QuoteIt's a good idea to promote the league but it seems totally irrelevant to the national team selection. If we are picking league of ireland player in the 17 months HH is our coach then we are in troubleOriginally Posted by Acornvilla
None of this really matters
Let’s see how he does. I’ll have a proper opinion in a year
It's a good idea to promote the league but it seems totally irrelevant to the national team selection. If we are picking league of ireland player in the 17 months HH is our coach then we are in trouble
Do you mean South V North ~ A 32 county competition ? !
It would be stuff like a LOI selection V a football conference selection or Welsh league or Icelandic league (what is known as a C international).
Given the increased importance of developing players at home after Brexit and the general trend of more former LOI players now being in the squad, there will likely be a few lads currently in the LOI playing for Ireland in the not too distant future, if this helps to identify them earlier and push them on slightly it's worth it. It's also a carrot for everyone in the league to strive towards, I see how it isn't a silver bullet, but it certainly wouldn't hurt.
I think it's more critical for the WNT to be doing this personally, but I'm all for it. I'd be interested to know if he's more leaning towards calling up basically all the lads who are current u17-21 internationals and playing 1st team football in Ireland. A squad like that on its own would be very interesting and could be supplemented with guys who might still have big moves to come in their career like Farrugia at Rovers. He's someone who probably can't sustain a career at a higher level because of his injury record, but he really can be excellent with more luck. I think we have a few of them around the league who haven't move abroad for various reasons or are late bloomers who probably deserve to be looked at.
Last edited by Acornvilla; 14/07/2024 at 10:34 AM.
And Spanish football has rampant misogyny as well - but racism, misogyny and homophobia is not confined to one country - how many English footballers have come out as gay? The English women's team have been subject to horrific abuse including before and after they won the Euros in 2022.
The Spanish football federation is noted for the links of the leadership back to Franco's fascist regime (as is the case in Portugal and Italy as well - where fascist elements have all played a leading role in the management of football - Trapp had links to the fascist MSI) - but sport has always been political - and always will be.
Bringing back the B team games would be better than this domestic based players only squad. We haven't held one since the end of Traps first year.
Stan had two in 06 and 07. Mick held three in the late 90s and Jack held three in the early 90s.
Even if you limited it to mostly an U23s camp you'll still get a couple of domestic players involved.
F**K sake.
Brexit has had a benefit in that regard - but the government and FAI need to step up.
One of the pundits was pointing out recently (could have been Sadlier) that the FAI have ten academy coaches, while Croatia (a country with a million less population) has 176.
Many of the greatest Irish players didn't join English clubs until they were 18 or older, having played in the LOI first - it is not a recent phenomenon.
Is it not more like a full international, but just capping domestic based players, like they do in Scandinavia? So the game would be something like Ireland v Iceland with full caps awarded, but with only players based domestically in Ireland and Iceland being involved and presumably a much reduced ticket price to get a crowd in.
Sweden played Estonia in a game like this in January this year, they played Iceland in a similar game in January last year. Many of the players involved will never win caps outside of those January games, but it's a common thing in that part of the world to play the games and award caps to the players.
I don't think it's necessarily a bad idea as long as people appreciate that probably not a single player involved would be likely to make the next squad that includes overseas based players.
Last edited by Eirambler; 14/07/2024 at 12:11 PM.
it makes me suspicious about his judgment / intelligence. I don’t know how close his friend’s association was tbh. Related? Active henchman?
Itsxall a distraction though. Let the man get an organised team with a clear style of play and clear ideas about how to react to changes in a game in thev17 months he has. Everything else around that is just window dressing . If there is to be a league of ireland selection let Crawford manage it as he woukd have a far greater knowledge of promising younger players in the league.
But would the point not also be to help HH gain knowledge? International managers have little to be at for half the year, I'm sure he wants to have a couple weeks coaching these guys and that's why he's suggested it.
My concern is it becomes a distraction and something like the excuses from Kenny where any time he was feeling he was been critiqued he came out with the utterly irrelevant stat around the number of players he had given first caps to as if in any way that had any importance or negated the total lack of organisation or game plan on show or worse his inability to react tactically within games or adjust the approach depending on what teams he was playing. If HH is in interviews in a year saying I held 2 games for loi players to try to distract from poor performance s then we are in trouble
I think focusing only on the senior team is why the entire organization is a shambles. We should be able to do more than one thing at once without worrying about it being a distraction. HH put a lot of energy in to domestic and youth football in Iceland, I'd be disappointed if he wasn't doing the same here, that on top of his international record is why he was hired I imagine.
He was at the Shels game as they struggled past a Gibraltar side in Europe, as Derry lost in Gibraltar, the same week Rovers were seemingly outplayed in Iceland.
That should tell where the LoI is in terms of contributing to the national team
I think that's a fair response, though it does seem to be more benefit of the doubt than Halgrimmson is getting at the moment.
And that was in mid-season against pre-season teams. A game for LoI players in pre-season sounds unhelpful.
Last edited by pineapple stu; 14/07/2024 at 1:40 PM.
I think I've already said in another thread I wouldn't count out all 3 clubs still going through just yet, we might feel very different about those games by next Thursday, or worse, who knows
I think everyone agrees there has been a massive talent drain on the top end of LOI, while a lot of the leagues biggest stars of the past decade are coming to the end of their careers. The league is very much in a transitional phase, although I think the bottom and middle of the league is probably as strong as it ever has been. I think as players from academies that have been doing excellent work come through, hopefully some others catch up, the league as a whole will be in a relatively healthy place. The average age might continue to trend younger and less experienced. We'll see how things develop and how sustainable full time football will be for older players if the improved crowds continue to hold. We're so far away from where we need to be at so many levels, and probably going slower than the competition. Nothing will change without massive funding, but I still think things are trending in the right direction. I am a bit worried about wage inflation at the top end and sustainability thou.
It seems to be a more negative side effect of Brexit, that L1/2 and Scottish clubs are looking to sign Irish, and a lot of promising guys are being snapped up in the 18-21 age range now, but they're also the guys I would expect to make up the bulk of these Domestic squads. Players who aren't the finished article but could turn out to be something.
I think there's great merit in the idea, I don't expect him to start calling up LOI lads for the sake of it, or immediately off the back of it but I think it's an idea that is the beginning of a process, that could lead to a lot of long term good, if it becomes an annual thing and a part of the culture of Irish football.
I also think it's almost a must for the women's side, because of the very different challenges they face.
Last edited by Acornvilla; 14/07/2024 at 1:54 PM.
That's fair enough but I'd much rather HH was taking sessions with regional development under 12 and 13 squads and taking sessions with the national 15s,16s and 17s if he was to be do7ble jobbing. But at the end of the day that won't help him make changes within games tactically which is so important to try and get resukts. When u see how horrible Kenny wascatbthat particularly in.both Greek games and the Dutch games when he was absolutely skooled by opposition managers in games where more tactical ability and clear thinking on team structure within game would have got us resukts in those games. So whatever HH needs to do to be as tactically astute as possible that's what he and his team should be spending his time on not virtue signaling to the loi apologists who got us landed with Kenny in the first place through their utter blind unquestioning support for him that emboldened him and his ego
I wouldn't be surprised if he spends time traveling about, meeting people and putting on sessions etc. He was at a match with Jim Crawford already, so I'm sure he will continue to get to know the underage managers, their squads the whole way down. I do think the Ireland international underage structures are pretty joined up and function well together. Results have been very good for a number of years at least, so we're doing some stuff right. The big issue here is what is happening to kids around when they turn 16, and the absolute mess of league structures all over the place, waring factions and all of that.
I couldn't speak of HH's in game management, but he's been around the block and experienced a lot at the highest level you can with weaker players than he'll have with Ireland, so I am cautiously optimistic about how he'll do. It will be interesting to compare how we do against Greece next time out.
Oh they can all still go through - I think law of averages is two out of three will be the max - but still, players who struggle against Icelandic or pre-season Gibraltar club teams are a heck of a way off national team considerationI think I've already said in another thread I wouldn't count out all 3 clubs still going through just yet, we might feel very different about those games by next Thursday, or worse, who knows
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