Lets not make scapegoats for our awful national team

DSB

The problems stretch from the top down. First off you look at the FAI, why did they hire a manager with no managerial experience to take control of the national team. Why don't they market the national league to get more people interested which would be of significant benefit to the national team?

Next up of course is Steve Staunton. He isn't a manager, he is an ex-player who was approached to take a huge role of which he had no capability to do. Of course he wasn't going to turn down this role just like neither me nor you would. He needs to go, as he has no tactical awareness or the ability to pick the right players in the right team. But in the end he didn't appoint himself and he didn't give himself a 4 year contract.

Then we have the players. I don't care who your manager is, whether its Jose Mourinho, Steve Staunton or ****ing Bill 'let me play the devil's advocate' Herlihy. Those players get expert training week in week out at their clubs and if they can't beat that Cypriot team regardless, and can only beat San Marino with an injury time goal, then theres something seriously wrong. These players aren't children that need to be mollycoddled by their manager. Of course when we're playing decent teams like Germany and Czech Republic, we need to be well prepared for an intense tactical battle where 1 mistake could turn the game. But we're talking here about 11 well-paid top professional players who can't pull together a half-decent performance. Go on about Germany all you like, but our result was put in perspective by their 3-0 hammering by Czech Republic in Germany last night.

Then we have the fans. As a general rule, our nation of fans have to be the most fairweather around. What other national team in the world can you think of that have no players in the squad that were still playing in their domestic league when they reached adulthood. Of course it is a natural progression for players to be snapped up by bigger clubs when they have proven themselves, but when players feel they have to go abroad at 15/16 to have any chance of a career there is something seriously wrong. We can't continue to rely on English clubs to turn our players into the quality required and it is certainly difficult for young lads to settle over in England away from their family and friends, and alot end up giving up and coming home. Now considering that Eircom League players don't get a lookin really, this leaves us with a pool of about 50 players that have any chance of playing for the country. A sizeable proportion of these are rubbish, but this is always going to be the case when we've only 50 to choose from. Sure England have about 250 from their topflight alone. When players drop form, we don't have the players to challenge them for their place. This is why players like Robbie Keane can go out week in, week out for Ireland, play below-par and stay in the team. You wouldn't get away with it in most nations as Frank Lampard quickly found out.

Now I'm a Villa fan, and I wouldn't for a minute criticise anyone for supporting foreign clubs. But when you have Irish fans who wouldn't dare attend games of their local clubs there is something seriously wrong. In England, if you live in Doncaster, generally you'll support Doncaster and not Man United, Celtic or Liverpool. In Ireland, we ignore our local clubs to support clubs that some of us will see in the flesh maybe once or twice in the lifetime. Its nice to watch players of the class of Ronaldo etc. but if we really consider ourselves football fans we're going to want to watch it in the flesh sometime. Is the standard of football in Ireland really that much worse than that in the lower tiers of the English league. Yet these are the same people who will jump to criticise when the Irish team fails to perform. But do we really expect Ireland to magic a world class team from thin air?

Make Staunton a scapegoat if you must, and believe me I want him out as much as the next man, but there are problems lying far deeper within this country that need to be addressed before we can ever really compete with the better footballing nations.

Xavi6

DSB wrote: »

Make Staunton a scapegoat if you must, and believe me I want him out as much as the next man, but there are problems lying far deeper within this country that need to be addressed before we can ever really compete with the better footballing nations.

Delaney's the scape goat for me. He chose Staunton knowing Stan had no experience.

DSB

They are both incompetent at their job. But there is definitely way more to it than that.

Mr Alan

Good post, dont agree with it all, but it makes a lot of sense.

I dont expect us to produce a great team from thin air, i expect it to come from the hundreds of kids that are taken to England and coached by some of the most talented people in the game, at clubs with great facilities and heaps of experience in nurturing talent, but maybe i am somewhat naive?

DSB

Mr Alan wrote: »

Good post, dont agree with it all, but it makes a lot of sense.

I dont expect us to produce a great team from thin air, i expect it to come from the hundreds of kids that are taken to England and coached by some of the most talented people in the game, at clubs with great facilities and heaps of experience in nurturing talent, but maybe i am somewhat naive?

But this is us just hoping for luck. And it hasn't happened recently. Look at our squad. Our first team is distinctly average, and underneath that it is pretty weak indeed. We can't afford to have such a small pool to choose from. Not every talented footballer has the maturity at the age of 16/17 to make that journey successfully. We need to be able to nurture players at that age and even onwards, if they choose to make the move to the big European clubs at a later stage thats fine, but it shouldn't be out of having on other real choice.

Mr Alan

See thats where i seem to differ from quite a few people, i think our first team is more than good enough to have qualified from this group. I think with the right manager, we could be an excellent team.

DSB

I'd say we're not too far off from Czech Republic. We could have done alot better thats for sure. But we're certainly not worldbeaters. And unless we can find more players who discover Irish ancestry I don't think we'll ever get to a level where we're comfortably qualifying for international competitions. It was 8 years since we reached an international competition when we made World Cup 2002, and we'll be lucky if we match that this time around.

PHB

This is the thing, I don't think we've a bad squad. I don't expect magic. I just want competency. It's not a huge amount to ask.

leninbenjamin

the entire headquarters of the FAI should be blown up while the board is in session. there will be no public warnings...

DSB

Lets search for competency from the top down though, this should include our national league as it is a potentially brilliant breeding ground for the national squad. As long as the majority of people stay disinterested then it can't serve that purpose.