The Complete Restructure Begins

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Originally Posted by Macy

Has to be a root and branch overhaul of our structures here. Driven from the top down - i.e. the eL down. Have them the focus of schoolboy football as well as the senior game, rather than the nursery clubs sending over kids to be fooked off with football in England.

There's been enough players sent abroad - we don't need to be sending them still just to different countries. Instead send the coaches to the likes of Ajax to learn the coaching techniques and teach kids in Ireland how to play with the focus on getting them into the eL. The cream of the crop will still go abroad, I've no doubt, but we should have a pool of players playing regularly in this country available to make up the bulk of the international squad. I wouldn't be opposed to central contracts to facilitate this either.

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I like your comments, I haven´t a clue about the politics of the different factions involved in Irish football that you allude to but does it really matter if the under age national squad teams u17 to u21 for a while don´t actually have to win tournaments? I don´t see why that the brunt of the underage squads should not be home based. Instead of financing the travel expenses etc of overseas coached youngsters back to Ireland and their international experience, fund the coaching of the top home based 17 - 20 year olds. Give out contracts. (Irfu style) and sub contract them to EL clubs. If anyone is good enough and want to travel on then sell the players contract on for millions. Some structure that is mutually benifitting both the national and club structure.

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Originally Posted by geysir

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Originally Posted by Macy

Has to be a root and branch overhaul of our structures here. Driven from the top down - i.e. the eL down. Have them the focus of schoolboy football as well as the senior game, rather than the nursery clubs sending over kids to be fooked off with football in England.

There's been enough players sent abroad - we don't need to be sending them still just to different countries. Instead send the coaches to the likes of Ajax to learn the coaching techniques and teach kids in Ireland how to play with the focus on getting them into the eL. The cream of the crop will still go abroad, I've no doubt, but we should have a pool of players playing regularly in this country available to make up the bulk of the international squad. I wouldn't be opposed to central contracts to facilitate this either.

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I like your comments, I haven´t a clue about the politics of the different factions involved in Irish football that you allude to but does it really matter if the under age national squad teams u17 to u21 for a while don´t actually have to win tournaments? I don´t see why that the brunt of the underage squads should not be home based. Instead of financing the travel expenses etc of overseas coached youngsters back to Ireland and their international experience, fund the coaching of the top home based 17 - 20 year olds. Give out contracts. (Irfu style) and sub contract them to EL clubs. If anyone is good enough and want to travel on then sell the players contract on for millions. Some structure that is mutually benifitting both the national and club structure.

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Great posts ..... would love to see something like the central contracts ... or at least a degree of consideration and a resolution !!

I like the idea of a national academy. We have such a small talent pool that weneed to zone in on the potential good ones at a very early age at develop them to the best of their ability. We are WOEFULLY deficient in technical ability. It's not even funny anymore.

We need a boarding school type set-up, up in Kildare somewhere where lads can be groomed as well as recieve a bit of an education. Keep there as late as we can, 17... even later if possible, that we could sell them on for a bit of money. We can't be relying on lower divisiion clubs in england and Celtic to do it for us.
Bring in good foreign coaches, South Americans, Eastern Europeans, some Dutch fellas, and really drill the young lads.
Even the yanks have copped on to this with the USSF academy in Bradenton in Florida and they've reaped rewards.

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Originally Posted by Volcán Masaya

I like the idea of a national academy. We have such a small talent pool that weneed to zone in on the potential good ones at a very early age at develop them to the best of their ability. We are WOEFULLY deficient in technical ability. It's not even funny anymore.

We need a boarding school type set-up, up in Kildare somewhere where lads can be groomed as well as recieve a bit of an education. Keep there as late as we can, 17... even later if possible, that we could sell them on for a bit of money. We can't be relying on lower divisiion clubs in england and Celtic to do it for us.
Bring in good foreign coaches, South Americans, Eastern Europeans, some Dutch fellas, and really drill the young lads.
Even the yanks have copped on to this with the USSF academy in Bradenton in Florida and they've reaped rewards.

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Think you've hit the nail on the head there. That's a realistic objective which we should be trying to achieve.

We've definitely got a lot to learn from the IRFU approach.

The latest Genesis report also had some constructive offerings on how to improve the domestic game but its brief was very narrow. The total brief should have been how to improive the league and how to reduce our dependency on English clubs to produce our international players.

Root & branch reform is critical as it's absolutely clear that there must be a viable alternative to going to the UK aged 15. It's not to say that everyone should stay at home but there must be another choice.

the advent of human cloning and genetic engineering really excites me i would seriously consider asking our all time greats such as Paul McGrath, Liam Brady, Roy Keane, Frank Stapleton, Kevin Moran, Gary Doherty ( Um maybe not maybe we could use him as a guinea pig) to give us a sample of their DNA for this much needed cause.

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Originally Posted by kerr's tribe

Maybe it is worth sniffing around the USA, see if there is any talented Irish-Americans willing to play for us......:o

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There is a talented young center-half Michael Parkhurst who plays for Steve Nicol's New England Revolution, his parents are from Ireland. He has said he would play for Ireland if called but they will have to act fast as his stock is rising and will probably be called us by Arena after next years World Cup if he continues to progress at the rate he is.

Plus there is Ronnie O'Brien who in my view, is playing better than any of our current central midfielders.