Martin O'Neill and Roy Keane

[seanfhear]

Not that I think commitment is an issue, I just don't like spin.
In the video interview, Delaney presented an example of "O'Neill's 100pc commitment to Ireland",
"I believe he had a bigger offer from Stoke,"
that O'Neill rejected a higher salary before renewing his contract with ireland as undoubted evidence of his "100pc commitment" to Ireland.

Fwiw, Hughes was on £3m p/a at Stoke for a 6 day a week job, O'Neill's probably on a basic €1.2m before bonuses, for a one day a week job. Which one pays the better?

That depends on how much you like money and how much you are willing to work for it .

Perhaps Martin O ‘ Neill should have taken the Stoke job on a 5 day a week job and done the Irish job on a one day a week job .

Results would have to be tres good for this to last......

[Fizzer]

I kind of get the impression O’Neill is pleased all of this came out,a sort of ‘see how lucky you are to have me’ spin.He was obviously taken aback by the backlash after Denmark I think he may have wanted to demonstrate he has other options.I think he’s been arrogant and unnecessarily *****ly with the press from the outset,he doesn’t seem to be able to deal with the most basic queries about his tactics without spluttering in outrage.His now customary death stare at Tony O’Donoghue is grating now. For a man of his age and achievements he seems petty,insecure and emotionally immature.Which don’t mean that he’s a bad manager (Ferguson was all those things) but this ridiculous game playing that’s going on with him now,.....it’s cheap and low brow

[IsMiseSean]

I suppose the difference between us is that you want to win having played well. I just want to win or get a result. I am not bothered about the performance. Obviously I would prefer if we played attractive football getting those wins but perversely a win obtained by the skin of our teeth is probably more enjoyable in the long run. I will admit though that after the Cardiff game I said to my friends that our performance was terrible as we cracked open a bottle of Champagne. And that is the point. Money can't buy the highs of that victory over Italy, the last minute goal in Germany, Shane Long's winner against Germany, the victories in Austria and Wales and I also came home happy from the Danish game. Even under Jack I can only think of a handful of similar results and other than in Scotland, no victory of significance away from home.

Wales away performance was poor but it led to something else (playoff), which made it easier to take.

The game in Denmark was probably the worst I felt leaving an Ireland game in which we didn't lose. It was a terrible performance. My main memory of that game is Arter lumping the ball up field to no one when he had options to play it simple. We never threatened their goal once. Trap had his negative game plans, but I can't remember one as bad as that.

The mistake was made keeping Trap after Euro2012 and we threw away the next campaign. I think history is going to repeat itself.

[seanfhear]

I kind of get the impression O’Neill is pleased all of this came out,a sort of ‘see how lucky you are to have me’ spin.He was obviously taken aback by the backlash after Denmark I think he may have wanted to demonstrate he has other options.I think he’s been arrogant and unnecessarily *****ly with the press from the outset,he doesn’t seem to be able to deal with the most basic queries about his tactics without spluttering in outrage.His now customary death stare at Tony O’Donoghue is grating now. For a man of his age and achievements he seems petty,insecure and emotionally immature.Which don’t mean that he’s a bad manager (Ferguson was all those things) but this ridiculous game playing that’s going on with him now,.....it’s cheap and low brow

I’d say he has struggled to cope since John Robertson has had to retire due to health problems .

Pretty much all of his good stuff was when John Robertson was his main coach .

[brine3]

Martin and Roy haven't signed on the dotted line for the FAI yet...

Michael O'Neill is considering Scotland...

GO GET HIM!

[brine3]

Even under Jack I can only think of a handful of similar results and other than in Scotland, no victory of significance away from home.

I don't remember losing 5-1 to a mid-tier European side under Jack.

Money can't buy the highs of that victory over Italy

Lets be honest here... We played Italy when they had nothing to play for and sent out a half-motivated B team. It was luck of the draw that we played them in the last match with already Italy guaranteed as group winners. Meanwhile Sweden had to play the Italy A team. A different draw, and Sweden would have been going through instead of us.

[tetsujin1979]

I don't remember losing 5-1 to a mid-tier European side under Jack.

I don't remember drawing 0-0 with a minnow under Martin O'Neill

Lets be honest here... We played Italy when they had nothing to play for and sent out a half-motivated B team. It was luck of the draw that we played them in the last match with already Italy guaranteed as group winners. Meanwhile Sweden had to play the Italy A team. A different draw, and Sweden would have been going through instead of us.

So they had a team of fresh players going up against us? Also, we dropped John O'Shea (the captain) and Ciaran Clark, gave Coleman the armband for the first time (I think), gave Shane Duffy his first competitive start, and dropped Glenn Whelan for the first time in ages,
always annoys me how people leave that out of the narrative.

[brine3]

Drawing 0-0 is better than losing 5-1 at home.

Also, we dropped John O'Shea (the captain) and Ciaran Clark, gave Coleman the armband for the first time (I think), gave Shane Duffy his first competitive start, and dropped Glenn Whelan for the first time in ages, always annoys me how people leave that out of the narrative.

I don't see how any of this is relative to Italy fielding a B team?

[tetsujin1979]

so Italy's changes are relevant, but the changes we made are not?

[brine3]

Aha, so you are implying that those benched players were being rested!? That we also were putting out a B team?! Those players were dropped. They also didn't start against France. We were trounced by Belgium (who Wales would beat) and MON changed up the team out of desperation.

Italy benched players because they were being rested. Buffon and friends were all back in the team for the next match.

[jbyrne]

italys team featured 2 from PSG, 1 from AC Milan, 4 (2 of which started the champions lge final 11 months later) from Juve and 1 from Roma. we can only dream of having such a layer of first line players. cant imagine conte was too pleased at losing either!

as I have said before.... there are many irish fans who just love making excuses for the opposition when we beat them.

[brine3]

Ask the Swedes if they'd have rather played the Italy team we played or the Italy team they played.

[jbyrne]

Ask the Swedes if they'd have rather played the Italy team we played or the Italy team they played.

all part of tournament football. ask us if we would have preferred having the same break before our last 16 match than the French had.

[bennocelt]

We came in the top 16 in Europe, so proud.

[pineapple stu]

Drawing 0-0 is better than losing 5-1 at home.

Not sure I'd agree when it's drawing 0-0 against Liechtenstein.

Though it could be argued that we were unlucky in that game - 40 shots; 20 corners. It was just one of those days. Denmark we deserved to lose as badly as we did - albeit that we were undone by having to go for goals in the second half - and a thrashing had been coming for a while.