Would other Countries want Ireland in their group?

[paul_oshea]

My problem is that it was my girlfriend's Barclaycard I was referring to!

:8 When/where did ye get her? www.putherinthepost.ie.co.uk or is she a FIFA exec, in the legal department by any chance

[youngirish]

Hard to answer this question at the moment but If we get Jewell or Houillier as a manager I'd say very few teams would want us in their group. However if we get Souness or Brady the answer is everybody.

It's also unfair to say we are a less attractive proposition for opposition managers than NI at present. I'd say currently most managers in Europe would prefer to get the ROI, a team currently in turmoil and freefalling in the rankings over recent years to a more settled NI team seemingly on the up. Until a new manager comes in and rectifies this I'd expect that situation to remain.

[EalingGreen]

You're not comparing like with like, unless McIlroy was an inarticulate rookie billed in advance as a "world class manager" who had a squad of experienced Premiership footballers at his disposal and who had absolutely no idea of the basics and who did not have the humility to admit that things weren't going well. If we hadn't voiced our disapproval - most of us doing so in a very measured manner - we may still have him in charge.

Obviously it's not an exact comparison between Sam and Stan, but I would point out that it was not Stan who billed himself a World class manager, but JD.

And if Sammy had some experience in management, it was only at a lowly level i.e. taking Macclesfield from non-league to the (old) Fourth Division i.e.hardly more than the Eircom.

Moreover, whatyever else you think of him, it must have been very hard for Stan to walk away from the massive salary he was being paid by the FAI. Whereas, Sammy broke his Contract with the IFA to desert to the mighty Stockport County (where, btw, he sunk like a stone before being sacked and re-emerging once more in non-League).

But for all that I must be amongst his sternest critics as a manager, I also respect Sammy both as a player and a human being, and so would never personally abuse him in the same way as some abused Stan, when he found himself in similarly difficult or unfortunate circumstances.

And before anyone has a pop at me for making that point, I am not insinuating that ROI fans are any less inherently reasonable than their NI counterparts. If pushed, I'd guess it is primarily because ROI fans have much greater expectations than NI fans.

(Of course, if you were to ask me whether those expectations were reasonable, you might not like the answer! But that's a topic for another thread...)

[ifk101]

Obviously it's not an exact comparison between Sam and Stan, but I would point out that it was not Stan who billed himself a World class manager, but JD.

And if Sammy had some experience in management, it was only at a lowly level i.e. taking Macclesfield from non-league to the (old) Fourth Division i.e.hardly more than the Eircom.

Moreover, whatyever else you think of him, it must have been very hard for Stan to walk away from the massive salary he was being paid by the FAI. Whereas, Sammy broke his Contract with the IFA to desert to the mighty Stockport County (where, btw, he sunk like a stone before being sacked and re-emerging once more in non-League).

But for all that I must be amongst his sternest critics as a manager, I also respect Sammy both as a player and a human being, and so would never personally abuse him in the same way as some abused Stan, when he found himself in similarly difficult or unfortunate circumstances.

And before anyone has a pop at me for making that point, I am not insinuating that ROI fans are any less inherently reasonable than their NI counterparts. If pushed, I'd guess it is primarily because ROI fans have much greater expectations than NI fans.

(Of course, if you were to ask me whether those expectations were reasonable, you might not like the answer! But that's a topic for another thread...)

Then again maybe there was enough Northern Ireland fans at the time to get an abuse campaign going against Sammy McIlroy. Out of interest what was the average attendance at Windsor during McIlroy's reign??

[Hibernian]

Then again maybe there was enough Northern Ireland fans at the time to get an abuse campaign going against Sammy McIlroy. Out of interest what was the average attendance at Windsor during McIlroy's reign??

I presume they got a full capicty still.

Its not as if Windsor is 80,000 seater

Would I be right EG?

[Irish_Praha]

How the fupp did this turn into another ROI vs NI thread. I know we are both in pot 3 but there's a selection of other teams in there too!
It's a fact that NI did better than ROI in the current qualifiers, beating one of the top two seeds and still (bearly) in contention up until the last game. Maybe they will go one better and qualify for the WC or they have reached their peak and will fade away. Maybe ROI will appoint a messiah of a manager that will give their supposedly superior players a good kick up the hole resulting in a vast improvement or maybe we are going to be submitted to another 2 years of dross and ultimate failure. To be honest this ROI vs NI debate is starting to get on my tits here. One or two threads which I can choose to avoid is fine but it's infiltrating too many threads IMO. I was actually looking forward to reading people's opinions when i saw the title of this thread but it looks like another one I will be avoiding, unfortunately.

[Bungle]

In my opinion, pots 2 and 3 are almost inseperable in terms of standard.

Turkey, Bulgaria and Switzerland are very decent teams, while Denmark regularly qualify for most tournaments. Israel are a decent side too. Finland have had a very good campaign in a tough group but I wish they had been a fourth seed at the expense of a team like Bosnia or Georgia. Hungary don't belong as a third seed. As already pointed out, they're a fourth seed at best.

As for Norn Iron, on paper they are an average team but they certainly deserve to be third seeds. Their home record is outstanding and they have gone to places like Denmark and Sweden and come away with points. I am happy to avoid them, as I could see them taking points off us in both Dublin and Belfast.

Ideal group:
Czech Republic, Scotland, Moldova, Liechtenstein and Andorra.

Horror group:
Holland, Russia, Georgia, Armenia and Kazakhstan

That group contains exactly the type of teams that could take points off us. Holland could conceivably win both games against us, while Russia are always tricky in Moscow. In none of the other games would I put too much money on an away win.

[Cymro]

I wouldn't mind you guys again, but you're probably about on a par with most teams in your pot, bar maybe Switzerland who are a really decent team in my opinion. I'd like Hungary at the moment, they are just about in pot 3 but have had a disappointing campaign this time around and we could be looking to beat them.

Northern Ireland would also be good as we've shown fairly recently we can beat them, though whether we'd beat them if we played each other tomorrow is debateable.

[Stuttgart88]

Cymro, I see your U21s are beating France. That'll be a great result.

If we do get Wales again it'll be good to have you back on here. Good luck.

[Cymro]

Thank you, Stuttgart. Equally, I'll enjoy posting on here if we're drawn together again. I have really enjoyed the banter and discussion in this campaign.

[BobbySands]

True I know there on rich vain of form but there one of teams that I think most people will see as having no chance of getting out of there group. There away record is not good enough and will have to improve greatly if they are get near South Africa.

I know there very hard to beat at home but think all pot one teams would win there and would learn from the mistakes that Sweden and Spain made there as well as Denmark who at end of day Ireland hammered away not so long ago.

Don't mean to be pedantic but the spelling on this site is atrocious. This is not the worst but jayzuz......

An Muinteoir

[RogerMilla]

vain ,there ,There , there
An Muinteoir

Vein , their , Their , they're.

[eekers]

Vein , their , Their , they're.

if you are going to be pedantic at least get it right.

vein, they're, their, their

and there's another 'they're' missing at the start of the second paragrapah

[RogerMilla]

if you are going to be pedantic at least get it right.

vein, they're, their, their

and there's another 'they're' missing at the start of the second paragrapah

i just picked a few examples eekers , the whole thing was a shambles !

[eekers]

i just picked a few examples eekers , the whole thing was a shambles !

i hear hibernian learn to write on a carpark!

[Dr. Ogba]

if you are going to be pedantic at least get it right.

vein, they're, their, their

and there's another 'they're' missing at the start of the second paragrapah

ah there their....lets stop this fussin and a feudin'

[CollegeTillIDie]

To get this back of it's tangent I will deal with the peripheral matter to the thread first. Norn Iron are better than the Republic Fact!. We would not have picked up as many points in their group as they currently have end of. They have played well as a team bar two disappointing performances. Compare that to the Republic who only had two decent performances one of which was a 0-1 defeat in Germany.

To get back to the question raised at the outset of the thread. Any 1st or 2nd seed would love us in their group as they know they will beat us in their home game. So a handy three points is always welcome. Before anyone accuses me of being overly negative. Two decent competitive victories away from home in 40 years, history speaks for itself!

[RogerMilla]

agreed college , in fact our reputation rests at the moment on the fact that people on the continent watch the premiership and they know finnan and keane and given.

new manager has a huge job to do

[Hibernian]

i hear hibernian learn to write on a carpark!

??????? what you on..

[Hibernian]

How the fupp did this turn into another ROI vs NI thread. I know we are both in pot 3 but there's a selection of other teams in there too!
It's a fact that NI did better than ROI in the current qualifiers, beating one of the top two seeds and still (bearly) in contention up until the last game. Maybe they will go one better and qualify for the WC or they have reached their peak and will fade away. Maybe ROI will appoint a messiah of a manager that will give their supposedly superior players a good kick up the hole resulting in a vast improvement or maybe we are going to be submitted to another 2 years of dross and ultimate failure. To be honest this ROI vs NI debate is starting to get on my tits here. One or two threads which I can choose to avoid is fine but it's infiltrating too many threads IMO. I was actually looking forward to reading people's opinions when i saw the title of this thread but it looks like another one I will be avoiding, unfortunately.

agree 100%