Republic of Ireland Team 2023/24 [old thread]

What annual salary will the REAL manager be on ?

I get that it takes time and people want to support the team, but it is the blind OTT support that annoys me. It took Mick the guts of 5 years to properly revamp Ireland after the end of the Charlton era, in fairness.

But Mick was not immune from criticism he once talked of making Roy Keane the best sweeper in the world, and played him as sweeper v Iceland I think it was!? Might have been the game Kilbane made his debut in.

Managers cannot be expected to be immune from negative criticism, is my point.

OK some of the criticism might be proved wrong, for instance I did not rate Obafemi (i thought he was a speedy headless chicken) but he has improved and won me around. But some of the commentary on Ireland seems to be more hope based/than fact based.

I just think of that young fella who runs 'Irish football fan TV', I can't remember which Irish win it was but it was after a long run of losses. He actually said he was starting to feel awkward talking up Kenny prior to it, and felt a sense of relief!

I'd get Marcelo Bielsa if it was at all possible. A proper manager with a proper record that is now a free agent. He is well known to not be too interested in money but instead by a project.

ffs, like of course EVERYONE would prefer Marcelo Bielsa. What's the point in suggesting someone like that when he's about 25 levels above what we can actually get.

And not interested in money... he was on 8 million a year at Leeds in the Championship alone! It may not be his main motivating factor, but there are better projects, and much much much better money out there for him elsewhere.

See again this is the problem I never said I wanted Kenny to go. That is the erroneous assumption of any criticism of him on these threads. A world of 'Kenny in/Kenny out' that is the cult thing I am talking about.

It is really odd, and I assume the blind Kenny faithful support are mostly younger generation based. I am open to correction on that. But that is the vibe I get. You only have to to look at the faces of fresh faced young lads roaring after Brady scoring that pen to beat Armenia. You would swear Ireland won a play off/world cup!

It would be madness to get rid of Kenny now. Give the guy the next campaign let him develop them a bit more. It is the fella after Kenny that will get the team to achieve/then overachieve in my opinion.

With a bit of luck he gets the Bohs job.

I really hope not!

Bring in Johnny Walters as his assistant and whenever Keane tries to be the big man Walters can put him in his place and walk off with his tail between his legs again.

You bring Ombamdiele in.

Is there anything to be said of an approach to Lee Carsley? Would he leave England u21's for this job?

I remember when Lee was playing I was a critic of his. I think most were. What would we give to have a midfielder at that level now though.

This.

We are that stuck at the moment it has to be worth a shot. Also a back 3 of Ombamdiele, Egan and O'Shea is decent too. Hopefully Kenny will feed the likes of Jimmy Dunne into the squad also who can play the ball out. From the look of Collins he has the intelligence and maturity to be able to play the role. But as you say there is no harm having a look at it. When Cullen and Molumby are out of the team we are shocking. We can't go with Hourihane or Hendrick again.

I don't particularly have a problem with him being tried in a meaningless friendly, that wasn't brought up. (I'd probably prefer to give Coventry a shot there in a friendly though).

I just don't really understand the push for it though... it seems to be purely on the back of him being good on the ball, rather than anything more relevant to the position. We have other better options there, instead of heaping the pressure of playing in the wrong position on our best 21 year old CB.

I think Kenny probably went for the right DM backup last night in Molumby, who did well. If he played there again he'd need to calm the fck down so as not to have to come off, but he's probably the best understudy there for Cullen.

Context. This is an expanded Euros. Has been for the while. In 88 there were 8 teams. In 2012 there were 16. In 2016 there were 24.

Please no. It's not going to happen and please no.

I'm not sure 'laying into them' is ever the right thing really, feels like what you do with misbehaving children. But I would want and expect him to say when something isn't good enough. To be honest, in the cases of the mistakes especially, it's not like Hendrick, and particularly Hourihane, won't know exactly how they fcked up, and be very embarrassed in the dressing room surrounded by the players that they almost fecked over.

All this is true... I just don't understand the eagerness to move him from the centre of defence, and our key defensive lynchpin, into midfield. He's an elite level talisman right where he is on the field. I'd rather see him continue to progress there, in his best position (according to every coach he's ever played for since he was 13 years old) instead of using him to fill holes elsewhere in unfamiliar roles - particularly when other people would look better suited to doing that.

(Not to mention, if we're using someone unfamiliar to DM, I'd much rather Collins, as our best centre back, was behind them to help mop up any errors caused by poor positioning!)

I mean, I agree with all of that - I just don't see what that has to do with moving one of our best players out of position.

I'd be of the view that a solid defensive line (with Collins the absolute key at the heart of it) is our greatest asset, and the foundation that lets us build from everywhere else on the pitch. That's what lets us try things out in front of it with our midfielders, wide players, and forwards. The last thing I'd want to be fcking with is the one bit of the team you can feel good about.

As I said earlier, if we really needed to pluck a non-midfielder to cover DM for whatever reason, I'd feel a lot better about a very-experienced head like Seamie Coleman covering that spot, with the safety net of that solid backline behind. He just feels waaaay more suited to the role, and comes with the bonus of not breaking up our defence.

Yeah, it’s in-game management that’s definitely looking his biggest weakness.

He’s done a really good job (I think) in putting out the right teams with a clear idea of what they’re going to try to do. But it’s in that final 20 or 30 minutes as games change that he hasn’t been making the right adjustments to keep our performances going, or kick on.

Hopefully something he can study over the coming months.