I don't think that's quite what happened. He left in February, at which time Millwall were still right up near the top of the table. He was replaced by a northern Irish manager, Jimmy Nicholl, and the team went into free fall under Nicholl and were relegated. But that can't really be blamed on Mick to be fair - he wasn't there when the collapse happened.Originally Posted by seanfhear
Keane O'Shea Given Best Smallbone
I seem to have got quite a bit of that wrong as the information below proves ~ My memory must be going a bit ~ Anyway ~ Apologies ~
From wikipedia
McCarthy became player-manager at Millwall in March 1992, succeeding Bruce Rioch. In his first full season (1992–93), he was still registered as a player, but made only one further appearance (in the Anglo-Italian Cup), before he became solely a manager.[citation needed]
He took the club to the play-offs in 1993–94 after a strong third-place finish, but they lost out to Derby County in the semi-finals. During the 1995–96 season, McCarthy became the prime candidate for the vacant Republic of Ireland manager's job, after the resignation of Jack Charlton. After a protracted period of speculation, McCarthy was officially appointed on 5 February 1996, two days after his resignation at the club. Despite sitting a comfortable 14 points clear from the relegation zone at the time of his departure, Millwall would go on to suffer the drop (by virtue of goals scored) after McCarthy's departure.[citation needed]
His loan signings of the underachieving Russian internationals Sergei Yuran and Vassili Kulkov from Spartak Moscow, who each received a £150,000 signing-on fee and were being paid five times the wage of the rest of the first team, would later be cited[by whom?] as one of the main reasons Millwall were eventually relegated under Jimmy Nicholl, although it cannot be proven.[13]
Another few wins for Robbie - Maccabi topped their Conference League group with 15 points to reach the last 16 of any European competition for the first time; it's also the first time they've won a European group.
The league has also resumed after two months off (which is a different thread of course - though it's interesting that there's been no talk of Israel being suspended from UEFA the same way Russia has been), and Keane has another two wins from two. Full record this season is 17 wins and 3 draws from 21 games. Scoring three goals a game too.
Should be banned from all sporting organisations. Would hinder Keane's career, but is the right thing for the world to do.
Great to Terry still alive in other forums.
Leaving aside all the politics of where hes working, it has to be said that Robbie is doing a fine job so far. I've probably said it a few times on here already, but my biggest hope for him was that he'd do well enough to get a 2nd job. He might be surpassing that at the moment with how well hes doing, he might find himself sought after if he keeps it up.
He'd actually be my personal 2nd favorite right now to take the Ireland job
Its really not that complicated!!!
It would be madness to give him the job now. That would be like giving Ronnie Whelan the job after he managed in Cyprus
Hes not going to get it, but based on how hes going so far I wouldnt be surprised to see him in the job in future
Its really not that complicated!!!
It would be madness to give Robbie Keane the job at anytime - he is a showboater who is interest in money and image.
Managing Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel is like managing Celtic in Scotland - over the past eleven years they have won five championships, came second four times and third twice. They are owned by a Canadian billionaire. Israeli teams are restricted to six non-Israeli players so Maccabi Tel Aviv end up with all (or most) of the best Israeli players who haven't gone abroad - they currently have 7 players in the Israeli squad - all the other Israeli teams have 7 players combined. They have several players in their squad that cost in excess of €1million.
Our greatest ever striker, but sure just a showboater
Its really not that complicated!!!
Never say never but I'd like to see Robbie succeed at a different challenge before he would realistically come into contention for the job. Hopefully he does well this season and moves on up to a club on another level - maybe on the continent.
I've moved the OT posts here. I take the point that they're football-related, but they're barely Keane related, so they belong somewhere else.
Didn't say he wasn't a good footballer - he actually should have been better - but there is zero evidence that he is any good of a manager (for the same reason why there is zero evidence that Neil Lennon is any good).
Robbie wins the Israeli Premier League with two games to spare. Great start to his managerial career. Loved him as a player but didn’t think he’d make a good manager. Fair play to him.
https://m.independent.ie/sport/socce...957825167.html
Robbie was underappreciated in Ireland for a lot of his career, despite being one of the top international goal scorers of all time (21st on the all time list alongside Luis Suarez). Winning the Israeli league won't change that perception much for reasons footballing and otherwise, but for Robbie it's just more winning.... he has a knack for it. Hoping he takes a step up now and manages somewhere in Europe ('real' Europe, not makey uppy Eurovision-type Europe).
Like, say, Australia?
I'd take him as Ireland manager in a heartbeat now
Its really not that complicated!!!
Keane may have scored a lot of goals - but he did it at a level below the top strikers - the list you link to is really not relevant to the standard the strikers were playing at.
As I said before - Keane was a very good player - and imo should have actually been better. He always tended to chase the money.
Example - at Liverpool Keane played a total of 28 games and scored 7 goals (in a team with not a lot of striking options) and was gone within six months. John Aldridge was a year older (29) than Keane when he was signed as Liverpool's replacement for Ian Rush - in his two full seasons he played 92 games and scored 60 goals - this despite the fact that Rush returned to Liverpool the following season - Rush is four years younger than Aldridge), winning the title and the FA cup. Furthermore, Liverpool were banned from Europe at this time because of Heysel. Aldridge went on to become the first non-Basque player to play for Real Sociedad, being the club's top scorer for the two seasons he played there.
Despite being Ireland's top scorer - I wouldn't even rate Keane as the best striker Ireland ever had. In my view that honour should go to Jimmy Dunne who scored 13 goals in 15 games between 1930-1939 (international games were few and far between in the 1930s) - Dunne scored 143 goals in 173 games over seven seasons for Sheffield United in the top division and he later won a league title with Arsenal. Cliff Bastin, one of the greatest ever English players ever, said of Dunne that he was 'one of the best five centre forwards I have ever seen'.
For me - I would prefer any of Dunne, Davy Walsh, Don Givens or Frank Stapleton in an Irish team ahead of Keane - imo they brought much more to the team than Keane ever did (and two other underrated players would also come into the mix here - Michael Robinson and Shane Long).
Politically - Keane has always run with the hares and chased with the hounds - and he is currently doing that in Israel. He is managing a big club in a small pond and what he has done before Israel was lacklustre to say the least. This will pad his CV - and maybe if he can repeat next season he will get an offer at a bigger club. But I suspect he will eventually be caught out for the spoofer that he is. I think that his ultimate goal is to manage in the MLS - when he was playing there Keane and his wife attempted to create an entire spin-off series of promotional businesses (like the Beckhams) and it didn't come off for them - he could try chasing the almighty dollar again by managing in the MLS. Don't be surprised to see him pop up at Inter Miami or one of the two LA teams.
Right now, I'd take a wheelie bin with googley eyes as Ireland manager.
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