Clarke: Long tweet acceptable

Shane Long has been defended by his West Bromwich Albion manager Steve Clarke after an apparent show of anger from the player at his omission from Ireland’s games against Germany and Kazakhstan.

Before Tuesday night’s game against Kazakhstan at the Aviva Stadium, the striker tweeted: “Cowboy. Nuff said.” which was widely interpreted to be a dig at Ireland’s interim manager Noel King. But, yesterday, Clarke said he could understand the player’s disappointment at not being selected.

“You go away for 10 days and you expect to play for your country and [when] you don’t get selected it is disappointing,” he said. “I wouldn’t think there would be too many bad words in the tweet if he was disappointed not to be selected. I think that was acceptable.”