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Plus McCarthy came very close to automatic qualification in a group with Denmark and Switzerland. Kenny lost the euro play off, had a nightmare nations league and got knocked out of world cup qualifying effectively after 2 games.
Reading posts like supreme feets and some reports in the media, you'd assume the records of McCarthy and Kenny were the other way around.
The base standard of player was so much higher though for McCarthy, surely?Quote:
Originally Posted by tetsujin1979
The 98 qualifying campaign squad was a bit of a mess - a mix of aging stalwarts, injuried players who should have been in their prime and raw young lads, some of which just weren't good enough or were played badly out of position (Ian Harte at centre back!)
Some similarities to our last campaign to be honest - though we were strangely weak at centre back which is unusual for us. We were much stronger in midfield though.
I actually went and had a look... the quality of player was night and day as compared to what SK inherited.
https://www.worldfootball.net/teams/...a-1996-1997/2/
And heres the first 11 he selected: https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2019...st-ireland-xi/
On the first link though - Ned Weir? :D
Yep!Quote:
Originally Posted by SkStu
Was only retired 50 years but still able to put in a shift off the bench
Time was a random thing like that would spawn a good page of posts on his exploits for Termonbarry Alberts/Hibs... Or head-wrecking puns linking him with Conor Sammon...Ah, the glory days of foot.ie.
McCarthy made a lot of mistakes in that 98 qualification campaign; he was 36/37 and learning on the job. That said, only the group winners qualified automatically, and Romania won 9 and drew 1 of their ten games. So we were never going to win that group whilst at the same time in a period of transition, through necessity, having to bring in younger players while also trying to inculcate a new style of play. Mick certainly got better as he went along. We became a formidable team under him, and were 13 in the world by the time he left.Quote:
Originally Posted by Eirambler
Obafemi scored again. He should be in our next senior squad. I hope the likes of Keane and Hogan don’t get selected ahead of him. He has come into a bit of form and has a far higher ceiling. We have minimal striking options and Obafemi may in fact turn into a reasonable option. Hopefully Kenny won’t be stubborn
has to be in the squad on recent form.
2 goals actually. Surely warrants a call up
6 goals in his last 9 and Idah is unavailable. It would be borderline insane to leave Obafemi out now.
He'll get hammered if he doesn't pick him and rightly so. So you've got to think he will have the common sense to quickly add him in, even if he wasn't going to be in the squad as of 8pm this evening.
He refused a call up to the 21s via his agent talking to Crawford. Apparently because he "sees himself as a senior player", although they may have been Crawford's words. Not sure what he thinks he's going to achieve by trying to force Kenny's hand. Does himself no favours this lad.
Crawford seems to do a lot of gossiping to the press himself. It’s not helpful. Could do with being more diplomatic
Given how isolated Crawford has left his strikers with his team setups this campaign, I wouldn't be tripping over myself for a call up to that team if I was him either.
Maybe...I could see why he'd become a talisman if you had problems with Kenny.
For me, the lad needs to take whatever call up he gets and show he can work in whatever system he is asked to. He's only just found a bit of form after more than a few years of question marks and he's talking like he's got 10 caps and goals to his name already. We know Crawford and Kenny work together so if they had a plan for him and it started with the 21s then there were reasons for it. Now he's gone and forced Kenny into a corner. Maybe just agent silliness. But doesn't look great.
I was thinking that alright - if he was called up for the 21s, surely that's because Kenny wasn't going to call him up for the seniors? You'd imagine the two managers would coordinate their squads.Quote:
Originally Posted by ontheotherhand
Given how stuck we are up front - and 6 goals in 9 games is far better form than anyone else we have at the moment - it does seem weird to leave him in the 21s.
Still a silly thing for him to do though
Yeah I was hoping he'd get the call but maybe he always operates through his agent and all their dealings with him are like this so they thought let's see if the lad is humble enough and eager enough to work his way up from the 21s? Maybe he was due to play one 21s game before stepping in for the Lithuania game assuming he showed the right attitude? It's odd all round.Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
Of course maybe Crawford is making it all up and Michael is just sitting by the phone in his Ireland kit waiting for the call.
It does sound like Crawford could have been talking about some point in the past, like him and the agent had that conversation in September or whatever:
“Look, Michael has made it clear to us before that he sees himself as a senior international player. It’s unfortunate from an Under-21s perspective but I’ve had a conversation with his agent and that’s where it’s at,” Crawford said, having previously worked with him at Under-21 level following his senior cap under Martin O’Neill in 2019.
“The last thing I said to the agent was that, if he ever feels that he wants to come to the 21s, don’t hesitate to call because we’ll have a conversation around that. In his own eyes, I think he sees himself as a senior player.
I'm not sure if that sounds better or worse....so he was turning down the 21s while he wasn't in form at club level? You'd think he would've bitten someone's hand off for a cap at any level.Quote:
Originally Posted by elatedscum
I suppose at least it might indicate that he hasn't explicitly turned down a call up to the 21s this week....by my god he needs a new agent.