Strange choice for his first post but he must not have had many options. Strange one as he's obviously well liked and connected in various countries and clubs. Hasn't ever struck me as being particularly insightful on the game but who knows what he'll be like as a manager.
21 leagues and 25 cups.
'suggested Keane should have turned down the job due to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.'
Not what he said. And typical of RTE to use those weasel words. It's not a 'conflict' at all.
This suggests moral equivalency between the Palestinian kids throwing stones, and the US-backed European colonialists with access to tanks, F-16 jets and nuclear weapons, engaged in the genocidal cultural, ethnic and physical destruction of those indigenous people.
An utterly dispicable suggestion.
Last edited by Trequartista20; 27/06/2023 at 11:21 PM.
A friend of mine from Brazil waited tables in a restaurant he frequented quite a bit about ten years back. Said Robbie was exceptionally nice. Always a decent measure of a person, how they treat people they deal with who are serving them.Originally Posted by Eminence Grise
In this instance, I wouldn’t touch that job or that money in a million years. It’s disappointing but not surprising that he did. With the exception of a very limited number of players, footballers (and golfers and other sportspeople) seem to have very few qualms about where their money comes from and how much blood it’s soaked in…
How can we complain about anyone taking a job in Israel when we dont complain about anyone working in England. England did as much to us as Israel have done to Palestine. The man took a job. I live and work in a country who dropped 2 nuclear bombs. Is there a time frame for how long we need to be moralistic about a country?
I dont like Israel, would prefer not to work there given a choice, I hate everything they are doing with Palestine... but its funny how we pick and choose countries who enough time has passed to be ok.
Whatever timeframe one might agree on, I think the key phrase in your post there Razors is "are doing".
Yeah maybe, but Britain still ARE ruling part of our own country still. It's not a thing of the past but we are ok with Irish men and women making a living there.
It's not a simple topic, I just think we need to ease off on the morality thing a bit considering most nations of the world will do business with Israel but we expect a sports person to make a stand
I don't like broad sweeps about peoples - even the red coats. The world and people are just too complex. It's an atrocity that for centuries Jewish people had no safe place to call home. It's an atrocity that if one Israeli is killed a hundred Palestinians are killed in response. The settler behaviour in recent weeks is another atrocity.
But Israelis (like every other nation on earth) are not a monolith - there are plenty that despise their government's actions/approach. Broad generalizations about peoples and countries are cognitive enablers for grandiose moralizing though, so they are not going away anytime soon.
Last edited by texidub; 28/06/2023 at 8:26 AM.
Yeah one the lads met him and his missus at a concert in the 3 Arena and said he came across as bang on. Said Robbie was well up for chatting and cracked a couple of jokes. Said similar about Ryan Tubridy. Met him in a pub back when he had just started the Late Late gig. Said he came across sound and even bought my mate a pint.
A higher portion than is perceived too I think. Moral equivalence is a difficult thing. Footballers and managers work in Saudi and UAE. Ireland systematically abused women and children for decades. USA dropped two nuclear bombs. Did cyclist Dan Martin get abuse for riding for the Israel Start-Up Nation team? That was a team owned by the actual state (I assume), not a private club. I work in a country that Ireland has been at war of various kinds with over the centuries, and which supplies weapons to Yemen's oppressors.
I have no truck with Israel policy towards settlement and the associated crimes, and I'd probably have some conscientious issues working there myself but I think Robbie is within his rights to take up this job without Daniel Lambert (pandering to his support base?) and others piling on him.
I suspect our views on the individual countries concerned may differ (understatement!), but when it comes to the general principle, I agree with your take on Robbie K, the point being that he's not going to work for Israel, he's going to work in Israel, a country with which the ROI government enjoys full diplomatic relations.
On which point, would anyone object if an ROI player signed to play eg for Newcastle United? Were there protests when Irish golfer Graeme McDowell joined the Saudi LIV Tour last year? Irish racing trainers and jockeys working for various Gulf despots?
Still, so long as he doesn't end up joining the Israeli Defence Forces, it'll probably blow over
From the Obituary for "Gentleman John Carey":
"But just as his career [with Manchester United] was gathering momentum, the Second World War intervened and he was faced with an agonising decision. Hailing from neutral Ireland, he had the right to go home if he wished, but the highly principled youngster reckoned that "a country that gives me my living is worth fighting for" and he joined the British Army. His service took him to North Africa and Italy, where he guested for several clubs"
On a separate note (see opening post on this thread), as someone who was fortunate to have seen Robbie play many times for Spurs, I cannot understand the ambivalence towards him amongst some supporters of the ROI team - if he'd been Northern Irish, we'd have been building a statue of him!
And it's not just for his goals and general ability etc, but for his whole attitude towards representing his country, where he always turned up when called, over many, many years. Someone compared him with "the tigerish Roy Keane", who managed a grand total of 76 caps over 14 years. Of course he was sometimes unlucky with injuries (Ryan Giggs Hamstring?), but Tiger Roy hardly helped his tally eg by Saipan, or declining to travel to Iran for a vital play-ff second leg. While in case anyone needs reminding, Zionist Robbie gained a phenomenal 146 caps over 19 years, the most of any player from these islands, and all the more impressive when you consider that ROI didn't always qualify for tournament finals like some other countries.
I heard similar stories about John Delaney JR. Psychopaths are fairly good at coming across well on the surface. Not saying Keane is a psychopath now......
21 leagues and 25 cups.
A friend of mine was a volunteer for the U-17 Euros doing the VIP stuff and said Robbie was absolutely lovely, very friendly, genuine and polite in their dealings with him.
We've loads of anecdotal evidence of him being sound. Has anyone anecdotal evidence or any evidence of him being not sound except for trying to nick a goal from Jon Walters????!
(Doubt he'll be long in this job, mind, reminds me of Ronnie Whelan going to Cyprus)
Well wrapchap on Reddit says he's an arsehole so there's that! It's the anecdotal evidence of him being a ****e coach that is probably more worrying though to be fair.
Not a huge fan of how he handled his salary situation with the FAI to be honest. It clouds my opinion of him. He could have done something to earn the money or he could have walked and freed up some funds while other people actually working in the game weren't being paid or were being paid less than they were promised. I know he was within his rights but some things are bigger than money.
Still hope it works out for him. If he does turn about to be a good a manager we could use him.
Last edited by ontheotherhand; 28/06/2023 at 5:22 PM.
21 leagues and 25 cups.
Graham Kavanagh talked a bit about his son Calum working with Robbie at Middlesbrough here: https://www.buzz.ie/sport/graham-kav...calum-26010767
Seems to have good things to say about his coaching sessions
The section below is encouraging alright.
He does some work in the Rovers academy but I'll be honest, I haven't heard anything good or bad. His son plays there.
Kavanagh added: “Robbie’s detail is very good and his sessions are very good.
“When he was here he did a session with Middlesbrough’s first-team. All the sessions are videoed.
“He took the lads who hadn’t been playing and he was involved in the session himself.
“He sent me on the video and I swear to God he must have scored about 12 goals himself.
“You are looking at him thinking, if you are training with him every day that can be really beneficial.
“He’s not here anymore but he was a different class and the lads loved him. He’s a good coach and his detail and information are very good.”
21 leagues and 25 cups.
Noel Hunt Irl v Italy in Parma?
Taking a job in Israel is pretty solid evidence of it in my book.
Robbie has to start somewhere. Reasonable option. Hopefully him and Delap will do well and topple Haifa. Tel Aviv is a wonderful city and he will enjoy his time there relaxing next to the Mediterranean. Best of luck to him and his family!
Off The Ball had a hit piece on Robbie yesterday via an interview with Chris Andrews, Sinn Fein. Andrews pulled no punches.. and drew 'what if?' comaprisons with Spartak Moscow and Russia.
This was cyncial, opportunist hypocrisy of the highest order. Last year, SF deleted thousands of statements from its website, including statements related to Russia due to their long-standing appreciation of the Putin regime. And who is this Andrews to tell an Irish person where they should work?
This Chris Andrews?
[A] 200-page dossier on antisemitism in Irish public life reveals how Chris Andrews, a Sinn Fein TD (member of the Irish parliament), liked a comment on his Facebook page in 2018 that called Israelis “murdering Zionist *******s” and seemed to suggest that Hitler may “not have been too far wrong”.
https://www.thejc.com/news/uk/israel...itics-1.521452
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