MonKeano’s work in progress will need a character injection

Dots1982

Wrote this in my blog https://veryintobloggingveryintonewmedia.wordpress.com/. Hope you enjoy & give your opinion if you have one.

Ireland’s European championship campaign kicked off last weekend with the average supporter’s disposition being one of indifference tinged with goodwill. The fact there was this indifference has something to do with Georgia away being the first match of the campaign. Incidentally the last time Ireland started a campaign for a major championship with a game at home, Steve Staunton was the manager and Croke Park was the venue. Leaving aside Georgia away being perhaps the least glamorous fixture of the whole campaign, there were plenty of other obvious reasons for the lack of hype around the kick-off of this campaign. The hurling final was the big weekend sports story and winning two of eight friendly games in the lead up to this game was never going to get fans’ interest piqued.

There are I feel more subtle reasons why interest in the Irish Football team is waning. The indifferent attitude of fans is different now to when Trappatoni was involved. Trappatoni provoked the ire of the average fan by his refusal for most of his tenure to pick the latest poster boy of Irish fans. Trap went through tiresome press conferences where he was asked to explain why Andy Reid, James McCarthy, James McClean, Seamus Coleman, Shane Long etc etc were not getting picked. Things are different for the time being. Fans are more of the mind that they don’t even know how they would go about picking a team from the players available and are happy to let Martin O’Neill get on with the job he’s paid to do. The normal Irish football journalists, Eamon Dunphy apart, are reflecting the fans’ apathy by busying themselves reporting press conferences, training updates, Shay Given’s return and the blossoming Jack Grealish and Mark Noble sagas. Instead of stoking fans passions and pushing agendas as was their normal procedure during the Trap days, there now seems to be a vacuum that they are trying to fill with stories that will be forgotten once the squad, the team, and the group takes shape. Hopefully the results go well and this honeymoon period lasts for a while but there are plenty of reasons to doubt that they will.

The main argument being had most frequently amongst Ireland’s fans and the media is at what level are our players at compared to that of our rivals. Opinions abound as they normally do when a question is posed with nothing approaching a definitive answer. Germany had barely lifted the world cup in the summer when one E. Dunphy, from a RTE studio in Donnybrook, proclaimed that the World Cup was a sign to Ireland that there was nothing for them to fear from taking on other countries perceived as better than themselves. Liam Brady on the other hand has recently given an extremely rare newspaper interview to the Examiner ( http://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/soccer/brady-says-lack-of-young-irish-talent-emerging-scary-278843.html ) lamenting that Ireland’s football producing assembly line was undergoing a dramatic and potentially disastrous fall-off. Link to the full article here for those of you interested http://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/soccer/liam-brady-interview-the-kid-that-had-it-all-278965.html. It’s damn good.

The arguments continue about the merits of our players but there is little outstanding from our group in terms of the clubs they play for, the transfer fees they demand or their general reputation within the game. Without being able to rely on hard facts you have to look at the players both individually and collectively and compare them to previous squads we’ve had. Roughly we seem to have a wider base of players now but there are very few elite players while before we always had a few. The absence of elite players is normally compensated, as we saw with Greece and Costa Rica in the World Cup or even to an extent Atletico Madrid in La Liga and the CL, by strong characters with a determined mentality. When our present group of players are put under the microscope in terms of their character & ability to take responsibility on themselves that is when the issues facing MonKeano begin to crystallise.

In the last decade or more, apart from the disastrous Staunton period and the last pitiful days of the Trap era, following Ireland has been extremely predictable. We drew with teams around our level, whether slightly better or slightly worse than us, and usually beat the bottom two seeds home and away. A lot of this predictability was built on the players that successive managers trusted because they were dependable. Not dependable to be match winners but dependable to be competitive, do their jobs well and not shy away from their responsibilities. In that decade we claimed no glorious wins over big scalps but apart from the periods mentioned we were never humiliated either. I basically knew for a fact that against any opposition we faced in that period that if Shay Given, Richard Dunne and Damien Duff were fit and well we would achieve at least an acceptable result. This certainty gives great comfort to managers and Trap drew on these player’s virtues and saw them as the cornerstone of his team. He added players like Glenn Whelan, Sean St Ledger, Stephen Kelly, Darren O’Dea, Paul McShane, Stephen Ward, Keith Andrews, Kevin Doyle to the mix. They had the same personality virtues as the three marquees players but were a little less gifted at their job. They were there because they could be depended on to be depended on. While Glenn Whelan & co blended into the background. Robbie Keane and Aidan Mcgeady were the wildcards. There to provide the creative spark in McGeady’s case or the finishing ability in Robbie’s case. They weren’t as dependable as the others but they had magic in their armoury and even an ultimate pragmatist such as Trap knew Ireland couldn’t nil-all their passage to a major championships.

Trap didn’t get much thanks for it but he got a huge salary and what he provided for that was a team with purpose and confidence. Not confidence in the way good teams have confidence, such as adopting a swagger on the pitch, but confidence in being able to do the simple things correctly almost every time and never considering doing the difficult risky things. Ireland and Trap basically said you won’t outwork us or out-organise us so if you think you can outscore us then go and try your best.

Trap achieved acceptable results in an extremely unaesthetic way by building a team based on reliable people firstly and good footballers secondly. Would Trap take the job now if he was offered it would be interesting to know? If he did would he have picked a team that different from O’Neill did for the Georgia game? The job facing MonKeano is greater than that facing Trap. When you go through the players at MonKeano’s disposal, the players of “officer class” that Trap so valued do not jump out. John O’Shea is the closest thing I can get to a Trap style player. Glenn Whelan is still there or thereabouts as well. The rest have yet to distinguish themselves as being leaders or dependable in the way necessary. James McCarthy, Marc Wilson, Seamus Coleman, Aidan McGeady, Shane Long, David Meyler and James McClean are all aged between 23 and 28. The age where established players should be maturing to their best. They have the confidence drawn from the knowledge that they have “made it” in the game and it’s up to them to determine how much the fire burns inside of them to excel at their envied profession or choose to slip into a comfort zone that a four year contract on high 6 figures or 7 figures salaries indulge.

The relationship that develops between these players and their manager is going to be interesting to observe. O’Neill has managed Leicester City, Celtic, Aston Villa and Sunderland in his top flight career. He would have got a very respected reputation as a player’s manager. Many senior players that were managed by him up to fifteen years ago would speak very highly of him still. It takes a special man to engender that respect in the no-bull**** yet mickey taking environs of dressing rooms of English & Scottish football clubs. When you think of his time with Leicester you think of the players he managed; Matty Elliot, Steve Walsh, Robbie Savage, Neil Lennon, Emile Heskey, Muzzy Izzet. At Celtic you thought of Lennon again, Paul Lambert, Alan Thompson, Bobo Balde, Jackie McNamara, Stilian Petrov, Chris Sutton, Alan Stubbs, John Hartson and Henrik Larsson. At Aston Villa he had Gareth Barry, Martin Laursen, Brad Friedel, Petrov again and John Carew. These players were “proper footballers” with something to prove that Trap would have loved and Martin O’Neill got the best out of because he showed himself as a manager who “proper footballers” loved to work with.

My doubts as to whether the characters of Ireland’s mid-twenties players can live up to the list of “proper footballers” above is based slightly around their younger age and slightly around doubts as to the testicular fortitude of Ireland’s Wolfpack. Much rests on the shoulders of James McCarthy who is expected to do more for Ireland then he is for his club since Everton have other players to do the attacking young James can protect the back four, make tackles and give 5-10 yard passes to his heart’s content. With Ireland he is playing beside Ireland’s best talker but worst international footballer, Glenn Whelan, so there is an onus on him to be more of a threat to the opposition. Whether McCarthy previously described as “shy” by Trappatoni will be up to the job in terms of both his personality and playing ability is one of the interesting subplots that will develop in this qualifying campaign. If McCarthy proves up to the job it could prove vital to getting the other 20 something cogs of the team working. Trap’s unwillingness to change from the tried and tested players to less experienced but more talented players means Ireland’s 20 somethings are less experienced than you would normally expect them to be at their age but they are all around the 20 cap mark (the mark most players say they feel at home at international level) with the exception of Dave Meyler.

Of course if an Irish sports dictionary existed and you looked up testicular fortitude and strength of character then a picture of Roy Keane snarling with his black beady eyes would likely greet you. Is a man who had these character traits from a young age the best man to transmit them to our callow youngsters? It’s debateable whether a supremely intense individual who has, shall we say, a low tolerance threshold to those who don’t reach his standards of personal ambition will be an effective life coach to those in our team who most require a bit of that dogmatic mentality within their own mind-set. We shall see if Roy can pass this on. It is his most important non-training ground responsibility with both the Irish job and the Villa job given the amount of unmoulded youth there are in both teams. If Roy can foster our young colts into becoming thoroughbreds he will have done his country his biggest service since he stopped pulling on the no.6 jersey. It would also develop him into the more rounded human being he needs to become if he is ever to make a real go of this managing lark. I have my doubts if he will be up to the job however.

There’s no doubt going on Martin O’Neill’s previous form that he would have liked to have the likes of Richard Dunne available as he has proved this is the class & age of player that he consistently gets the most out of. He needs to tap into the skills he used to motivate Ashley Young & Stewart Downing to becoming elite players in the Premier League for his present role. Of course how he can do this without having daily access to his players is another concern. He will hopefully see his players a lot between international fixtures and build a relationship with them over the phone and seeing them at whatever ground they are playing at. Given that Trap was something of a weekend father perhaps O’Neill can get the appropriate response from the players through a more holistic approach.

In summary, it is probably fair to say that O’Neill and Keane are not going to bring a huge amount of tactical innovation to the role, it’s not historically either’s strength as a manager. O’Neill’s strength is his ability to be head doctor and rejuvenate players who are getting to the stage where they may be considered damaged goods or “past it”. He has managed to get sometimes miraculous performances from these type of players. O’Neill’s challenge with this group of players is more to develop their personalities & mentalities so that they mature into players confident to lead like the “proper footballers” that so enjoyed working with O’Neill in previous jobs. Whether the players or the management team prove up to the job & in the process prove Trap wrong is something we are going to just have to wait and see.

Lovely Bloke

MonKeano?

Cringe.

Dots1982

Baldy Conscience wrote: »

MonKeano?

Cringe.

Its not like I coined the phrase. Its in reasonably popular usage.

Neil3030

Baldy Conscience wrote: »

MonKeano?

Cringe.

A hearty congratulations on reaching the end of the first word in the post before passing judgement.

briany

Nobody's asking O'Neill to overhaul the squad or the way they play. I think we're all hoping that he can add another dimension to the team's game though, another gear. Organisation and defensive discipline are great qualities but if you find yourself down in a game, you need to go and attack it, you need to have that gear because at that point playing the same tactics and hoping for a lucky knockdown aren't going to cut it. I wouldn't really want Ireland to be playing open expansive football all the time, because I think they'd be cut open too often. Watching Irish players trying to control the ball the way their European counterparts do with such ease is painful at times, but there are a couple of players in Ireland's ranks who can make something happen, or at least endeavour to, and they need to be utilized where and when it's possible to do so.

Dots1982

briany wrote: »

Nobody's asking O'Neill to overhaul the squad or the way they play. I think we're all hoping that he can add another dimension to the team's game though, another gear. Organisation and defensive discipline are great qualities but if you find yourself down in a game, you need to go and attack it, you need to have that gear because at that point playing the same tactics and hoping for a lucky knockdown aren't going to cut it. I wouldn't really want Ireland to be playing open expansive football all the time, because I think they'd be cut open too often. Watching Irish players trying to control the ball the way their European counterparts do with such ease is painful at times, but there are a couple of players in Ireland's ranks who can make something happen, or at least endeavour to, and they need to be utilized where and when it's possible to do so.

Fair enough, not really the point my post was arguing to be honest.

JPA

Ain't nobody got time for that.

Dots1982

JPA wrote: »

Ain't nobody got time for that.

Fair enough, it appears you are correct, my blogs are long but they normally provoke a lot of debate when put up on the GAA forum. GAA posters must have more time on their hands or be faster readers.

CSF

Dots1982 wrote: »

Fair enough, it appears you are correct, my blogs are long but they normally provoke a lot of debate when put up on the GAA forum. GAA posters must have more time on their hands or be faster readers.

GAA fans can't read

CSF

Also with the thread title I was definitely expecting to see a Viagra sale

GLaDOS

Not a bad read, some players absolutely need to step it up for Ireland and make their mark. I do think there's not many conclusions to be drawn from a bunch of friendlies and a single competitive game.

MonKeano is a silly term though, don't use it (why even mention the assistant manager?)

Dots1982

ScienceNerd wrote: »

MonKeano is a silly term though, don't use it (why even mention the assistant manager?)

coz the article was partly about him

Dots1982

Dots1982 wrote: »

Fair enough, it appears you are correct, my blogs are long but they normally provoke a lot of debate when put up on the GAA forum. GAA posters must have more time on their hands or be faster readers.

Way to win over a potential audience

TINA1984

Dots1982 wrote: »

Fair enough, it appears you are correct, my blogs are long but they normally provoke a lot of debate when put up on the GAA forum. GAA posters must have more time on their hands or be faster readers.

Being condescending to football fans? you sound like a gah man alright.

eagle eye

I read the whole post and I think that you disagree with yourself in it a couple of times.

The suggestion that Keano won't do a good job needs to be backed up or its pointless saying it.

O'Neill you say did very well and mention players he brought on, then later you say its older players that do best under him.

I think there are too many Trap references and this whole dependable players thing seems nonsense imo.

Sorry to be critical but I think honesty is best.

Dots1982

I read the whole post and I think that you disagree with yourself in it a couple of times. examples?

The suggestion that Keano won't do a good job needs to be backed up or its pointless saying it. OK Fair enough but i didn't say outright he won't do a good job, I express doubts as to whether he has the personality to nurture footballers in their development stage. He's too combustible and basically not good at human relationships. if you need the evidence well he's fallen out with a huge number of people he has worked with. examples: Mick Mccarthy,Niall Quinn, Ellis Short, Dwight Yorke, Alex Ferguson, Teddy Sheringham, Peter Schmeichel, Paul McShane, Damien Delaney, Jonathan Walters, Eamon Dunphy, Kenny Daglish, Anthony Stokes, John Delaney (can't blame him), Jason McAteer, Steve Staunton. As I alluded to in the piece if he continues this approach with people his role will be a failure. If he has learned from it, it may be a success.

O'Neill you say did very well and mention players he brought on, then later you say its older players that do best under him. Older and seasoned pros done best under O'Neill. I would say our players are less seasoned than the players I mentioned in general. Neil Lennon may not have been old when O'Neill first managed him but he was a mature player from a young age and could always fight his corner. James McCarthy on the other hand has been called "shy" and a lot of our present internationals I would consider insular and are not strong personalities. The likes of Matty Elliot, Steve Walsh, Lambert, Stubbs, Sutton, Hartson, McNamara, Laursen, Friedel, Larsson, Carew were all much older the average age of the Irish squad when O'Neill managed them. The point seems clear to me so no sure what holes you are picking with it.

I think there are too many Trap references ok, I done this deliberately as he was a polarising figure and an interesting one in terms of his view of our players, he managed the country for 5 years recently so i thought his outlook was relevant and this whole dependable players thing seems nonsense imo. Dependable players being nonsense?? I don't know what to make of that. You think the reason Charles N'zogbia or Ben Arfa turned out the way they have done and John Terry or Antonio Valencia turned out the way they have is due to skill alone? I don't mean to put words in your mouth but what specifically is your point about the dependability of players not mattering as it is a strange viewpoint at odds with how the likes of Gary Neville or any other respected pundit would view the game.

Sorry to be critical but I think honesty is best. It is but I think your points are guilty of the exact thing you accused me of; not backing your comments up.

ceegee

So Paul McShane is dependable and Glenn Whelan is Irelands worst player?


Right.

eagle eye

ceegee wrote: »

So Paul McShane is dependable and Glenn Whelan is Irelands worst player?


Right.

And all our younger players in the Premier league are very fragile, thats why they have made it as far as they have so far.

Dots1982

ceegee wrote: »

So Paul McShane is dependable and Glenn Whelan is Irelands worst player?


Right.

Trap picked him. Trap only picked dependable players apart from Robbie & McGeady. Andy Reid would know about this. I think whatever we might have thought Trap rated McShane enough to go out on a limb to include him in the 2012 squad. I never said I thought McShane was dependable.

I called Glenn Whelan our worst footballer. Sorry that was my opinion and thinking about it Stephen Ward is worst. I never said Whelan was our worst player. There's a difference.

Dots1982

eagle eye wrote: »

And all our younger players in the Premier league are very fragile, thats why they have made it as far as they have so far.

Weak snidey reply. Plenty for you to address on the reply I sent you.

eagle eye

Dots1982 wrote: »

Weak snidey reply. Plenty for you to address on the reply I sent you.

If you can't find where you disagreed with yourself its pointless me even responding to you.

You shouldn't use bold when responding btw, its not very nice to read.

Soups123

I read it twice because I didn't get the point of it the first time, didn't really get the gist of it in the second read, no disrespect intended at all.

Not sure what the purpose of the post is and/or what points you are looking for opinion on!

I think you under rate O'Neill a lot or maybe weren't close to his work when at Leicester Villa & Celtic, at times he was great with young and old players, his Villa team very different to his Celtic team in approach.

The biggest struggle for me O'Neill has is how he copes without John Robertson who he has struggled to manage without

eagle eye

Dots1982 wrote: »

Trap picked him. Trap only picked dependable players apart from Robbie & McGeady. Andy Reid would know about this. I think whatever we might have thought Trap rated McShane enough to go out on a limb to include him in the 2012 squad. I never said I thought McShane was dependable.

I called Glenn Whelan our worst footballer. Sorry that was my opinion and thinking about it Stephen Ward is worst. I never said Whelan was our worst player. There's a difference.

Dots1982 wrote: »

With Ireland he is playing beside Ireland’s best talker but worst international footballer, Glenn Whelan,

:rolleyes:

Dots1982

If you can't find where you disagreed with yourself its pointless me even responding to you.

You are correct. If you're going to make a point without backing it up with examples it was pointless making the point in the first place.

keeponhurling

ScienceNerd wrote: »

MonKeano is a silly term though, don't use it (why even mention the assistant manager?)

First thing that came into my head was mankini

Dots1982

eagle eye wrote: »

:rolleyes:

Tis amazing to get the opportunity to spar with a wordsmith such as yourself.

Dots1982

Soups123 wrote: »

I read it twice because I didn't get the point of it the first time, didn't really get the gist of it in the second read, no disrespect intended at all.

Not sure what the purpose of the post is and/or what points you are looking for opinion on!

I think you under rate O'Neill a lot or maybe weren't close to his work when at Leicester Villa & Celtic, at times he was great with young and old players, his Villa team very different to his Celtic team in approach.

The biggest struggle for me O'Neill has is how he copes without John Robertson who he has struggled to manage without

Points were basically that

- O'Neill was best when he managed experienced streetwise players
- O'Neill would love to have Richard Dunne to call upon
- Our players currently lack character IMO and Martin & Roy biggest challenge is instilling this.
- The polar opposite opinions on the strength of our players from fans and the media
- The importance of James McCarthy and how he needs to be more to Ireland than he currently is

ceegee

Dots1982 wrote: »

Trap picked him. Trap only picked dependable players apart from Robbie & McGeady. Andy Reid would know about this. I think whatever we might have thought Trap rated McShane enough to go out on a limb to include him in the 2012 squad. I never said I thought McShane was dependable.

I called Glenn Whelan our worst footballer. Sorry that was my opinion and thinking about it Stephen Ward is worst. I never said Whelan was our worst player. There's a difference.

So Whelan is a worse footballer than McShane or Green?

Dots1982

ceegee wrote: »

So Whelan is a worse footballer than McShane or Green?

No. Neither are currently part of the Irish squad & it was players getting picked that I meant. Should have clarified in the piece.

Soups123

Dots1982 wrote: »

Points were basically that

- O'Neill was best when he managed experienced streetwise players
- O'Neill would love to have Richard Dunne to call upon
- Our players currently lack character IMO and Martin & Roy biggest challenge is instilling this.
- The polar opposite opinions on the strength of our players from fans and the media
- The importance of James McCarthy and how he needs to be more to Ireland than he currently is

O'Neill has always managed a mixed bag, Leicester it was the underdog approach with a lot of emerging talent, Celtic he built around strenght and gile, he had big strong bruts with a couple of silky players thrown in. With Villa he spent a lot and built a strong fast counter attacking team with an excellent supplement of youth.

Agree RD would be right up his street, I wouldn't be surprised to see him convinced back in.

The character of most of the 'olden day ' players doesn't exist any more or is quite rare. I think we are lacking in leaders though and not just a captain, players like Dunne.

I think a lot of fans struggle to get there expectation right and it leads to the varying opinion of the squad and players, was very evident this week in the match thread and ireland thread.

James McCarthy needs to push on for sure, he just doesn't seen to have settled yet or found his purpose in the squad, he badly needs a consistent partner of decent quality in centre mid

Dots1982

Soups123 wrote: »

O'Neill has always managed a mixed bag, Leicester it was the underdog approach with a lot of emerging talent, Celtic he built around strenght and gile, he had big strong bruts with a couple of silky players thrown in. With Villa he spent a lot and built a strong fast counter attacking team with an excellent supplement of youth.

Agree RD would be right up his street, I wouldn't be surprised to see him convinced back in.

The character of most of the 'olden day ' players doesn't exist any more or is quite rare. I think we are lacking in leaders though and not just a captain, players like Dunne.

I think a lot of fans struggle to get there expectation right and it leads to the varying opinion of the squad and players, was very evident this week in the match thread and ireland thread.

James McCarthy needs to push on for sure, he just doesn't seen to have settled yet or found his purpose in the squad, he badly needs a consistent partner of decent quality in centre mid

I think we agree on pretty much everything. Would concede your right on there being more to MoN than just wanting to manage old seadogs.

eagle eye

Dots1982 wrote: »

Tis amazing to get the opportunity to spar with a wordsmith such as yourself.

I told you that you disagreed with yourself in your 'piece', then you state categorically that you did not call Glen Whelan our worst player and I showed you that you did.

You are unable to take criticism of any sort. You come across like a very young person unwilling to take heed and improve. If you don't improve then nobody will be interested in reading what you have to say. ]

Do yourself a favour and take note of what people, who took the time to read what you wrote, have to say about it and get better at it.

You have no real point to your post, its just a bit of a ramble and it crosses back on itself like I said earlier. You have false information in it too where you say that most of the players in their mid-twenties have very few caps. I don't know where you are getting this from,

McCarthy has 24 caps at 23 years of age, Ward and Coleman have something similar, O'Shea obviously is not a young player and has loads of caps as has Forde, McGeady has lots of caps too as has Robbie Keane and John Walters has been around a while too. So that leaves three players that started the last game, Marc Wilson has 17 caps and but for a broken leg and a couple of other injuries he would have a lot more by now, Robbie Brady is only 22 and just when he looked like becoming a starter for his country he had a horrible injury-riddled season where he only played 11 times for his club. And that leaves us with Quinn who was a promising young player but fell off the face of the earth with his former club Sheffield United. He was playing in league one so he is unlikely to be considered for International duty and O'Neill has given him a chance even though he is not playing regularly at Hull and it looks like its a good call.

I wouldn't call this an inexperienced bunch.

If you cannot take a bit of criticism you have come to the wrong forum.

kevinroche3333

I would agree that your blog does seem a little aimless at times, or that you made your points in a roundabout kind of way.
Your comment about Whelan being Irelands worst player is cringeworthy, cheap throwaway comments like that are not helpful.
I liked reading your post and would read another again sometime, especially if it is a little sharper and more factual.

Dots1982

eagle eye wrote: »

I told you that you disagreed with yourself in your 'piece', then you state categorically that you did not call Glen Whelan our worst player and I showed you that you did.

You are unable to take criticism of any sort. You come across like a very young person unwilling to take heed and improve. If you don't improve then nobody will be interested in reading what you have to say. ]

Do yourself a favour and take note of what people, who took the time to read what you wrote, have to say about it and get better at it.

You have no real point to your post, its just a bit of a ramble and it crosses back on itself like I said earlier. You have false information in it too where you say that most of the players in their mid-twenties have very few caps. I don't know where you are getting this from,

McCarthy has 24 caps at 23 years of age, Ward and Coleman have something similar, O'Shea obviously is not a young player and has loads of caps as has Forde, McGeady has lots of caps too as has Robbie Keane and John Walters has been around a while too. So that leaves three players that started the last game, Marc Wilson has 17 caps and but for a broken leg and a couple of other injuries he would have a lot more by now, Robbie Brady is only 22 and just when he looked like becoming a starter for his country he had a horrible injury-riddled season where he only played 11 times for his club. And that leaves us with Quinn who was a promising young player but fell off the face of the earth with his former club Sheffield United. He was playing in league one so he is unlikely to be considered for International duty and O'Neill has given him a chance even though he is not playing regularly at Hull and it looks like its a good call.

I wouldn't call this an inexperienced bunch.

If you cannot take a bit of criticism you have come to the wrong forum.

I would prefer the criticism to be constructive & backed up. Also being completely negative is not a good way to criticise but not to worry.

I was annoyed because when I asked you to point out where I disagree with myself you said
"If you can't find where you disagreed with yourself its pointless me even responding to you"

I'm not writing stuff deliberately to disagree with myself so if that's an accusation you're making you should back it up as I'm completely in the dark.

The points of the post were


- O'Neill was best when he managed experienced streetwise players
- O'Neill would love to have Richard Dunne to call upon
- Our players currently lack character IMO and Martin & Roy biggest challenge is instilling this.
- The polar opposite opinions on the strength of our players from fans and the media
- The importance of James McCarthy and how he needs to be more to Ireland than he currently is

Dots1982

kevinroche3333 wrote: »

I would agree that your blog does seem a little aimless at times, or that you made your points in a roundabout kind of way.
Your comment about Whelan being Irelands worst player is cringeworthy, cheap throwaway comments like that are not helpful.
I liked reading your post and would read another again sometime, especially if it is a little sharper and more factual.

Yeah what I said on whelan was badly expressed & out of place in the post.