Republic of Ireland Team 2023/24 [old thread]

~Rebel~

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121668444#Comment_121668444

To be fair, that's not really true. You can look 2 years into his tenure, and see that most of the older guard - who were still in their late 20s early 30s - were still on the periphery with people arguing for their inclusion. But right from the get-go Kenny elevated guys like Cullen, Molumby, Knight, Idah, Parrott etc and started giving them senior competitive starts ahead of guys that under other managers would've still be starting every game (Arter 30, Hendrick 27, McCarthy 29, Long 33, Hourihane 28 etc). He brought in meaningful young competition in a way that simply hadn't been done by the previous lads - Cullen had gotten a few friendlies, but no competition games for instance. And, interestingly, there was plenty of opposition to that on this forum back in 2020, with loads of people saying these names in brackets SHOULD have been starting every game, and not to play the younger lads.

He did plenty wrong, and failed as a manager for us - but we don't need to **** on the couple of decent things he did as well. The next chap will be very thankful that some of those names (and a whole bunch more) have a far greater number of caps and experience under their belts already than they might otherwise have had.

Did you smash it

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121668515#Comment_121668515

Dunno, Kenny singled out McCarthy as an under utilized talent when he got the job. He basically said he was going to build the team around him. Kenny soon realized that that perception of McCarthy was a fantasy: https://www.irishmirror.ie/sport/soccer/stephen-kenny-wants-build-republic-22572260.amp

i don’t think Arter was fit and playing enough for any manager to involve him. Kenny did pull him out of the blue for his first summer training camp but it didn’t go anywhere. Might have cried off injured, not sure.

kenny played Long a few times, he played James Collins a few times, he played Adam Idah a few times. Not sure any other manager would have ignored collins and Idah and just played Long. I don’t think so, Long was way past his best.

hendrick must be one of the most picked players under Kenny after Bazunu. Don’t really see your argument there. Hourihane was picked plenty by Kenny. Right up to 2022. Hourihane I have to say was sadly of the worst players I’ve seen play for Ireland. Gave his all but I just never saw it with the guy.

so…nah..I don’t really see your point of view. He picked young players but he had them there to pick while previous managers didn’t. The fact that Ireland barely produced any young players between 2010-2017 is hugely overlooked by fans and media. It was a grim time.

Did you smash it

In fact I’m pretty sure Arter wasn’t picked in a single mick McCarthy squad. It was Kenny who took him in from the cold or tried to

TokTik

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121667780#Comment_121667780

Who should Mick McCarthy have blooded that Kenny did?

noodler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121668515#Comment_121668515

What do the stats say?

Before we start discussing whether it is automatically a good thing in isolation, how many debuts did Kenny give against Mick, MON or Trap etc?

Did you smash it

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121669348#Comment_121669348

Stupid way of looking at it. Kenny had numbers to blood. The others really didn’t

~Rebel~

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121669348#Comment_121669348

For Mick, Kenny gave out more competitive minutes in his first campaign match than Mick did in his whole tenure. There were a few obvious lads Mick should’ve been looking to integrate, like Cullen and Dara O’Shea neither of whom played a competitive minute under Mick and came straight into Kenny’s team. Egan (not even young) was another weird omission for the most part under Mick too.

The only person Mick brought in was Connolly, giving him a start in his last match. Even there he ignored him at first, but public outcry eventually forced his hand.

McFly85

In recent times, the youngest squad ever named is by Mick McCarthy with an age of 24.7 years - in a friendly with New Zealand.

Hes also named some of the oldest average age squads, 29 years + for qualifiers.

So he had younger players available to him but like the managers before him, only ever really played them in non competitive games, preferring the older players for qualifiers.

So there was never a steady stream of youth and experience, meaning someone would have to come in and do it more significantly, which Kenny did.

Kenny absolutely failed as a senior manager but put in work in giving young players competitive experience, which other managers could have been doing.

While some people are determined to give him no credit for anything I think it’s pretty clear whoever comes in will be at a far better starting point than he was, because of the experience those players now have.

noodler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121669584#Comment_121669584

Mick was brought in for a year tbf.

You might widen the comparison back to MoN or Trap.

I don't actually think it'll. be all that different. They might not all be under 21 darlings the manager previously worked with like Kenny but Trap gave debuts to Whelan, Andrews, Best, both Hunts, David Forde, that's really off the top of my head. There's loads more I can picture but can't quite name.

pjohnson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121668515#Comment_121668515

Dp you mean James McCarthy who barely manages 60 mins a season?

Did you smash it

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121669584#Comment_121669584

The McCarthy team that for any of its faults going forward, was tight at the back. Egan started in the last three games of the campaign. We took 2 points from those games. Egan played in the only game we conceded more than one goal.

the Aaron Connolly who’s still waiting for his first international goal.

Josh Cullen was on loan at Charlton in league one. McCarthy could have played him over whelan for sure but that was the state of play.

TokTik

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121669584#Comment_121669584

Mick should have picked unproven League One Exeter City and Charlton players when trying to qualify for the Euros in Dublin??

Give your head a wobble.

pjohnson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121669584#Comment_121669584

Like even in this post what exactly was Mick meant to do?

You mention Egan (who granted probably should have been ahead of Keogh) and then O'Shea as both needing minutes, yet Duffy was our best defender at that time so how do you get competitive minutes to both Egan and O'Shea without needlessly sacrificing the result.

Ireland isnt Spain/Germany/England where we can rest the entire first XI in a competitive game and know that our second string XI will comfortably win anyway. So we generally have to pick the best team.

I remember someone complaining about Lenihan only having 5 caps in his career because of "previous managers" yet at absolutely no point in his career was Lenihan any closer than 5th or 6th best CB, so why the fúck should he be getting caps anyway.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121669681#Comment_121669681

Indeed ogbene was at exeter wasnt he? What a waste thats been

Did you smash it

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121669709#Comment_121669709

And Egan eventually was ahead of Keogh for the last games of the campaign.

Did you smash it

So it’s going to be carsley. Hill and Cabham get their man.

Father Hernandez

https://twitter.com/reptracker/status/1750475749390156144?s=20

A new era awaits.

Pawwed Rig

Mick was hobbled from day 1. His brief was to qualify for the euros and it was going to be tough to achieve. With that brief there is no scope to be blooding unproven young lads. Kenny was given time and very little expectation in his first 2 campaigns.

Mushy

And the FAI have managed to save on a few months wages by not having him lined up. I'd hope this looked a possibility earlier and so Carsley has been keeping an eye on players

TokTik

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121669721#Comment_121669721

He wasn’t called up while at Exeter though. And wasn’t a wet behind the ears 17/18/19yo when he was called up.

YTM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121670186#Comment_121670186

Hopefully Liam Delap is one of them. There's a possibility he can become ineligible for us if he plays for England's U21s after he turns 21 I read.

Something to do with needing his Irish citizenship sorted before playing for England at underage. He'll become ineligible for us if he plays for their U21s in March otherwise.

LowOdour

A strong midfield is often key to a decent team. Any manager would struggle to do much with the players we have.

Going to be very interesting to see what Carsley does. It's going to be some drop from the talent he has been used to working with.

TheCitizen

If it’s to be Lee Carsley I hope he does well. It’s a novel appointment, he comes in with a clean slate and some impressive success at U21 level in management behind him. I’ll judge him on the performances of his team and most importantly the results which is the way any manager should be judged. He’ll need time and support but the one thing in his favour from the start is the only way is up with this group of players and hopefully he’ll get that new manager bounce to get things going.

Did you smash it

I presume he’ll get a 4 year contract

POKERKING

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121670270#Comment_121670270

He might need to tog out himself at this rate to have any chance of a half decent midfield!

irishguitarlad

With the likes of Coleman and Lennon on the shortlist, I'm quite pleased that they went with Carsley.

Francie Barrett

Happy enough with Carsley, realistically the options available weren't amazing. It's probably a nice time for Carsley to come in as well. The results have been so poor, even the smallest of improvement will make him look good.

YTM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121670463#Comment_121670463

I doubt either were on the shortlist.

Fact Lennon was also the most vocal about wanting the job to me would show the FAI have shown minimal/no interest towards him. He knows this is likely the biggest job he'll get linked with for god knows how long and is trying his best to generate some buzz around his name.

This has probably been the one time the FAI have actually been able to keep something hush hush and all the talk has likely been just paper talk.

Kilbane's article the other day has probably been the first article were I felt yup he knows who the next manager is likely to be. Himself and Carsley are great mates and don't think Kilbane writes that article without having spoken with Carsley first about it.

noodler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121670348#Comment_121670348

I'd be shocked if the new manager gets a contract for more than two years, I'd hope the fair had learned their lesson there

noodler

Where are people hearing Carsley as near confirmes btw?

YTM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121671630#Comment_121671630

Will likely be four years with a break clause after the WC qualifiers Incase that campaign goes to **** like our last campaign.

LuckyLloyd

I'm okay with Carsley:

• former International
• specific experience of the International Management and competition landscape (even if it is at the u21 level)
• won the Euros last summer (albeit with the best collection of players in the competition)
• highly technical coach with up to date qualifications and experience working in very forward thinking environments

The drawbacks are obvious too - very limited experience of senior management, very limited track record succeeding with relatively overmatched players, huge step up in scrutiny / pressure relative to the u21 England team.

This appointment is very much in keeping with the framework of thinking behind Kenny, but hopefully Carsley can carry momentum from actually winning a tournament at u21 level through to the task at hand.

Everyone should be able to get behind this from the off in a way that wouldn't have been possible if Lennon / Keane was appointed. Carsley is a technical coach with a modern football background. Let's hope results improve.

Did you smash it

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121671636#Comment_121671636

Owen Cowzer in the sun, a pretty good source.

Did you smash it

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121671630#Comment_121671630

Nah I think he’ll want the security of a 4 year contract and he’s in a much stronger position than Kenny ever was contractually. Carsley has been the no 1 choice always for the 2 key figures in the FAI. Plus the 4 years gets him to the home euros in 2028 which I’d say is a big carrot for anyone wanting the job.

YTM

See Sam Curtis has signed a three and a half year contract with Sheffield United. Interesting move and they play a formation which would suit him.

Also given they'll be relegated they might end up having to move players on so should see minutes.

LuckyLloyd

Ideally it would be a four year deal, with a conditional break clause built in after the 2026 qualifying process is concluded. And the security comes from those conditional clauses being made very achievable. A straight four year contract doesn't make sense - we don't want to ever have a lame duck period like we had at the end of the Kenny reign.

LowOdour

Wonder will he bring some of the management team with him? Maybe the likes of Cole would stick around to fill Carsley's England role.

Think an experienced head beside him might be good, but maybe scope for brining in Steven Reid, Andy Reid or other young Irish coaches. It will be interesting to see how it pans out.

~Rebel~

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121671761#Comment_121671761

I'm not sure how one avoids that end of campaign 'lame duck' period? Kenny didn't have a 4 year deal either, he got his deal extended for the Euro campaign.

If Carsley (or anyone) does rubbish at the start of their campaign and we're left with dead rubbers, you're still always at risk of a 'lame duck' manager. Just no way around that really.

YTM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121671801#Comment_121671801

Think he'll look at lads he's maybe worked with at club level or ex international teammates that are coaching.

TheCitizen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121671699#Comment_121671699

I’m fully behind Carsley. He’s the choice of the FAI and everyone should support him from the off. I think that should be the same with every appointment unfortunately with some people that isn’t always the case? I don’t get that and will never understand why some so called supporters take a dislike to a manager for personality reasons when they’re not even going to know them or work with them personally. Very odd behaviour in my view.

Like you I hope Carsley lack of senior management experience won’t be a huge drawback and hopefully a good start will get him and the team up and running.

LuckyLloyd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121671922#Comment_121671922

Kenny fans would have been grumbling from the off if Lennon was appointed. It is what it is

YTM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121671922#Comment_121671922

Yes because not wanting a manager whose very fond of the drink, has made threats against a woman, and has treated his own wife like dirt representing us is very odd behavior indeed. Should take those Celtic blinkers off.

McFly85

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121671922#Comment_121671922

I will be fully behind whoever they pick, but obviously everyone has their preferred candidates. Plenty of people were against Kenny from the very start too, and that’s fair enough.

Whoever gets the job I hope can do well.

TheCitizen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121672024#Comment_121672024

I think they would have grumbled about Roy Keane as well. I find it odd that people take against someone on a personal level or for personality reasons when they don’t know them personally and never will know them or know everything about their personal lives.

TheCitizen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121672210#Comment_121672210

I wasn’t against Kenny from the start either. I think when an appointment is made supporters should get behind the appointment until such time that their position becomes untenable for results reasons. Pontificating about others private lives from a distance isn’t for me. That’s always been my view on it.

LuckyLloyd

Carsley will lose good will quickly if results don’t approve. But he will have a lot of support and good will to get started with, and is a step forward on balance in terms of credibility compared to Kenny. He has played at the top level and you have to be a bloody competent guy to get a job like the England U21 job in the landscape of their current national development pipeline.

PTH2009

Euro 2028 qualification will be the ultimate aim of Carsleys tenure esp us been co hosts

The Nations League could be interesting if we get England (the FAI secretly hoping for it as it will be an instant sell out no matter what form we're in)

breezy1985

Carsley was probably the best of what emerged. As someone said above you don't luck your way into the current English underage set up.

I'm actually shocked we were able to get him. I was saying all along that the next manager would be even more unknown than Kenny.

TheCitizen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121672346#Comment_121672346

England in the Nations League? Surely we’re in a different division than them unless they changed the format of it again?

Brian?

Lads, Carsley scored a winner in the Merseyside Derby, was pivotal in Everton finishing 4th and made 40 appearances for Ireland. I’ll love him forever.

But objectively he isn’t a bad appointment. Definitely better than the English journeymen that were being touted. I look forward with optimism.