Martin O'Neill and Roy Keane

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

I'd like to see Aaron Doran get a move back to England to see if he can become a genuine option; Gavin Gunning too.

[Stuttgart88]

O'Neill and Keane pretty downbeat on the emerging talent

http://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/soccer/oneill-the-kids-are-not-alright-259587.html

Elsewhere he has said that he'll be watching LOI players recommended to him by their club managers. I'm not necessarily linking the two strands here!

I suspect he is referring to guys capable of breaking into the squad right now. It's a bit harsh to be writing off the current U19s or U21s, for example. You'd think he'd be more upbeat on the Villa kids too, for example.

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

O'Neill and Keane pretty downbeat on the emerging talent

http://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/soccer/oneill-the-kids-are-not-alright-259587.html

Elsewhere he has said that he'll be watching LOI players recommended to him by their club managers. I'm not necessarily linking the two strands here!

I suspect he is referring to guys capable of breaking into the squad right now. It's a bit harsh to be writing off the current U19s or U21s, for example. You'd think he'd be more upbeat on the Villa kids too, for example.

The talk about lack of dearth doesn't sit too well with me. Having a lack of dearth hasn't stopped teams like Sweden and Switzerland from having better qualifying records. I would say that these teams have a similar level of talent to us. We have a pool of approximately 50 players to choose from playing at PL and Championship level. The lack of players playing further afield hinders us but at the same time, the PL is (arguably) the best League in the world and The Championship is (arguably) the 7th or 8th best League in Europe.

I am not putting us on a pedestal with Croatia but compare our depth with theirs and we aren't that far behind.

And the answer to our problems doesn't lie in the eligibility rules. England are better than Ireland but in the grand scheme of things, they are nowhere near the level of Spain, Germany, Italy or even France. If a player is not good enough to play for England, I genuinely don't think he is going to make an impact for us in proportion to the impact Deco and Senna made for Portugal and Spain.

Our problems are generally endemic in football anyway. Look at Portugal and Holland as two examples. They are nowhere near the level they were at 10 years ago. Imagine how bad Portugal would be without Ronaldo. They struggle to beat teams like North Ireland and Liechtenstein in Qualification.

[Stuttgart88]

I don't like that kind of talk either. I'm surprised by it.

[paul_oshea]

I dont think he is using it as an excuse, but if you look in traps reign we had plenty of young bucks coming through, and decent potential as well the likes of Clark, Coleman and McCarthy. That's 3 who are now regulars pretty much when available.

There is no one like that coming through. Who else in the squad is u21? It is very worrying for the future its not an excuse to throw out there but one we should be very worried about.

We need at least another 3 clarks/colemans/maccarthys coming through in O'Neills time, least because we rely on players who are or will be finished within 1 or at most 2 campaigns e.g. keane/dunne/oshea and lesser players like walters, whelan, doyle, reid, hoolahan.

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

If Sam Byrne can make anywhere near the impact that Pat Bamford made in League One, then we could be talking about him being a realistic option in the future. Very early doors though and we have been down this road before.

[Bungle]

I dont think he is using it as an excuse, but if you look in traps reign we had plenty of young bucks coming through, and decent potential as well the likes of Clark, Coleman and McCarthy. That's 3 who are now regulars pretty much when available.

There is no one like that coming through. Who else in the squad is u21? It is very worrying for the future its not an excuse to throw out there but one we should be very worried about.

We need at least another 3 clarks/colemans/maccarthys coming through in O'Neills time, least because we rely on players who are or will be finished within 1 or at most 2 campaigns e.g. keane/dunne/oshea and lesser players like walters, whelan, doyle, reid, hoolahan.

I would be very hopeful that Duffy, Murray, Carruthers and Grealish will be in or around the team within the next 18 months. All have the talent to be very good players for us. Then there is the possibility that a Kenny McEvoy, Noe Baba or Jack Byrne will make the break through in the next year or so. If that happens, things look a little rosier for us.

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

Noe Baba has to change his name to Baba O'Riley first.

[geysir]

I dont think he is using it as an excuse, but if you look in traps reign we had plenty of young bucks coming through, and decent potential as well the likes of Clark, Coleman and McCarthy. That's 3 who are now regulars pretty much when available.

There is no one like that coming through. Who else in the squad is u21? It is very worrying for the future its not an excuse to throw out there but one we should be very worried about.

We need at least another 3 clarks/colemans/maccarthys coming through in O'Neills time, least because we rely on players who are or will be finished within 1 or at most 2 campaigns e.g. keane/dunne/oshea and lesser players like walters, whelan, doyle, reid, hoolahan.

Looking at Trap's first squad, it was quite a few degrees poorer than this one, major exceptions were Duff and a fresher Keane.
There was no Clark, Coleman or McCarthy knocking on the door of the senior squad at the time of the first squad. Possibly McCarthy was about the only known real prospect but would be playing in Scotland for another season. O'Neill actually has a better range of players to choose from now and if Gibson gets his fitness and game together, the midfield selection is much stronger.
O'Neill has said that there's nothing outstanding on the horizon in the next 18 months, but we all know from past experience from every era, that there will be players coming through.

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

Roy Keane's sojourn at Turf Moor for Burnley's match with Forest might be somewhat of a wasted trip after Kevin Long, Keith Treacy and Simon Cox were all named on the bench. Andy Reid isn't in the squad.

[tetsujin1979]

Should have waited for the dvd

[DannyInvincible]

Roy Keane's sojourn at Turf Moor for Burnley's match with Forest might be somewhat of a wasted trip after Kevin Long, Keith Treacy and Simon Cox were all named on the bench. Andy Reid isn't in the squad.

I've not seen much of Kevin Long. Is he a realistic prospect? I always recall him developing into our defensive rock in the Football Manager games.

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

I would have fully accepted - using Austria as an example - losing to the better team but the Trapattoni era was just full of missed opportunities because of his preconceived notions about the quality of our players and the resulting inhibited way he set them out to play against all evidence and logic in front of him.

I would have come to terms with what happened in Dublin against Austria if we were playing a team like Spain or Germany that were pounding us into submission but we were playing a pretty poor team and we just made things way harder for ourselves than they needed to be and gifted them a point. There was no need to be in thrall to that team and that's what we were. F***ing Austria.... and you look at the way Scotland and Northern Ireland take games to teams like France, Italy and Portugal. Moral courage; we were completely and utterly lacking it under Trap.

Still get angry about Cox coming on ahead of McClean and Long against Croatia in the Euros and his - no disrespect as he was shambolically being played out of position - being completely out of his depth.

Sh*te like that evaporating any chance we had of getting even a point out of that game.

If things go wrong under O'Neill and Keane, at least it won't have been borne out of plain stubbornness and unwillingness to trust the players and engender any kind of belief that they belong at the very top.

Dammit you are supposed to drill it into your players that they are better than they are (whether they are or not), not stop short of telling them that they are sh*t at every opportunity and acting belligerent when people don't bow at your feet and marvel at your charming malapropisms.

[Charlie Darwin]

Just some observations post Trap:

To quote one of George Hamilton's favourite expressions, it is "quite, quite remarkable" how a change in management can completely overhaul public and media perceptions of
the national team and its potential. Would we have 2 hours on a Sunday morning on RTE 2 covering a Euro 2016 draw in the pre-O'Neill era????

You'd think we were this sleeping giant waiting to ignite world football now thanks to O'Neill/Keane.... we've all seen how far passion gets you.... you need players of sufficient quality and one possible world class player (Coleman) is not going to reinvent the wheel for us.

The whole managerial appointment has reminded me of the way our Irish media works.... they'll now "big up" the Irish team for the remainder of year having "downed it" for the majority of 2013....

It always turns sour of course between media and management (that's the game), and by God, this love affair promises to be one god awful breakup when it inevitably occurs

P.S. The constant reference to O'Neill/Keane in the media as though they are interchangeable and joint managers does bug me a bit (Christ even look at the order of this thread title!!!).... hope Martin eventually cements his authority in that regard... after all Keane is only a Maurice Setters/Ian Evans etc... figure in the current food chain to be fair.

I refuse to sit back and accept this constant criticism of Richard Keogh's ability.

[geysir]

It would be a stunning failure if we don't qualify for Euro2016 from our 2nd seed perch, a position earned on the back of Trap era results. A top 2 finish with a fall back play off option, is all we need to achieve.
Better overall squad, better depth in the squad and a progressive management team in tune with the ambitions of the football nation.
What can possibly go wrong?