FAI Selection Team ... Whos on it this time ???????

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Originally Posted by Dodge

Saying Trapatoni improved the team isn't really a ringing endorsement when Staunton was the previous manager. In 2 qualifying campaigns he didn't get a single win over the top 2 seeds and only for historic luck in Russia (and with the Estonia draw), wouldn't be able to use his qualification to defend his record.

You might point to the France play off but people forget they destroyed us in Dublin and should've had that tie wrapped up. There's also no guarantee we'd have qualified through extra time or penalties.

So in 4 years have we progressed? Maybe from some of the Staunton debacles but I honestly can't believe anyone can think of the Trapatoni era as a success. Unless the only parameter is qualification for major trophies. In which case the results in the tournament itself probably didn't matter to you

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I think that overlooks Trap's reign making us competitive at the tail end of qualifying again.

We went from regularly contesting play-off's to three campaigns on the bounce finishing nowhere in the reckoning pre-Trapattoni.

The fact we've got back in the qualification mix is a big improvement and completely a coincidence - even if we have got slices of luck and played bogging football along the way.

There are countries out there that can testify to how tough qualifying is when you fall down the seeding ladder.

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Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

Just out of interest: can any of the decline be traced to the point of Brady's departure?

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Yeah, mean when Brady ceased involvement with Trap and Tardelli? I thought it was just a hand holding exercise initially and it was just to help Trap settle into the role. I wouldn't have said it was as if Brady had any impact on how things were done. Didn't even notice him going to be honest.

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Originally Posted by Dodge

You might point to the France play off but people forget they destroyed us in Dublin and should've had that tie wrapped up. There's also no guarantee we'd have qualified through extra time or penalties.

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France destroyed us in Dublin but still could have gone back to Paris 2 or 3-0 down. In many ways, the entire play-off was a shoot-out between Ireland and Gignac to see who could butcher the most open goals.

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Originally Posted by Dodge

Of course the problems in Irish football run far deeper than international team manager, but that doesn't mean they can't get that right

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Definitely, and Trap going on about it ad nauseum was a cop out. He needed to play with the cards he was dealt, pick the best players for the job and utilise them .... He is not able to do it, so he complained.

People arguing in his defensive imo are looking at the stats too much, look at whats happening on the pitch ..... its brutal, uninspiring crap and we'll never get anywhere with him at the helm. Whats the point in qualifying if we're gonna get trashed like that all the time.

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Originally Posted by A face

Yeah, mean when Brady ceased involvement with Trap and Tardelli? I thought it was just a hand holding exercise initially and it was just to help Trap settle into the role. I wouldn't have said it was as if Brady had any impact on how things were done. Didn't even notice him going to be honest.

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But Trap's message seemed to be getting across when Brady was there.

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Originally Posted by A face

Definitely, and Trap going on about it ad nauseum was a cop out. He needed to play with the cards he was dealt, pick the best players for the job and utilise them .... He is not able to do it, so he complained.

People arguing in his defensive imo are looking at the stats too much, look at whats happening on the pitch ..... its brutal, uninspiring crap and we'll never get anywhere with him at the helm. Whats the point in qualifying if we're gonna get trashed like that all the time.

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if we're better off not qualifying, why bother playing at all?

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Originally Posted by A face

Definitely, and Trap going on about it ad nauseum was a cop out. He needed to play with the cards he was dealt, pick the best players for the job and utilise them .... He is not able to do it, so he complained.

People arguing in his defensive imo are looking at the stats too much, look at whats happening on the pitch ..... its brutal, uninspiring crap and we'll never get anywhere with him at the helm. Whats the point in qualifying if we're gonna get trashed like that all the time.

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What happens on the pitch is an irrelevance to our "best fans in the world" as well as Delaney. The holy grail is apparently qualifying to have an excuse for a holiday, drink and a sing song.

Funny how we went from being the 'best fans in the world' to the biggest bunch of moaners in the short space of 3-4 months.

In whose eyes Nigel, and on both counts?

Keith Andrews said that the fans were great, 4 down to Spain was not the time to be getting on the backs of the players but if they were similarly humiliated at home in the coming months they'd be totally justified in doing so. I actually think the fans reacted reasonably well on Friday!

In a lot of eyes from what I see, and particularly mine. I always saw that 'best fans in the world' as a load of tripe anyway.

Didn't John O'Shea more or less say a couple of days ago that the fans were right to boo them after the Germany game? I can't locate the interview now.

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Originally Posted by nigel-harps1954

I always saw that 'best fans in the world' as a load of tripe anyway.

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As did most of the fans. In fact the moniker only came from (a) people with little interest or (b) people like you who use it as a facetious stick to beat fans who don't fit your idealised model of fandom with.

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Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin

Didn't John O'Shea more or less say a couple of days ago that the fans were right to boo them after the Germany game? I can't locate the interview now.

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Here ya go!! Referenced in the Irish Examiner.

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Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

As did most of the fans. In fact the moniker only came from (a) people with little interest or (b) people like you who use it as a facetious stick to beat fans who don't fit your idealised model of fandom with.

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Hold on a minute there Stutts, I wasn't using it as a stick for anything. People like me? Cop yourself on man. I was simply pointing out that going to Euro 2012, there was 'Il Trap' posters and signs everywhere, each and every street corner had one. Billboards all over the place.
99% of Irish fans, who put up these very same posters, are now calling for Trap to be sacked, calling him a disgrace.

How many of the 'best fans in the world' travelled to Faroe Islands? Couple hundred? And fair f*cks to them too.

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Originally Posted by nigel-harps1954

Hold on a minute there Stutts, I wasn't using it as a stick for anything. People like me? Cop yourself on man. I was simply pointing out that going to Euro 2012, there was 'Il Trap' posters and signs everywhere, each and every street corner had one. Billboards all over the place.
99% of Irish fans, who put up these very same posters, are now calling for Trap to be sacked, calling him a disgrace.

How many of the 'best fans in the world' travelled to Faroe Islands? Couple hundred? And fair f*cks to them too.

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cost of going to the Faroes is huge, especially after going to Poland for two weeks. If the Kazakhstan away game was next year, I would have gone. As it was, I couldn't afford it.

Nobody should be applauded for going on a football trip. They're the best things in the world. If you can afford it, why wouldn't you go?

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Originally Posted by nigel-harps1954

Hold on a minute there Stutts, I wasn't using it as a stick for anything.

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OK, fair enough - but plenty have been.

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Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

OK, fair enough - but plenty have been.

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To be fair, I think its more a pop at the hype surrounding Irish fans, rather than anyone having a problem with them. When you have the FAI CEO asking for a special award for the fans, its pretty easy to poke fun at that. Irish fans were rightly praised by locals and outsiders for their actions in Poland. However when commentators here (I guess these could be the people with 'little interest' you speak of?) started to pump this way, way out of proportion it became, again, an easy target

That's fair too, and I think most RoI regulars were embarrased by the term.

The "those with little interest" I was referring to are the types who wouldn't even know we have a regular game coming up in a qualifying campaign but love they hype when we're at a tournament. The Joe Duffy / Marion Finucane-influenced types - as I perceive them. Definitely not those here. There are some on here who see supporting RoI as a lesser form of fandom as supporting LoI and these were quick to constantly refer to "best fans in the world" in an ultra-sarcastic manner. There was a whole thread on it ("How the rest of the world sees us" or something like that) and it was a commonly recurring theme. Personally I think footy is a broad church and there's no one best way to support or love the game. My own relationship with the game now as a 45 y/o is very different to how it was as a 15 y/o, and again as a 25 y/o and so on.