O'Neill & Keane Not To Stoke

[anton pulisov]

Mick is an amazing international manager. He was put in charge for four qualifying campaigns, and managed to qualify for one of them. When he did qualify, he failed to organise training facilities and sent home his best player. And practising penalties is a waste of time.

[Lang Spoon]

Christ on a bike. Maybe they will start playing decent modern football by accident, like McLeish and Scotland these past two games (cos all the old reliable Manager Favourite picks were “injured”).

[elguapo4]

No strikers worth their name, no creative players further back, unless a few of them appear in the next few months it doesn't matter really who takes the reins.

[anton pulisov]

World Cups have been won by teams that have no striker. The managers made something of what they had.

[Lang Spoon]

It was only Israel, but Scotland managed to make Stephen Fletcher look good this week. He’d never score in a million years himself, but his work rate brought Forrest and the other nippy lads into the game. Surely Ireland have a hard working lump up front that can do that low rent pound shop Firmino stuff.

[Lang Spoon]

Robbie Brady is pretty creative.

[anton pulisov]

This is the beauty of international football. Sure, the bigger countries have better players, but none of them have great players in all positions. It's not like playing club teams funded by the petroleoum soaked tears of Siberian AIDS orphans.

If you are vaguely organised and can identify some kind of weakness in the opposition team, then it's game on. This involves, however, having some rudimentary knowledge about modern football tactics.

[Lang Spoon]

Just seen something that no Irish international has ever come from Meath. That’s a fucking shocking indictment of the FAI and youth set up, especially since Meath is essentially a giant commuter sprawl for Dublin these past 15 years.

[Lang Spoon]

A mate that coached under 7s a few years back in Dublin was fucking shocked at the caveman shite the visiting FAI Supercoach was recommending on a visit. Lots of cones based drills that seemed designed to drain all joy from the game and ensure most kids would lose all interest. Lots of running around. Nothing that would improve skills. Caveman bullshit.

[Lang Spoon]

The Empire Builders in the DDSL can fuck off as well.

[anton pulisov]

None from Kerry either, as far as I know.

[Lang Spoon]

Not like any Kerrymen have shown skill at ball games either.

[Lang Spoon]

It’s pathetic enough that there are only proper 4 indoor football facilities in Scotland (think there’s 20+ in Norway). Ireland has what, the one at the National Sports Campus in Dublin? What the fuck has happened to the cash Delaney? No capital spending on infrastructure at all.

[Lang Spoon]

The CAB need to pay Delaney’s bank accounts a visit. At least as corrupt as the Pats Hickey and McQuaid.

[elguapo4]

None from Kerry either, as far as I know.

John Egan might not have been born in Kerry but he's the son of a Kerry G.A.A legend

[Lang Spoon]

Blank eyed cunt Robbie as Mick number two.

[Lang Spoon]

Pot four in the next Nation’s League so.

[anton pulisov]

RTE now saying that both Mick Mac and Kenny will be interviewed.

RTE were never big into the journalism

[anton pulisov]

Mick Mac now 4-1 on. Seems to be a done deal.

I'm gonna have to sit out the next qualification series
This is too depressing.

[anton pulisov]

We would have qualified for Euro 2000 as group winners if we had a game plan in Macedonia. He was happy to sit on the 1-0 lead. In the 2002 campaign Roy Keane decided fuck it, and took matters into his own hands. He was the highest player up the pitch in matches against Portugal and Holland. Refused to play for the draw.

Mick had very good players at the time.

[seand]

Darragh Lenihan became the first Meath international recently, but it's utterly extraordinary that huge, populous swathes of the country are so under represented.

[anton pulisov]

Yeah, the top Ireland internationals have traditionally come from the cities. The GAA were firmly in control of the countryside and would have made sure that a lid was kept on foreign games. With the decline of their control and the advent of satellite television, we have seen some recent good international players coming from the countryside: Coleman and Long off the top of my head. edit: Not sure I can think of any from the pre-satellite era...

[seand]

Plenty of Donegal, Waterford and Galway culchies over the years.

Kildare is another county massively under-represented. It's mind-boggling... imagine if nobody from Essex had ever been capped for England.

[Duncan Gardner]

[Duncan Gardner]

Yeah, the top Ireland internationals have traditionally come from the cities

Of the 26 men who've played for NI this season, 3 are from Belfast (McLaughlin, Boyce and Whyte), only 1 from Derry (Ferguson)