Newstalk: Off The Ball

Well exactly. It’s not Carsley’s responsibility to fill the role.

We have now wasted 2 of the 4 available friendlies before we next play a competitive match.

A couple of heads on the show saying Oshea will actually be unveiled as the full time manager in April. They expect people to pay for this kind of spitballing nonsense, nevermind listen to it

I’ve listened a bit lately, it seems like a hell of a lot of spit balling. Are they under orders to keep all the content for the subscription? It’s put me off tuning in when I’m in the car after 7pm.

Far from a Kenny supporter. Agreed with him getting the bullet. Just calling out the hypocrisy from the pundits when they played the exact same way on Saturday.

As you said, Kenny is gone. I'm not here to defend him, his record was terrible. The pundits are full of it though, especially Delaney.

On the upside there was only 3 players over 30 in this squad so whoever does get the job has a young team to work with. Would you give it to O'Shea?

I'm not sure to be honest. O'Shea was involved in the last backroom team so there'd be continuity there but it would be risky with his lack of experience giving it to him on the back of two friendlies. Watched Greece against us and their draw vs France, they were pretty good & well organised and they've a similar quality of player to us. Poyet would proabably be a safer bet but who knows what the FAI will do.

Poyet said he wanted it too to be fair after they played us here, before any links were made in the media. If they beat Georgia in the playoff and he gets them to a major tournament at the first attempt it'll be a pretty good achievement. Would be seen as a bit of a coup for the FAI too if he walks away to take the Ireland job if Greece qualify.

I know O'Shea would love to get it but if things go wrong it'll just be seen as another Staunton/Bobby Robson job, remember he started out with a great win too in his first game, against Sweden I think it was.

Staunton lost 5-2 to Cyprus with a vastly superior squad. Kenny was bad. Staunton was worse.

Won’t happen. Kerr a contract he had to honour with Virgin 😂. The FAI threw Kerr’s name to Oshea as an afterthought.

There’ll be a a new management team installed in April, the level of absolute spoofery spoken on OTB yesterday was embarrassing.

Staunton had prime Robbie Keane, Duff, Given, Dunne, OShea, Carr, Finnan, Doyle and lost 5-2 to Cyprus.

Looking at results so bluntly is a silly comparison. Staunton wasted a golden generation for 2 years. Kenny had much worse resources and achieved similar outcomes.

Wrong. Kenny had worse resources alright but the outcomes weren't the same. Staunton failed to qualify for World Cup 2008, finishing 3rd behind Czech Republic and Germany. Then got sacked.

Kenny failed to beat a weakened Slovakia to get to the play off finals for Euro 2020. He came 3rd, just ahead of an awful Bulgaria in his first Nations League group. Got effectively eliminated after 2 games for qualification for World Cup 2022. Came 3rd, just ahead of an awful Armenia for his second Nations League group. Got effectively eliminated from Euro 2024 qualification after 2 games in the group. His awful results led us to not even qualify for a play off for Euro 2024. That's 6 major failures, he then was let run out his contract.

The above clearly places Kenny as the WOAT.

I think it would be amusing if O'Shea got the job basically because they could not find a cheap alternative candidate. As for the "media" they do not really know what they are talking about let's be honest. They just throw names at a wall. The next Irish manager whoever he is will not get the "love in" that Kenny received. Lisa Fallon would constantly write articles about how her mate Stephen Kenny was winning over "hearts and minds etc". OTB really brought into this mantra, and ended up looking very foolish indeed.

I would disagree with your assessment that O'Shea did not do anything different than Kenny. In the first game he brought more structure defensively and more energy pressing than Stephen Kenny did in his entire tenure. It was refreshing to see an Irish team press the opposition that is a basic that was lost under Kenny. A directness brought in as well but not just direct for the sake of it.

My major gripe with Kenny's tenure was that he made Ireland lose the basics, the energy, closing down that Irish teams have to play with to be successful. Kenny was too interested in the philosophy, keeping the ball. But the players were not good enough to execute it. So it was just side to side passive stuff, easy to play against.

I have to be honest, I have no real respect for the OTB lads opinions on sport, they are bluffers with arts and English degrees. It shows.

No it didn't. The opposite in fact.

I've stated both were awful but for the 6 major failures Kenny had in 3 years, that makes him to WOAT. We didn't have a manager in the 40's I don't think. We had FAI committees selecting the team.

Wrong. I have an agenda against the awful performances, results and failures for the past 3 years. It doesn't matter who was in charge, it was unacceptable.

Coming near the bottom of every nations league group is a major failure, not beating a weakened Slovakia, in what wasn't his first game in charge was a major failure.

Mick Meagan came in after the committee's were in charge but they were still interfering. Still not as many failures as Kenny. So I pick Kenny as WOAT.