I'm not sure Robbie Keane is the best starting point for this conversation. He's a complete aberration - the way he emerged and systematically destroyed any and all goal scoring records which had stood in a green shirt for the previous fifty odd years. You're right that his successor is unlikely to emerge any time soon - the bigger problem might be even Shane Long's successor could struggle to breakthrough.
'It's getting positively worse every year' doesn't stand up at all IMO. Back in the days clubs we're getting cleaned out every year was the really bad days. The improvements made over the last decade are phenomenal and only need to be reflected in how the international side now has several LOI graduates amongst its ranks, to show that the gap between LOI and the 'bigger leagues' (such as Scotland and Football League) is a lot smaller.
As has been pointed out, this year has been disappointing. But a closer look at the results is far more revealing - Drogheda lost narrowly to Malmo, who went on to thrash Hibs. St Pats losing to Vilnius was disappointing - but then Vilnius handily beat Pyunik (a side who beat Derry just a year after City's run to the second round) and just defeated Lech Poznan in their first leg. Sligo and Derry were always up against it against Molde and Trabzonspor.
You can't account for difficult draws, and you can't measure how co-efficient improvement has plateaued the kind of strides that can be made. Considering how largely poor, with some notable exceptions, LOI clubs performed year-in-year out in Europe, it's still remarkable clubs can skip the first preliminary stage - there by robbing them of a chance to gain handier co-efficient points - and go straight into a pot with sides claiming at least ten times the budget and/or ten times the fan base.
Likewise you can't brush off Shamrock Rovers' achievement as some mad exception - their run was the culmination of several eye-catching European performances by a variety of teams.
The improvement of the domestic league is evident, even with a local population who largely ignore it. The larger problem is regardless if it's domestic or a British league, the coaching of players is always going to come out short compared to continental Europe.
I do agree with part of your point (or, really, Ray Houghton's point) but I'd love to see another league in Europe producing such great strides in quality for so few paying customers. If it's to improve more, then central investment combined with Ireland's football made people giving more than a passing interest would be a decent start.
Bookmarks