Martin O'Neill and Roy Keane

[Charlie Darwin]

His tenure has been a disaster? Really. What could he have done any different with this team?
There are players in this team who have should have been got rid of while Trap was in charge.

You answered your own question there. He could have used the near-12 months he had to prepare for his first competitive match to overhaul the squad.

[jbyrne]

You answered your own question there. He could have used the near-12 months he had to prepare for his first competitive match to overhaul the squad.

honestly who do you think is out there who would improve our squad?
my main problem with oneill is that he has so far failed to get the most out of our better players in particular. having said that I don't think his tenure has been the disaster some make it out to be.

[mark12345]

Fair enough, leave Keane for the remainder of this campaign. But I think we all agree even if we do perform miracles and qualify, we are not going anywhere in the Finals.
We are way beyond the time and need for a completely different approach to the grass roots game in Ireland (youth football I'm talking about). I've said it here for quite a few years now - if we devoted a portion of the money we are paying to the big name managers to five or six top notch South American youth coaches (look at Chile for Heaven's sake) we would be investing so much more in our future. Let those coaches teach our coaches the finer points of the technical game - something we used to have in Ireland 40 or 50 years ago (believe it or not) but like England have lost it and cannot seem to get it back. I keep hearing about top level Irish coaches coming through, but in all honesty can any of them bring to the table the sort of skills that an Alexis Sanchez, Neymar or Sergio Aguero has (in order to teach those type of skills to our young kids). I think not? So let's start thinking about a whole new approach to the youth set up so that we can reap dividends in fifteen years time.

[DeLorean]

Yes I know that but it's a question of degrees. O'Neill was much worse and said it before we even kicked a ball.

Yeah and I get the impression Keane wasn't questioning the talent a such, more the desire of players to make the top.

[mark12345]

I can't find much fault with O'Neill himself Stutts. Remember the brilliant performances he got out of Celtic and Leicester during his tenures there.
Like everyone else I questioned his withdrawing Hoolahan against Scotland, and one or two other personnel choices during his time as Ireland manager. But by and large there is very little else he could have done with this team

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

There have been eyebrow raising tactical and personnel decisions in pretty much every single game.

[mark12345]

Eh......no he couldn't. He only had a few matches to work with and although he could have brought in a couple of different players, the table was pretty much set for him. He needed to focus on qualifying for the Euros as his top priority. And in all honesty he did not / does not have too many sharp tools to work with anyway.

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

Michael O'Neill had no problems getting the best out of Kyle Lafferty & Oliver Norwood.

[Kingdom]

I can't find much fault with O'Neill himself Stutts. Remember the brilliant performances he got out of Celtic and Leicester during his tenures there.

Like everyone else I questioned his withdrawing Hoolahan against Scotland, and one or two other personnel choices during his time as Ireland manager. But by and large there is very little else he could have done with this team

Does not compute.

[back of the net]

Eh......no he couldn't. He only had a few matches to work with and although he could have brought in a couple of different players, the table was pretty much set for him. He needed to focus on qualifying for the Euros as his top priority. And in all honesty he did not / does not have too many sharp tools to work with anyway.

He had 7/8 friendlies over a 1.5 year period before the euro quals kicked off

[Eminence Grise]

Calling him a muppet is completely uncalled for.

I blame gonzo journalism myself.

[DeLorean]

Look Mark, at the end of the day he's achieved nothing with us and it seems he is abandoning ship halfway through a poor first campaign, and for who... Leicester fecking City. That's how big a job we were to him, less than Leicester, I don't care what his history is there. I felt it in his body language anyway to be honest, even if the mellowing with age explanation was a valid one. Mick McCarthy isn't perfect, but the one thing I always felt with him is that he saw the job as a big deal, a really big deal and an absolute honour. I'd be lying if I said I got the same vibe off O'Neill, in fact I got it a lot more off Roy Keane in a lesser role.

[mark12345]

You're reading way too much into the manager's contribution or lack of. Fact is we do not have a defence worthy of the name (Seamus Coleman is the only quality player - Robbie Brady though quite brilliant at times is a makeshift left back).
O'Shea, Wilson are not international quality (the comparison others make to Northern Ireland and Wales and Scotland getting the best of similar type players is great but does not apply in O'Shea's case at least because he has been there forever and has failed to do the job on most occasions) and Given is past it (but he has more experience than Westwood and is playing at the top level still).

A midfield with the likes of Whelan preferred (a legitimate weapon to use against MON) cannot expect to function properly, and a posse of superficial players further forward (Walters, McLean, McGeady, Long - all capable of very good performances at times but far too patchy at international level) and an aging world class striker in Robbie, and it is not hard to see why we are struggling. You can talk about all the tactical and personnel decisions you want but at the end of the day these 11 or 14 professionals are the ones who take to the field for any given international and if they are not performing then it does not matter who the manager is

[nigel-harps1954]

You're reading way too much into the manager's contribution or lack of. Fact is we do not have a defence worthy of the name (Seamus Coleman is the only quality player - Robbie Brady though quite brilliant at times is a makeshift left back).
O'Shea, Wilson are not international quality (the comparison others make to Northern Ireland and Wales and Scotland getting the best of similar type players is great but does not apply in O'Shea's case at least because he has been there forever and has failed to do the job on most occasions) and Given is past it (but he has more experience than Westwood and is playing at the top level still).

A midfield with the likes of Whelan preferred (a legitimate weapon to use against MON) cannot expect to function properly, and a posse of superficial players further forward (Walters, McLean, McGeady, Long - all capable of very good performances at times but far too patchy at international level) and an aging world class striker in Robbie, and it is not hard to see why we are struggling. You can talk about all the tactical and personnel decisions you want but at the end of the day these 11 or 14 professionals are the ones who take to the field for any given international and if they are not performing then it does not matter who the manager is

So, what you're saying is, unless we have players like Iniesta, Messi, Ronaldo, De Gea, etc. then we're not going to get anywhere?

[Eminence Grise]

Can't say I'd mourn his departure all that much. The tactics have been sterile, we've had players in the wrong positions, and the constant public rubbishing of our players has to have had some impact on morale and confidence (I'm more of the John Lambie 'tell him he's Pele and get him back on' school of motivation). Let Keane use the rest of the games as an audition - we're all but out of realistic contention anyway. If he does well, keep him on; if he doesn't a new manager will have next year's friendlies to get warmed into the job.