Off The Ball Official Thread <Mod Note - Post #1, #533, #6651>

Billy Ocean

Did you smash it wrote: »

Id have to listen to the piece but not much toxic media coverage of Kenny’s reign I’d have thought. Certainly there has been going to around 1990 from Dunphy through to Dion Fanning.

Dunphy basically made a writing and broadcasting career out of putting targets on manager’s back so I wouldn’t say recent times.

its the matters that Seamus Coleman brought up in his pre match press conference that I'm referring too, basically straight up lies were told in the print media about him been unhappy etc.

Did you smash it

Billy Ocean wrote: »

its the matters that Seamus Coleman brought up in his pre match press conference that I'm referring too, basically straight up lies were told in the print media about him been unhappy etc.

Oh right. I focused on the “toxic” thing rather than out right lies. Sunday Indo couldn’t stand by their Robbie Keane article at the weekend either. Claudine claimed there were issues with inaccuracies in that article.

Overall I don’t know if there are commonly issues with lying in Irish sports media (beyond joe brolly’s tall tales) but there is issues with toxicity IMO.

Billy Ocean

Did you smash it wrote: »

Oh right. I focused on the “toxic” thing rather than out right lies. Sunday Indo couldn’t stand by their Robbie Keane article at the weekend either. Claudine claimed there were issues with inaccuracies in that article.

having Eamon Sweeney as 1 of their contributors isn't a good starting point for that publication, don't think he's linked to that article in fairness.

Tell me how

Did you smash it wrote: »

Oh right. I focused on the “toxic” thing rather than out right lies. Sunday Indo couldn’t stand by their Robbie Keane article at the weekend either. Claudine claimed there were issues with inaccuracies in that article.

Overall I don’t know if there are commonly issues with lying in Irish sports media (beyond joe brolly’s tall tales) but there is issues with toxicity IMO.

Saw CJ Stander's wife having a swipe at media as well in relation to him retiring from Irish rugby.
It was a piece from, possibly Neil Francis iirc, suggesting that he will be playing in SA within a year.

Seemed a fairly reasonable suggestion to be making even if it doesn't come to pass. Media are probably under pressure to turn any whiff or potential story in to an article and then they get pulled apart if it wasn't all effectively common knowledge already.

fire_man

Any listen to Giles.Had he 12 or 13 in his starting Irish 11!

Felexicon

fire_man wrote: »

Any listen to Giles.Had he 12 or 13 in his starting Irish 11!

What an outrage!!

cms88

fire_man wrote: »

Any listen to Giles.Had he 12 or 13 in his starting Irish 11!

Could do with a few extra to be fair

Did you smash it

Not everybody will agree but the speech John Duggan made today about Irish fans wanting attractive football over qualifying for tournaments will be proven to be nonsense.

generalgerry

Did you smash it wrote: »

Not everybody will agree but the speech John Duggan made today about Irish fans wanting attractive football over qualifying for tournaments will be proven to be nonsense.

Seems like they can expect neither!

I do feel sorry for Stephen Kenny though, if ever there was an unlucky general.

nialler1978

Is Kenny Cunningham now some RTÉ hack who wants a permanent role in the endless money trove and cash cow that RTÉ is? Because that was the most embarrassing and shameless post match analysis I have ever heard. Seamus Coleman our captain called it to be as much yet Kenny Cunningham beforehand stood there in his RTÉ jacket and paid respect to Luxembourg, who admittedly deserved to win but, ireland should not be losing games against Luxembourg. RTÉ YAY here I come.

Did you smash it

generalgerry wrote: »

Seems like they can expect neither!

I do feel sorry for Stephen Kenny though, if ever there was an unlucky general.

Depends on your understanding of luck. He makes 550k a year.

nialler1978

nialler1978 wrote: »

Is Kenny Cunningham now some RTÉ hack who wants a permanent role in the endless money trove and cash cow that RTÉ is? Because that was the most embarrassing and shameless post match analysis I have ever heard. Seamus Coleman our captain called it to be as much yet Kenny Cunningham beforehand stood there in his RTÉ jacket and paid respect to Luxembourg, who admittedly deserved to win but, ireland should not be losing games against Luxembourg. RTÉ YAY here I come.

I do think the fact that Luxembourg are way better than any of the minnow teams is a point worth making. They played well and have some good players. They are not a bunch of semi pros that were cobbled together - they have been following a model for years and have been making steady progress. But that's not a point Joe Public wants to hear.

All that being said, there is no excuse for losing to them at home, many of the senior players that have not worked with Kenny before will have lost all faith, and I have a feeling that Kenny will pay the price.

gormdubhgorm

Deleted User wrote: »

I do think the fact that Luxembourg are way better than any of the minnow teams is a point worth making. They played well and have some good players. They are not a bunch of semi pros that were cobbled together - they have been following a model for years and have been making steady progress. But that's not a point Joe Public wants to hear.

All that being said, there is no excuse for losing to them at home, many of the senior players that have not worked with Kenny before will have lost all faith, and I have a feeling that Kenny will pay the price.

Stuey Byrne had questions about the way the players approached it not even switching play.

Luxembourg are definitely on the up now drawn with France three years ago. Beating and drawing with Azerbaijan. Beating Cyprus.

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/international/luxembourg-s-emphatic-rise-has-created-an-unforeseen-problem-1.4521217?fbclid=IwAR0Yuc0FgzfheIrgjxGpM4TfNWYHqnZJj5SHSlGThvZkhxXscQnSKZcMbLE

I would go as far to say that Ireland should be sending FAI development people over to Luxembourg to see how they set up their centre of excellence etc.

I’d be interested in hearing more about what they actually did. I had presumed they were doing the mercenary model like some of the gulf teams, but it was mentioned last night that they have an actual model for their own players along the lines of Iceland.

gormdubhgorm

ReginaldSmythV wrote: »

I’d be interested in hearing more about what they actually did. I had presumed they were doing the mercenary model like some of the gulf teams, but it was mentioned last night that they have an actual model for their own players along the lines of Iceland.

A fella from Luxembourg called Ben was on the 'Green Machine' Podcast.

https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR...MmIxZGZh?ep=14

@14.54 mins

Also Irish Times did an article on Luxembourg football

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/international/luxembourg-s-emphatic-rise-has-created-an-unforeseen-problem-1.4521217?fbclid=IwAR0Yuc0FgzfheIrgjxGpM4TfNWYHqnZJj5SHSlGThvZkhxXscQnSKZcMbLE

Cheers.

Felexicon

Very enjoyable piece on right before Off The Ball started today.
Was a guy on talking about the history of football stadium architecture in UK and Ireland.
Worth digging out if you've any interest

Felexicon

Felexicon wrote: »

Very enjoyable piece on right before Off The Ball started today.
Was a guy on talking about the history of football stadium architecture in UK and Ireland.
Worth digging out if you've any interest

Would like to hear that. Would it be under Newstalk stuff?

Felexicon

ReginaldSmythV wrote: »

Would like to hear that. Would it be under Newstalk stuff?

It was the end of On the Record with Gavin Reilly.
Just checked there and you can get the podcast on Spotify.
It's under Hidden History: Archibald Leitch

Felexicon

Felexicon wrote: »

It was the end of On the Record with Gavin Reilly.
Just checked there and you can get the podcast on Spotify.
It's under Hidden History: Archibald Leitch

I’ve that one subscribed and all. Cheers.

jam17032010

nialler1978 wrote: »

Is Kenny Cunningham now some RTÉ hack who wants a permanent role in the endless money trove and cash cow that RTÉ is? Because that was the most embarrassing and shameless post match analysis I have ever heard. Seamus Coleman our captain called it to be as much yet Kenny Cunningham beforehand stood there in his RTÉ jacket and paid respect to Luxembourg, who admittedly deserved to win but, ireland should not be losing games against Luxembourg. RTÉ YAY here I come.

I thought Cunningham was on the ball myself. Luxembourg were much more than a team of postmen, plumbers etc. They are all full time professionals who actually showed much better technical ability and football intelligence than our guys for a lot of that game.

Talk of "embarrassing result" is ott IMO. The sad reality is, this is our level given the quality of players we have.

rrs

The friendly against Qatar could be another slog. They seem to on the rise,won the Asian Cup in 2019 beating Japan. They beat Azerbaijan and Luxembourg in the last week.

Billy Ocean

jam17032010 wrote: »

I thought Cunningham was on the ball myself. Luxembourg were much more than a team of postmen, plumbers etc. They are all full time professionals who actually showed much better technical ability and football intelligence than our guys for a lot of that game.

Talk of "embarrassing result" is ott IMO. The sad reality is, this is our level given the quality of players we have.

exactly, I'd think of them on the level of someone like Cyprus, read today sense we won in Vienna in 2016 we've 5 competitive wins in 29 games, shows our current level.

RINO87

rrs wrote: »

The friendly against Qatar could be another slog. They seem to on the rise,won the Asian Cup in 2019 beating Japan. They beat Azerbaijan and Luxembourg in the last week.

Felexicon wrote: »

It was the end of On the Record with Gavin Reilly.
Just checked there and you can get the podcast on Spotify.
It's under Hidden History: Archibald Leitch

Excellent, I must check this out. I've heard it mentioned before that the Tramway Terrace in Dalymount was one of the last surviving examples of his design, and because of this should be preserved - did this come up at all?

Trouble is, i dont think Bohs even own the Tramway end anymore.

Felexicon

RINO87 wrote: »

Excellent, I must check this out. I've heard it mentioned before that the Tramway Terrace in Dalymount was one of the last surviving examples of his design, and because of this should be preserved - did this come up at all?

Trouble is, i dont think Bohs even own the Tramway end anymore.

Dalymount gets a decent mention alright

nialler1978

jam17032010 wrote: »

I thought Cunningham was on the ball myself. Luxembourg were much more than a team of postmen, plumbers etc. They are all full time professionals who actually showed much better technical ability and football intelligence than our guys for a lot of that game.

Talk of "embarrassing result" is ott IMO. The sad reality is, this is our level given the quality of players we have.

majority of what I wrote was in a drunken stupor, and I would agree with a lot of what you have said, but I do think Cunningham's post game analysis was dire. Just wanted to heap praise on Lux, tried not to offend, playing the usual RTÉ role and he's probably looking for a regular gig there.

Luxembourg deserved credit but we deserved to be absolutely slated at the same tim, we were so bad I am fully convinced most if not all LOI teams if they'd played against us on Saturday they would've won or gotten a result out of that performance, Cunningham said nothing, that was my point, the RTÉ jacket on, I want a job.

It was embarrassing, forget about the result, just the performance, Coleman was right, it was embarrassing.

What I don't understand about the whole pro Kenny vs anti-Kenny camps and their argument for or against is that they may actually share common ground in that we have BOTH a sh*t group of players AND a sh*t manager and backroom staff which I suspect is the case. Very bad combination.

nialler1978

nialler1978 wrote: »

majority of what I wrote was in a drunken stupor, and I would agree with a lot of what you have said, but I do think Cunningham's post game analysis was dire. Just wanted to heap praise on Lux, tried not to offend, playing the usual RTÉ role and he's probably looking for a regular gig there.

Luxembourg deserved credit but we deserved to be absolutely slated at the same tim, we were so bad I am fully convinced most if not all LOI teams if they'd played against us on Saturday they would've won or gotten a result out of that performance, Cunningham said nothing, that was my point, the RTÉ jacket on, I want a job.

It was embarrassing, forget about the result, just the performance, Coleman was right, it was embarrassing.

What I don't understand about the whole pro Kenny vs anti-Kenny camps and their argument for or against is that they may actually share common ground in that we have BOTH a sh*t group of players AND a sh*t manager and backroom staff which I suspect is the case. Very bad combination.

You were doing ok until the last part.

We have three of the best coaches in Ireland in the backroom team. Andrews is really highly rated, Barry is the assistant coach at Chelsea and a huge coup to get in, while Dean Kiely is supposed to be brilliant and huge upgrade on Kelly, whom he replaced.

Did you smash it

Deleted User wrote: »

You were doing ok until the last part.

We have three of the best coaches in Ireland in the backroom team. Andrews is really highly rated, Barry is the assistant coach at Chelsea and a huge coup to get in, while Dean Kiely is supposed to be brilliant and huge upgrade on Kelly, whom he replaced.

I’ll be surprised if Keith Andrews goes anywhere much as a coach. He thought Bielsa was “immoral” over spygate FFS.

Ol' Donie

Is the Luxembourg chat gonna make up the football show tonight, or are they doing bits on it earlier, anyone know?

Can't listen for a while yet this evening (although I'm absolutely certain whatever time I turn it on, they'll be talking about rugby. That just seems to happen to me.)

nialler1978

Deleted User wrote: »

You were doing ok until the last part.

We have three of the best coaches in Ireland in the backroom team. Andrews is really highly rated, Barry is the assistant coach at Chelsea and a huge coup to get in, while Dean Kiely is supposed to be brilliant and huge upgrade on Kelly, whom he replaced.

Andrews, nah, I'll have to disagree, good player. In management, backroom or not, highly rated by who? He has zero, and I mean zero experience.

Barry is only there a month, and is hanging on to his job in Chelsea, dual role, doesn't exactly inspire dedication or confidence, more of a nixer.

Kiely, as you say, new addition as well so who knows, great keeper always who didn't get to show his worth because of Givens class...anyway, either way, two things, we don't know how good he is and by the looks of things keepers are the only thing we have going for us so Kiely as keeper coach is the least of our worries.

Look, I wanted this to work, the one thing I have noticed since the outset is Stephen Kenny's total inability to deal with media, he cant really string a sentence together, totally incoherent, again today. Forget about the managerial dressing room role, you need to be able to talk to media, he can't. Like it or not, sadly that is part of the game now where you can get the public behind you as well as the dressing room, he fails miserably at this, he should've been tested on this front before being hired. He is on €540k a year, lets not forget this.

And a few have walked out making various excuses, this is a sh*t show on an, administration, player and management front IMO.

Tell me how

Ol' Donie wrote: »

Is the Luxembourg chat gonna make up the football show tonight, or are they doing bits on it earlier, anyone know?

Can't listen for a while yet this evening (although I'm absolutely certain whatever time I turn it on, they'll be talking about rugby. That just seems to happen to me.)

Suspect it'll get most coverage in the football show. They went in to it in some depth in the newsround earlier. I didn't hear a running order for the show so don't know if they're giving time to it before 9 again.

generalgerry

We won't beat them at soccer, but the Irish can be world class virtue signallers instead.

dmn22

nialler1978 wrote: »

Cunningham said nothing, that was my point, the RTÉ jacket on, I want a job.

Hasn't Kenny Cunningham been working as a pundit for RTE for the last 5 or 6 years???

nialler1978

dmn22 wrote: »

Hasn't Kenny Cunningham been working as a pundit for RTE for the last 5 or 6 years???

😂 no, like what you would call scraps and RTÉ toying with him. I don’t think it’s worth my while explaining more if you don’t understand what a golden ticket some of these ex players see RTÉ as.

Ol' Donie

dmn22 wrote: »

Hasn't Kenny Cunningham been working as a pundit for RTE for the last 5 or 6 years???

I remember him talking about diags back when The Premiership was on RTE on Saturday nights.

Did you smash it

Did you smash it wrote: »

I’ll be surprised if Keith Andrews goes anywhere much as a coach. He thought Bielsa was “immoral” over spygate FFS.

Very insightful.

nialler1978

nialler1978 wrote: »

Andrews, nah, I'll have to disagree, good player. In management, backroom or not, highly rated by who? He has zero, and I mean zero experience.

Barry is only there a month, and is hanging on to his job in Chelsea, dual role, doesn't exactly inspire dedication or confidence, more of a nixer.

Kiely, as you say, new addition as well so who knows, great keeper always who didn't get to show his worth because of Givens class...anyway, either way, two things, we don't know how good he is and by the looks of things keepers are the only thing we have going for us so Kiely as keeper coach is the least of our worries.

Look, I wanted this to work, the one thing I have noticed since the outset is Stephen Kenny's total inability to deal with media, he cant really string a sentence together, totally incoherent, again today. Forget about the managerial dressing room role, you need to be able to talk to media, he can't. Like it or not, sadly that is part of the game now where you can get the public behind you as well as the dressing room, he fails miserably at this, he should've been tested on this front before being hired. He is on €540k a year, lets not forget this.

And a few have walked out making various excuses, this is a sh*t show on an, administration, player and management front IMO.

Andrews is very highly rated within coaching circles here and did brilliant work with the underage teams he managed.

Barry will do a lot of the on-field coaching for Kenny so as long he's there for the training camps he's a huge asset. Got an assistant manager's job at Wigan at 30 and was offered jobs before joining Chelsea. Only member of the backroom team Tuchel kept at Chelsea so that says a lot. Lampard met him at the UEFA Pro Licence course and took him to Chelsea straight away. Hugely popular with Chelsea players.

Kiely has a brilliant reputation and is spoken of very highly by anyone who has worked with him. Big upgrade on Kelly. People think Kiely is a header but I listen to some goalkeeping podcasts and he's always spoken of as one of the best in the
game.

Very good interview with him here: https://www.goalkeepersunion.net/podcast/dean-kiely-podcast/

Did you smash it

Vinny Perth lambasted Ireland tactically this morning.

shockframe

dmn22 wrote: »

Hasn't Kenny Cunningham been working as a pundit for RTE for the last 5 or 6 years???

I reckon he's been working there since about 2005 but I couldn't say for certain at this particular moment in time.

Blanco100

Did you smash it wrote: »

Vinny Perth lambasted Ireland tactically this morning.

Good man Vinny Perth, how the hell he thinks he's well placed to critique things ill never know.

Did you smash it

Declan Lynch brought into waffle away today.

dr.kenneth noisewater

Have many here signed up to Golf Weekly? Was tempted to sign up for this month with the Masters but didn't have time after.

I see they dont share their membership figures like Second Captains and others, interesting to know if many did.

deisedude

dr.kenneth noisewater wrote: »

Have many here signed up to Golf Weekly? Was tempted to sign up for this month with the Masters but didn't have time after.

I see they dont share their membership figures like Second Captains and others, interesting to know if many did.

I haven't made the move, I enjoyed the pod but I would be a very casual golf fan, I don't play the game and really only watch the majors so couldn't justify paying for it when I have other subscriptions too

Felexicon

Richie losing the run of himself at the start of the show tonight.

Joe was less than impressed.

Ol' Donie

Felexicon wrote: »

Richie losing the run of himself at the start of the show tonight.

Joe was less than impressed.

What happened?

Felexicon

Ol' Donie wrote: »

What happened?

He got ovely excited and said "wankered" on national radio at 7:20 in the evening.

Nothing to be offended about but you can see Joe's reaction is just like "ah come on!".

Not sure why they persist with him as part of the Newsround. He just doesn't work in a 3 person setting. Likes the sound of his own voice a bit much for it.

Billy Ocean

Highlight of today's coverage was the comment about Arsenal and Spurs being in the super league was like someone turning up at the Crucible putting 50p on the table and saying I'll have a game.

monstermag

Yesterday evening Richie seemed pretty convinced the super league would go ahead, fast forward to this evening and it's like he's saying the exact opposite, as if he believed it was a dead duck from the beginning. Joe is the only one on the show who said the super league would never get off the ground. He's quite intuitive that way.

Billy Ocean

Not OTB specific but given the shenanigans of recent days its the 1st time I've listened to a decent amount of Talksport clips on YouTube, interesting takes from Simon Jordan who previously i wasn't overly keen on but its interesting to hear the taughts of someone who has worn the trousers when it comes to the ugly world of football administration.

gluppers

Posh Joe is becoming a bit insufferable lately