Irish golden generation?

[irishultra]

First off, understand that there isn't really a lot to discuss here, so perhaps the thread isn't merited.

But anyway, do you think a ''golden generation'' is on the horizon for Irish football?

We had a mini-esque golden generation with Brian Kerr's teams, but I'm talking about a wave of young talented footballers.

Does anyone know if the FAI is seriously doing anything to take Irish football to the next level. Maby with our relatively high immigration levels it might not be too far away..maby not in the next decade but perhaps for the 2022..2026() World Cup.

[Soper]

It might happen if our domestioc league was better supported, as we would be idiotic to depend on English and Scottish teams to develop our youths.

[Paddy Garcia]

But anyway, do you think a ''golden generation'' is on the horizon for Irish football?

In a word: No

[Emmet]

But anyway, do you think a ''golden generation'' is on the horizon for Irish football?

Nope.

Does anyone know if the FAI is seriously doing anything to take Irish football to the next level

Again - no. I was reading an old programme from the late 1980s and there was an article in there that said what a great opportunity we had to really push on with football in Ireland with the National team doing so well. It talked about the things the FAI needs to do and how it needs to invest in grass-roots to ensure that the current team is not just a one-off. Twenty years later ...

[Reality Bites]

I am not sure we'll see a Golden Generation for some time! The Premier League has increased its amount of foreign players 10 fold since the late 80's early 90's, traditionally Irish players had more of a chance to make it in England but with the increased number of foreigners attracted by the big bucks I doubt the opportunity exist now unless you are very very talented, look at the amount of foreigners at Arsenal Chelsea, Liverpool and Man Utd, in the early 90' and 80's you would have expected at least 2 to 3 Irish players taking part in last nites showpiece instead we had one bench warmer J'O'S..our only hope is if Trap can organise us like the Greeks in there unlikely 2004 victory!

[irishultra]

We are foreigners as well though.

But I get what your saying.

[Paulie Bleecker]

It might happen if our domestioc league was better supported, as we would be idiotic to depend on English and Scottish teams to develop our youths.

Since when? We've always had foreign sides develop our youths.

[Macy]

Since when? We've always had foreign sides develop our youths.

Yes, and our international record speaks for itself. The English and Scottish systems are failing thier own national teams, so we can hardly expect success by relying on them to produce our own players. We need football restructured in this country so that the players come up through youth teams, into domestic football, with the best players going abroad. We then have the control over their development, which should be focussed on the continental model of player development at underage level.

It won't happen because...

1. Too many of the nursery clubs are tied in with the notion of getting players on trials and "making it" England
2. Too Many of the youth teams are all about winning trophies not player development
3. The youth leagues have too much say in the FAI
4. The FAI heads are all sucked into UK football too
5. The Irish public are too short sighted to link the development of the domestic game to the fortunes of the national team

[Supreme feet]

Between 1997 and 2003, the Irish youth teams won two major European tournaments (both in '98), finished third in Europe twice (99, 02), and appeared in three World Youth Cups,(97, 99, 03), finishing third once. An unprecedented run of success.

This generation has often been called the 'golden generation', but so many players never lived up to their promise. We had high hopes for so many. From those teams, only Duff, Dunne, Keane, Andy Reid, O'Shea and Doyle have become established international players. Miller, McPhail, Douglas, Elliott and Doherty never became any more than international fringe players and Championship journeymen. Healy and Sadlier were just downright unlucky with injuries. The jury's still out on Kelly, Potter, Whelan, Paddy McCarthy and others, but I wouldn't hold my breath for any of them. But most disappointing of all reads the list of players who have disappeared from international contention despite huge early promise and some top-level experience; Richie Partridge, Graham Barrett, Alan and Barry Quinn, Jason Gavin, Shaun Thornton, Thomas Butler, Ronnie O'Brien... need I go on?

If even a quarter of those names I've mentioned had gone on to fulfil their potential, we'd be much better off. I'm an optimist, and I do think we have a promising range of young players coming through - Scannell, McCarthy, Garvan, Gibson, Stokes (perhaps), Nolan, O'Halloran, Gleeson, O'Dea, etc... but I can't escape the notion that many of these names will disappear like those I've named.

[irishultra]

Also don't forget Alan Judge at Blackburn......a goal in every two is very good for someone of his age.

Seriously for a country of our population size we reALLY punch above(or with at least) our weight. Imagine the famine never happened.


Sure the country might be the most densley populated in the world, but our pool of player would have been feckin HUGE.

[SkStu]

Yes, and our international record speaks for itself. The English and Scottish systems are failing thier own national teams, so we can hardly expect success by relying on them to produce our own players. We need football restructured in this country so that the players come up through youth teams, into domestic football, with the best players going abroad. We then have the control over their development, which should be focussed on the continental model of player development at underage level.

It won't happen because...

1. Too many of the nursery clubs are tied in with the notion of getting players on trials and "making it" England
2. Too Many of the youth teams are all about winning trophies not player development
3. The youth leagues have too much say in the FAI
4. The FAI heads are all sucked into UK football too
5. The Irish public are too short sighted to link the development of the domestic game to the fortunes of the national team

agree fully... here are some posts i posted towards the end of Stauntons regime... not being big headed or anything but i still think the points are pretty valid but i would love to start some debate on how exactly we can nurture our young players and work towards many golden generations instead of hoping for all the stars to align and one to come along...

http://foot.ie/showpost.php?p=772911&postcount=17

http://foot.ie/showpost.php?p=814918&postcount=19

http://foot.ie/showpost.php?p=769707&postcount=76

http://foot.ie/showpost.php?p=769823&postcount=117

http://foot.ie/showpost.php?p=769878&postcount=138

[irishultra]

Loved reading all those posts.

What can we do to get this Ajax style academy?

How do we get more people to Eircom League and first division? More advertisement. Does the league need some invester who finances one team. They dominate the league and qualify for Champions League yearly for example a Rosenbourg of Irish football(I thought Shelbourne would become this)

[Supreme feet]

Just took a gander at the Swedish squad, the same team that have qualified for the last five major tournaments. They have only two players playing for G14 clubs - Mellberg and Ibrahimovic. Yet their better players are scattered across Europe, playing key roles in decent European leagues for decent clubs, like Deportivo, Galatasaray, Werder Bremen, Lyon, Toulouse and AEK Athens, alongside their Premiership players like Ljungberg, Sebastian Larsson and Isaksson. Their domestic league representatives are either very young and continent-bound, or coming to the end of distinguished careers, like Larsson and Alexandersson. Yet most, if not all, of their international players started out at domestic clubs.

Most EL clubs are too unstable in every way, and don't have the infrastructure or coaching expertise therein to be seen as an attractive option for an up-and-coming schoolboy player. Swedish clubs play in modern (if modestly sized) stadia, with excellent facilities, and are coached by former internationals and respected football people. IFK Gothenburg are managed by Stefan Rehn, and Malmo by Roland Nilsson, both of whom had long careers and played in the 1994 WC for Sweden. Their clubs are financially stable, and regularly produce international players. I may add that both have lost to Irish opposition in Europe in recent years, but it doesn't change the fact that they play a major role in a much more productive, competitive and self-sufficient footballing culture than ours.

Rosenborg's success in Norway was achieved through financial backing and, more importantly, a clear footballing vision - Nils Arne Eggen's teams of the 1990s played open attacking football, which obviously made them more attractive to watch for locals. To be honest, not many people are going to pay to see a ball being hoofed clumsily from one end of the pitch to the other, especially when GAA and rugby can provide the high-scoring excitement that football naturally lacks. The way to attract punters is to play exciting, technical football. I've often seen Mick Wallace as being similar to Eggen, as he encourages his teams to play attacking, passing football within a fixed European-style system, but Wexford is a very small pond. We need finance, and we need knowledgable, well-travelled and experienced coaches with strong ideas and visions about the right way to play the game, just to give ourselves a start.

[SkStu]

Loved reading all those posts.

What can we do to get this Ajax style academy?

How do we get more people to Eircom League and first division? More advertisement. Does the league need some invester who finances one team. They dominate the league and qualify for Champions League yearly for example a Rosenbourg of Irish football(I thought Shelbourne would become this)

decided i should wait til after work before responding to this post.

regarding the academy, it will take time and money. If the FAI wont invest in such an academy (as opposed to one modelled on an English nursery) then it will become the remit of the clubs themselves. I know, for example, that Bohs reps met with representatives of Rosenborg a few years back but nothing tangible seems to have come from it yet (but being away from the club these days i cant say for certain what is happening).

See, this is the thing that gets my goat more than anything else. Why does everything have to be the British way when it comes to soccer? Why not build our own "style" if you want? Mould our own players our way and have them learn the game like Spanish, Italian, Dutch, even Scandinavian kids? I love watching the english league actually, its really exciting. But is it doing anything for the english team? The scots? The welsh? US?

No.

Why cant we be more proactive when it comes to developing our soccer players? I said in one of those posts to think the Scandinavian way. Lets retain our players while at the same time making it attractive to the ambitions of those players. The best of the best can move to the big leagues. But there will still be a lot of talent in Ireland.

Read the first link - i think this is the way towards a successful league and an even more successful national team. Its simple and achievable.

[Kingdom]

Yes, and our international record speaks for itself. The English and Scottish systems are failing thier own national teams, so we can hardly expect success by relying on them to produce our own players. We need football restructured in this country so that the players come up through youth teams, into domestic football, with the best players going abroad. We then have the control over their development, which should be focussed on the continental model of player development at underage level.

It won't happen because...

1. Too many of the nursery clubs are tied in with the notion of getting players on trials and "making it" England - check
2. Too Many of the youth teams are all about winning trophies not player development - check
3. The youth leagues have too much say in the FAI - check
4. The FAI heads are all sucked into UK football too - double check
5. The Irish public are too short sighted to link the development of the domestic game to the fortunes of the national team - check

A proper pyramid structure is needed to develop and deliver decent players that can stay in Ireland.

[The Owls]

The FAI in my opinion have a lot of work to do with the grassroots in this country. A prime example of this is the south dublin football league representative teams, im a coach for a school boy team in this league and had players train every wednesday night with them for about three months unitl the players received a letter saying it costs €120 to be part of the team. So if you cant pay you cant play! There could be hundreds of kids with more talent than the paying kids missing out on their devolpment. Its nothing short of a disgrace. This is a reason why our pool of players is full of average championship third generation irish nobodies!

[jebus]

Develop better coaches and you'll develop better kids, simple as that, the FAI coaching system (the first stages of gaining a UEFA licence) should be mandatory for anyone coaching from u-10s up, not the present system of whose dad has more time off. To gain the kids badges it only takes a weekend course, so it's not a big ask.

From there the FAI should restructure the junior leagues to support the LoI teams more. There should be a clear progression from Premier to First to A to regional leagues. This would incorporate the junior clubs youth teams as well. Every LoI club should have a kids team, they should play in the city/countys regional leagues, but they really should be the cream of the regions youth. The success of that of course depends on clubs turning professional which leads us to the next point

Promoting the LoI. To promote this league we will have to get over the mindset of the average Irishman. Let's be honest about this lads, Irish people aren't exactly known for backing things unless success is assured. We've an awful habit of turning our backs and sneering at people trying to be different, and it's a situation that is affecting the Irish domestic game. Irish people tend to have a 'what's in it for me attitude' about everything, this fabled Irish community spirit is non-existant as far as I can tell and it's something we will have to overcome. How is a different days thread altogether