Martin O'Neill and Roy Keane

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Originally Posted by brine3

I don't care so much about qualification. I'd like Ireland matches to no longer be an assault on my eyeballs.

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I never get this sort of comment for international football. I can understand it for a club side where you have 20 odd games at home each season to watch and if the style of football is not easy on the eye, it might be tough to endure. But for international football where you only have may be five competitive games of football each year (circa 7.5 hours), I really don't care whether it "assaults my eyeballs" or not if it is successful because I follow Ireland in the hope of being successful (i.e. qualify for tournaments) and not to be entertained for 8 hours. I would choose any day of the week a scrappy win that puts us on the road to qualification over a free flowing defeat.

I have lived through the era of the glorious defeats when we qualified for nothing. In my opinion it is all about trying to qualify by whatever method is deemed best. Nothing would sicken me more than seeing us playing great football and losing - it would be as sickening as playing shi+e football and also losing except possibly more disappointing.

As for O'Neill and Stoke, the former's name is mentioned for every vacancy these days. He was 18/1 for the Sheff Wed job recently. I'd attach little credence to the rumours,

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Originally Posted by OwlsFan

I never get this sort of comment for international football. I can understand it for a club side where you have 20 odd games at home each season to watch and if the style of football is not easy on the eye, it might be tough to endure. But for international football where you only have may be five competitive games of football each year (circa 7.5 hours), I really don't care whether it "assaults my eyeballs" or not if it is successful because I follow Ireland in the hope of being successful (i.e. qualify for tournaments) and not to be entertained for 8 hours. I would choose any day of the week a scrappy win that puts us on the road to qualification over a free flowing defeat.

I have lived through the era of the glorious defeats when we qualified for nothing. In my opinion it is all about trying to qualify by whatever method is deemed best. Nothing would sicken me more than seeing us playing great football and losing - it would be as sickening as playing shi+e football and also losing except possibly more disappointing.

As for O'Neill and Stoke, the former's name is mentioned for every vacancy these days. He was 18/1 for the Sheff Wed job recently. I'd attach little credence to the rumours,

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I appreciate what you're saying, but you have to understand from the perspective of people trying to coach football to kids here, and then showing those same kids the football on show at Ireland matches.

There's more to international football than the Senior men's team, and considering the whole football development plan is built around an ideal of how to play football, it seems a bit ridiculous that what the senior manager passes off as football deviates completely from what is being taught at underage level.

I don't think it's particularly fair either to compare the days of the 70s and 80s prepared teams - which from lore were horrific, and prone to serious squad withdrawals - to the current organisation surrounding internationals.

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Originally Posted by Diggs246

I wonder is Michael O'Neill holding out to see if we come in for him , my understanding is he has offers from NI and also Scotland, but hasn't signed. The Scottish offer I believe if the media are right is lucrative

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Poaching their players and then their manager?


That just wouldn't do.

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Originally Posted by OwlsFan

I have lived through the era of the glorious defeats when we qualified for nothing.

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That was a different era. Firstly, the tournaments were much smaller so there were less places up for grabs. For 1982 we were in a qualification group with France, Belgium and Holland. Secondly, even if we played well enough and somehow had a chance of qualifying against these teams, refs in those days were for sale. 1982 being the case in point again.

Don't forget, as well, that we made it to the last 8 of the Euros in 1964.

The dominating narrative in Irish football for the past 30 years is is that we couldn't do anything until Jack came along and got us to play results oriented football. But it doesn't wash with reality.

It's now 2018. Euro 88 was 30 years ago. You didn't get anywhere in 1988 playing tactics from 1958. So I don't know why O'Neill has us set up like we are lining out at the Neckar Stadium.

https://www.google.ie/amp/s/amp.inde...-36477120.html

Looking more ominous. There's a headline on the front page of the Indo that he's set to take the Stoke job. Just walked past it so I didn't read further and not sure if that headline is deduced from the above article.

Interesting to note Keane would be part of the deal. Rules him out of the Ireland job.

If the rumours are true, I'm genuinely surprised that an EPL team would be looking to hire him.

He certainly has experience, but over the past few years, I don't think he has much to show he would do a good job at that level.

I would not be bothered if he did leave, as I don't think he is a manager that changes style, and the style he plays with us is not one that gets us good enough results at home.

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Originally Posted by osarusan

I would not be bothered if he did leave, as I don't think he is a manager that changes style, and the style he plays with us is not one that gets us good enough results at home.

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but certainly a style that gets us big results away from home, a euro 16 qualification and the wc play offs from being 4th seeds in the group.
the wins against italy, germany, wales away, Austria away in his two campaigns so far cant just be dismissed

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Originally Posted by jbyrne

but certainly a style that gets us big results away from home, a euro 16 qualification and the wc play offs from being 4th seeds in the group.
the wins against italy, germany, wales away, Austria away in his two campaigns so far cant just be dismissed

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I didn't dismiss them, I specified that the problem is at home. We are actually set up very well away to the top teams.

We are very good at playing deep and frustrating attacking opposition. But pretty much every other style of play is a problem.

For the best I feel. His final game leaves a terrible black mark, but O'Neill's tenure was a success. That being said, we have a habit of holding onto managers one campaign too many, and I have a feeling Euro 2020 qualifying would have been that for these two.

As for Stoke, get the impression they want a steady pair of hands to avoid relegation. O'Neill and Keane will provide that.

Has O’Neill been as good a manager when he has not had John Robertson as his main Coach / Tactician .

A assistant of that quality is not easy to find .

You’d think Michael O’ Neill would be a better choice for Stoke ....Younger and Hungrier . He has done an outstanding job for Northern Ireland .

Michael's entire managerial record is in either part-time club football or as a part-time international manager. I predict he'll never manage in the EPL or even ECL

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Originally Posted by Gather round

Michael's entire managerial record is in either part-time club football or as a part-time international manager. I predict he'll never manage in the EPL or even ECL

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Obviously you want to keep him but running down his achievements as Northern Ireland manager is a bit dodgy .

He basically achieved a miracle with Northern Ireland . He would certainly be well worth a go with a decent Championship side and perhaps with a lot of clubs in the bottom half of the premiership .

Some of the managers on the merry go round have had a lot less recent success than Michael O’ Neill .

Arguably Martin O Neill should have done better than Michael with what some would consider a somewhat ( in my opinion not much better ) better Republic Squad .

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Originally Posted by NeverFeltBetter

For the best I feel. His final game leaves a terrible black mark, but O'Neill's tenure was a success. That being said, we have a habit of holding onto managers one campaign too many, and I have a feeling Euro 2020 qualifying would have been that for these two.

As for Stoke, get the impression they want a steady pair of hands to avoid relegation. O'Neill and Keane will provide that.

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I just saw something very similar on Twitter! You I presume? Or a copycat?

Ha, I'm afraid not, haven't been on Twitter in some time. A case of "Great minds..."

It's being reported that Coates and Scholes are actually in Barcelona meeting Quique Sanchez Flores. Apparently they have offered him the job and 4m compensation to Espanyol.

Surely O'Neill's position is untenable if he's flirted with Stoke, ignoring the verbal agreement.

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Originally Posted by Olé Olé

It's being reported that Coates and Scholes are actually in Barcelona meeting Quique Sanchez Flores. Apparently they have offered him the job and 4m compensation to Espanyol.

Surely O'Neill's position is untenable if he's flirted with Stoke, ignoring the verbal agreement.

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I personally wanted Martin O'Neill to stay, but if I was a decision maker in the FAI, I would move to appoint a new manager. We cant have a guy who doesn't want to be there.

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Originally Posted by Olé Olé

Surely O'Neill's position is untenable if he's flirted with Stoke, ignoring the verbal agreement.

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I don't really see why. It would all depend on who we could get to replace him I suppose.

If we're not able to attract a good manager to replace him, then I'd imagine a blind eye would be turned to his flirting with Stoke.

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Originally Posted by brine3

Don't forget, as well, that we made it to the last 8 of the Euros in 1964.

The dominating narrative in Irish football for the past 30 years is is that we couldn't do anything until Jack came along and got us to play results oriented football. But it doesn't wash with reality.

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It is a fact that we didn't qualify for anything until Jack came along. I don't think anyone said that "we didn't do anything" as I was in attendance at some great victories, not least 3-0 over the Soviet Union, 4-0 over Turkey and 3-2 over France but they all counted for nothing in the end. That is the reality no matter how much revisionist history some people might like to proffer. We had some great players but we never gained the holy grail of qualification.

As regards 1964, we beat Iceland in a qualifying round and Austria in the first qualifying round and lost to Spain (who has only squeaked past Northern Ireland in an earlier round) by a cricket score in the 2nd qualifying round. We didn't make the Finals. It also wasn't easy to qualify for Euro 88. Only one team qualified out of a group of 5 and we were the third or fourth seed. We also earned our right to play in Italia 90 with a 1-0 home win over Spain.

Martin O'Neill has presided over some of the greatest results in Irish football history (Germany away and home, Austria away, Wales away, Italy at the Euros) and secured one qualification. It's a great legacy results wise. We will have to agree to differ over the style of play which to me is immaterial even if Kingdom thinks it might affect people trying to coach kids. The international team is not about setting an example. It's about results, qualification and generating revenue for the FAI who in theory then put that money back in to the grassroots (coaches, kids etc).

Anyway, I still doubt if he will be leaving. Quique Sanchez Flores (all three of him) is the current odds on favourite.

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Originally Posted by OwlsFan

It is a fact that we didn't qualify for anything until Jack came along. I don't think anyone said that "we didn't do anything" as I was in attendance at some great victories, not least 3-0 over the Soviet Union, 4-0 over Turkey and 3-2 over France but they all counted for nothing in the end.

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........immediately discounts.......

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Martin O'Neill has presided over some of the greatest results in Irish football history Austria away, Wales away It's a great legacy results wise.

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.....this.

And as I said on another social media platform to give the man his absolute credit, he's probably achieved the best collection of results of any previous Irish manager. Unfortunately, the performances have been seriously bipolar.