FAI...New Manager Hunt continues

[Wildweasel74]

jesus christ could take over this team and couldnt make any miracles happen with what he has at his disposal,

[CitySlicker11]

I agree. Full strength I'd go for.

                                            1. Forde

2. Coleman        4. O'Shea                     5. Dunne         3. Wilson


     7. McGeady                         6. McCarthy               11. Brady

                                         8. Hoolohan

                                 9. Long                 10. Keane

[rodney trotter]

Team I went for was more of a look at a different xv then anything else. Keane and Dunne aren't getting younger. Still hopefully they will continue for another while. The new manager would them too.

[SHEEDY]

I agree. Full strength I'd go for.

                                            1. Forde

2. Coleman        4. O'Shea                     5. Dunne         3. Wilson


     7. McGeady                         6. McCarthy               11. Brady

                                         8. Hoolohan

                                 9. Long                 10. Keane

don't know if dunne and keane will hang around for the next campaign and forde isn't goog enough imo. i'd go for;

                   westwood

coleman   o'shea  Clarke Wilson

mc geady  Gibson  mccarthy  brady

                     hoolohan
               
                       long

[muppet]

I agree. Full strength I'd go for.

                                            1. Forde

2. Coleman        4. O'Shea                     5. Dunne         3. Wilson


     7. McGeady                         6. McCarthy               11. Brady

                                         8. Hoolohan

                                 9. Long                 10. Keane

don't know if dunne and keane will hang around for the next campaign and forde isn't goog enough imo. i'd go for;

                   westwood

coleman   o'shea  Clarke Wilson

mc geady  Gibson  mccarthy  brady

                     hoolohan
               
                       long

That is better, McCarthy would be bollixed in CitySlicker11's team.

[J OGorman]

I agree. Full strength I'd go for.

                                            1. Forde

2. Coleman        4. O'Shea                     5. Dunne         3. Wilson


     7. McGeady                         6. McCarthy               11. Brady

                                         8. Hoolohan

                                 9. Long                 10. Keane

The back 4 will thank you!! Has to be 3-5-1-1. Solid numbers in a defensive way and 1 lone striker supported by WH in the hole with Coleman and wilson as wingbacks

[Syferus]

I'll miss Trapp. Thanks for at least being good craic.

Lest we forget he was following on from the 'Gaffer'. Another bad choice now and we'll be pining for the Trapp days.

[seafoid]

The fans have high expectations as well. Hungary and Belgium have bigger populations than Ireland and people who love football etc but haven't been to many finals in the last 10 years.

Belguim are more or less through. Brilliant Squad for a such a small country.

They are Rodney but their last finals were 2002 and they have a population of over 10 million.
And they have much better clubs and cashflow than Oireland.
I think we punch above our weight and it's not realistic to expect top 2 finishes every time. 

[seafoid]

The Irish style of play isn't anything special either.


http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/eamonn-sweeney-a-glimpse-at-another-world-29436329.html

And what the likes of Molde and the teams who've visited The Showgrounds before them, Spartak Trnava, Vorskla Poltava, FC Bruges, all the way back to Red Star Belgrade in the '70s, get is football of both a higher standard and a different type than the League of Ireland fan is used to. Everyone is that couple of yards quicker than you expect, the tackles are that bit stronger, the striking of the ball that bit crisper.

Adding to the novelty of the experience is the fact that you're seeing football on the European rather than the British and Irish model. So basic ball control is better, players try to play through the middle at high speed and there's a more subtle quality of thought at play. No one ever just slings in a cross, the ball gets cut into the box at angles you're not accustomed to seeing. It's a vision of football from an entirely different tradition. You see it at international level in the Aviva of course but in the tight confines of a League of Ireland ground, the difference is that bit more striking.

Even if people love the game are they up to speed with the latest  techniques ?
Horsing it up the field is grand but there is always the danger the match ends up looking like this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2kk-gzMUzk

[rodney trotter]

The fans have high expectations as well. Hungary and Belgium have bigger populations than Ireland and people who love football etc but haven't been to many finals in the last 10 years.

Belguim are more or less through. Brilliant Squad for a such a small country.

They are Rodney but their last finals were 2002 and they have a population of over 10 million.
And they have much better clubs and cashflow than Oireland.
I think we punch above our weight and it's not realistic to expect top 2 finishes every time.

Yeah I'm aware that this is the first tournament since 02. They weren't far off qualification for the Euro's. It depends what groups Ireland are paired in. Belguim clubs are no world beaters . bar Anderlect hwho make the CL every year.  Thanks to a big investment into the club.

It's realistic enough, when the opposition isn't much better Ireland like Sweden or Austria were. The league in Sweden isn't that high of a standard either.

[rrhf]

The one thing trap made clear to us  was that the finest Irish sportsmen are all on gaa fields. C

[thewobbler]

Based admittedly on a small snapshot of society, but it would appear that the Irish public would select Trap's team, except they'd:

- replace Whelan with a winger, or even a flowerpot. f**k the shape.
- replace an experienced, goalscoring Premiership player in Walters, with another one who scores less in Hoolahan.

We really don't have many options, do we?

Poor Seamus Coleman. He's the only genuine player left.

[rodney trotter]

Based admittedly on a small snapshot of society, but it would appear that the Irish public would select Trap's team, except they'd:

- replace Whelan with a winger, or even a flowerpot. f**k the shape.
- replace an experienced, goalscoring Premiership player in Walters, with another one who scores less in Hoolahan.

We really don't have many options, do we?

Poor Seamus Coleman. He's the only genuine player left.

Gibson would replace Whelan for most I'd imagine. Anthony Stokes is the only Irish player that will be playing CL football, based on last night he would be there for Walters.

Robbie Brady , Ciaran Clarke and Greg Cunningham are good young talents. Its not as depressing as Liam Brady made it sound last night.

[seafoid]

The fans have high expectations as well. Hungary and Belgium have bigger populations than Ireland and people who love football etc but haven't been to many finals in the last 10 years.

Belguim are more or less through. Brilliant Squad for a such a small country.

They are Rodney but their last finals were 2002 and they have a population of over 10 million.
And they have much better clubs and cashflow than Oireland.
I think we punch above our weight and it's not realistic to expect top 2 finishes every time.

Yeah I'm aware that this is the first tournament since 02. They weren't far off qualification for the Euro's. It depends what groups Ireland are paired in. Belguim clubs are no world beaters . bar Anderlect hwho make the CL every year.  Thanks to a big investment into the club.

It's realistic enough, when the opposition isn't much better Ireland like Sweden or Austria were. The league in Sweden isn't that high of a standard either.

Switzerland had a very handy group this time.

Clubs are all ranked by money now. Much more so than 20 or 30 years ago. Lots of European leagues are just feeders for the bigger clubs that win all the titles. You'll never have a club from Eastern Europe winning the CL, for example.
The current system doesn't suit Ireland because it's very hard to get players onto the top 5 teams in England.
Belgian clubs are not CL material but some of them  are probably  not so shabby compared to the bottom 6 in the Premiership /top 10 in the championship either. 
Very few Irish players ever play on the Continent.
   

[thewobbler]

To be honest I think these things are just cyclical in smaller countries.

Czech Republic in the 70s. Poland in early 80s. Croatia had a golden generation late 90s early 00s and were a match for anyone. Romania the same a generation before, Bulgaria overlapped them both for a while. Denmark in 1992, and Norway at the end of the 90s, all hit their greatest highs before falling to relative obscurity. The point being that the secret to any of these successes was not a brilliant manager, a brilliant league system, or a brilliant youth setup. Instead they all got a number of top class players at once, and back filled with useful players.

Ireland are currently on the lowest part of the cycle. I honestly believe the best thing a manager can do for the next 4-5 years is keep the coefficient as high as possible and morale as high as possible, so that when a few good players come along, they don't have a mountain to climb early in their international careers.


I mentioned Scotland earlier in this thread. They qualified for umpteen major tournaments from 1974 to 2004. And in a decade they've disappeared without trace, and their best players want to play for Ireland instead. Mad stuff. But that's what will happen if we pretend we can compete on an even keel.