Messages to the FAI

[Seanie]

http://www.gavinjoyce.com/McCarthyMustGo/

[Éanna]

sad sad sad

[pete]

Since there was little public opinion or media types wanting McCarthy out after the World Cup appears some of these people making their decisions on just 2 games.

We all know from long experience the FAIs incompetence towards the eL but no matter what they no towards the international team people will knock them these days.

Do i remember these people complianing cos the FAI wouldn't give Mick a big pay increase in his new contract last year?

[brine2]

Since there was little public opinion or media types wanting McCarthy out after the World Cup appears some of these people making their decisions on just 2 games

where have you been? mars?

[Neil]

Obviously we can group Seanie and brine2 with the Lansdowne Road crowd on Wednesday...

How anyone can get "public opinion" from a shower of boorish Celtic jersey wearing West-Brit Sky Sport watching prawn-sandwich eating idiots is beyond me?

[brine2]

Actually my "public opinion" is based on the people who follow the national team on away trips and people who play for Cork City.

It has to be said it's quite immature to move this post to the "humour" section just because you disagree with it. Reminds me of the kid who walks home with the football.

[Colm]

Originally posted by Neil
How anyone can get "public opinion" from a shower of boorish Celtic jersey wearing West-Brit Sky Sport watching prawn-sandwich eating idiots is beyond me?

Yeah, sadly it appears that most of the Landsdowne road crowd (and followers of the national team in general) is made up of ignornant premiersh!t loving barstoolers. Add to that the large number of scottish people and you get a group of self proclaimed "experts".
The reason they get "public opinion" from these people is because of the sad fact that in this country the wannabe Scots/ Scousers etc. far outnumber the people who actually attend football games week in week out.

[Éanna]

Originally posted by COLM
Add to that the large number of scottish people and you get a group of self proclaimed "experts".

yeah, it´s one thing people being ignorant, thats ok, but when they try and act like they´re not

[Wizzard]

I saw SRFC, CCFC Mons and numerous other EL flags at the match. I would respect their opinion over the TV watching pundits who are are in the majority on this site.

Anyone who was there and sensed the mood in the satdium will tell you that people were ****ed off with the inept decisions of our manager.

Where were YOU when Ireland was savaged by a Swiss poodle.

And before you incorrectly guess, I didn't boo but I did join in the chanting for Keano at the end of the Match. I am in a minority with my mates regarding Keane, but even they were so hacked off at McCarthy, they joined in the chants for Keane.

[Macy]

Originally posted by Wizzard
And before you incorrectly guess, I didn't boo but I did join in the chanting for Keano at the end of the Match. I am in a minority with my mates regarding Keane, but even they were so hacked off at McCarthy, they joined in the chants for Keane.

Well I was also at the match, and I did boo at the final whistle (don't see the problem - see a sh!te performance at club level and the way you put it across by booing the team off!!! A lot of people are hypocrites over this....). I'd particularly point out the Cork fans that despite city's good performances so far this season are still at Gunther Out craic, yet attack the McCarthy Out brigade as knowing nothing - HYPOCRITES!!!!!

I think the Keano chants were effectively a "McCarthy Out" chant, rather than a call for his return (everyone knows he would be out injured anyway!).

I'm getting very p!ssed off with the pro-McCarthy lot taking the moral high ground and making out that anyone he wants him to go is a premiership/celtic fool - it just isn't the case, and people should accept a difference of opinion when there are convincing arguments on both sides......

[Éanna]

I have no problem with rational decent reasons for wanting McCarthy out (I´d love to see the back of him) but the fact is that almost every argument against McCarthy contains pro-Keane sentiments. Any arguments based on proper footballing reasons is a different matter.

[Macy]

Originally posted by Éanna
Any arguments based on proper footballing reasons is a different matter.

I wish that was the case, but it clearly isn't - any reasoned arguments you are just dismissed as a pro-keane know nothing....

[Éanna]

I wouldn´t agree. I (for one) have never dismissed any argument that has been non-keane but anti-McCarthy.

[Wizzard]

MICK'S QUESTIONABLE MOTIVES
By Mark Stokes

So that was it. That was the best Mick McCarthy could give us.
Having had his players under his tutelage for the better part of a
week, the manager was content to watch Harte and Kelly commence their
evenings by banging long balls into the grateful "arms" of the Swiss
defence, and at no point thereafter did he opt to change tack. Mick
has been advised by millions of would-be managers about his best
formation but, given the resources available to him last Wednesday,
this bunch and the way they were deployed clearly didn't serve
Ireland's best interests. Damien Duff and Robbie Keane together is,
despite their respective brilliance, a luxury. The players are too
similar in that they like to run at defences and the Irish team is
now crying out for a bona fide goal scorer. Clinton Morrison is the
obvious choice (to everyone except McCarthy) and the crowd welcomed
him with a huge cheer upon his arrival in the second half at
Lansdowne Road. Gary Doherty is also an option, as is the
convalescing Richard Sadlier of Millwall, and at this point one also
has to consider Rotherham's Alan Lee and Bohemians' Glen Crowe, men
who, week in week out for the last couple of years, have put the ball
in opponents' nets. Kevin Kilbane continues to be an albatross
around McCarthy's neck and his inclusion alone on Wednesday's
warrants the manager's firing. Ian Harte's fortunes are, after a
horrendous period of form, coming full circle. The Leeds man,
however, represents a poor choice at left back, as does his uncle,
Gary Kelly, on the opposite flank. Colin Healy represented one of
the better moves the manager made on the day and, if he does leave,
the Celtic midfielder will be indebted to Mick for giving him the
chance.

Yet where was the exciting one-touch stuff which had Germany and
Spain on the rack and where has our midfield gone? Mark Kinsella was
all but anonymous and Matt Holland has played better in a green
shirt, but maybe their respective contributions might have been more
significant had they someone other than the invisible man (Kilbane)
beside them. Stephen McPhail is highly regarded by none other than
Terry Venables - surely his reinstatement cannot be too far away.
Some of the vultures who have been hovering over McCarthy were quick
to blame his withdrawing of Harte for the defeat, showing nothing but
their own ignorance. McCarthy correctly went for the win and got
punished, not in the 88th minute when Fabio Celestini ripped the
winner past Shay Given, but by putting himself in that position in
the first place. The tactics were all wrong from the start and even
the basics of shielding the ball, holding it up for others, finding
the man with the pass and movement off the ball all went awry on the
night. "I think it was a nervy performance, especially in the first
half," said the manager. "Maybe I'm looking through rose-coloured
specs, but I don't think we deserved to lose that game. I felt that
at the time we had to win the game. I had a go to try and win it,
made changes at the end, and it backfired. I take responsibility for
that". And the Lansdowne Road crowd let him know their feelings as
the final whistle approached, chanting "Keano, Keano" in reference to
the man whose shadow reached Lansdowne Road from 150 miles east of
the Irish capital. "Myself and my players have always given
everything. I'm not going to change. I'm not going to walk away",
insisted McCarthy. "If somebody wants to make that decision, then
fine. But I'm going to walk away with my head held high, chin out and
chest out".

Mick may not yet be ready to walk away but when injuries mount - the
sick notes are already being written in the minds of some of the
players - for next month's friendly in Athens and indeed the treks to
the outposts of Tirana and Tblisi next Spring when cups and leagues
are to be won in England, he may just see that his current challenge
is one he cannot win. Mick may possibly arrive at that conclusion
while on holiday with wife Fiona on the beaches of the Algarve over
the next fortnight, or he may decide to see sense and publicly invite
Roy Keane back into the squad. Events since Saipan have proved that
this Ireland team is as much the one Roy built as the one Mick built,
and it is time for a new beginning. All is not lost. The truth is
that Ireland took on two very difficult games at the beginning of the
campaign - which in itself is an indictment on Mick who had plotted
Holland and Portugal's downfall by the same route in the previous
campaign - and now have relatively calmer waters ahead of them.
McCarthy's best allies in all of this may be the Swiss, who look more
than capable of winning both their contests with Russia, a scenario
which would leave Ireland needing to defeat the Russians in Dublin to
take second place. And the FAI weren't far from the trenches either
this week. Roy Keane, not too long ago, described them as muppets,
and it was difficult to argue with this assessment after the boys
from Merrion Square sought to extend Mick's contract beyond 2004, the
day before the Swiss game. Latest reports have them considering a
buy out of the manager's contract with a typical low ball offer. If
this is a requiem for Mick McCarthy he should be given credit for his
work over the better part of seven years in the Irish hot seat. He
withstood the knocks in Macedonia and Turkey and finally got Ireland
to the World Cup, and he could never be accused of not giving Irish
youth its fling. It hardly needs repeating here, but Mick may have
won the battle with Roy Keane, only to lose the war. Yet to dwell on
that subject is to ignore the nuts and bolts of the argument against
the manager. McCarthy lost the plot in not demanding better of or
better than players like Harte, Kilbane, Kelly, and to some extent
Breen, in the last three or four internationals. And in places like
Croatia in 1999, employing only Tony Cascarino in attack, and in
Macedonia no one, was utter suicide. In pure footballing terms Mick
indirectly proclaimed himself to have a better football mind than Roy
Keane and has been found wanting ever since. His successor, if
indeed one is imminent, could be any of David O'Leary, Geroge Graham,
Martin O'Neill, Niall Quinn, a foreigner, or if the planets aligned
properly, even Keane himself.

[fosterdollar]

what a long post
how the **** would u get the time to read all that???

[Éanna]

I agree with nearly every word of that article except

he may decide to see sense and publicly invite
Roy Keane back into the squad

[pete]

I thought the 'Keano' chants during the game were really bad although was nice tio hear them drowned out by the 'Ireland' chants.

IMO theres a huge difference between chanting against ba team/manager during a game & afterwards. Support your team while they on the pitch - moan afterwards.

[Éanna]

Exactly. Singing keane´s name can´t have had a positive effect on the players on the pitch either

[Wizzard]

Originally posted by Éanna
Exactly. Singing keane´s name can´t have had a positive effect on the players on the pitch either

We were 2-1 down with a few minutes to go before the Keano chant really started. I think the players knew how the crowd felt by then.

[pete]

Originally posted by Wizzard
We were 2-1 down with a few minutes to go before the Keano chant really started. I think the players knew how the crowd felt by then.

I'd like to think i haven't chanted anything against CCFC in the past as if i'm too p***ed off to support the team i'll keep my mouth shout til the end of the game.