Republic of Ireland Team 2023/24 [old thread]

Robbie Keane appointed as manager for Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Quite the left field move.

There is no money in Irish football. True 50 years ago, true now. In a game showered with money, Ireland is the poor man of UEFA.

until you take on that issue, Ireland won’t be much to write home about and will only have occasional years of boom mainly based around the skill and marketability of the likes of Roy keane, Robbie keane and Evan Ferguson followed by years of bust.

Invest in both but for the here and now they should go the national academy route first and foremost. Get that set up while working with the clubs in the background on long term improvements. You'll still the need the grassroots and LOI to develop those players from a young age and continue to develop those who don't make it into the national academies.

Israel have similar set up. They worked with UEFA to set up a full time national academy and would still have decent academies at club level for those that aren't selected.

You'll always get players that slip through the cracks and Seamus Coleman was someone that easily could have happened to. Wasn't involved in his leagues Kennedy Cup team, and his first involvement with an FAI underage team was the U18s Schools team I believe after he joined Sligo.

Well we can 'agree to disagree' in a sense, but you're not really explaining why these disparate things should be coupled. Youth football should be all about development, indeed all of the U.K. academies (even at the Championship level) focus on technical ability and tactical awareness within fluid systems; and those programs do their thing irrespective of how agricultural the current senior manager and team is.

The FAI neglected youth development and successive managers failed to plug in to what the U21s were doing and who could potentially be worthy of a call up. At the same time we played excessively practical football. The emotional conclusion is that it is all one and the same. Playing more expansive football at senior level is intertwined with better ways of working and more appropriate cap doffing to the youth and domestic game. But it's not. It doesn't matter whether we play expansive football for the senior team or not; the youth stuff needs to be there. And managers should have it written in their contract that they will attend U21 games when practical, meet with the U21 manager, etc.

The next step in this line of reasoning becomes the 'well there's no point qualifying unless we play the "right" way' - i.e. it would have been better not to qualify for Euro 2012 if we were going to be outclassed like we were. This is also a misconception, the revenue boost and the psychology boost for the game in Ireland is all from qualifying. You don't get docked money from UEFA if you hoof the ball in the tournament proper.

As with any topic we need to eschew the extremists. The 'LOI managers aren't able to do the Ireland job' people can get in the sea. As can anyone who thinks we should just play Neanderthal football while not bothering to have youth development structures or a national league. But equally, purism doesn't belong in a reasonable conversation around Irish football. Where we don't have cohesive development structures we should build them. There should be a national framework and approach to youth competition. The FAI needs to take its responsibilities to the health of the domestic league seriously. And yes, the Ireland Manager can't take a mercenary view, that they are an island and law unto themselves who can ignore the broader scope of the association.

But in saying all of that, if the Senior team becomes practical and well organized again under Kenny's successor it will not mean that we have given up on all the other things. Emotionally, maybe it will feel like that. But there is no youth development taking place within the Senior camp during International windows. They are not working on the future of the domestic league. They're trying to **** win football matches so they can qualify for tournaments. And that should obviously 100% be their sole focus.

Boyhood dream no doubt

Fair play to Robbie for even thinking to go there though.

If he does halfway decent gets some sort of European competition run, and suddenly in today's climate he is a main candidate for the Ireland senior job in future - in many people's eyes.

Smart shrewd move by Robbie, then again he has always been smart like that. Clever enough to move to Wolves as a young lad to give him more chance of playing instead of going to Liverpool.

I see Robbie is getting a bit of abuse for the politics.

I dunno, I think this is one of those times we could decouple your views on Israel from football.

Surprising move regardless

So that is what you are excited about the FAI make a plan with notions? Jayus. Arn't you easily pleased?

They had one in 2016 ya know. 2016-2020

https://www.fai.ie/sites/default/files/atoms/files/FAI%20Strategic%20Plan%202016-2020.pdf

That was glossy with lots of colour.

I had a look at Pillar 8 'facilities' from the 2016 strategic plan.

'The investment in football facilities has been and continues to be a key driver for the development of our game. The Association has played an active and progressive role in facility development since 2002, when funding via the Irish Government’s Sports Capital Programme was increased significantly. The absence of a Sports Capital Programme that clubs could participate in between 2008 and 2012 on account of the economic crisis hindered but did not stop this progress.'

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But in the strategic plan after that we have the FAI saying facilities have been neglected.

From the video above 'We believe football has been underinvested in the last 25 years, we have fallen behind our European counterparts in facilities investment'

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Who is codding who lads? And I was thinking about 10 clubs would need 40 million each to get their stadiums and facilities up to scratch a decent ground etc.

Yet we have Johnathan Hill above is on about the need for female toilets, and clubhouses which need to built. Talk about a low base.

Fair play to Robbie taking that job, would love to see it work out for him. Gut instinct is it will go terribly however.

I never understand the footballers getting grief for politics, that is beyond their control.

They are sports people involved in capitalist industry and are free to go where they wish in the furtherance of their career.

They are footballers.

<snip>Mod: removed, personal abuse<snip>

Yes we will indeed just have to agree to disagree. You think the senior team should be decoupled to use your word from the pathway below it. I think they should be connected. It really is that simple no big explanations needed.

Irish football from an infrastructure and development pathway is an utter embarrassment compared to our European peers from top to bottom and that is finally being reflected in the lack of quality in our senior team which is IMHO is at its worst level from a talent pool standpoint since the early 1970's. I would say we face a long rebuild but that would be wrong as we have long since assumed clubs in the UK would do development for us but since the big TV money started to flood into their leagues that has at first gradually but after a while very rapidly cut off that faucet ultimately leading us to the shambles we find ourselves in now. We in reality are almost starting from scratch when it comes to putting in place the development pathways and infrastructure needed to develop the game in Ireland at all levels right. We have a long way to go and sadly as a result our senior team will likely be operating from a very poor and low talent pool level for some time to come yet.

Definitely not you. As someone involved in grassroots football to see someone so ill-informed speak so certainly about a topic they know nothing about is maddening. Not sure why he's allowed to continue to speak the way he does in the thread. Actually I do know but I also know nothing will be done about it

Decent interview withn Festy Ebosele - hope he kicks on next season. Having someone with real pace and power in the team is badly needed

https://www.goal.com/en/lists/festy-ebosele-superstar-irish-youngster-wayne-rooney-tipped-top/bltb70429e4b8ed0498#cs82b889233a2032df

I was led to believe that they were meeting today. No word on any press conference. We all know that Kenny is finished. No point letting it run any longer. Let the process of appointing a new manager commence.

How did Udinese end up finding him? Or did Festy request a move beyond the usual UK etc?

The Rooney line of

"But if you are asking me if I think [Udinese] is the right move for him, then no, I don't. I think he should stay in England... It is always difficult for a young player to go abroad."

-made me laugh.

Because I thought of the line Arsenal used when trying to keep Liam Brady before he moved to Italy.

'But you will be will be playing abroad!' Liam simply said 'I already am abroad....'

The tide has turned completely. Those who backed Kenny in the past have now had to admit that he's not up to it. Some have done so begrudgingly but still have said he should go. The media who previously backed him have also turned on him. Ex players coming out to say it's time to move on. The games up, it's just a matter of if the FAI pull the trigger now or waste more time.

Senior international manager is a significant cost for the FAI, which is why I don’t see them pulling the trigger.

You get rid of him now then you pay him his contract anyway, you also pay an interim manager or a permanent one early if you find one - and all during a group of death where it’s incredibly unlikely that bringing someone else in will mean that we qualify to justify the extra cost.

So I imagine he keeps his job for the rest of the campaign. If we qualify he’d obviously keep it, if we have a strong finish to the campaign(beating Greece and finishing third) and have a playoff he stays for that, anything else the contract isn’t renewed.