Our footballing culture would involve a hell of a lot more handballs.Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
"If you don't work harder I'll pull you off at halftime,"
“Crikey, at Manchester City all we get is an orange and a cup of tea,"
of course we have a football culture, don't be daft. Just because it's disjointed and imbalanced and not as in line with best practice as it could be doesn't mean we don't have one. I happen to think that a country's national teams should be indicative of the way football is organised in a country. Ours are, it's just not a very good indictment.
We have a football culture, but there is a total disconnect between international and domestic football and it shows. As long as the general public and the head honchos see overseas players and managers as the bedrock of "Irish" football then the actually footballing culture of the League of Ireland will never be seen.
Michael O'Neill
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist thinks it will change; the realist adjusts the sails.
And stop posting without wearing your tinfoil hat.Lose the predictive text function spud
DID YOU NOTICE A SIGN OUTSIDE MY HOUSE...?
Poaching players is bad enough but could we get away with poaching their manager?
DID YOU NOTICE A SIGN OUTSIDE MY HOUSE...?
Hey it keeps me warm, and just because I believe that our soccer journo's share the same strand of moral courage, doesn't mean there's a conspiracy :-) And with due respect to the lad, Richie S. is not a good pundit, if he now covers the sky league show, lovely, much easier to watch MNS and LOI without him.
What about Pia Sundhage, unless you are all fearful of a woman in power.
No Somos muchos pero estamos locos.
Problem with an Irish manager is no one would respect him (I'm talking about the fans and the media). Sounds crazy I know but we just don't respect our own. Mick and Jack got way more respect than Stan, Brian Kerr, John Giles, Eoin Hand.
Martin O'Neill is about the only one who'd command respect.
Bigger problem however is to get our youngsters playing football properly and steer them away from England. Steer them to mainland European countries where they actually play the game known as football. We'll be singing the same old song in fifty years if we don't.
Mick is one of our own. Tut tut tut!
You're right though on the "bigger" problem.
DID YOU NOTICE A SIGN OUTSIDE MY HOUSE...?
Bit simplistic. There's no real anti-DOB culture in the sports pages at the Indo. There is an anti-Trap culture in general among media cohorts, and there is a very cosy hive mind that involves the more prominent sports journalists at all media outlets in this country.
I think our Roy had something to say about that!
Mick never walked out on his nation in favour of his ego, but that's another story.I think our Roy had something to say about that!
I see Trap has publicly layed in to James McClean saying that he's lucky to be in the team and openly letting us all know that he had to give a grovelling apology to the rest of the team. I really think this is very poor management. Yes McClean should have to apologise to his team and should be made publicly apologise as he has done, but I don't think that the rest of us need to be made aware of what goes on behind closed doors.
It's very clear to me that there are a core of decent players in the Irish set-up who will get on with doing whatever Trap asks of them (I would include Robbie, Andrews and Dunney in this category) because they have more of the traditional attitude to international football and were brought up to get on with the job at hand, even if they don't agree with things. It's the classic Irish thing of keeping the head down and not rocking the boat. I both laud them for their love of the green shirt, while wishing that they would try and encourage change (there were hints from Duffer before he retired about him being very excited by McClean which seemed to indicate that he wanted him to get a good chance). It is the very thing that Keane despised - I part agreed with him as positive change won't occur, if our most influential players go along with the flow.
Then there are the good game lads (as Gilesy would say!!) like McShane, Whelan and Ward, who genuinely love playing for their country. However, they are all mediocre players who should not be getting their game. They will hardly rock the boat.
Then there are the batch of players who offer potential. This group includes Coleman, McClean, Clark, Gibson, Hoolahan, McCarthy and Wilson. All players that have shown they can cut it at the highest level and all with the exception of Wes, young lads who could be very important players for us over the next 8-10 years. Trap's attitude to them appears totally indifferent and he almost wants them to falter when he gives them a chance, as much as to say "sure didn't I tell ye that they aren't ready". The more decent lads like Coleman and McCarthy will keep their heads down and work their way in to the team, even if they know and we all know they should have been there long before. The more arrogant ones like Gibson will behave the way he did over the past few weeks (disgracefully) by eventually walking out of the team. Bottom line is that if he had a manager that gave him trust and support and played him ahead of players that he is clearly better then, this incident would not have occurred.
We are a mid-table type international team with a decent batch of players to choose from. We are not Spain, but then again we aren't Lithuania, let alone a Moldova. However, Europe is so competitive as a continent, that if we are to be in the running to qualify for tournaments, then we can hardly be going about it, by alienating our best young talents. Trap is failing us badly in this regard.
If Trap does end up going I'd love to see us follow the same approach again and bring in a respected coach from Europe who has no experience of the English leagues, and no pre-conceptions etc. Always dangerous to generalise about managers based on their nationalities (even if Trap is the most stereotypically Italian manager ever), but a German could be good. Good balance between technique and organisation. Someone like Ralf Rangnick maybe.
Bring Back Belfast Celtic F.C.
To be fair to Trap, with our seeding improvement, the job is a hell of a lot more appealing to good managers, then what it was when he inherited it. I think that we have a potentially good batch of players coming through that is also appealing.
I would love a good international manager like Rangnick, who first and foremost has people skills!! I would be less sure of the FAI though having the foresight that some posters on here have and I think it will be the same 3-4 fellas in the running, with a Jewell or Burley type thrown in for good measure.
Given that our youth teams would appear to have adopted the Dutch approach, then maybe a manager from there could be an option also.
CD - you're right on the hive mind, I even heard Matt Cooper drivel on, though in fairness Mark Lawrenson cut him down with facts rather than rhetoric. I'm not convinced about the lack of anti-DOB agenda in the INM sports pages, they have loved sticking the knife into JD, and references about salary and payments (for Trap) relate directly to DOB, so in this regard I find a common thread running through the "empure" that just doesn't feel right.
I'd get Felix Magath in for Ireland, Rangnick might be a little too blunt and wouldn't leave club football for a while. I wouldn't appoint a Dutch coach as they could blow up too easy. Regardless, no matter who comes in they'll be slated as quickly as possible. Stan was being lauded for his first outing win (and rightly so) against Sweden, and then destroyed, especially for the water bottle incident. Trap wasn't Roy Keane so Dunphy went for him, and while half the salary was being met by DOB, the INM mob were biding their time.
It disgusted me how many were hoping Ireland would lose to get rid of the manager. We're truly more english than the english.
Quite a few of the lads in the pub on Friday were gutted when we got that equaliser. Very strange to see.
"If God had meant football to be played in the air, he'd have put grass in the sky." Brian Clough.
You'll NEVER beat the Irish.......you'll just draw with us instead!!!
There was a gobsheen beside me in the pub talking bawlls hoping we would lose. Even at the lowest ebb (v San Marino, v Cyprus) I would never wish for us to lose.
Barstoolers!!!
DID YOU NOTICE A SIGN OUTSIDE MY HOUSE...?
Does actually jumping onto a barstool in a half-empty pub, jumping up and down like a looney at much danger to my personal health and drawing strange looks from after-work drinkers charactarise me as a barstooler?
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