Chris Hughton or Ray Houghton?Quote:
Originally Posted by CSAD
For me Marcelo Bielsa is the answer, maybe Gerry Martino i leaves Mexico.
I would love Hiddink, but he has retired
Chris Hughton or Ray Houghton?Quote:
Originally Posted by CSAD
For me Marcelo Bielsa is the answer, maybe Gerry Martino i leaves Mexico.
I would love Hiddink, but he has retired
Crikey, it's getting depressing - either we go into the Euro qualifiers with a manager looking to have his first good tournament at the fourth attempt (after overseeing three of the worst) or we have another Mick McCarthy 2.0 situation, expecting a new manager to turn things around with few or no games to prepare. We've reached the point of claiming "moral victories" against Scotland in The Nations League - that is not good
Yes, we played well in patches but that is not enough at this stage in Kenny's tenure. If he is the man bring about a revolution in our fortunes, this is the tournament where we should have been seeing the results, where we should show that we are capable of consistently defeating teams viewed as a being at a similar level. Instead it has been Scotland who have done this. One of the other posters talked about fine margins and asked if Scotland really are eight points better than us and the answer is YES! Why? Because they comfortably beat Armenia twice, hammered Ukraine and today got revenge for our victory over them.
But one thing that really, really annoyed me tonight was the attitude of the Scotland fans - they boo Amhran na Bhfiann and The Fields of Athenry (songs about the evils of English Colonial Occupation), they boo McClean for his attitudes to English Colonial Occupation - but then roar out an anthem about how they bravely stood up to English Colonial Occupation seven hundred years ago, after which they later gave up their independence and never got it back, even turning down an opportunity to choose it for themselves. Really, it's time to make them sing God Save The King.
And enough of this "Celtic cousins" nonsense - we need to have suitable chants for the next time we play them - for example
- What's it like to have a King?
- You're just a Northern England province
- You're not a proper country
And speaking of them not being a proper country, should Scotland (plus Wales and Northern Ireland) even have international football teams? I mean every other international footballing team is, politically, an actual country with its own national government. Even setting aside the issues in The North, these three entities, politically speaking, are more comparable with Quebec than other countries. Transdnistria have more of a claim to nationhood and access to international football competitions than Scotland.
Byrne is nowhere near the levels he was. It's getting a bit sad to be honest. He still has time but I'd fear he won't ever recover from the back and covid issues and he was only ever worth the call up when he was bang on form.
On the game, that's the result you'd expect really. Not sure why Irish football fans think another manager would get a better tune out of a championship level international team. We are a long way away from being competitive. You can't win football games regularly at international level without a recognized striker and we have none. Nobody is even close. Strap in for the long haul lads. If we replace Kenny it will be with another lower tier manager who won't get any more out of this squad. At least Kenny is getting decent shifts out of players we will need to rely on in the future.
That's a reply to nigel.....foot.ie has gone haywire. Or I have. Hard to tell.
The “ Scots “ actually Voted down the chance to become an Independent Country ~ LOL.
The ? Scots ? actually Voted down the chance to become an Independent Country ~ LOL.
I wouldn't be overly concerned about the anthem booing or anything like that, it has to be taken in the context of who and what the Scotland supporter base is made up of. Scottish football is a pretty depressed, confused place full of supporters with a massive psychological complex that has to be seen first hand to be believed - and it often comes out in instances like that.
Believe me most of the tartan army would absolutely love to be in our position of having no direct links with England and the King, but as a country they just lack the national self confidence and ability to make it happen when given the chance. Easier to just boo the real countries that turn up at their stadium - especially the ones located on their doorstep where it hits them the hardest about their inconsequential position in the world.
Same as the Welsh really, if England wasn't the birthplace of football these places wouldn't even have international teams, so they should probably actually be thanking their overlords really, like the north do.
Best to let them off at it if it makes them feel better, if they do make it to Germany in 2024 they won't be travelling there on a Scottish passport, that's for sure (though a few lucky ones might qualify for an Irish one!).
We're at a rare point in modern times where they have more top end players than we have, I think that will only be the case for another couple of years, but we acquitted ourselves well over the two games and won them on aggregate, so to speak, with a squad of mostly championship players, so I think we did ok.
It wasn't against Scotland that we blew the Nations league campaign - it was in the first two games where we inexplicably lost to both Armenia away and a second string Ukraine at home due to poor selection and team setup. We're paying the price for that now.
I think talk of getting rid of Kenny just smacks of the short termism that riddles EPL football and gives fans of clubs there misguided notions about how to be successful.
I think Kenny should be given the Euro qualifiers to see how we get on. As 3rd seeds in a group it will mean overcoming a higher seed to at least get into a play off, but looking at some of the higher seeds and they're not especially frightening - scotland, for example are absolute pish.
Patience is a virtue for this manager I believe. The players are clearly enjoying playing his way of football anyway.
Great first half performance, and an enjoyable game overall despite the result. At the same time Scotland are no great shakes.
Hope Parrot's confidence isn't knocked by that moment of indecisiveness... Ireland provided a bit of respite from his lack of goals at club level. In fairness, he showed some great close control in the box for the goal that was disallowed.
Ogbene and Obafemi playing up front together would be really good to watch, I think... could see them pulling defenses all over the place. Would need intelligent balls from the rest of the team to make the most of it, obviously, but would like to see Kenny try that combination from the start on Tuesday evening. The Armenian defense was slow footed against Ukraine yesterday and I don't think they would relish the prospect of running around after that pair for 60-90 minutes. Ogbene is fast becoming one of my favourite Irish players... great energy.. infectious personality with an overhead kick every now and then... what's not to like?
I like Knight a lot, but felt he was a bit off the pace of the game and that he wasn't as attack-minded and effective as he has been in previous games. Ditto Cullen.
As for Kenny being sacked or not, I can't see it happening, even if we lose to or draw with Armenia.
Without wishing to drag this further off topic, I must point out that this is an insane statement and to make reflects a very similar attitude (if not, frankly, a lot worse) than you lambast the Scots for elsewhere in your post.Quote:
Originally Posted by Eirambler
Nearly a 5th of our country is occcupied and controlled by England and by extension of course the king.
Quote:
Originally Posted by samhaydenjr
I'm often left amazed by the average Irish person's ignorance on this issue and failure to grasp even basic modern history.Quote:
Originally Posted by Eirambler
There was a union of the Scottish and English crowns in 1603, whereby upon the death of Elizabeth I, her cousin, James VI of Scotland (who oversaw the Plantation of Ulster), also became King of England (James I). The House of Stuart then reigned over both kingdoms (and Ireland) for well over a century. Charles III is descended from the House of Stuart on both sides of his family going back to its founder, Robert II, grandson of Robert the Bruce. Charles I and II were both Stuarts.
Scotland had imperial ambitions even before the 1707 Act of Union, attempting to create a 'New Caledonia' in Panama in what is known as the Darien Scheme. They chose to form a political union with England (Great Britain) due to financial difficulties, in part caused by the failure of this project.
Thereafter they played an outsized and leading role at the vanguard of British imperialism. Six of the Governor Generals of colonial India were Scottish, for example.
The 'Celtic brothers' thing leaves me cold I'm afraid. Scotland's history is not our history. As a nation they are, or at least were, the willing and enthusiastic perpetrators of imperialism and colonialism, not its victim.
Does it matter? Either one of them would be terrible! But specifically I meant Chris.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bielsa´s irish
Why in the name of God were we wearing orange last night?
To confuse the Rangers fans ��Quote:
Originally Posted by Fixer82
Green and navy hardly clash.Quote:
Originally Posted by Insidetherock
Updated seedings for the Euros draw.
Pot 1
Most likely:
Croatia, Denmark, Portugal, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Switzerland, France
Pot 2:
Most Likely
Austria, Czech Republic, England, Poland, Wales, Scotland, Isreal, Bosnia, Norway, Ukraine
Pot 3:
Most Likely:
Ireland, Armenia, Iceland, Albania, Montenegro, Finland, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Sweden
Pot 4:
Most likely
Turkey, Luxembourg, Greece, Kosovo, Kazakhstan, Azerbijan, Georgia, North Macedonia, Slovakia, Bulgaria
Pot 5
Faroe Islands, Lithuania, Northern Ireland, Cyprus, Belarus, Gibraltar, Latvia, Estonia, Moldova, Malta,
Pot 6:
Andorra, Liechtenstein, San Marino
So we're looking at 10 groups
7 groups of 5, 3 groups of 6
Top 2 in each group qualify directly
Three qualifying from play offs via the Nations League A, B and C paths
Plus Germany as hosts.
Tough one to take. Big games are decided on big moments. We lost the 2 big moments.
I was really impressed with how we responded to Scotland taking charge of the second half. After a very ropey spell we fought back into it and made chances.
Then a fluke penalty.
A match fit Doc wouldn?t have been beaten stupidly and might have scored. Yet he did well still I think.
Bielsa is talking rubbish. That performance was a mile better - from both teams - than the ugly but compelling slugfest in the 2014 game.
Avoid England and Poland from Pot 2 and I don't think there's much between any of the rest of them..
Avoid Georgia.. just cause they are Georgia.. from Pot 4 .. maybe Turkey too
But if the team can keep improving.. and more importantly, start converting chances.. we might give the qualifiers a right run
well said about Scotland colonlialism, from all the poor the welsh the victims