Sadlier

[shelbourne1904]

Isnt he working as a journalist now he knacked his knee, anyone know where?


Who cares where. Once he isa journo he cannot be trusted as his sole:eek: reason to be is to sell papers no matter what the content!!!!

[depor]

Taken seriously? What, are they some sort of joke because they aren't in the last 16 of the Champions League? The knock out phases of the CL this year are remarkable only in their familiarity. 4 English clubs, 3 Spanish, 3 Italian, one a piece from Germany and France and the token participants from Southern Europe. The 'surprise package' consisted of Celtic, former champions. Does this mean that outside the established ranks of the latter stages of the CL, everywhere else is a joke? Do fans in Prague, in Brussels, in Warsaw, in Stockholm, in Vienna, do they call their teams a joke? Is modern football, outside of perhaps 50 clubs with any remote chance of qualifying for these stages, worthless and rubbish. No, it is not. Fans in those cities support their club in their droves, because they are football fans, true fans, proud of their allegiance in bad times and in good because they are proud of the team that represents them not ignorant sheep with some facade of expertise based upon what is fed to them via their pundit of choice.

The "malaise" of Irish football is not English football. It is the innate ability of the Irish to hate almost everything about themselves whilst crowing about how patriotic they are.

potm/ year:)

[TonyD]

Hello lads, it's the 'blow in' here.

Hi Roddy, I've only just twigged it was you :D

[GavinZac]

superb.
GavinZac, forget post of the month, that gets my vote for post of the year.
Extremely well said sir, I applaud you.
potm/ year:)Only a couple of days left :D
http://foot.ie/showthread.php?t=87078&page=2

[Erstwhile Bóz]

It was good up until the end bit, GavinZac -- you seem to have mistakenly taken the final sentence from a rant about the decline of Irish. ;)

[GavinZac]

It was good up until the end bit, GavinZac -- you seem to have mistakenly taken the final sentence from a rant about the decline of Irish. ;)

Oh yeah, because I'm so patriotic, right? :D

[mark12345]

Ease up with the missiles lads, will ya. I was only expressing an opinion about the game I knew back then, versus the one I see today. I saw about thirty minutes of highlights and had heard great things about the Irish game - was just a bit disappointed but in all fairness I don't claim to know nearly as much as you lads or indeed anyone living at home.

Gavin you asked me what I would do to improve the Eircom League. Fair enough, I'd start right away with the coaching. If I had a penny to spend on improving the league I'd bring in ten or twelve foreign coaches from South America to teach our kids.

From what I've seen of futsal it has improved the game everywhere its played, and that should stand to the Irish game in years to come, but for now we could use those foreign coaches. Why? Because, for whatever reason, they produce players who are far more technical and who stand the test of time, and make more than a few bob on the tansfer market.

I would also like to think that our teams could do as well in Europe, in the next two or three years, as the likes of Rosenborg, Brondby, Gothenburg and Larsson's team (name escapes me at present). That would be progress in my book, and those Scandinavian clubs should be the barometer by by which we measure the progress of the Eircom League. Both of you would agree on that would you not?

An all-Ireland league would be great but........ it's a big but!

Someone else asked how do you plan for progress on gates of 2000 - it's as simple as starting with good coaching (with all due respect to Fenlon, Richardson, Kenny etc.) and producing a better footballer. Success will breed success as we all know.

Look, I'm looking forward to the day when the Irish manager can pick the best of the Eircom League and put them in the national team where they'd be able to do a job for him and make us proud.

[GavinZac]

Gavin you asked me what I would do to improve the Eircom League. Fair enough, I'd start right away with the coaching. If I had a penny to spend on improving the league I'd bring in ten or twelve foreign coaches from South America to teach our kids.There's actually quite a lot of funding going into the schoolboys teams facilities. Providing a smooth path from schoolboys to seniors is the obvious goal. While I'm all for an adoption of 'smarter' play, what role would 12 brazilian coaches have? are they being assigned to any particular ELOI clubs, where to be honest they'll most likely be too late to catch the player's they'd be interested in, or are they rotating around the largest participation sport in this country?

That would be progress in my book, and those Scandinavian clubs should be the barometer by by which we measure the progress of the Eircom League. Both of you would agree on that would you not?
Given the recent results Irish teams have had against Swedish teams (from a country with a population twice the size of our own) I'd have to differ with you. If we can comfortably beat the likes of Malmo and Goteborg, and beat/contest with AIK and Hammerby, I think we're doing ok. In fact, at the moment we're punching above our weight which is dragging us slowly but surely up the UEFA co-efficients table toward the promised land of seeding.

[WoodquayBoy]

I saw about thirty minutes of highlights

That remains the one duff point in your argument, you have seen highlights, not full games

[Spoons]

Who did you play for in the League of Ireland in the 80's Mark?

[mark12345]

Home Farm and Shelbourne.