Martin O'Neill and Roy Keane

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Originally Posted by paul_oshea

Nothing in the team comes close to Trap taking over with the likes of Duff, Keane, Dunne, O'Shea and Given, with that level of skill, talent and experience(and age). Trap had it far better coming in, he had a very strong spine with great experience. You are giving me the impression that you have some sort of agenda regarding O'Neill and his term as manager, something to fall back on if he doesnt succeed in his stated mission to qualify Ireland for the Euros.

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Unlike some I'm backing us to qualify, we have the players and management team to do so, it's the easiest qualification criteria in history and I believe O'Neill can do it with a bit of managerial nous and I believe he has been given more than enough support to get us to qualify.
If he doesn't do it, it will rank as major failure. There's nothing for me to fall back upon as I have stated my opinion.
My opinion may be faulty as we may not qualify and O'Neill did his best with what he had.

I think it was you Paul who found fault or something up with a point I made once, that even in his worst epl season, off form and injury hit, Robbie was still better than Long. In the light of what you now write, I think you must have failed to grasp the point at that time or couldn't resist being sarcy.
Robbie and Duff both had passed their career peak at various times during Trap's first campaign.
But even in the autumn of their careers, Duff and Keane were still well ahead of what we have now and Trap knew their worth at the time.
Givens' quality was on the wane in or around 2011 and he became a liability.

Now we have a squad of players who are improving, we have different strengths, especially in midfield and O'Neill has more than enough to mould a competitive team.
If Scotland are supposed to be the team with their modest bunch then surely we can as well.

The glass is definitely half-full...

I think the positives are that Gibson, McCarthy, Brady and Reid all ought to be fit in the autumn. These will enhance our options.

We need to solve the left back problem pronto. Maybe Clark will step up in the US. Ward is a terrific bloke but he fills me with fear. I also really want to see someone make a compelling case to displace Whelan.

Although Georgia away is no gimme, the likelihood is that Oman, Georgia and Gib will mean we have a run of form going into the big games in October and November.

We need to start taking chances and cutting out the sloppy errors that cost us needless goals in the last two friendlies.

There is a lot of responsibility on MON to both devise a style of play and to make sure the players implement it.

But I agree with Ardee, the glass probably is half full. I want to see evidence it's not going to fall over though, which it might.

Enhance our options, but all about the same level of mediocrity that in the past havent really made much of a difference, they assimilate easily into and out of the team, neither missed or needed.

I think the 4 mentioned above would all have added something to what we put out in the last two friendlies.

Anyway, RTE all over the Keane - Celtic thing. Press conf later tonight apparently.

However, SSN hadn't mentioned anything at all.

Jazz hands Robbie Keane better than Shane Long in his worst EPL season. :rolleyes:

Someone that spends 85% of games chastising the referee and his teammates while another striker invariably does all the donkey work for him. Thank God he gobbles goals against small teams because if he didn't have that.... he's not renowned for his technical brilliance.

Now I may be not be appreciating Robbie Keane enough but you could accuse other people of not appreciating Shane Long or Kevin Doyle enough too!

Here we go again.

Looking like roy keane is on way to celtic. O'Neill has announced that dermot Desmond has rang him asking him wud it be ok to speak to him. O'neill said he expects roy to be at italy game on sat but now unsure if roy will going on the American tour for costa rica and portugal games

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Originally Posted by TheOneWhoKnocks

Jazz hands Robbie Keane better than Shane Long in his worst EPL season. :rolleyes:

Someone that spends 85% of games chastising the referee and his teammates while another striker invariably does all the donkey work for him. Thank God he gobbles goals against small teams - he netted more in one game against Burnley than he in anyways because if he didn't have that.... he's not renowned for his technical brilliance.

Now I may be not be appreciating Robbie Keane enough but you could accuse other people of not appreciating Shane Long or Kevin Doyle enough too!

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You could simply decide to see the best in everyone?

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Originally Posted by back of the net

Looking like roy keane is on way to celtic. O'Neill has announced that dermot Desmond has rang him asking him wud it be ok to speak to him. O'neill said he expects roy to be at italy game on sat but now unsure if roy will going on the American tour for costa rica and portugal games

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Walking out on your country IS THAT THE NEW THING NOW ROY

It probably seems worse to us because he's so high profile, but would anyone really bat an eyelid if Mark McGhee left his assistant manager job at Scotland to manage Celtic? It would be seen as an opportunity too good to turn down, a man only trying to better himself by accepting a greater challenge. I think we might be better off without the Keano circus anyway to be honest, especially with his new book coming out at the beginning of the Euro campaign. Will there be a chance that he'll do both roles? I hope not.

Why would you want to manage Celtic at the moment? Where is the challenge? If he wins title after title people will go so what.

They're still a massive club, day to day management and an opportunity to rebuild his managerial reputation by winning a few handy trophies.

This could go one of two ways.

He signed a ream of Irish players at Sunderland, so if he maintains that transfer policy we could see a lot of Irish players in the CL.

Or Celtic could fail to qualify for the CL, in which case we would just have a lot of Irish players playing a sh*t level of football every week.

Personally, I would like to see Irish players playing CL football but Celtic qualifying is a big, big ask.

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Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

We might need to change the headline of this thread back to "managed" if the Indo is to be believed. Keane bookies' fave to manage(d) Celtic.

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Yes, it was always a correct title, I am well ahead of the game, even my typing errors turn out to be correct!! :)




Hmmmm...... Ireland win 2018 world cup.....

As I always said, Celtic and Keane are a marriage made in paradise ;)
So the seating arrangement at he last game could have reflected the cooling relations?
No escape for our Anthony, what did he do to deserve this?

if Keane goes I would like every cent that was paid to him returned and.......... give us back the jersey.

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Originally Posted by DeLorean

I think we might be better off without the Keano circus anyway to be honest, especially with his new book coming out at the beginning of the Euro campaign. .

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I agree wholeheartedly. That article by Paul Rowan last week, the photos of Keane at the training sessions before the Turkey game, the rigmarole of people giving out about him doing punditry on the CL final before an Ireland match, just brought home how distracting it is to have so much focus on the assistant manager.
He's currently bigger than the team. I don't like that. Let these lads make a name for themselves and let MON go about his business without having to give a soundbyte about Roy at every press conference.

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Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

We might need to change the headline of this thread back to "managed" if the Indo is to be believed. Keane bookies' fave to manage(d) Celtic.

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The worst odds I can see on that are 1/3 , he is 1/8 at PaddyPower, and 1/10 on at another bookie.

Looks like someone thinks they know something!

Worth a punt Tricky?

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Originally Posted by shakermaker1982

Why would you want to manage Celtic at the moment? Where is the challenge? If he wins title after title people will go so what.

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Because it is easy job guaranteed to make you successful.

Lets face it even I would struggle to screw the job up, it is chance for Roy to show he can manage a 'big team'.

I say guaranteed but then look how Moyes struggled at Man U, what if half way through next season Celtic
are struggling in 4th or 5th place? It could happen. I am not a follower of Scottish football so I don't know
what sort of shape Celtic are in for next season, Roy may have been left a poisoned chalice a bit like Moyes was
perhaps?