Second Captains Part II

Yeah, one of the best, and the best bit is Ken's "nice" remark at the end 😁

Put some respect

PUT SOME RESPECT ON MY NAME

This season in particular had been excellent

What did he say?

I'm by no means aboard the Kenny fanbus but the massive damage Delaney and the useless managers he appointed did cannot be overlooked.

"Did he get to the Euros Ken?" well, yeah, kinda, but left the national team in a decrepit state while allowing at least two great talents to slip away.

How is it deluded nonsense?

believing we were ever in the race for Grealish once he began to bang and England showed interest is deluded. Believing anyone who is good enough to play for England would ever play for Ireland when their only link to Ireland is a grandparent is deluded.

For Rice, ok deluded is probably not the right word. We could have probably cap trapped him if we called him up and played him versus Moldova.

but saying it was a major mistake to not do that is extreme use of 20/20 hindsight. Dion fanning and Ken, both of whom are the worst culprits for moaning about not cap trapping Rice. But there is more context to it then is ever discussed

• Ken never said at the time that we should be tying down Rice vs Moldova. Yet feels totally entitled to moan about it in retrospect
• john Egan was in Brentford’s team at the time but wasn’t in the squad. If they cap trapped rice it would be a slap in the face to Egan. If you’re putting it out there that players will get picked for reasons other than merits it’s a bad thing to put out there.
• moldova needed to be beaten, cap trapping offers the manager up as a hostage to fortune if the result does not go in your favour.
• i guess elite sport is cut throat but cap trapping players is not a great practice to be at. It’s wrong in my view. I don’t know how someone like Ken doesn’t see it’s a bit of a **** thing to do.

O’Neil should have locked in Ricsssssssshhhhhhhhh and Jack the lad forever and ever.

you didn’t address the full context I gave but in any case…

If you have objections to the use of the word “trapped” where the plan is to give a 18 year old a competitive cap they haven’t earned on merit, to shutdown the risk of the 18 year old defecting to their preferred country then I just don’t think we see these situations in the same way.

I dont see how any replacement of Kenny could be any worse results wise. I was a big supporter of Kenny and i think he was needed at the time but he's not the man to take us to the next stage. We've been repeatedly found wanting when a plan B is needed and i think it showed up Kenny's tactical naivity which was not to the standard for international management. He brought through a lot of players and we've more coming from the under 19s/21s so i think we'll be ok going foward.

The question is who do we get?

I think tactics started off very well in the first half of the last two games but once the opposition changed their approach Ireland were unable to adapt. Even taking France and Netherlands out of it, who are better sides than us, this has happened repeatedly under Kenny. We seem to have a decent plan A but theres nothing after it if it doesnt work.

Michael Sheens Father

Yes. So?

So he was there on merit 👍🏻

His point was that O'Neill didn't advocate for Ireland. He didn't go on a push to promote the benefits of playing for Ireland. He didn't set the public tone that Ireland was a positive place to be.

It was a snapshot into his whole attitude towards the job at the time. Every game was to be suffered through, there was no point thinking tactically about a game etc.

Even when he went to set the record straight recently he took the stance that there was little point to making an effort. He could have lied and said he did everything he could to keep Rice in the background. No one is ever going to dispute it. Rice will probably never talk about Ireland again. O'Neill couldn't even pretend he cared now.

The idea at senior international level that both parties would be keen to see out a contract because one side seems like a nice bloke, who can be tactically naive or worse oblivious to an opponent's tactical changes just so he doesn't have to get the dreaded call that he's sacked is lunacy. He won't go if there's any money he would walk away from if he walked himself and that's fair enough. I don't understand the logic that at the level he's managing at that he would want to stay in the job because he's a great lad and people feel sorry for him, that's mad stuff too Bill. Kenny always whole heartedly defends himself, he knows the business, from the post match interview last night where he had zero answers he knows at all levels the game is up - you don't need to be a mind reader to have seen that. For some on the pod today to think it's the right thing to keep him in the position because he's an Irish "football man" in his dream job is beyond me.