No New Contract For Vera Pauw

Amazing really - I think back to 1988 and the differences of opinions between Jack Charlton and Liam Brady. Brady left out of Euros squad (partially suspended for the tournament yes) and his International Career effectively over. This despite a backdrop of support calling for his inclusion. Jack goes on to lead Ireland to their most successful ever period despite not Qualifying from a group containing two top 10 sides.

Fast forward 35 years and a visible split between Vera Pauw and Katie McCabe. Ireland go out at the group stage despite competing I would argue as well as could be expected against two top 10 teams and the top African side - in reality a couple of strokes of fortune could easily have swung those matches back towards parity.

Pauw has lost her job and not given the opportunity to build like Jack was. A sliding doors moment no doubt...

No doubt there were other issues in the build up to the competition that do not need to be discussed but interesting to draw the parallels.

Wouldn't it be fantastic for an Irish team to go to a major event and not become embroiled in controversary - I haven't even mentioned Saipan :)

i don't think Pauw will be to upset - back in 21 she was hesitant to sign a new contract due to the age of her partner and wanting to spend time at home enjoying life.. doubt it be the way any manager wanted to leave all the same..

Looks like player power played a part in forcing her out.....Katie McCabe is a petulant brat and no doubt her spat with Pauw after the final world cup game raised eyebrows in the FAI. That coupled with the weight shaming allegations against Pauw did her no favours.

I’m not sure that decent teams is the only metric, there is another WC starting in just over a week so you can gauge global interest.

Gets the team to a World Cup… FAI…. Get rid…. FAI ffs…😒 nothing changes….

fat shaming ? Nonsense , it’s not, no such thing in a professional sporting environment . If a player(s) doesn’t meet the fitness criteria, that’s their responsibility, unless injured it’s their fault….players have access to first class physios, trainers, dieticians, doctors… can afford gym memberships, in person assistance and or equipment at home…they in addition will train with clubs, national team… im going to be losing my shît if I’m over any professional sports team, male, female and a player arrives up to training out of condition , of course all the eejit fûcks… ‘ohhhh fat shaming!’….. ‘ ohhh think of their mental health ‘…. ‘ ohhh that’s so unfair ‘

pointing out to a professional athlete that they are not being responsible and not keeping fit enough ain’t fat shaming…. These are all adults, they all signed up to play for Ireland, it’s not compulsory. If your personality doesn’t enable you to handle criticism, retire… what next ? ‘performance shaming’ ? Ohhh that player had a bad game but ‘schhhh’

put your hand up to be selected, the honour and responsibility of playing for Ireland, you need to do your bit…by arriving in shape, not letting your country, teammates and manager down.

Imagine, being picked to play for Ireland and on arrival being overweight and unfit…. No excuse for it…

Completely over hyped bunch of egos will never qualify for another tournament!

She encouraged the player to lose so much weight that she was physically unable to play the game anymore.

How would Man City/Bayern react if Pep/Tuchel forced Haaland/Kane to lose so much weight they had to retire?? Stop talking nonsense.

“Vera would just tell (the player) constantly she was too big, too slow. I saw the shift of her going to the gym after training every single day,” said one former player in the article.

“Throughout the year… she was losing so much weight,” said another player.

“And Vera would praise her… ‘you look so good, you look so fit’. But it was getting to a point where it was not healthy.

"She ended up having to quit soccer because she couldn’t play anymore and Vera would not listen.”

Look at her bullying of 16yo Tyler Toland in Ireland for another glimpse of her “management” style.

Hopefully. It was a hard watch most of the time.

Well if she was an "Ex-Player", she would have been aware we BEAT Scotland in the Play-off to get to the World Cup and they were Ranked ahead of Ireland at the time, and in the most recent Rankings are 1 place higher than Ireland !

On top of that, the World Cup Seedings gave us an "Easy Group" .. is she havin' a laugh ...who is that Ex-Player Kidding ? .. did she see Nigeria (Supposedly the 4th. Seeds in the Group) they Drew with Canada, Beat Australia (Finalists), should have beaten Ireland, and should have Beaten England (Semi-Finalists) ..

I think the Team is full of similar Prima-Donna, who have tasted a touch of 'success' and think they are Barcelona !!!

The ex player was Méabh De Búrca, who has 52 Irish caps. I’m only repeating what I heard. And no one said the group in the world cup was easy, she referred to the qualifying group before we got to the finals as being easy.

There is something very off about this squad, like the Irish Women's Rugby side, I can't quite put my finger on it. There is something off about the group dynamic...the players have too much to say having achieved very little.

To walk off a pitch after 20 mins in a pre tournament friendly was an extraordinary act, there was clearly an unhealthy dynamic going on, how does a team and manager decide to stop playing a match that's only 20 mins old, who instigated that walk off, did they all agree simultaneously?

I think it may have to do with the completely lobsided media exposure / actual standard of game on offer. It's gone to a lot of heads, add in an unhealthy dressing room dynamic on top of that and you end up with a s##t show.

The Irish women's hockey team got all the way to a World Cup final in 2018 and their behaviour on and off the field was exemplary. I could never understand why that sport wasn't given more exposure/funds in an attempt to grow their numbers afterward given our culture's near obsession with hyping up women's sport.

But she didn't want to confront it, she wanted the game to be abandoned. She said that the players were in so much fear the game needed to be stopped.

Secondly, the context of what is saying is different too. But none the less, Pep didn't step-in to get the game abandoned because he felt they were so scared.