Republic of Ireland Team 2023/24 [old thread]

Christ, there's a near miss and then there is finishing second bottom with 5 losses and only points against Gibraltar to your name.

I am afraid there is not pretending the Kenny era is "just another era of non-qualification" or something we've seen before. It's patently worse

• the ceo pay thing shouldn’t be damaging but it probably will be as the public like to kick the FAI and the press won’t refuse ink. My understanding is he got an extra 20k for working on holidays and communting expenses. He is repaying it. If we think think that it serves football in this country to place the national association in financial peril for the sake of an easily understandable and explainable 20k then that sums up football (and in many ways sport in Ireland apart from horse racing)- perpetually smalltime because it’s perpetually underinvested.
• much has changed in the FAI but it largely centres on improving financial governance and that will not solve the problem that there are things in the world that say “money” and things in the world that don’t. And Irish football is one of the latter, not the former. You can reorganise Irish football anyway you want. If there’s no investment of hard cash to back it up, it will keep perishing on the same rock until we fluke a couple of major tournament qualifications and then it will be temporarily boom time again.
• who in their right mind would throw public money at the FAI? Well all I can ask to that is can you put forward a single case of an instance where public money paid towards FAI projects was misspent?

people can go on forever about the faults of the FAI but you can’t generate money from something that historically doesn’t generate money (except when we fluke some success like during the Charlton era). That’s where we are.

Or Callum Robinson or Ciaran Clarke or Will Keane or Mikey Johnson or Matt Doherty going by the quote attributed to him where he calls himself British

Mark omahony named on the bench for Brighton.

After Ferguson’s hat trick vs Newcastle I had the thought that the next new Irish player to score a PL hat trick was likeliest him.

A back issue apparently. Not too serious. But I am not expecting him on a plane to join up with the Ireland squad

https://twitter.com/reptracker/status/1723756167267000697?t=uAD7a1cEJ6LVF2yeUcwE2g&s=19

I will never understand how he was such an excellent LOI manager. Granted he was excellent at spotting underrated talent in the LOI but the slow speed of delivery, the constant meaningless equivocations, the pauses, finally getting to the point after two minutes of waffling. The best method of communication is to get to the point as quickly as possible and emphasize it, by repeating if necessary. Kenny’s press conferences would be used in corporate workshops as an example of how not to communicate.

his heart is clearly in the right place but he needs to rebuild his career elsewhere and he needs to go on a communications course.

https://x.com/offtheball/status/1724508748910104974?s=46&t=M-EGdU8vr-bNuKyNUg6tmQ

Maybe he has two methods of communicating but I am cynical personally about that. Personally I’ve never liked his communication style in any interview I’ve heard him in. It’s tough on the ear. It’s just so inarticulate in that he can’t see to find the words to express what he’s thinking.

tactically …well I think his tactics were wrong basically, we don’t have the players or culture to score goals at international level through inventive creativity. Ultimately Ireland under Kenny relied on set pieces for goals just like all the previous managers did.

Anything to be read into Festy’s withdrawal from a squad due to injury but no details of what was the injury? He did a press conference right before the withdrawal aswell I think. Inclined to think there might be something happening there that we’re not being told about but who knows.

I hope not. There's nothing to suggest he has decided his international future lays elsewhere based on him being included in the previous squad. But it is ridiculous how he hasn't been tied down yet though. Should have seen minutes against Gibraltar.

Public communication particularly on camera, you would think, should be the minimum expected in a role like this drawing that salary.

For me it's just one of Kenny's shortcomings and probably the most visible evidence of how out of his depth he was for this role. It didn't even improve throughout. Did he not take public speaking lessons?

Don't get me wrong. I don't blame him. He seems like a good guy but he should never have been put in this position in the first place.

This is not harsh, it's the truth and there is overwhelming evidence we can all see now in the end result of his tenure.

I was surprised to hear Johnny Giles indicate that he thinks Kenny could turn it around in the next couple of games and be the toast if the country. Heard it on OTB last evening.

Incredible really.

The bar was so low, some wouldn't even give managers any credit for 'qualifying' for one.

Now look at us.

Now 3-2 down after some awful game management. Should be able to keep it tighter

Christ, I couldn't handle more Mick. Nice chap and all, but with the best will in the world for the fella he really is a guy who football has left behind. We could also really do with someone a bit more unifying than that I think.

Looking around at some of the left field options, one that kinda stood out as a mad-but-actually-possibly-feasible option is Fabio Cannavaro. Would be a similar one to Greece going for Poyet, or Albania going for Sylvinho, both to decent effect. Someone with a high profile, but mixed club career looking for a boost and not asking for much money.

Cannavaro was on around 500k with Benevento last year, so the money could be doable. The bulk of his management experience was in the Chinese league, but at least he did well there and won a few trophies. International football is a bit different too, and - like the two lads mentioned above - could see him doing better than at club level. He's also got surprisingly good English. Mad one, and obviously not likely, but the sort of left-field option I hope the FAI are at least looking into.

Yup, though the club was in a mess - he only joined them in February that season when they were already struggling, and just couldn’t turn it around. Not ideal but with the market we’re looking at, there’s not going to be any total success stories unfortunately. If someone’s a big unmitigated success, they won’t be looking our direction.

As referenced in my post above, it’s a similar gamble as Poyet with Greece and Sylvinho with Albania - hugely experienced big name players with mixed club management experiences, but where you can see there might be something there (for instance Cannavaro’s Evergrande side were apparently quite decent and primarily built from youth, going on to win the Chinese Super league). International football is a nice step for these sorts of lads, with the balance shifting towards personality and motivation, since there’s so little time for really detailed tactical work.

He seems to be mad to get back into a job, so you never know what sort of contract he’d accept in the shorter term for his longer term professional benefit, given that he’s not a fella who’s short of money.

I mean, for sure, there’s a rake of reasons it won’t happen, and money’s always a likely enough one, but I just hope the FAI are at least contacting these sorts of lads.

Mick is a legend in my eyes, but I wouldn't be having him back for a third spell. Poyet has continually dropped hints about leaving when his contract expires at Greece, assuming he isn't playing silly buggers, he would be a better option.

How the hell can the head of the FAI get away with not living in the country. It's ridiculous.q

Kenny got very well paid for the 'nightmare'. Right place, right time and got to manage his country. Not many people can say that. And in 20 plus years time most will have forgotten about the results. And Kenny will forever be known as former Republic of Ireland manager. I suppose it could be argued in future jobs it has raised his profile and mean larger contracts than he otherwise would have received.