Poor Succession Planning

[Paddy Garcia]

I saw Jamie Redknapp on a panel the other day & couldn't help thinking what a decent job the English have done when it comes to succession planning.

Succession Planning as you know is, in short, a management term for the dicipline of taking steps to replace oneself. Jamis Redknapp is one example.

Better Frank Lampard is a superb example of succession planning where young talent has been nutured and Snr has ensured he was not missed by his country for too long.

The English also have Wright Phillips, and not just one but two!! How's that for making great use of the talent genes - especially as at least one of them is adopted. I read that young Sturridge is deemed among the hottest talents in England. Even Clemence got in on the act. The Nevilles had famous sporting parents too.

So my question is: where have the Irish talent genes from our great footballers gone?

OK we have had a couple recently. I read that the dad's of Bruce and Dixon both played. However, again neither were Irish. We had to rely on English dads for them both.

What is doubly disappointing is the failure of the FAI to learn from one of Irelands greatest successes - the stud farm! All that expertise on their own doorstep, and seemingly ignored.

Anyway do we have any talent with great genes coming through? I do know of young Houghton at Tottenham. I also think young Aldridge flirted with Tranmere a few years back. Are there any others? Not since the days of Whelan and Alan Kelly can I recall a significant impact being made along these lines.

Perhaps we can encourage our greats to try a bit harder in this area & take their responsibility as seriously as the English so clearly do.

Mind you I heard that Henry's (Thierry not Nick) wife is Irish & Partridge is going out with Michael Owens sister. Could make for an interesting Irish front line on 20 odd years time!

Any others out there?

[Irish_Praha]

Paul McGrath's son was on Liverpool's books a few years back but he was sh!te.
We have tried out our top scorer's cousin a few times. Garry Kelly did alright for a few years at RB so we gave his nephew 50 plus caps at LB. Roy Keane has a few sons but he'll probably encourage them to play for England :p

[The Legend]

So thats why they locked Pele up in a sperm bank in Brazil for 40 years? No offense, but this is a ridiculous thread.

[irishfan86]

this is a ridiculous thread.

Agreed.

[tricky_colour]

So thats why they locked Pele up in a sperm bank in Brazil for 40 years? No offense, but this is a ridiculous thread.

It's not that ridiculous, not if you compare it to the horse racing world
anyway. Of course for best results you need a good female footballers
in the stud farm too :D
Not much point in crossing a throughbred with a donkey.
(We don't want another JOS do we :p )

[OwlsFan]

Is this not covered in "Seeds for WOrld Cup 2010" :D :D ??

[eirebhoy]

Did Ronaldo and Milene Domingues ever have kids? :)

[as_i_say]

we're not playing in the world cup so we might as well talk about random sh ite

[NeilMcD]

Silly season is here

[Stuttgart88]

Although meant in jest, the title of this thread touches a nerve with me.

We failed miserably to capitalise on the simultaneous occurances of (a) international success and (b) a once and for all permanent & substantial increase in the wealth of the country.

The FAI can only do so much but I really am sick that at this stage we still have a ramshackled old heap of a stadium, we are only now making plans to take the domestic league into the latter stages of the 20th century, let alone the 21st, we're still hemorrhaging talent to England at too young an age and by and large the future success of our national side is largely out of our hands.

I'm positive about certain aspects of the current set up (most of the Genesis II proposals, the FAI Technical Development Plan etc.) but we're so far behind the rest of our perceived peers it's disgraceful.

If FIFA / UEFA were to revamp the game and create a tiering based roughly on those that are being implemented domestically I wonder where we'd end up. These are the Independent Assessment Process criteria. Now apply the same criteria to our international team:

Most recent season's results plus those of recent seasons: Ooops
Infrastructure (i.e., quality of facilities & ownership): Ooops again
Governance & youth development: Governance - holy ****. Youth development is good I think.
Sustainability (in context of governance): FAI makes the Italian government look stable.
Strategic Planning: Cough, splutter.
Target Markets: We'd score OK here but just about. We'd be a drop in the ocean in terms of FIFA / UEFA's commercial targets though.

So, by the standards we're (rightly) setting ourselves domestically we'd fail miserably internationally.

[nedder]

The FAI can only do so much but I really am sick that at this stage we still have a ramshackled old heap of a stadium, .


Was looking at at football focus last week, the Angolans have a better stadium than us!! Its a disgrace that this country has no national stadium.
Anytime someone mentions it, the response is usually along the lines of "how many hospitals could we build for that??"

[OwlsFan]

Was looking at at football focus last week, the Angolans have a better stadium than us!! Its a disgrace that this country has no national stadium.
Anytime someone mentions it, the response is usually along the lines of "how many hospitals could we build for that??"

I think I'd prefer to live here than Angola:p I suspect millions were ciphoned off to build that stadium which should have gone elsewhere in that country.

As for it being a disgrace not having a national stadium, this country was verging on being a third world world country for almost 70 years and the last thing on the Government's mind was building a national stadium - jobs were more important. Now, Lansdowne is being developed into one or that's the theory anyway.

[Shelsman]

Was looking at at football focus last week, the Angolans have a better stadium than us!! Its a disgrace that this country has no national stadium.

And Northern Ireland are looking at building a 40,000 seater stadium too!



Anytime someone mentions it, the response is usually along the lines of "how many hospitals could we build for that??"

Dead right too. If you or someone in your family was sick and there was no hospital bed for them, you'd be p!ssed off.
That said, sport does raise the hopes / mental health / form / happiness of a country ( when they do well! ).

[nedder]

I was joking about the hospital bit, obviously they are more important,
I just think we should have made greater progress on the stadium issue by now that a planned 45,000 seater redevelopment of Landsdowne.

[Stekelly]

Dead right too. If you or someone in your family was sick and there was no hospital bed for them, you'd be p!ssed off.

Well if we're wheeling out that old chesnut, why spend money on anything till no one is dying in hospitals? Stop building roads, paying people any more than they need to survive etc.