Republic of Ireland Team 2023/24 [old thread]

That's true for sure, but I think somewhat misses the point the poster was making - which is that people talk about Kenny causing lasting damage to Irish football, which really is only something that can be argued through rankings. Having a bad few years in and of themselves doesn't really matter, that's an issue while it's happening, but doesn't really impact a new guy coming in and doing better. International football basically hard-resets with a new manager, since the player pool is static (short of falling out with lads so badly they refuse to come back, which of course hasn't happened under Kenny). The more damning argument is that a future manager may have a tougher road thanks to the poorer rankings - which is where the comparison with Trap comes in, showing that we recovered quite quickly from the poor ranking he had left us with.

Rankings are the only real lasting impact a past manager has on a future manager's tenure, short of some major falling outs, which haven't happened here.

How would you look to expand on it beyond its impact at the next managers tenure? Do you think anything Kenny has done extends beyond lowering our ranking position? I don't see it… lots of young players got experience in what is basically their side gig a few times a year away from their actual week-in-week-out footballing jobs. We would have liked better results than we got, such is life, they'll now do whatever the new guy asks them to do and we'll see what that gets us. The only tangible carry-over, for me, is that the next person might have a tougher group than they otherwise would have as a result of the ranking. What do you think he's done that has caused more lasting damage?

Yeah, the ranking/seeding is what I'm pointing out. I don't see how the second one impacts anyone for future campaigns though? That's all done now, and while disappointing, it doesn't really impact our next manager's WC or Euro campaigns.

I'm addressing this point by the other chap; I don't buy this narrative he's plunged us into the dark ages all by himself. For one thing when Trap left we were 5 places lower in the World rankings and he's generally viewed as one of our most successful ever managers.

Which you followed up by pointing out how much better Trap did with us, saying they're not comparable. Which I agree with in a broad sense, but they did both leave us with the same set of circumstances for the next guy — a poor ranking/seeding position.

That's my reading of the point at least.

You can put the tinfoil hat away, nothing to reveal. There was an inference in your post that we should be beating the likes of Albania. I was pointing out that they're a much stronger proposition than they used to be. They're going to the their 2nd Euros out of 3 tournaments and have just topped their qualifying group. They're not a gimme for anyone anymore.

bazunu now statistically (Xg faced compared to actual goals conceded) the worst keeper in the championship

Kerr has said he's done. It was a one off.

They said they are on track to stick to their April announcement last week. I assume that was Poyet so who knows?

If O'Shea was a serious option then Kenny should have been sacked early and O'Shea given the last two International windows as an audition.

Circling back to him after we have turned down better candidates (people can like it or lump it, but Bruce and Lennon would be superior options) would be a further representation of deep organisational incompetence. I understand all the ways Delaney was toxic; but serious serious questions should be asked about the current executive group at the FAI.

The man who bankrupted the FAI and made a fortune for himself?

It’s tongue in cheek, jesus

You doubled down by saying he got a manager appointment and a shirt sponsor, where’s the tongue in cheek?

Failed manager of the Greek International football team seems to be the favoured. He may be the most experienced candidate but it would still be depressing.

I'd rather they take the higher risk, higher reward option and choose JOS. We have absolutely nothing to lose.

I don’t know anyone who is losing interest in the team. One thing Kenny did was sell seats. Both friendlies were well attended last week.

Likewise. Give the job to JOS.

I also remember further back, people (often journalists) saying we were totally overpaying for managers, using it as a stick to beat Martin Oneill, and that we should get a capable manager for far less. That doesn’t seem to be borne out my actual events of the past few months.

Almost certainly turned a profit on his appointment all the same. Maybe we were overpaying but this narrative that we could pay far less for the same results that was put out by journalists doesn’t seem to have been borne out by reality.

they turned profits on the appointments I mean. The fai did and continue to work off a failed financial model where all their income comes off the senior men’s team but that team did bring in good money from sponsorship, attendances and qualification under Mon.

Vastly superior…don’t know about that really. Mon’s team wasn’t great at all. They had a knack of scoring one goal in 90 mins (often off a set piece) and usually conceding one per 90 and being normally able to put away the lower seeds at home and often draw away and always beat the ditty teams.

If the current Irish team had a decent manager you’d imagine they could do something similar. It’s not very ambitious. We just got obsessed with playing passing football out from the back under Kenny and now most seem to realize we don’t have the players for that.

The problems are we don’t have money to appoint a manager the supporters would be in favour of and our main target has a great job as it is. The Irish job, in comparison, is a very tough job.

for all the talk about the fai botching the search for a new manager, I’m not hearing many good suggestions of what they should have done differently.