's no way he's getting in the Spain squad.


  • I probably should have said "potential" cult hero in fairness.

    I was probably in the "De Barge" camp until recently. Now he's showing he can do crazy flicks and play people in brilliantly.

    Plus he's got to be near the top of any "players I least want to be pursuing me when I have the ball" list in the league.

  • You didn't see the reaction when they drew with Bulgaria in the summer

  • They're all bilingual and speak fluent Spanish and English, often code switching mid conversation. It's sort of meshed into its own dialect called Llanito.

  • Sounds like a fairly well educated Southern English accent to me, with a hint of something else, which doesn't seem immediately identifiable as Spanish.

  • I'm sure it must have been a difficult decision for TJ. Giving up the chance to represent your country again and play against the Netherlands. But fully understand his decision and hopefully their manager does.

    By the way TJ and a bunch of his mates were sat behind me at the Man City game. There did seem to be a fair amount of what sounded like Spanish being spoken. They went absolutely berserk when we scored.

  • Difficult but correct decision best all round. Has to look after his development. Very simply if he goes and Vokes is fit by the time he gets back he could be a bit part player again and eventually get released. If he can take his chance, grab some goals and assists in the next few games or just impress he'll play a lot until the end of the season and have a good chance at a long league career that will benefit his national team.

    Not easy choice though, a worldy against the Dutch wouldn't do him any harm either.

  • I'm very much hoping this sounds like Julio Geordio and they chuck in the occasional ironic Chris Waddle

  • Interesting decision. Now Wheeler is fit again I suspect he'll start in the 10 role. Does that mean De Barr gets pushed up to 9 or does that stay with Hanlan?

  • Nah, too late for potential, he's already there for me.

  • We have all assumed that he's "turned down" Gibraltar to focus on WWFC.

    Do you not think he would have pulled out before now if that were the case? Could be anything - family reasons, a falling out, been told he's not going to play so sent home, or of course putting WWFC and his career first.

    Whatever it is, PR teams will make the player look like the hero. He will get plenty more opportunities with Gibraltar, not so many with us.

    Could be a big call in his career that he may or may not regret.

  • Didn't make any sense to pull out before, because he wasn't getting a sniff of action.

    He's guaranteed a start this weekend and is out of contract soon, with all cult hero and potential talk aside, he hasn't quite done enough to be a new contract certainty.

  • Was probably he was unsure whether or not to drop out, Bloomfield told him to go home for a couple of days and think about it so he returned to Gibraltar and stayed with his family for a couple of days and made the decision yesterday.

  • With the players potentially on their way out and the money that they were on, I'd say he has done enough. I think he is more highly regarded than we think.

    He is our biggest hope becoming anything close to what Mehmeti is from what we have seen.

  • Three years ago, if someone told me we would be debating the various story elements of a player turning down his country to play for Wycombe, I would have pinched myself.

  • For some perspective High Wycombe has a population almost three times that of Gibraltar. He knows where the potential lies.

  • It probably costs him money to play for Gibraltar. He gets paid by WWFC and might be on a decent appearance bonus.

    Wise decision from a young man who clearly has his head screwed on.

    Gibraltar won't be there for him when he gets injured, we have been and will continue to be.

  • Wycombe doesn't have macaques roaming the streets, though.

  • edited March 2023

    Metaphorically perhaps at times

  • Am I right in remembering Kevin Betsy second time round went off to play in an international, then pretty much never got back in after?

    There's definite risk with these sort of games I think. Lovely honour etc etc, but he's got his future on the line here.

  • Definitely think international calls ups contributed to Daryl Horgan’s never getting a settled run early doors

  • Would have to get @ReturnToSenda to check the stats on this.

    Perception is that he did start a lot of games in the championship season, especially at the start?

  • If there were enough callups for the game to get postponed Tjay would be in Portugal right now but we sold or loaned out the rest of our internationals

  • Is there any possibility that MB influenced his decision?

    We are pretty limited in options with Vokes (possibly/probably) out so it wouldn’t be unreasonable for our manager to ask TJ if he’d consider staying with WWFC this time.

  • I don't think he would have directly said he didn't want him going. As I said earlier he was probably told to go to the national team camp I'm Gibraltar, spend a couple of days with family and make a decision when he's certain. It would really damage a player's trust if he was explicitly told not to accept a callup or risk his spot in the team.

  • Personally I hope we didn’t pressure him into it, that would leave a bit of an unpleasant taste.

    If players are called up for international football they should be perfectly entitled to go.

    if he’s made the choice himself that’s fair enough and you can see why. It could be make or break in his entire football career.

    Let’s hope we can repay the debt to Gibraltar at some point.

  • Out of interest Who would win a competitive match - Wycombe v Gibraltar?

  • I’d have thought Wycombe would win hands down given TJay’s strike partner for Gibraltar is Reece Styche who’s now at Matlock and for Wycombe it’s either Sam Vokes or Brandon Hanlan.

  • Is that a joke? I doubt it would be a contest.

    They have a player from Loughborough Students in their squad.

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