Allardyce, Sam
Bilic, Slaven
Bruce, Steve
Carsley, Lee
Clement, Paul
Coleman, Chris
Cook, Paul
Goran-Eriksson, Sven
Grayson, Simon
Hughton, Chris
Keane, Robbie
Keane, Roy
Kenny, Stephen
Kerr, Brian
Lennon, Neil
McCarthy, Mick
Moyes, David
Queiroz, Carlos
Redknapp, Harry
Wenger, Arsene
After months of speculation, rumours, 24/7 airport watch, betting shutdowns, the mantle will simply be handed over to deputy Roy.
I don't think Michael O'Neill's achievements can be dismissed as "a once-off" in the sense he had outstanding success at Rovers. He finished second in the LOI with them in 2009, won it in both 2010 (Rovers' first title since 1994) and 2011 and qualified them for the 2011/12 Europa League group-stages. Rovers finished fourth the season after he left and didn't manage a top-three finish again until 2015.
O'Neill followed up his time at Rovers with phenomenal success for NI. He's dragged them out of the doldrums and, despite their modest and limited playing pool, brought them to the Euros last summer. He's consistently maintained that form and it now looks like they could be on their way to Russia next summer as well after another seriously impressive qualification campaign. He's clearly tactically-astute and his teams play with an evident game-plan as well as a bit of imagination.
In what sense could all that be described as "a once-off"?
I concur. I thought Kerr was unjustly treated as well as we were competitive that campaign in what was a tough, evenly-matched group and we only just missed out in the final game. I think he was a victim of his lesser profile - the FAI and public would probably be prepared to be more patient with an established high-flyer - and weren't their also murmurs that many of the players didn't respect him or take his approach seriously (perhaps on account of his relatively humble footballing background in contrast to what many of them might have been used to in the EPL) or, at least, they weren't following his instructions in terms of watching video footage of opponents and doing their homework on tactics? I remember hearing/reading something like that once anyway...Was Brian Kerr given the same chance as a supposedly big name /profile .
I thought Kerr probably deserved another campaign but for whatever reasons he was not given it......
Last edited by DannyInvincible; 06/09/2017 at 3:57 PM.
A few players in and around the squad have already worked directly with him - McClean, Horgan, Ward, Boyle and Maguire, for example - and plenty of our other players have come through the LOI (which is different to how things were when, say, Kerr, who had an LOI background, was in charge), so I wouldn't see any issue for him with these players, at least. I'm sure they'd respect him and hold his evident achievements in high regard on account of their own backgrounds or experience of him.
But would they trust a man with two first names? I sure wouldn't.
Rodgers would be a great appointment but I think he might feel he's on the verge of something special at Celtic such as winning a record number of domestic leagues or making waves in Europe (e.g. getting far in the Europa League), I don't know if we could prize him away from Parkhead.
I'm not a huge fan of Chris Hughton due to incidents between him and Irish fans away in Tel Aviv a number of years ago, but as a manager he would be a fair shout. He did well at Newcastle.
Maybe Garry Monk will get fired and we can hire him. Someone young-ish.
Or a second go around with Steve Staunton? He's learned a lot since his first try insists himself.
Some of the younger players were watching the match next to the Irish fans and he got a bit tetchy (to put it mildly) about this interaction and moved them away - this would be well over a decade ago.
Israel away has a memory of some irish fans complaining that Kerr was on the sidelines telling players not to advance up the field, when he was in fact telling them to use their heads and get up the field or something like that. There's nowt like fans.
We could do with an English manager who has a monster grudge against the English FA, like Charlton had, like Big Sam now, one who has something to prove on an international level and wreak some cold dish revenge at the same time. Big Sam would also tick all the FAI trendy life coach's boxes, he's have buckets of motivation, ambition and the skill sets to do a good job
Dudu Awate (for those looking for pronunciation tips it rhymes with t**t) played in that game, but it was the match in Dublin where he really took the ****
O'Neill was also a reasonably experienced footballer before he took up management. He played at a reasonable level in Scotland and England, got quite a few caps for Northern Ireland and at one stage was signing for Sturm Graz (at the time they were playing CL football with reasonably well known players like Polster and Vastic - the sort of level Shakthar Donetsk are now).
He played in the MLS too, which might not have the best level of talent, but is highly regarded from a sports science point of view (like all American sports) and he may have imparted some of this knowledge now managing Northern Ireland.
Looks like it's going to be MORK again so this thread can be put to bed.
Forget about the performance or entertainment. It's only the result that matters.
Worryingly Arry is now available
I wonder if Guus Hiddink would be interested?
Bring Back Belfast Celtic F.C.
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