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To end up with one of Rashford, Martial or Sancho at a club could be seen as bad luck.

To have two of them could even be seen as bad luck.

To have all three of them though... that's high-level incompetence. A resounding unwillingness to see the the wood for the trees.

And that's before you throw Antony into the mix.

Was listening to the news in the car on the way home from work and tributes were coming in from George W Bush, Tony Blair, Putin and the Chinese Govt.

Fairytale of New York just one of those songs that even warlord national leaders enjoy.

I like the Pogues. But half an hour / half an album at a time is plenty. There's something about their sound just takes too much out of you to enjoy over a longer spell. 

There's 110 miles between Drumcliff and Kilcoo.

Surely this has to be a record distance for a voluntary club manager to travel?

It's not as far away as the griping above would make you believe.

There won't be a perfect system. There won't even be a close to perfect system. You can't stop stars aligning.

Three simple measures should be easy to implement across the board:

1. When a club wins its county's IFC or JFC, for the subsequent season, they must play at a higher championship level. This stipulation supersedes all localised competition rules.

2. If a club's senior league position at the end of any season, ranks them in 10th place or higher, then they must compete in their county's SFC the following season. This stipulation supersedes all localised competition rules.

3. If a club's senior league position at the end of any season, ranks them in 20th place or higher, then they cannot play in their county's JFC the following season. This stipulation supersedes all localised competition rules.


No. 1 is a no-brainer.

Nos. 2 and 3 could run into logistics issues in smaller counties, but in those cases the ranges could be adapted accordingly.

I know I know I know that in some in counties they don't take league football seriously. But you know what? There's clubs everywhere forking out a fortune for management teams and toys all year round. The least they could do in return is try harder in league football.

Twitter wants to blame the coach and the committee for this nonsense.

But the reality is that it's only possible to come up with a set of rules like this if there's a core of players driving it.

Do you think so?? Jesus I'd hope not you'd hope that you're able to reason most of the above out with your team mates. Also why would you banish someone who's heading away? Surely if they're good enough you keep them until they go?


I may be wrong but I'm pretty sure Glen have had a few lads travelling at different stages in the past few years and haven't subscribed to the above nonsense.

No soccer or golf? Jesus!

Also whatever about the nonsense of it how is this being circulated? You'd have it on a powerpoint or get the lads to sign a hard copy at a meeting there's no way that should be available for distribution around Ireland!

I just don't think it's possible for a coach to implement this culture from anything approaching scratch. It has to be the wishes of a core of players, who will then drive it.

That core of players doesn't mean all players by the way. It'll be principally made up of deluded older players who reckon that young people don't have the discipline and love of the game, that they have. And that's the only reason they're not winning county championships.

Twitter wants to blame the coach and the committee for this nonsense.

But the reality is that it's only possible to come up with a set of rules like this if there's a core of players driving it.

These people can be both complete scumbags as well as be canaries in the coal mine.

Mass immigration (emphasis on the mass) when it lands on your door step doesn't appear to be all it's cracked up to be (unless you're a making money out of the scheme) but governments have told us we're not allowed to think that or indeed be allowed talk about the potentially very reasonable positions they might have on the topic.

Couldn't agree more.

A government worried about getting re-elected, an under-qualified and lazy mainstream media, and a needy conspiracy theory community have (largely unwittingly) joined forces to create and promote a fictional Irish far right movement of strength and influence, and use the political spectrum as their stock response for citizen unrest.

The Irish far right movement has as much influence on people as my puppy.

I don't honestly think this is facism or extremism at play.

There's the bored youths pushing the boundaries. There's a pitchfork wielding mob that have neither the brains nor the interest to consider why they swing their pitchforks; it's just what they do. There's the vile, opportunistic scum making hay from the madness.

But the underlying current that has swollen and caused this, I genuinely believed, is fuelled by a housing crisis that has become a time bomb. The working classes and middle classes are getting financially obliterated in Dublin, as a direct cost of rent and housing. And that means it is not the right time for government to be taking in tens of thousands of refugees.

Refugees have a limited effect on the housing market. Immigration by well paid people in Intel or Google may well have more effect as these people can afford the rent. However, this group are paying their way and are paying for the scumbags who are looting Dublin tonight.

Whether refugees have a limited effect on the housing market is irrelevant.

What is relevant is that there's a rising tide of Irish people whose only opportunity to continue living where they're from, is to hand over the vast majority of their income to landlords (or, if they're lucky, to a bank). The government has taken almost no steps to prevent this happening.

But at the same time, the government is housing, feeding and paying people to come into the country, not to work.

As a policy it doesn't run along parallel lines with the housing crisis. But it does present any Irish person who is enduring financial struggles and concerns about their future, with a pretty rational reason to distrust their government, and the longer it continues, too begin hating their government. When a sizeable group of people of this mindset are found in the same area, plenty of them will be bored, plenty of them will be pitchfork wielders by nature and plenty of them will be vile scum. Meaning that peaceful protests will only go one way. It's a tinderbox just waiting for a spark. 

Pinning what has happened here on the far right, or on racism or extremism, well I think that's a cop out, and one that leans too heavily on the polarised culture of across the Atlantic. There's a closer-to-home problem running through Dublin today.

Giggs a flair player?

Maybe for his first 2-3 seasons. After that he was a solid, team-first player with a touch of class. And that's not a criticism.

I don't honestly think this is facism or extremism at play.

There's the bored youths pushing the boundaries. There's a pitchfork wielding mob that have neither the brains nor the interest to consider why they swing their pitchforks; it's just what they do. There's the vile, opportunistic scum making hay from the madness.

But the underlying current that has swollen and caused this, I genuinely believed, is fuelled by a housing crisis that has become a time bomb. The working classes and middle classes are getting financially obliterated in Dublin, as a direct cost of rent and housing. And that means it is not the right time for government to be taking in tens of thousands of refugees.

Roy Keane had a few issues, but one one those was not being limited skill wise.

In always favouring a 15-yard pass to where his teammate was running, over a 70-yard hollywood ball that would require his teammate to slow then take 2 touches, it meant he never would have Steven Gerrard's highlights reel... but it also made him the better (and much more bemedalled) player.

Playing numbers and football long culture are of course key drivers.

But I'm really not sure how the wealth of a person's nation could be any kind of factor in their potential/desire to become a high-level athlete.

Hunger isn't set at a national, regional, local or group level. It comes from within.

People constantly gurning about money and investment.

The laziest of arguments.

Having a professional league with a long history and some bloody big clubs, has done little to stop Scotland's slide into a tier 3 international football team.

Ireland has more players in the EPL than Scotland this season.

Having a weak domestic league, low wages and a rudimentary infrastructure hasn't stopped the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Senegal and Mali all producing players (and international teams) that are clearly superior to Ireland.


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Ireland had a long summer of good players in the 80s and 90s. Punched way above our weight for 20 years.

Now we're wintering.

Summer will happen again sometime.

It's meant to elite level sport fellas. McClean had to work harder because he'd below average technique, and a below average first touch; as such he was rarely in control of the ball. He had to charge around at full tilt with sweat beating out of him as he'd below average pace, and almost no ability to read or take charge of the game.

Some of you would be better off watching dog fighting.