Roy Curtis, Sunday World and Brian Kerr

dbnavan

Did Anyone see the 'dead man walking' article in the sunday world, last sunday. it was in reference to Brian Kerr. Anyway I was so incensed by it I wrote the following article in to Roy Curtis, the writer of the piece. What do others think?

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Dear Roy,

I have been a big fan of you column for many years now and agree with a lot of your articles, however I was incensed at your "Dead Man Walking" article in last weeks Sunday World.

What a lot of people forget when judging Brian Kerr is the pool of players he has the choose from, we are hardly blessed with the team we had in 1990 or Euro 88. Before this to get to a play-off would have been unthinkable, now we have come to expect to beat the French and teams like them.

If Ireland had beaten the French, and taken 6 points off the Israeli's (Which I agree we should have) Brian Kerr would have been the best thing in Ireland since Mary when she appeared in Knock. Look at it this way, take out the 5 or 6 quality players Ireland's team, The Keanes, Duff, Morrison(on his day), Given, Reid, and what have you left, only a bunch of part-timers struggling in England, it is my opinion that Cunningham and Breen, would be lucky to get a game in Tolka Park, I wouldn't dream mention them in the same sentence as players such as McGrath, O'Leary, or Moran. Because we were blessed with a great team 10-15 years ago we expect to keep up the momentum.

Could you honestly see Sven picking Breen to play for England, however unless we want to look in the league of Ireland, which by the I think has better defenders, he is the best we have. If Kerr picked a Shelbourne defender, the country would think he was nuts, so he cant win anyway.

Anyway, my main point of all this is. Brian Kerr, can only pick from the pool of players he has available and I think he is doing that. I am sure if he could pick Maldini or Carlos, to play left full he would in a heart beat. Your article was quick to point out what Kerr is doing wrong but nowhere in it did you say how you or anyone else would change it.


Regards
David

BaZmO*

Yeah, I agree with what you've written but tbh, I wouldn't waste my time humouring tools like Curtis. The man is a halfwit. I don't read the Sunday World that often but anytime I have, I've been shocked at how bad his article's have been.

B.

MrJoeSoap

dbnavan wrote:

If Ireland had beaten the French, and taken 6 points off the Israeli's (Which I agree we should have) Brian Kerr would have been the best thing in Ireland since Mary when she appeared in Knock.

Yes, all well and good, but he didn't, and you can only judge him on what he did.

dbnavan wrote:

what have you left, only a bunch of part-timers struggling in England

What do you mean by "part-timers"?

dbnavan wrote:

it is my opinion that Cunningham and Breen, would be lucky to get a game in Tolka Park

Very very lucky.

dbnavan wrote:

unless we want to look in the league of Ireland, which by the I think has better defenders, he is the best we have.

I agree.

dbnavan wrote:

If Kerr picked a Shelbourne defender, the country would think he was nuts, so he cant win anyway.

Which Shelbourne defender did you have in mind?

K!LL!@N

I didn't read the Sunday World article but i have read your post here.

The fact of the matter is this, all this pressure comes down to two results.
The two games against Israel.
These are two games we were winning and should have gone on to win but didn't.
Had we won these two games we would have been guaranteed a place in the playoffs at least.
Now we'll struggle to get there at all.

I don't have time to go into detail about particular players but i think we all know that there are players pulling on an Irish jersey, on a regular basis, that shouldn't be.
Some of these players (who shall remain nameless) may as well not be on the pitch at times, such is their effectiveness.

I'd always thought of Kerr as being a great nurturer of young talent, but he's shown an unwillingness to cut away the dead wood and bring in fresh faces.

Yes, we have a smaller pool of players to pick from but i think there are easily 22 players good enough to make up a competitive international squad.

At this stage, i'll be more surprised if we qualify than if we don't.
And, while i wouldn't call for the sacking of Kerr, i would strongly urge a rethink on his part of his approach.
If he was seen to be making an effort to bring in younger players i would be happy to see him have a chance at Euro qualification.

So, while i don't agree with him being sacked i also don't agree with your defence of him.

Killian

KdjaCL

Altho i worship a statue of Kerr at bedtime and in the morning, hes gone if he doesnt win our next 4 games. Simple as that i hope he gets us there but the players are **** and no glossing of the PL can change that.

Would have loved him to succeed but when the draw was made i thought we were buggered still think we are. At least theres a possibility he will come "home "if he gets the bullet.


kdjac

eirebhoy

dbnavan wrote:

it is my opinion that Cunningham and Breen, would be lucky to get a game in Tolka Park

Cunningham is an excellent centre half.

MrJoeSoap

He's no Pinnochio or Davy Scouse (...Scouse Scouse).

Big Ears

eirebhoy wrote:

Cunningham is an excellent centre half.

I was suprised dbnavan picked out Cunningham as most of the time he is our best defender and is a great organiser of the back four . If only he had more pace .

Kingp35

I disagree with pretty much everything you have just said (except the limited pool of players) and I think Kerr has to take alot of the blame for what has happened. After all it was HIS tactical mistakes that cost us points in both the Israel games which we should have won comfortably. he is far too defensice minded in everything he does and this team just doesnt have the players to sit back on a lead. You are harping on about how Gary Breen isnt good enough to play for us. Your dead right he isnt good enough and thats why HE DOESNT PLAY so therefore what your sayig there is totally pointless. Kenny Cunningham is a very good centre half. He lacks pace but he is an excellent reader of the game, great in the tackle and a brilliant organiser. I also have no idea what you mean by "part-timers".

Kerr is not up to the job he has made mistakes that have cost us points its as simple as that. We should be alot more comfortable in this group and alot of the blame lies on his shoulders. If we dont qualify he simply has to go

MrJoeSoap

Kingp35 wrote:

great in the tackle.

Last Sunday apart I'd agree.

ziggy

This post has been deleted.

dbnavan

Big Ears wrote:

. If only he had more pace .

Fact is he doesnt have enough pace for international standard

dbnavan

ziggy67 wrote:

Kerr will be judged on results- as he should be.

He can only play the hand he is dealt. pick players available, he cant score the goals. What ever tatics he chooses fair enough they can go wrong but, he has rarely been criticised for not picking someone. Always sends out best possible 11.

dbnavan

Kingp35 wrote:

We should be alot more comfortable in this group and alot of the blame lies on his shoulders. If we dont qualify he simply has to go

Do you not think the swiss and the french expected to beat us? They were supposedly the big 2 in the group, think back when the draw was made mosqt of us sh*t ourselves, the swiss who beat us comfortably in the last campaign and the French?? Come on lads we have short memories, there is nobody in the world that would love to see us qualify more then me, but at the start of this if we had to win last two games for play-off position we would have taken it.

rondeco

Lets not lose track of the original post and that is what Roy Curtis wrote last sunday. In fact, I have stopped reading any articles the man writes because of his incredibly poor journalism and his insistence on criticising everything. Every article is a put down. And every article is filled with the most incredible puns ever read. And i'm not praising him when i say 'incredible'. Read next sundays article and you will find a pun in 80% of the paragraphs. Its as pat spillane would say 'puke journalism'.

Pigman II

I've read some of Roy Curtis's stuff and he seems like nothing more than a wind-up merchant. I remember reading some article of his where he wrote an open letter to Robbie Keane on how to reach 50 goals for Ireland by changing his running style or some such nonsense. It was laughable tbh.
.

Kingp35

dbnavan wrote:

Do you not think the swiss and the french expected to beat us?

France yes, Switzerland no. And if you want to put it like that did we not expect to beat Israel? Didnt happen though did it

eirebhoy

Kingp35 wrote:

After all it was HIS tactical mistakes that cost us points in both the Israel games which we should have won comfortably.

What did he do wrong in the away game? Come on for gods sake. He didn't tell the players to sit back. I'll provide quotes by Kerr, Given, Cunningham, Roy Keane and Graham Kavanagh to prove that if needs be. Israel's game plan was to get us on the break. Whats the best thing to stop that? Don't let them get possession. That was the main objective. The most ironic thing is that Israel's possession for the goal came from a shot from an Irish player.

In the home game Kerr put Duff up front instead of Elliott in the home game. Ok, wrong decision in my opinion but hardly the most shocking decision in the world since Elliott hadn't played in 2 months. The best move/chance the Israeli's had in that match was while Robbie Keane was still on the pitch. It was around the same time (20th minute) the Israeli's got into the game. They scored after Matt Holland barely fouled someone in midfield. The Israeli crossed the free kick and they scored from a header outside the box. The other goal came when Shay Given miskicked the ball in a kick out and it didn't go as far as intended.

Fact is he doesn't have enough pace for international standard

Tell me one time Kenny Cunningham was ever caught out of pace in an Ireland game. Kenny Cunningham has been top class for us. He actually does deserve to be listed along side O'Leary and co. He is one of the best organisers of a defence in the world today. I've seen Matthew Upson priced at £15m by the Birmingham fans. If Andy O'Brien was partnering Kenny at Brum he'd probably valued at a very high price too.
http://members.boards.ie/eirebhoy/Kenny2.jpg
http://members.boards.ie/eirebhoy/Kenny3.jpg
http://members.boards.ie/eirebhoy/Kenny1.jpg

I love Cunningham and he is one of the most unappreciated players in the Ireland squad.

MrJoeSoap

Nice pics. Wonder what Ronaldo was laughing at...

yom 1

thats exactly what i was thinking!!

Kingp35

eirebhoy wrote:

In the home game Kerr put Duff up front instead of Elliott in the home game. Ok, wrong decision in my opinion but hardly the most shocking decision in the world since Elliott hadn't played in 2 months. The best move/chance the Israeli's had in that match was while Robbie Keane was still on the pitch. It was around the same time (20th minute) the Israeli's got into the game. They scored after Matt Holland barely fouled someone in midfield. The Israeli crossed the free kick and they scored from a header outside the box. The other goal came when Shay Given miskicked the ball in a kick out and it didn't go as far as intended.

I dont really want to get back into this but that one substitute actually caused the team to make 3 changes and therefore lost us all shape that we had and took Duff out of the game. Duff was moved from wing to up front which is one change, Kilbane from the centre to the wing which is two changes and Kavanagh on in the centre which is 3 changes. Shocking if you ask me. Also when bringing on Doherty who is basically a player you cross the ball into, he brought off Reid who is or best crosser! That makes no sense at all either. He was to blame in that game for disrupting the entire team.

I have pointed out all the flaws of his before and they all lie in him being too defensive, If we qualify it wont be because of Kerr it will in spite of Kerr.

Pigman II

MrJoeSoap wrote:

Nice pics. Wonder what Ronaldo was laughing at...

Steven Carr is telling Ronaldo the well worn theory about how if we had only beaten Spain on peno's we'd probably have been playing his lot in the final of WC2002.

dbnavan

eirebhoy wrote:

Tell me one time Kenny Cunningham was ever caught out of pace in an Ireland game. Kenny Cunningham has been top class for us. He actually does deserve to be listed along side O'Leary and co. He is one of the best organisers of a defence in the world today.

I love Cunningham and he is one of the most unappreciated players in the Ireland squad.

Go on tell me what a great job he did at organising his defence last night. They were all over the place! Had cyprus been france we would had suffered our worst defeat ever last night. Only for Shay Given we would have lost 3 or 4-1 to Cyprus! You cant blame the manager for that, sorry.

Lemlin

It wasn't all the defences fault. They looked all over the place alright but the midfield weren't pressing forward enough. The Cypriots had far too much time on the ball.

Daemonic

Agreed Lemlin, the central midfield pairing of Kavanagh and Kilbane is painful to watch. Would have been better putting O'Shea in there IMHO, even if he did have a mare at leftback.