QuoteEven if I agree with that (which I don't entirely, but you did say 'much'), I don't really see how that is relevant though.
And much of what you describe as legitimate criticism would have been legitimate criticism if levelled against Kerr during his reign.Originally Posted by osarusan
Even if I agree with that (which I don't entirely, but you did say 'much'), I don't really see how that is relevant though.
Don't get me wrong, I think a lot of Kerr's criticisms of Trapattoni were dead on. What I take issue with is that Kerr never once explained why he took a lot of the same decisions himself. I think there was the potential there for Kerr for really give an insight into the pressures an Irish manager is under, the pressure to get results, the pressure to go defensive when attempting to maintain a winning position (as Kerr did many times during his reign) and the pressure to get your tactics right in every single game. The fact is that Kerr mimicked Trap's decisions time and time again, only he had better players and got fewer results, but I wouldn't use that against him if he had tried to contextualise it. Instead, he used Trap's decisions as a stick to beat him with. It could have been really instructive, but instead his articles just played to the gallery. Pat Fenlon was equally scathing of Trap but, in my opinion, he was far more humble and insightful in his analysis. And I'd hardly be Nutsy's biggest fan.
Pretty much everything Kerr has written since being removed from the manager's position has included a swipe at the FAI, players or management, whereas I struggle to remember any mention of Kerr from anyone in the FAI beyond stating he is the former manager of the international side, and his successes at underage level. Whether or not what he's written was criticism or badmouthing is down to individual interpretation, but you'd have to admit that a large part of the current state of the relationship between Kerr and the FAI is because of him.
That all depends on whether you believe that his criticism is legitimate or if it is a 'badmouth' or a 'swipe'.
I think that most of it was legitimate, in which case I don't buy the argument that the deterioration of relationship between them is the result of his legitimate criticism. To put it another way, the FAI cannot use legitimate criticism of them as an organisation to not be open to communication with the person making the criticism (especially given his underage successes).
I can only remember Kerr ever praising the players and criticising the manager's lack of faith in their abilities.
Nah, in among the fair and accurate criticism there was often a swipe and it has hard not to notice that in among the objectivity was a good dollop of bitterness too.
But it's criminal bag between them they sent Dort out their differences. I think that's how JD plays it though, surrounding himself with yes men.
There is always a Kerr-nel of truth in what Brian is saying.
How because of him?
I could certainly understand how someone who devoted their life to progressing Irish football at Pat's at FAI could be bitter at not getting the courtesy Trap did of being sacked face to face.
But where has he shown that bitterness? Is is through answering questions about the laziness of FAI staff including Trap, Koevermans, Delaney.
Kerr is one of the respected people of Irish football so his opinion counts.
Much better than some of the pap we hear from ex internationals worried any criticism might cost them a few free pints.
In any other country, a person with Kerr's credentials would have got the Under 21 job or high performance over the last couple of years.
That would take big wigs swollowing their pride. But weren't we told last week Irish football isn't about personalities!
Last edited by Alf Honn; 09/02/2014 at 4:03 PM.
Where have you been Alfred? I feared the worst.
No Somos muchos pero estamos locos.
I dunno. I think there has often been an undertone (at least) of bitterness and not when he was offering objective criticism which was usually warranted. The two are separate issues. Obviously it's hard to go back over all his articles to substantiate this but it's something I picked up on a lot.
Also, a lot of the criticism - again usually warranted - was a bit rich from Kerr as a lot of the tactical failings he identified in Trap's regime were evident in Kerr's reign. He was overly cautious, squandered leads and was tactically poor. His substitutions were often very odd and when he tinkered with formations he picked odd players for odd roles - Stephen Elliott as a right "corner forward" was one that stood out for me. His work ethic was second to none though.
One thing that struck me as odd was how the meeja turned on him. Having been their choice and having always been affable and approachable many in the press felt he became too big for his boots when he became manager. But what was he supposed to do? He was the international team manager FFS, not their drinking buddy. I think the press should have appreciated this. They can be quite a dangerous bunch.
Last edited by Stuttgart88; 09/02/2014 at 4:29 PM.
Undertone? Whatever you say about Kerr, he is a straight talker. He'll put it out there no matter who gets offended.
You're right on some mistakes he made in the job but I recall him answering all the criticisms any time he was asked by the meeja you rightly point out turned on him.
He only got one full campaign and lost 2 of his last 15 games. They were against France and Italy who met in World Cup final a few months later.
It didnt matter cos he was dead man walking in Delaney's view. He had it all worked out any way - Stan was been groomed as succesor to the throne.
There is a difference between his straight talking and him making snide sarcastic remarks against Trap in almost every IT article, on issues which Kerr himself clearly experienced when he was the manager.
It's not about him being right or wrong, he could have made any or all of those points without the add-on sarcasm which just made him sound a bitter, small minded man, carrying his chips.
When he talks about football, leaving out the sarcasm, he is generally sound and very knowledgeable.
I just re-read my post #207 above. iPad auto correct has a lot to answer for!
Usually one can look at the keyboard to see what key you probably intended to hit and make sense out of a misspelled word in a phrase, but that trick doesn't work with post 207, it takes some extra cryptic decoding.
i guess it's something like - it's criminal that between them they couldn't sort out their differences.
That was exactly what I meant to say.
I think it's telling that everyone appears to consider that output as par for the course for Stutts!
Stuttgart posting:
interview with Brian Kerr on NewsTalk as part of their Jameson Caskmates series: https://cdn.radiocms.net/media/012/a...audio_file.mp3
Documentary on eir sport tonight at ten on his success at underage level
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