Can I offer a spin on this metaphor? The FAI is the guy at the bar of the Shelbourne, looking at all the top shelf stuff and whinging that he can't afford a good Bordeaux these days. Granted, he's just been burned when he paid through the nose for a pruno that gave him the ****s, but he's maybe not looking hard enough.
You can't spell failure without FAI
I wondered if Scooby would be a good fit. For copyright reasons, I had to prompt with a description of the gang, which the model has interpreted a bit oddly. It seems Velma is defecating on the bench with her skirt around her ankles. Fred has aged rapidly, perhaps from watching us play in perparation for coming on as Scooby's assistant. I also don't know what's going on anotomically there: he seems to be sitting inside the bench, and his legs are disproprotionate. Daphne has come with her boots, perhaps arguing that she's the solution we're looking for at left back. And it's still better than Lennon getting the job.
You can't spell failure without FAI
Lovin the kit though (ignoring the crest obviously).
Just stick it on the 0% interest credit card like I do.
The FAI can up the budget if they want to. This is a crucial appointment because whoever is hired should be managing us at a home Euros if they're any way remotely competent.
Attendances were mostly OK during Kenny's term, mainly out of a blind loyalty to him from a large section of the support. But even then they tailed off badly at the end. Put in an unpopular appointment on the cheap and if he doesn't get off to a flyer they'll be struggling to get 20k in there within a year.
The FAI having more money than we think is certainly a different take.
What would you propose cutting to increase the senior mgmt team budget? Maybe they could stop paying their staff.....oh wait....
They were almost liquidated. There isn't a cushion they haven't looked under. Gambling the existence of the governing body and more importantly the livelihoods of real football people in the country on tournament qualification and sponsorship deals with the squad we have....nah, not for me to be honest.
21 leagues and 25 cups.
Maybe Rte would be able to give a leg up ~ ~ Plenty of money sloshing about in Rte ! ! !
Rte / FAI ~ ~ The Musical !
Add in the phone in team selection and we've got a reality tv show that would sort everything.
21 leagues and 25 cups.
I think the fair point Eirrambler is making is that a good appointment, lets assume Lee Carsley, if he brings in an extra 5,000 punters a game, then that equates to over €1m in additional revenue per year. So being stingy to the point where you can't attract a good candidate does, in the end, cost the association more money. And if you're budgeting, you can factor in the increased wages or increased cost of the backroom staff with what you expect to earn from match days...
The big cash cow is of course if you can get a manager capable of qualifying you for a tournament. A single unexpected tournament qualification would be enough to stabilise the FAI finances for the foreseeable future... That's why Uruguay (a country similar in size to ourselves) are prepared to pay Bielsa $4m a year (a Trappatoni type wage)
I was very critical of Stephen Kenny and regard him as little more than an amateur, but let's be realistic here. We could bring Jurgen Klopp in and he wouldn't be able to make much with our current crop. Nobody is going to pay money to watch a manager, and I doubt even Lee Carsley will be capable of getting much out of the squad.
I love this line. Comes up everytime we are looking for new manager...."sure we are crap anyway, what difference does the manager make."
Usually that line is said by dopes who could hardly name 5 Irish players because the dont play for Liverpool or Man Utd, but these same dopes are the first to get pi$$ed and coked up traveling to a tournament when we qualify.
Colbert, no one is saying that people pay to watch a manager, but the manager makes a big impact in how the fans support the team which in turn generates money. At the end of the O'Neill era attendances were way down in the stadium.
People forget why Kenny got his chance. We were going nowhere and we needed a reset. We could hardly even score goals at one point. Wasnt there a season where the FAI didnt have a goal of the year competition because we didnt score a goal all year. Our only way of scoring seemed to be from a set piece. Kenny didnt really lose the support of the match going fans until the very end, because most remembered how bad it had gotten before him. Our results were poor under Kenny but by bringing in young players it at least felt like we were trying something different, and we did start scoring goals in games. Towards the end he lost his bottle with that and brought back in the likes of Duffy while still trying to play out from the back and it was all just crap. Kenny had the right ideas but wasnt capable of implementing the ideas.... but the right new manager has a base to work with. An extremely young squad that has a decent amount of caps.
I know you live in Southern California, like myself, so I dont know if you have ever gone to Lansdowne. The fans have always supported a manager trying to do the right thing. They dont respond well to the likes of Trap and O'Neill saying things like "we dont have the players". Thats why towards the end of their tenures attendances were way down, in a way that never happened under Kenny. With this crop of young players we have its extremely important that the right man is appointed to help them take the steps forward we need.
If you genuinely think that we are just crap no matter who is appointed, you should probably just stick to watching Softball.
Its really not that complicated!!!
Flip side of that is how many football clubs down the years have budgeted for success and then found themselves up the creek without a paddle when it hasn't happened?
And given we're already well down that creek thanks to Delaney, I think we have to be cautious when it comes to a budget. We have what we have. As noted, the crowds are decent anyway (the New Zealand friendly aside); a new manager won't have a huge uplift there.
I'm going out on a limb here, but Uruguay have a better chance of qualifying for tournaments than us. That ain't the same gamble at all.
As you said "a single, unexpected tournament qualification" solves a lot. The problem there is chasing the unlikely with money we don't have. Is the risk worth the reward? Not for me. We are arguably already pushing the budget out and have been for a while. The Carlsey saga tells me we are probably already banking an attendance increases at a minimum. It fell apart due to backroom staff wage needs? IF that's true then I'd say we were in risky territory to begin with.
McCarthy would cost probably double or triple what we are rumoured to have. Does he get us to a tournament? Who else goes unpaid while we wait for it?
Last edited by ontheotherhand; 22/02/2024 at 7:46 AM.
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