The Steve Staunton Discussion thread

I though Stan's appointment was an insane decision at the time. If you look at former players in management I would guess 5-10% are succesful and it's probably a bit of a lottery as to who those would be. I would have thought Bryan Robson would make a good manager (how wrong I was!). So at best they were taking a one in ten chance.

The alternative was (and it has been said above) to go cap in hand to one of the multitude of Irish multi-millionaires and offer them a chance to be at the centre of Ireland's biggest sporting attraction for half a million euro a year. With this we could have got perhaps not Hiddink but someone like O'Neill or Bruce Arena (from US).

Instead we are lumbered with Stan and it is fantasy land to suggest he will be sacked. The sad truth is that if we dont qualify (very likely) he'll then be sacked just at the time he might be picking up some idea of what he is doing and we'll have Kenny Cunningham as manager.

Bruce Arena:D
Thats Comical.

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Originally Posted by cavan_fan

The alternative was (and it has been said above) to go cap in hand to one of the multitude of Irish multi-millionaires and offer them a chance to be at the centre of Ireland's biggest sporting attraction for half a million euro a year. With this we could have got perhaps not Hiddink but someone like O'Neill or Bruce Arena (from US).

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It would cost alot more than that to get Hiddink, his salary from Russia is in the region of $3.9m, thats about €3.05m.

FAI should have jacked up the price of tickets to the high heavens to get him. I'd have gladly paid double the ordinary ticket price to have him. €3m - thats only €100 each from 30,000 people!

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Originally Posted by hoops1

Bruce Arena:D
Thats Comical.

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He's one of the most experienced international managers around who has had some success with a pool of players not unlike ours. Seems the sort of manager we should be looking for.

Also, given we were only going to play one friendly beofre the World Cup, shouldnt we have waited until after the tournament to appoint a new manager.

Staunton is hopeless in front of the camera. He doesnt know what he is saying. Its embarassing. i feel sorry for him to be honest. When Van Basten shook his hand after the match I think he thought he was gonna cry. The man should be given a chance but I cant see it happening for him. I'd gladly be wrong but if the the team is getting badly hurt we need to stop that ASAP.

Delaney needs to fall if this works out really badly.

This wins my stupid thread of the week award.

Bottom line is Stan has to rebuild the Ireland team, specifically the CB and CM areas which are the key areas in any team.

Charlton when he came in had quality players already blooded to fill these positions like McGrath, O'Leary, Moran, Lawrenson, Brady, Whelan.

McCarthy had McGrath, Keane and Townsend.

Kerr had a tough task but for the WC qualifiers he had Keane and Cunningham - admittedly both creaking but providing leadership and guidance.

Who does Stan have that you could say is proven at international level in these key positions? Dunne?

That's the reality my friends. For Stan to succeed he will have to better the job done by Charlton & McCarthy ( who was allowed to learn on the job and had several shots at qualifying ).

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Originally Posted by Qwerty

This wins my stupid thread of the week award.

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It gets my thread of the year award.......different people, different awards....

Staunton's appointment was a poor decision even by the fai's standards but now that he's here he should be allowed to build a team for the world cup in2010.McCarthy looked to the youth and built a decent team that could've and should've gone further in 2002 had he not gone on an ego trip.Stan needs to look at players like Doyle and McGeady and forget the 'big' players who aren't interested

You dont need great players to have shape or organisation.
Two of the basics of the game if the manager cant even get that sorted
he really is in trouble

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Originally Posted by hoops1

You dont need great players to have shape or organisation.
Two of the basics of the game if the manager cant even get that sorted
he really is in trouble

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I agree and I think Staunton is too inexperienced to be our manager but look what he has to work with.That team is leaderless and full of journey men and very poor players.He needs to turn the kids who showed a bit of football in the second half into good allround players with a bit of strenght in the head department(as ms.doyle would say) and get a leader on the pitch who can enforce the tactics and formation.

I agree with other posters here that Staunton should never have been given the Ireland job. We replaced an average joe in Kerr to someone with absolutely no experience whatsoever. The fact that an old has been of manager had to join him as his mentor didn't bode well. I shudder every time I remember the two of them sitting at that press conference, "I'm the Gaffer" Staunton reasured us, surely our chances in this competition ended then.
By the way I respect Bobby Robson, but his time has passed, football has moved on.
In saying this, getting rid of him now would do very little for our chances of qualification. Who replaces him for a start? In a perfect world Martin O'Neill would be leading our blend of youth and experienced players like Duff, Keane and Given into an era of success. Yet the reality is this : good managers don't want to manage Ireland, at least not until they have nothing further to offer the world of club management. We saw how difficult is was to replace Kerr, who's going to want a job you could potentially loose before you even play a competitive match??
The FAI, like nearly all organisations in this country, are completely incompetent. Hiring Staunton was worse then hiring Aldridge, Houghton or Whelan. The latter three have had managerial experience at least. Yet we surely would have mourned their appointments and rightly so. So it goes without saying this one was a big BOO BOO, but we're stuck with it.
If he has any potential for being a decent manager he is learning from this fast and will improve. If not we're doomed.
Either way, we have some fantastic young players breaking through, he will give them a chance and therefore experience, thats a positive. I firmly believe we will have a really good squad doing good things out there in the next three years or so. Until then its Macedonia time baby!!!!

I didnt like the appointment of him as manager I thought it was Delaney just givin the job to his buddy. for what other reason could he have picked him? I did think though that he would be able to inject a bit of passion and pride into the team even if he wouldnt have the same tactical abilities as Kerr. but wed night there was no sign of passion and I hope he gets it sorted before Germany because organistion and pride in the jersey is the only way we will get anything from that game.

If he gets neither of them right this campaign then its time to call for his head.

OK guys lets keep this in perspective. This was a friendly match and the only thing it proved is that currently we do not have a strong enough squad (not first XI). If Brian Kerr was still in charge for Hollands game we would have gotten the Irish moral victory - a draw (or maybe a narrow defeat) but our "optimism" would then disappear in the matches that count, the qualifiers in which Kerr couldn't ever buy any sort of proper victory

Now we find ourselves dreading the possibility of being embarassed by the Germans but this will not happen. They will now write us off - always a danger and we'll see. . .

My advice to Stan and staff is as soon as the squad is gathered together ahead of the German match is to practice practice practice practice set pieces both offensive and defensive. Our skills at these were sorely lacking under Kerr and have evidently not returned.

The Leicester match has just finished and I note Paddy McCarthy was named man of the match. Surely it is time he receives a call considering our options at CB.

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Originally Posted by southbucket2001

The Leicester match has just finished and I note Paddy McCarthy was named man of the match. Surely it is time he receives a call considering our options at CB.

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He also got his customary yellow card :p
However, i agree he needs to called up even if it's just as back-up.

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Originally Posted by nshoop

Staunton's appointment was a poor decision even by the fai's standards but now that he's here he should be allowed to build a team for the world cup in2010.McCarthy looked to the youth and built a decent team that could've and should've gone further in 2002 had he not gone on an ego trip.Stan needs to look at players like Doyle and McGeady and forget the 'big' players who aren't interested

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Should have gone further in 2002? we played the Spanish off the park in extra time, threw the kitchen sink at them, and if the game was still going on we wouldnt have scored a winner, it was unfortunate but one of those nights we were never going to get the winner, days like England had in 88, Holland had in Dublin in 2001 with 4 of the worlds best strikers? Dont blame Mick for the lads missing the penos please...

the reality is O'Leary is now available and delaney is one ruthless *******. stan will go sooner rather than later if the performnces, whatever about the results, dont dramatically improve.

I've been away for a few weeks and wasn't in a position to post... I didn't get to see the performance on Wednesday.

I was a little shocked to say the least when I seen the squad, or the absences from the squad I should say. Staunton justified the absence of players like McCarthy by saying he wasn't ready for international football. This is a dangerous mentality to have for a manager of a relatively small footballing nation with limited resources.

90% of the northern Ireland squad isn't ready for international football. Neither are 50% of the Welsh squad. But the long and the short of it is they've no choice but to include them. We need depth in every position, and if the cover isn't up to the desired standard it's just a punch we'll have to roll with. But to ignore them totally shows a level of naivity that belies his vast experience as a player. There's no consistency in his thinking. He's entitled to believe players aren't ready, sure. But by the same token does he really believe players llike kilbane are an option as an international centre half??

Stan is entitled to time to convince. There are a number of positions in the first eleven up for grabs and outside 5 or 6 players there's not much of a diference in class for the rest of the option. He has to pick the best from an average bunch but is not casting the net wide enough for me.

I agree with you I think...Wales have players like Gabbidon and Earnshaw who were playing in English League 1 when they were introduced into the Intl setup.These players, as well as a few others, have become vital members of the team since then.There is no way McCarthy will be ready if he isn't given a chance to play!

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Originally Posted by Forever Dreamin

Dont blame Mick for the lads missing the penos please...

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I was refering to him sending home our leader and world class midfielder,keane would've buried his peno seen as u brought it up

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Originally Posted by nshoop

I was refering to him sending home our leader and world class midfielder,keane would've buried his peno seen as u brought it up

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Like he did against Romania in 1997 :rolleyes: ?