Taxi drivers, private forums... the usual really.*
*see page 54 of this thread for more.
I'd have some reservations about Mick but on balance I think he'd be a good appointment. It's not like he didn't make some odd selections and there were a lot of late away goals conceded. Ipswich's recent throwing away of a 4-1 lead at Derby made me shudder! He also had a Trap-like tendency towards picking favourites.
On the plus side he's popular so will bring some feelgood back, can stand up to the antagonists, he's a leader and his club track record is good enough. I'm not sure you can say that any club he has been at hasn't benefited from him being there and I think he has generally got the best out of what he had to work with. He has the right idea on playing the game and was never afraid to trust young talent.
Really dont want McCarthy back. The Championship is his level as a manager
Its really not that complicated!!!
Was reading about Iceland, who have a great chance of making the playoffs. Their manager is Lars Lagerbach, the former Swedish manager. I know very little about him, but he did well with Sweden if I recall and he is clearly doing well with Iceland. He might be a good shout and would be cheaper than some of the other names mentioned.
Doesn't his contract expire at the end of this group?
Maybe so; wasn't aware of that. Still, if he does manage to qualify with Iceland, I can't imagine he'd be dazzled by our prospects. And the play-offs are mid-November. Aren't the FAI now hoping to have a new man in by the start of November? Or is Christmas still the set deadline?
We need to teach good habits to young players from about the age of 10 onwards, such as the Barcelona 6 second rule about getting the ball back.
Its too late to do anything with senior players, they've been bred in the English game.
From now on send young talented LOI players or talented teenagers to Spain, Italy or Holland. Anywhere but the EPL where they learn bad habits and are afraid to play football.
Why would these countries want our players when they have good players of their own?
The Liverpool academy has been namechecked by none other than Pep Guardiola as the second best in the world. There are a number of Irish there and O'Hanlon and McLaughlin (if we include him) are probably in the top 5 talents at youth/reserve level at the club, while Daniel Cleary has captained their youth team. Villa had half a team of Irish and they won the NEXTGEN last year. At Man City, Ian Lawlor and Jack Byrne are terrific talents, while there is the chance that our next superstar will be a fella like Noe Baba from a less glamorous club.
I do think that there is alot of doom and gloom around the national team and rightly so. There is much to change about how we develop young players and our chronic lack of top coaches at junior levels. One of my best mates is just back from Barcelona, where he was with the FAI. He said that in Catolonia alone, they have about 2000 coaches. Coaching isn't everything, but it goes a long way. Kids now don't play on the street like many of us would have done. The Whelan's and Bradys of this world might not have had coaches with badges, but they learnt their skills and technique on the street. Sadly, now more than ever young players need coaching from properly qualified coaches.
However, while there is much doom and gloom, we should not go totally negative. We are still producing some excellent players and there are some terrific underage talents in this country. We also have a good core of very decent players in the senior team and no matter whether we are 2nd or 3rd seeds for Euro 2016, I would be confident that we will qualify. I would feel that while we are a long way from the holy grail of Belgium (or even Switzerland or Greece), we are also a long way from minnows, despite what the barstoolers will tell you.
lagerback was touted here around the Trap appointment. If he wasn't touted, then he was definitely used as an example of getting a coach who would get results with similar talent, but at a much cheaper outlay.
I think there is a big similarity to Iceland now and Ireland when Trap was appointed. A well-respected manager taking over a team well below what he was used to and getting them results
Again though, that's a little simplistic. They have a couple of really good attacking players, and they seem to have had something of a golden generation of underage squads (our 1998 Under 17s & 19 teams) in 2007/2008/2009 by their standards and this has to have contributed.
In 2007 their under 17's made it to the Euro finals, qualifying ahead of Romania, Lithuania, Russia, Portugal, but making no impression on the finals.
Under 19 success hasn't followed, but that original batch of 17's was unlucky to lose out on a place in the 2008 u19 Euro's (they lost to a last min goal).
The 21's then qualified for Euro 2011, eliminating Germany in the group with 4 points from the double header (a Germany squad that had Muller, Boateng, Badstuber, Hummels, Howedes, Schurrle, Grosskreutz), and then Scotland Home and away in the play-offs.
Another batch of 17's made it to the finals again in 2012 (as an unseeded team from the initial stage) eliminating Greece, Israel, Denmark and Scotland along the way.
The most current batch just topped a group containing Russia, Slovakia and Azerbaijan, ahead of the elite stage.
The current 21's are well placed to make the play-offs too, level with France at the top of their group.
The point to all of the above is that it doesn't appear to be a coincidence that Iceland are doing well at senior level. Sure, their group is a fricking doddle, but if you analyse their senior and underage players, it's no longer filled with Icelandic troll division 1 players/clubs. Ajax, Sampadoria, Bruge, Helsingborg, Heerenveen, Copenhagen, Odense, Belenseses, Spurs, Alkmaar, Cardiff. Aarhus, Nijmigen, PSV.
That's a serious collection of clubs. Diverse, and with plenty of different styles they're being exposed to. It would be good to figure out what has happened over there at underage level, if anything at all.
Geysir (who I'm starting to doubt is from Monaghan at all now!) would be able to give a proper appraisal of "the boys", as he calls them.
Here they come! It’s the charge of the “Thanks” Brigade!
And for all that, when Ireland play in Lansdowne Road, if the ball is not launched into the opponents half within 6 seconds, or if we try to string 6/7 passes together, then the crowd gets agitated for the long ball to the striker.
It's not just kids you have to battle with, it's joe public too.
Here they come! It’s the charge of the “Thanks” Brigade!
Our best talent does indeed go to Academies like Liverpool but they rarely make it into the first team. They are usually loaned out at 18, 19 or 20 then end up playing championship or league one where hoof ball is the norm. Even in the lower divisions in Spain I'd imagine they try to play ball. Barcelona reserves play in the spanish second division for example. It's all about habits and philosophy. 30% of the EPL are English players, mostly defenders and goalies. Their academies aren't as cracked up as they are supposed to be.
The Liverpool Academy has been lauded constantly, but it still is struggling to show it's true worth. The problem to me appears to be that they are hoovering up a lot of talent around England and Europe, but then they don't seem to know what to do with them.
They've been undergoing a transformation since Benitez got rid of Steve Heighway. It's no surprise it's rated so highly because the guy who was chief at La Masia was Rodolfo Borrell, who is head of the Liverpool academy, and previously Pep Segura
The problem for Liverpool is that the players that a lot is hinging on, are the quick skillful continentals, such as Suso, Teixeira and Canos, and historically these players have struggled with the breakthrough to more adult football, as they just were not physically able for the PL.
Dani Pacheco, Kristian Nemeth, Dalli Valle, are just some of the hype and then bust players. Jon Flanagan and Conor Coady were widely lauded, but neither will make it at the highest level, and it remains to be seen if Andre Wisdom will either.
So the LFC academy really will need another 10 years before it can be properly judged, as it really is still in it's infancy, and hasn't produced anything yet.
Here they come! It’s the charge of the “Thanks” Brigade!
Just to clarify child trafficking is okay when a football is involved.
'Liam Brady backs Mick McCarthy to return as Republic of Ireland manager': http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/inter...for-irish-job/
It’s almost 11 years to the day since Mick McCarthy last managed the Republic of Ireland, but RTÉ pundit Liam Brady would like to see the current Ipswich Town manager back in the hot-seat.
2002 was the year of Saipan. There is no need to revisit that. On the pitch, Ireland’s World Cup campaign in the Far East ended with a penalty shootout defeat against the Spanish. McCarthy was still in charge when the Euro 2004 qualifiers commenced.
However, defeats against Russia and Switzerland in their opening matches had the Irish on the back foot from the off. The manager did not survive.
Much water has flowed under the bridge since then and the FAI are again in search of a manager. Martin O’Neill, Roy Keane and one Mick McCarthy are the names getting most mention as of now.
Speaking to RTÉ Sport, Liam Brady was in no doubt which one of that trio he would like to see get the job.
The former Ireland international said: “I don’t know what Mick’s contractual situation is at Ipswich. What I do know is that he has demonstrated before his capability to do the job.
"He has broad shoulders and had to put up with an awful lot of messing when Saipan happened. People turned against him; public opinion turned against him and most of the media turned against him on the back of how popular Roy Keane was.
"However Mick got on with it and he demonstrated since then that he is a very capable manager. I don’t whether it would be possible to get him, but he would be number one on my list.”
When asked about the process so far in finding a successor to Giovanni Trapattoni, Brady did not give it a ringing endorsement.
“I haven’t been impressed, but maybe that’s the circumstances. I think we all expected that Martin O’Neill would be the next manager, but that hasn’t happened. I believe that rules Martin out.
He may think that the expectations are too high within the country as to what the team should be achieving.
“I don’t like the process and I feel sorry for Noel King after he was told that he will not be considered for the job as full-time manager.”
Excellent knowledge there. I had LFC TV for free in my house for a while (not sure who subscribed to it) and watched it a fair bit ( I was a mature student, in my defence!!) and David Amoo was breaking all sorts of goalscoring records. I think he's over 20 and in League 1 now. Scoring goals, yeah, but not likely to turn out for England anytime soon.
The Hungarian lad is an excellent case. I remember googling him at the time and it seemed a matter of time before he'd be lording it in the EPL.
Also, back further, Darren Potter played Champions League when Liverpool were "a force" and now turns out for MK Dons. How does THAT happen???![]()
LFC TV is free with the basic Sky package. It was the last time I flicked on to it anyway.
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