Is anyone here hoping for defeat...?

[OwlsFan]

Giles last night on Off the Ball said many things that I did not agree with, i.e. we should sack staunton but keep Delaney which in my view misses the point of the whole situation. He also did not answer my question fully on whether Keane should still be captailn of the Irish team. I do agree that he is a bit out dated at times but in my view he is the best out there and to be honest I think Andy Gray is one of the best also. Very interesting to hear that he was seriously ****ed off with the Leeds book out at the moment. .

I can understand Gray less than I can Staunton. He mumbles a lot in commentary except when blaming the ref and uses the word "brilliant" far too much like all his Sky co-commentators.

I will never boo an Irish team if its just because they're hopeless as opposed to not trying.

[geysir]

Giles's Irish teams were only incredibly boring in some of his last Q group games. Overall, around 12/18 good games, including some of the best ever.
Neil, did you email in a question about Robbie's captaincy to the show?
I half remember his comments on Delaney on the web cast. Something to the effect that the managerial appointment was just one thing, that Delaney's job description was wider than that and should be judged accordingly.

[Billsthoughts]

read the leeds book. not much about giles in it at all anyway. giles is best pundit out there.he played the game 30 years ago and has been watchin it ever since so yeah I think he is qualified to say whether he thinks what he is seeing is good football or not I can understand how he wouldnt be too popular with the "Football Manager" brigade, who think playing a computer game for hours on end gives them some insight in to football

[osarusan]

read the leeds book. not much about giles in it at all anyway. giles is best pundit out there.he played the game 30 years ago and has been watchin it ever since so yeah I think he is qualified to say whether he thinks what he is seeing is good football or not I can understand how he wouldnt be too popular with the "Football Manager" brigade, who think playing a computer game for hours on end gives them some insight in to football

At least you made your point without assuming a stereotype of those who have other opinions.

[eirebhoy]

I can't agree that Giles is a good pundit. He likes a certain type of player. He didn't rate Riquelme at all because he doesn't do much tracking back. His knowledge on today's game is also very limited. When a game was coming up at the world cup at least Dunphy actually did a bit of research on the 2 teams.

[NeilMcD]

Giles's Irish teams were only incredibly boring in some of his last Q group games. Overall, around 12/18 good games, including some of the best ever.
Neil, did you email in a question about Robbie's captaincy to the show?
I half remember his comments on Delaney on the web cast. Something to the effect that the managerial appointment was just one thing, that Delaney's job description was wider than that and should be judged accordingly.

I texted in rather than e mailing and about 2 minutes later my question was read out and put to Giles.

[shakermaker1982]

any pundit is better than Hansen, Ian Wright and Jamie Redknapp.

I wish I had the option of getting RTE over here in England (supposedly on its way) so I could listen to men who don't mind disagreeing.

[geysir]

With Johnny I disagree as much as I agree but I respect where he's coming from. For the most part I only hear him on RTE and there I expect Brady will always counter Giles's midfield culture on the playmakers issue.

Here's a piece he wrote pre WC, not at all earth shattering stuff but plain and simple.
"Like England, the Germans looks desperately under prepared. This, I believe, leaves Italy as Europes best hope under the driving coaching of Marcello Lippi. Italy play positively and, I suspect, have been turned into a real team by the former Juventus boss.
With Brazil and Argentina, the Azzurri look like a cut above the rest."

[tetsujin1979]

any pundit is better than Hansen, Ian Wright and Jamie Redknapp.

I wish I had the option of getting RTE over here in England (supposedly on its way) so I could listen to men who don't mind disagreeing.

Heard that as well, but I don't think it covers sports as well

[gustavo]

I find Hansen to be quite good Redknapp is useless.

[eaststand85]

yeah not as good as say the late 80's early 90's one but better than what mcCarthy inherited and at the very least on a par with the team Kerr had. but lets also be fair and, regardless of your opinion as to whether 'da gaffer' stays or not, the fact is WE ARE MASSIVELY UNDERACHIEVING AT PRESENT

to have scrapped a victory against the worst possible team we can play in a competitive fixture, a loss to cyprus and only 1 point out of 6 against 2 of the teams we want to split to qualify is nowhere near good enough.

Agree completely. We may not be world beaters but whether or not you believe Staunton has better or worse players than McCarthy & Kerr had, we still have enough players competing at a decent level to ensure we should be producing consistent performances full of committment to enable us easily beat amateurs like San Marino and Cyprus and produce decent performances against the better teams. Completely disagreed with the appointment of Staunton and haven't seen anything to change my opinion since. Even the better performances against Germany & Czech Republic seemed to be in spite of rather than because of him.

Would obviously love to see us get six points in the next two matches but have absolutely no confidence that Staunton can produce a team with the structure and self belief to pull this off and this is the problem with him. He doesn't have the managerial know how to produce consistent results which reflect a teams ability, much less to inspire them to become more than the sum of their parts which is what great managers do.

If he proves me and the majority of Irish supporters wrong by achieving six points over these two games then he probably deserves more time but I don't see it happening and believe he's been given too much time already. In summary therefore I would like us to see six points over the next two games as that would be a sign of progress but anything less (i.e. hanging on for 0-0 draw against Wales which I predict will be his aim as he can present it as a respectable result) and Staunton has to go.