So much for his commitment to developing Irish football that he so passionately spoke about previously..
He's a spoofer as a coach, doing more harm than good to 14 year old kids with the way he pushes them and roars at them from the sideline.
Duff said he'd swim over the Irish sea to coach at Celtic, who was the last Irish footballer to say he'd swim across the Irish sea in order to play football?
So much for his commitment to developing Irish football that he so passionately spoke about previously..
He's a spoofer as a coach, doing more harm than good to 14 year old kids with the way he pushes them and roars at them from the sideline.
https://kesslereffect.bandcamp.com/album/kepler - New music. It's not that bad.
Appointed reserve team coach.
Cool to see Damien Duff take on the Shelbourne job. We really need some options for future Ireland managers. I suspect it would take a lot for him to ever consider working for the FAI again, but never say never. Best of luck to him.
https://www.the42.ie/damien-duff-she...90678-Nov2021/
"Duff turned down the job last Friday but after a weekend of soul searching - and some tugging at the heart strings from his son Woody - he changed his mind and decided to take on the role."
He likes to change his mind a lot
"The former Republic of Ireland, Chelsea, Blackburn and Fulham winger has vowed to "give my life" to his players as he prepares for his first job in senior management."
I'll give my life but next week I might change my mind
I'm a bloke,I'm an ocker
And I really love your knockers,I'm a labourer by day,
I **** up all me pay,Watching footy on TV,
Just feed me more VB,Just pour my beer,And get my smokes, And go away
Not suggesting Duff is ready at this moment in time. More like I'm happy he's taking on a senior job, and if he does well, that could give us an option down the line.
Not really a senior job with Shelbourne, great old club and all that, but this is the reason why our domestic football and international football is blighted. It’s spread too thin to be commercially and competitively successful. People ask why can’t we emulate Scandinavia or other small European countries with viable leagues? It’s because historically our clubs are on top of each other and don’t have a sustainable fan base from which to grow. It’s a Micky mouse league, that is at best a nursery from which to export talent. I know this is anathema to the League of Ireland lobby but it needs completely rethinking, otherwise we are never going to maximise the talent we have by developing players in a viable domestic league.
People who have worked alongside him have spoken highly of Duff, at least here we have him in a senior coaching job where whatever he has will be for all to see.
The first step is very serious investment, 2nd step the league most be fully professional, which will mean bringing in league 1 and 2 players and guys from main land Europe at first, that isn't ideal but we are were we are. 3rd step rte or tv3 have to show live matches every week. 4th step stadia. No stadium, no Premier league. Capacity tbd. Again millions is needed and also the will to do it. Im not sure if FIFA would allow it but why not take the league off the FAI and have proper administrators running it, with an independent budget from the state.
There's no investment on the way. The FAI is (criminally) broke and anyways, "very serious investment" doesn't come out of the blue.
Certainly prize money should be higher (so it's hardly "completely rethinking" the league) , but Irish football as a whole has made that bed and we have to lie in it. That includes those who support the national team but not the LoI, who usually don't recognise the relationship between the two.
The first step is for people to support the league by either going to games, subscribing on LOITV, or some other means of support.
It’s whether there’s an appetite for it, but it would probably mean radically configuring the League around viable population centres. Merging clubs and an All Ireland structure. This would involve trampling all over heritage, history and cherished loyalties etc, but the LOI and Irish League has a pretty tiny following in all honesty. It’s a question of whether we run the game in the interests of its current clubs and support base or we want something better. By better I mean, higher quality football, more competitive, commercially sustainable and producing and keeping more talented players for the international team(s).
It won’t happen because turkeys don’t vote for Christmas.
So you're going to take the only people who are interested in football (ie those running the clubs), screw them all over (by merging them into new super clubs) and hope that somehow this will mean lots of other people get involved?
There's a fairly large flaw in that logic...
What happened at Kildare County and Sporting Fingal should be enough to argue that population centres alone don't necessarily equate to a successful football club.
Last edited by pineapple stu; 04/11/2021 at 8:51 AM.
Rumours circulating of Jack Byrne to Shels. Not sure how solid those are. But that would be interesting.
but that is exactly what they did in Sweden it turns out.
They merged rival even enemy clubs and now they have a nice pro league. Im not saying follow that model, but don't knock it in the head. We cant just leave it as it is, surely we all agreed on that ?
Your ideas are helpful but nowhere near enough.
Bookmarks