Euro 2016 Qualifying

**Stuttgart88** · 09/10/2013, 12:00 PM

Originally Posted by paul_oshea

When i read that and think of all the eejits trying to downplay us all the time and that we are still not competing at the end of the campaign it really angers me.

especially the likes of murfinator and some of the older posters on here,

Leave me out of this.

Anyway, we haven't got the players.

**DeLorean** · 09/10/2013, 12:05 PM

I don't think anybody is really settling for this shambles of a campaign Paul. We're in the top two or in the running for qualification up until the end of the campaigns more often than not... certainly as often as most of those other countries you mentioned.

I suspect if we replaced Iceland in their group this time round we'd still be in with a shout as well.

Slovenia couldn't manage to finish ahead of Estonia in their last campaign... a team we were so "fortunate" to have met in the seeded playoffs.

Montenegro are pretty much out of contention in their group, barring something fairly radical.

Bosnia are looking good to be fair... of course you would probably have sacked their manager after conceding six to Portugal in the Euro playoffs.

**Charlie Darwin** · 09/10/2013, 12:10 PM

Originally Posted by paul_oshea

When i read that and think of all the eejits trying to downplay us all the time and that we are still not competing at the end of the campaign it really angers me.

especially the likes of murfinator and some of the older posters on here, if it can be done in countries like montengro, iceland, slovenia, boznia-herzegovina, belgium(granted they are a special case), there is no reason why a country with at least half of its players playing in the 1st or 2nd best league(yes better than spain as CD you were wrong just looking at real socidedad and the other spanish teams in europa league, swanseas 3-0 win) in the world should nto be competing to make all these major finals until the very last day at least, if not hte play-offs. Why are people so happy to live in/with mediocrity? I don't live my life that way and I don't think our team should be settling for it either, if you are happy to the average joe and be boring dont try and drag our national teams expectations down with you or impressing on others .

That's the main point for me, average players who can perform for their country, this co-relates to players who are better than average playing in the PL and we don't pick them or cant get the best out of them. We are in a far better position than a lot of other countries in face, but we are happy to settle for a lot less. Its so disappointing.

I hope decisions are made quicker from now in with regard to managers overstaying. IT has never worked out for us letting htem continue on when a couple of major results have gone awry.

Not sure why you're mentioning me here. You seem to reckon the Championship is better than La Liga or something and I appear to have offended you by saying otherwise at some point.

**Yard of Pace** · 09/10/2013, 12:13 PM

I think it's redundant to be comparing Ireland to other teams and how they're getting on. I'd wager that the majority of us haven't seen them play at all, know nothing of their coaches and all the other variables. Maybe Slovenia have their equivalent of Stan in charge. Maybe Montenegro got done by a fluky decision in a key game. Maybe a star player is quarreling with the manager. Etc. etc. You know what I'm getting at.

**Stuttgart88** · 09/10/2013, 12:23 PM

Originally Posted by DeLorean

Montenegro are pretty much out of contention in their group, barring something fairly radical.

Are you sure?

**Junior** · 09/10/2013, 12:33 PM

Originally Posted by DeLorean

I don't think anybody is really settling for this shambles of a campaign Paul. We're in the top two or in the running for qualification up until the end of the campaigns more often than not... certainly as often as most of those other countries you mentioned.

I suspect if we replaced Iceland in their group this time round we'd still be in with a shout as well.

Slovenia couldn't manage to finish ahead of Estonia in their last campaign... a team we were so "fortunate" to have met in the seeded playoffs.

Montenegro are pretty much out of contention in their group, barring something fairly radical.

Bosnia are looking good to be fair... of course you would probably have sacked their manager after conceding six to Portugal in the Euro playoffs.

Thats pretty much what I was about to post. Paul, stop getting your knickers in a twist - it was a shocking campaign. We need to write it off and move on. More often than not we are in the mix, its always going to be difficult to win a group outright or even win a seeded playoff over two legs but we are usually up there as one of the sides in with a shout.

Older posters? Maybe just wiser......

**DeLorean** · 09/10/2013, 12:37 PM

Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

Are you sure?

Well radical was probably a bit strong. They'll probably need to win at Wembley to get a playoff spot. They're in the mix in fairness (on further examination) but I'd be very surprised to see anything other than an England-Ukraine top 2, not necessarily in that order. What I was getting at is that I wouldn't be overly jealous of their recent past.

**geysir** · 09/10/2013, 3:19 PM

Originally Posted by DeLorean

I don't think anybody is really settling for this shambles of a campaign Paul. We're in the top two or in the running for qualification up until the end of the campaigns more often than not... certainly as often as most of those other countries you mentioned.

I suspect if we replaced Iceland in their group this time round we'd still be in with a shout as well.

Slovenia couldn't manage to finish ahead of Estonia in their last campaign... a team we were so "fortunate" to have met in the seeded playoffs.

Montenegro are pretty much out of contention in their group, barring something fairly radical.

Bosnia are looking good to be fair... of course you would probably have sacked their manager after conceding six to Portugal in the Euro playoffs.

I think it has to be accepted that no matter what qual group we were in for WC 2014, we would not have done much better. A little better perhaps but not much. Our style of play had already run its course towards redundancy before these qualifiers.

**paul_oshea** · 09/10/2013, 5:05 PM

Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin

Not sure why you're mentioning me here. You seem to reckon the Championship is better than La Liga or something and I appear to have offended you by saying otherwise at some point.

No the premiership.

I meant that the premiership is in the top 2 if not the top league in the world.

**paul_oshea** · 09/10/2013, 5:13 PM

Originally Posted by Junior

Thats pretty much what I was about to post. Paul, stop getting your knickers in a twist - it was a shocking campaign. We need to write it off and move on. More often than not we are in the mix, its always going to be difficult to win a group outright or even win a seeded playoff over two legs but we are usually up there as one of the sides in with a shout.

Older posters? Maybe just wiser......

I wish it was, unfortunately like where I work they don't offer much experience either

At the end of the day people are happy with things to go on to the detriment of qualification or even improvement(whether it be how we play or where we finish or results), thinking experience or something else will see us through when it doesn't or that someone almost has a divine right to go right until its too late.

**Charlie Darwin** · 09/10/2013, 5:21 PM

Originally Posted by paul_oshea

No the premiership.

I meant that the premiership is in the top 2 if not the top league in the world.

It's in the top three. Not sure what relevance this has to anything though.

**Stuttgart88** · 09/10/2013, 6:40 PM

In fairness to Paul I think he was taking a swipe at those who accept our fate because "we don't have the players" or the occasional wise owl who prefers the devil he knows, despite knowing his faults, and who thinks there's no merit in discussing anything other than plain old 442 and hoofball.

**geysir** · 09/10/2013, 7:31 PM

Why do want to be fair to Paul?
Let him take the punches, he can 'man-up' can't he?

**Stuttgart88** · 09/10/2013, 8:43 PM

I'm not sure. He challenged me to a game of badminton last week.

**geysir** · 09/10/2013, 8:55 PM

Understood.

**paul_oshea** · 09/10/2013, 10:12 PM

Table-tennis tomorrow stutts if you are up for it.

I have a good feeling about Friday.

CD you said it was the third behind bundesliga and Spain.flavour of the month with posters on here regards the leagues but that's what you said. You added something about mid table Spanish beating mid table premiership I doubted it and at the time it was possible to prove.I think Swansea winning 3-0 refutes your assertion.

**ArdeeBhoy** · 09/10/2013, 11:46 PM

It could be worse after the next time round.
Just seen this in some Facebook group.

http://www.aftonbladet.se/sportblade...cle17626183.ab

As the original poster says...
Sorry its in Swedish, but couldn't find an English source for this. It basically lays out a proposal already on the table at UEFA for a UEFA Nations League, which would replace the Euro's. This would comprise of 9 leagues, each spanning over 2 years, with relegation and promotion at the end of each 'season'.

To put it into perspective, these would be the leagues (according to current rankings)

Division 1: Spain, Germany, Holland, Italy, England, Portugal
Division 2: Russia, Greece, Croatia, Sweden, France, Bosnia-Herzegovina
Division 3: Ukraine, Denmark, Switzerland, Belgium, Hungary, Czech Republic
Division 4: Ireland, Serbia, Norway, Slovakia, Turkey, Israel
Division 5: Slovenia, Austria, Romania, Montenegro, Poland, Finland
Division 6: Scotland, Armenia, Bulgaria, Latvia, Estonia, Belarus
Division 7: Wales, Northern Ireland, Albania, Iceland, Lithuania, Macedonia
Division 8: Georgia, Moldavia, Azerbaijan, Luxembourg, Cyprus, Kazakhstan
Division 9: Liechtenstein, Faroe Islands, Malta, Andorra, San Marino, Gibraltar

To me, this would be an absolute travesty! I've heard people arguing that countries losing 7-0 to Germany shouldn't be in the same competition as them, and it would be more fair to put similar teams together. In my opinion this is bull****. Yes, smaller teams will get the occasional thrashing and even be completely outplayed for the whole qualifying, but you've seen many countries rise from those lows to actually challenge the big boys.

Putting the smaller nations in these leagues would make it impossible for a team like Iceland, Armenia and even Poland to ever 'win' the European Championships. Yes you'd get the occasional team rising through the ranks, but don't forget; these competitions would take 2 years to finish. Therefore it would take Iceland 12 years to 'sky rocket' into the Premier League (as I'm sure it'll develop into).

Now of course this hasn't been passed, and many stupid plans have been denied through the years, but I am genuinely afraid that something like this will become a reality in the coming decades.

Sorry for this insane post, but I need to hear that people agree with me (or at least argue with those who don't) to put my mind in some rest at least...
http://www.facebook.com/TryggviK?hc_location=stream