Ireland v Spain - What does it mean to us??

[Lim till i die]

Sticking this in the LoI forum because I don't think I've ever been in the schoolboy forum and what I'm driving at is relevant to league club (I think).

Anyway:

Clever Stuff Here.

Interesting Fact:

The Republic Of Ireland made 178 successful passes tonight.

Xavi made 126.




Hopefully there will be a quick think in Abbotstown after this national disgrace of a tournament.

Is it time to stop spunking silly money on the no hope national team?? Granted they have made the association quite a lot of debt relief money this time out but if players continue to be of this calibre then in the medium to long term the party is well and truly over.

Would Traps million quid be better spent on the grassroots of the game?? Not on actually giving it to league clubs, junior clubs and schoolboy clubs to do with as they see fit (ie widdle it up against a wall) but a million quid would pay for a lot of coaches to do a lot of B, A and Pro licences on the continent.

What do LoI clubs do in their own schoolboy/academy structures??

What's the standard of coaching like??

Is their an emphasis on technique and ball work or is it all "Get rid of it", "do him", "go yourself", "**** sake referee"

In Summary:

What's to be done?!?!

[bullit]

Sticking up a few tweets that i seen tonight and that i believe are true,i'm sure the authors would be vistoters here :

Niall C ‏@Nialler67 Conflicting views tonight on the players,fans& Irish football in general.As usual it's the LOI people talking sense & the rest talking ****e

Alan Finn ‏@AlanF1994 If only some of these fans would support a LOI club. Great at a major tournament, but they'd be greatly appreciated back home as well!

Alan Finn ‏@AlanF1994 I wonder how many Irish fans calling for Hoolahan, Coleman, McClean & Long to be playing can even tell you which Irish club they came

Alan Finn ‏@AlanF1994 If only some of these fans would support a LOI club. Great at a major tournament, but they'd be greatly appreciated back home as well!

Underdeveloped youth system, ignored senior league...we're not **** by mistake. Still, at least the Premiership is back soon

Eoghan Rice ‏@rice_e Amazing how a country with no football infrastructure and no interest in developing one is surprised when they lose to countries who do

All bang on the button i reckon.Develop the LOI & bish,bang wollop,years down the line you reap what was sown.Too simple ??

[dancinpants]

The standard of football at a decent premier division match is so far beyond what the national team serve up...and I'm not even wearing the rose tinted glasses when I say that. But we're doomed to failure as long as we're a nation full of bar stoolers.

[Brusher]

Delighted this thread has started, as I was afraid to start off myself. One thing that also grates at me, we should be having this discussion in the wider public, instead of arguing whether or not the fans were right / wrong to sing.Personally I gave up supporting the Irish team in 1985, as I couldn't feel any affinity with players with no allegiance to Ireland, only through grannies, but that's another story !These days, it's great to see ex LOI players the team / squad. I would love to see a rule implemented by FIFA/UEFA, that says that an international squad must have a certain ratio of players in their own domestic league, maybe as low as 2/3.

[Macy]

I don't think it's quite as simple as all self proclaimed "best fans in the world" supporting the League of Ireland, but it would go a long way. It would have to be accompanied by more and better oversight from the FAI though, to stop the clubs peeing away any extra on overrated players.

What's needed is a total restructuring of the game - the schoolboy/ junior/ intermediate clubs should be feeding into the League of Ireland clubs, with the FAI overseeing the whole player development process. Everyone is a winner - the players are developed to a better standard, the clubs in Ireland (at all adult levels) gets a better standard of player, those that are good enough can still follow the dream of going to the UK (as many recent examples have shown), those that don't can earn a decent wage at home.

We can no longer rely on a failing UK system to produce our players - it's not even working for the bloody UK players. English clubs in particular, are going all over the world to pick up young players, so the Irish youngsters shipped off are inevitably being squeezed out of the academies. It's time to take responsibility for producing our own players, and the only way to do that effectively imo is by having the link between school boys and league of Ireland. Frankly, f**k the "nursery" clubs - they're actually doing more harm than good as it is with the numbers that go and don't make it and are thus lost to football. Time for Delaney to show some balls the size of his pay packet and stand up to all levels of the game for the greater good.

Lim Till I Die, you left off spunking silly money on a CEO off your list.

[Dave_SRFC]

Regarding our league nothing will happen while that chancer is in charge of the fai, they'll go back to the drawing board but the league wont be considered as a viable way of improving our senior international football team....

[Jofspring]

It's going to take someone with a lot of balls to change the structures and how we go about things because it will definitely upset the barstoolers and plastic hammer brigade in this country.

What should be done is more emphasis on getting as many coaches up to a high standard working at all levels and hold onto as many young players as possible.

What will happen is the FAI will just go about things as normal and hope to god we qualify for the world cup as it will be another money spinner towards the aviva.

The only way change will occur is if we get shown up in the world cup qualifiers and force change from there.

Edit: June 22nd can't come quick enough.

[passinginterest]

I actually think the FAI is doing some very good work with coaches and encouraging football to be played the right way, there seems to have been some huge improvements in the last decade or so. The problem, as has been pointed out, is the footballing structures in this country. It's been said a million times on here before but there's no "pyramid structure" for want of a better term. The National League should absolutely be the pinnacle of football in this country with all junior and intermediate leagues filtering players upwards. The junior leagues have far too much power within the FAI for a complete restructure of our football system and as a result we'll never see it happen. Macy had summed it up pretty well in his post.

[bennocelt]

I also find it hard to support an Ireland team that has little affinity to me, or shows any respect to the LOI. I do think there should be the odd LOI player called up for the odd friendly here and there. Forrester would be nice to see in an Irish shirt for example.

[nigel-harps1954]

Lost heart altogether in the Irish team. Sat there at 4-0 last night not even bothered by it in the slightest. How the likes of Paul Green and Aiden McGeady are still amongst that squad is beyond me.

[barney]

I also find it hard to support an Ireland team that has little affinity to me, or shows any respect to the LOI. I do think there should be the odd LOI player called up for the odd friendly here and there. Forrester would be nice to see in an Irish shirt for example.

Ah begorrah, a bit of tokenism. This is exactly the mentality Keane rails against and, as much as I hate to admit it, he's right. We shouldn't be handing out caps to players just so the LOI is represented, we should be trying to ensure that the league gets to a standard where it is producing and fully developing international class players.

[barney]

Lost heart altogether in the Irish team. Sat there at 4-0 last night not even bothered by it in the slightest. How the likes of Paul Green and Aiden McGeady are still amongst that squad is beyond me.

You wouldn't have McGeady in the squad? Seriously?

[bennocelt]

Ah begorrah, a bit of tokenism. This is exactly the mentality Keane rails against and, as much as I hate to admit it, he's right. We shouldn't be handing out caps to players just so the LOI is represented, we should be trying to ensure that the league gets to a standard where it is producing and fully developing international class players.

But its a start, cant keep ignoring the LOI, one way to bring up the level of the league is for more representation at all levels. I sincerely beleive that a player like Forrester is a better option than someone like Whelan who can barely run never mind do anything constrructive in a game. The LOI has already produced a few players on the team so there is not as big a gap as one would like to imagine, international football aint all that good IMHO. Not tokenism on my part, and I agree also with Keane, but when he himself had the chance to make a difference he went sulking off home

[barney]

But its a start, cant keep ignoring the LOI, one way to bring up the level of the league is for more representation at all levels. I sincerely beleive that a player like Forrester is a better option than someone like Whelan who can barely run never mind do anything constrructive in a game. The LOI has already produced a few players on the team so there is not as big a gap as one would like to imagine, international football aint all that good IMHO. Not tokenism on my part, and I agree also with Keane, but when he himself had the chance to make a difference he went sulking off home

I agree that there are, or can be, some LOI players with potential. Doyle, Long, Fahey, McLean all prove that and that's why I did say that we ideally need to fully develop players in this country. Not sure there are any at the moment to be honest.

I disagree on international football not being that good particularly a 16 team European Championship - the standard is fairly high. As for Keane - I can't stand the man but once in a while, he gets something right.

[nigel-harps1954]

You wouldn't have McGeady in the squad? Seriously?

Not a hope. Too many people rate McGeady so highly for the only reason that he lit up the SPL with Celtic. Rose coloured glasses and all that jazz. I don't rate him, against lesser opposition he seems grand, gets down and runs at a defender. But when he comes up against a decent side, he folds and is awful. Evident against Spain last night that every time he got the ball (bar one occasion where he put in a good cross), he ran straight into someone rather than look up and find a pass.
If we're to progress as a serious international team, he's the type of player we don't need. He wouldn't get near any other international team in the top 20 at the minute.

[Dodge]

To answer LTID's original question;

not a lot

[adamd164]

I was delighted, I backed Torres @ 9/2 first goalscorer when I saw the lineups.

On Roy Keane, he usually has good things to say about the LOI. Regularly attends our matches when home and is very complementary of the standard. Doesn't forget where he came from. Much and all as I detest the 'Only one Keano' brigade, and frankly couldn't give a tupenny feck about the whole Saipan affair, I think Keane respects the need to improve and support the LOI and if he was asked about what needs to happen in Irish football he'd support a pyramid structure as mentioned above with the LOI being fed by junior clubs.

[barney]

Not a hope. Too many people rate McGeady so highly for the only reason that he lit up the SPL with Celtic. Rose coloured glasses and all that jazz. I don't rate him, against lesser opposition he seems grand, gets down and runs at a defender. But when he comes up against a decent side, he folds and is awful. Evident against Spain last night that every time he got the ball (bar one occasion where he put in a good cross), he ran straight into someone rather than look up and find a pass.
If we're to progress as a serious international team, he's the type of player we don't need. He wouldn't get near any other international team in the top 20 at the minute.

I completely disagree but I suppose it's a game of opinions. One of our few players who can take someone on or make a bit of space. His end product is still wanting but I'd have him all day long to be honest. In a different league to the Stephen Hunts of this world.

[Brusher]

It may be a bit naive, but I honestly believe that there should be a position in a squad for a player who actually lives here over somebody that had a grandparent, and to hell with the fact he may not be up to International level.

[barney]

It may be a bit naive, but I honestly believe that there should be a position in a squad for a player who actually lives here over somebody that had a grandparent, and to hell with the fact he may not be up to International level.

Not being funny but would you be of the same opinion if your job and reputation relied on it?