Our under age teams. Any hope for the future?

darkman2

With all this talk from Staunton of 'building for the future', do we have the players in the under 21s, 19s etc that makes this realistic? Have we got enough good players coming through or are we in a period where we continue to drop in the rankings and then cant ever qaulify for anything? Like Scotland and (jayyyusss) Northern Ireland!:eek:

Pigman II

Yeah lets pity Scotland and Northern Ireland!

Tha Gopher

Who on our current team is from the youth team that did great at the underage WC in Malaysia iirc years back?

just googled, we came 3rd. Now our senior team will struggle to come 3rd in fcuking qualifiers.

darkman2

Tha Gopher wrote:

Who on our current team is from the youth team that did great at the underage WC in Malaysia iirc years back?

Duff and Robbie Keane I think.

Not many of those players made it to top flight football despite finishing 3rd or something in the WC.

therecklessone

The lesson we need to learn from those underage achievements is that the sum can be better than our constituent parts. Our underage teams have never been blessed with huge talent, but teamwork and attention to detail helped even the playing field when we met more technically gifted teams.

I'd prefer that we concentrated on coaching, and addressed the skills deficit in our ranks, but as an interim measure we must surely be looking at the methods employed by Kerr back then (and Fat Sam at Bolton today...the pro zone, not the bungs...:D ) to ensure we gain some edge by preparing properly.

Raskolnikov

therecklessone wrote:

I'd prefer that we concentrated on coaching

Since there was such little evidence of a well-coached senior team yesterday, I don't hold out much hope for the kiddies.

Bateman

IMO it wouldn't be a bad idea to offer Kerr the sun, moon and stars to take his old job back. If he keeps getting knocked back for jobs outside Ireland, he'll consider it.

eirebhoy

A top class manager would have the current bunch of players in contension on the last day of the group. It was taking the biscuit to play Kilbane and Ireland together in bloody training, never mind an actual competitive match.

galwayrush

we have to go back to basics like the Dutch didin the 60's, proper soccer academies . it would mean a few barren years until the first group of kids come of age, but it's the only way for a long term reasonable standard of football.

therecklessone

galwayrush wrote:

we have to go back to basics like the Dutch didin the 60's, proper soccer academies . it would mean a few barren years until the first group of kids come of age, but it's the only way for a long term reasonable standard of football.

Why look back to the 60s?

Clairefontaine

galwayrush

therecklessone wrote:

Why look back to the 60s?

Clairefontaine

that's when the Dutch started their major development plan in soccer, and in the 70's, they managed to get to two world cup finals.

therecklessone

galwayrush wrote:

that's when the Dutch started their major development plan in soccer, and in the 70's, they managed to get to two world cup finals.

I know.

I'm just saying there is a more recent example of youth development in France that we could look to for guidance. Click the link.

galwayrush

therecklessone wrote:

I know.

I'm just saying there is a more recent example of youth development in France that we could look to for guidance. Click the link.

impressive.:cool:

PHB

Gibson, Stokes and McShane could be the future

zAbbo

Oh everyone's the future with you, PHB.

Anyway, in better news the U-19's disposed of Belarus today and have qualified with Holland from a 4 team group in the Uefa U-19's Championship

Sean McCafferey(great coach) who has always worked well with underage teams is doing some good stuff.

Up next is Holland on Wednesday