It's behind a paywall, but here's a story about Pep Guardiola using a motivational video when manager of Barcelona in the dressing room ahead of the 2009 Champions League final against Manchester United.
Do you think Pep is amateurish and out of his depth?
There's plenty of other examples I'm sure.
I hear the video was shown in the hotel so it wasn't the moments before a game. We don't know if there were also tactical or other videos in the preparation phase. Miguel Delaney saying his sources are saying the video was pretty standard. None of us knows really so none of us can comment. My own view was that if it was a real tub-thumping dark green republican video I'd say it was not just ill-advised but actually just a bit naff. We all know there's history between us. While of course there's nothing wrong with a bit of "800 years" I just don't think it's really needed in context of a meaningless friendly in front of no fans. But Kenny is entitled to motivate his players any way he wants.
Anyway, Kenny is meeting Gary Owens today apparently.
When do I start to stop supporting him on grounds of results? When he has a few games with a settled team we'll know more. I'm already a bit concerned that he persists with things that haven't worked even despite the chaos and the withdrawals. I am totally exempting him from the England game. England's last 4 home games have been Iceland 4-0, Ireland 3-0, Wales 3-0 and Belgium 2-1. each of the other teams is objectively better than us. Yeah it lacked intensity but it was a friendly in an empty Wembley. I listened to it without the piped crowd noise on Sky's highlights and it just sounded and felt like a useful training game.
I tend to support managers until I can't. Kerr lost me with his substitutions against Israel and Switzerland. I never really believed in Stan, but I thought initially Bobby Robson's input might have added something. But even allowing for Cyprus (if that's possible) what really annoyed me with Stan was him grinning smugly on 90 mins when 2-1 up in Slovakia. Trap lost me when we just started looking like a tired old dog of a team. O'Neill lost me during the NL games and the year of God awful friendlies where you really knew he hadn't any idea what to do next, and his cocky *****ly attitude became too much. I've got concerns over Kenny but really only after Bulgaria tbh. Most of what went before was excusable.
What personal insult?
I'm asking you to STOP SHOUTING, that's all.
With the complete lack of penetration and decent chances being created by the team against Bulgaria i couldnt understand why he left Byrne on the bench for so long (if not then ...when ? )and im hoping its not a sign of things to come , not just with Byrne but with any player of his type we produce.
Not withstanding that concern when would i stop supporting Kenny........not until he gets a run of games with an Ireland A squad and we see where we are.
The problem with a possession based game plan is you have to be technically good and thus the A team will find it easier to carry this game plan out.
LEt him have a go for the next campaign , keep in mind how mind-numbingly awful we were under O Neill and less so but kind of with Mick.
I would be a bit concerned about McGoldrick retiring as its a bad sign that he reckons playing for Ireland is a waste of his time.
I know the official line is to prolong his career but rats and sinking ships springs to mind.
Need to change that peception fast.
Last edited by sbgawa; 20/11/2020 at 12:49 PM.
Fair play engaging in a little probing questioning with Kenny advocates and all but the line of questioning is a little tilted here. I don't think any Kenny advocate would say results and performances don't matter and don't think that any Kenny advocate would accept a re-build to be completed by 2044 (hawr hawr).
I am a Kenny advocate and I accept that the performances have been spread across the bad to average to good spectrum- with a weighting on the bad and average side. I am pleased he's trying to implement a more progressive style of play, though a little flexibility in that would be no harm. I am also pleased that he's trusted youth and between his blooding and hopefully some club success, then we could have a few really bright young players in our team in the coming year (O'Shea, Knight, Connolly, Molumby, Idah, Parrott- club exposure a huge factor for the latter three).
I don't think he's the second coming of Christ. I think he can succeed and want him to do so. I don't want to call for his head any time soon because the McCarthy tenure and back end of MON's spell demonstrated how bad things can get. Further, the pandemic has presented any manager with a trying set of circumstances, not to mind how bad things got recently in terms of positive tests and other withdrawals.
If Kenny is on his way out after this fiasco, and this Hill is pulling the strings from behind, the top guy will try to hire Eddie Howe, who is more less the same profile as Stephen. There is always money for these things in football, to hire a new guy
Agree with this, it doesn't bode well, especially as McGoldrick is a very good player in a position where we are struggling at the moment. We haven't had premature retirements like this (where the player is near enough an automatic starter and there aren't massively prevalent injury concerns). If you look at some of our strikers in the past Walters, Keane, Aldridge they perhaps went above and beyond what you would expect in terms of retirement. Walters body gave up in the last few years but he didn't retire early. Robbie Keane was still turning out for us when playing at La Galaxy and having to fly for 20+ hours each international break. Aldridge once said he would never retire from the Irish team and as long as he could kick a ball he'd play if for us if the manager wanted him.
Not directly comparable but i always felt he delayed subs too long at Dundalk, difference being that he usually had a result in the bag at Dundalk. V Bulgaria he showed that the run without goals (and probably wins) were getting to him and treated the game with a lot more importance on that than squad development type stuff. Byrne could have been the difference in unlocking the Bulgarian defence but Kenny seemed to be erring on the side of caution and not create another stick with relegation - which wouldnt have been the worst thing at this time when pot 2 was gone.
Yes the questions are a little tilted, I'm pretty open about not being convinced by Kenny and think we have made a mistake. That aside, if people genuinely want a large scale rebuild of the national team, then the assumption would be there is an acceptance that results and perhaps performances will tend to tail off as this happens.
We will likely slip down the rankings which might make WC qualification (already tricky) harder, and it may see us regularly struggling to qualify for the expanded Euros. We could have a barren spell (in terms of qualifications) of 12+ years, which hasn't been the case for a generation. This may demotivate our players (ideally it shouldn't but we have to be realistic), players hitting 30+ might decide to retire internationally early, as the prospect of them reaching a tournament, or even winning big qualification games will diminish. There are also financial implications for an already cash strapped FAI. We will miss out on prize money and sponsorship from qualification for WCs and Euros, but also the structure of the Nation's league could see us playing more 'C' rank teams and less glamour ties (i.e. the 'A' or upper 'B' teams), this will mean less matchday revenue for the FAI. It also means we won't be challenged by playing more technically / tactically adept teams, but that cuts both ways.
That outlines some of the costs of a Kenny-based rebuild project. The benefits are a bit less tangible, but theoretically if he can pull it off, we could be playing better football in future years. The point about 2024 v 2044 is we need some sense of a timeline on when this project will be successful. Because 4 years in the doldrums might be acceptable for some fans (and possibly the majority of fans) but 10 or more years would probably be less acceptable.
The other questions are, if we are going for a big rebuild, how will it's success incrementally? And is Kenny the right man to do it personally? Should it be done by a separate director of performance (which we tentatively tried doing with Ruud Dockteur years ago)? Should we have dual roles like Sweden did with Lars Largerbeck and Svoderburg years ago? Should we bring in an external "football strategist" like what the Swiss did with Roy Hodgson?
Think it all you want, but if you post it here, you will need to provide some evidence
<MOD EDIT - removed quote of deleted post>
Who cares what the English FA think? As for worrying or even caring what english fans on twitter are saying, that's just stupid.
If the FAI make any decision based on what the English FA think they're more incompetent than anyone could have believed.
I'd be more concerned about the rat in the FAI who sold Kenny down the river when he/she leaked the story to the press. That would be what I'd investigate.
Last edited by tetsujin1979; 20/11/2020 at 2:34 PM.
if the FAI were interested in a re-build then they would have left SK with the 21s for a full campaign at that level before moving him to the seniors.
moving him from the 21s to the seniors little over halfway through a campaign was plain daft and has done a lot of harm, i believe, in successfully integrating our better 21s with the seniors
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