Republic of Ireland Team 2023/24 [old thread]

I don’t think Celtic are a club that would pay 10 million for a Gk

Fully agree

If Celtic have £10m to spend on one player it's being spent on an attacking player.

Also think they'd wanna bring him in on loan for a season before actually buying him whereas Bournemouth probably want a permanent deal.

Even if Bournemouth were open to a loan with an obligation to buy still don't see Celtic meeting the £10m valuation for a keeper.

Yeah I'd be wary enough of him joining a PL team that supposedly paid £20m for a keeper 12 months ago. Though they did drop Henderson mid season for a few games.

Page got the job after that POS Giggs was moved on after not domestically abusing anyone nor engaging in coercive control or anything like that.

beautiful poetry tho

Would assume he'll be in the running for us now anyway. Ticks a lot of their boxes with youth development coaching experience and obviously international experience.

Keane on Stick to Football called the Ireland job his "dream job" and claimed he spoke with the FAI. On and on it goes.

If Keane wants the job it should surely be a priority at this point to make it happen

We need someone tactically astute to get the best out of a young squad. That's not Keane.

On what basis?

He has more managerial experience than O'Shea but he hasn't been a number one for over a decade.

He's a very temperamental character which I don't see working well with younger players still finding their way in the professional game. Wikipedia mentions Sunderland players celebrating when he got sacked while he didn't take the Celtic job because he didn't feel wanted enough. There was also that nonsense how he quit his role as Villa assistant to 'focus on his Ireland role' at a time that Ireland didn't have a game for several months.

He has high standards, sure, but I can't see how he'd be able to work with the FAI given the dire straits the organisation is currently in.

I'd see it ending in tears.

If Keane also wants the job he needs to not waste the FAIs or clubs time by looking for unrealistic wages. He knows what the FAI are offering so why talk with them if you're gonna ask for money they don't have.

it’s time to focus on what’s important: entertaining press conferences.

He was assistant manager for the last successful Irish setup, qualifying for a tournament and getting to a World Cup playoff. He’s one of the greatest players in our history and will generate huge amounts of interest from the public, which is no harm given the associations finances.

While his managerial club jobs are dated by this point, he did well at Sunderland and solidly managed Ipswich during a difficult period for the club.

The negatives are obvious, but this squad has been soft as shite recently, getting played off the park and outfought by the likes of Greece. They need a kick up the hole, not an arm around the shoulder imo.

I'd be alright with him in principle, it'd be a bit of craic at least - but it's a totally moot point if he won't take the wages on offer (and indeed felt actively insulted by them, going by his comments a few months ago). And if we were paying what he wanted, we could probably do better.

Also I doubt he wants anything to do with the underage teams. That's something the FAI are looking for. They want someone who'll have some input into those teams.

Now how much input they want is another thing but doubt Keane would want anything whatsoever to do with them. At this stage surely even Chris Hughton has changed his mind on the job. Would take him over Keane too.

They'll surely be getting the finger out now that Georgia are likely to be eliminated tomorrow. I know Sagnol said he sees his future with Georgia but he's supposedly on €200k. Could triple his salary with the FAI

We'll surely start hearing more now that we're coming into July. Though going on the last couple of announcements we'll likely hear next month that O'Shea is staying on as interim for the NLs.

Prices for the 'Nations League series ie England at home'

Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Sweden, Greece, Belarus, Bulgaria, Finland and Norway are all UEFA members with bigger populations than ourselves.

Why can't any of them do it either?

Sagnol's Georgia currently 2 up over Portugal and heading for the last 16. I'd say good chance that Sagnol won't be short of offers come the end of the Euros. At the same time goes to show the difference a poor side with a good manager can make.

they have one world class player though, not going to attempt to spell it but if we even had one we might have a chance. There is nothing remotely near that level, closest is Ferguson and hes currently miles off it.

I think the manager point is very relevant to us. There's too much stock put in finding the messiah who's going to turn our rag tag bunch of misfits into a well drilled tournament capable side. Extra bonus points if they're from the continent because they'll definitely get us playing like Spain.

Martinez, Deschamps and La Feunte aren't getting a look in at a big club job. But they're perfectly adequate at international level where you only have around 10 competitive games a year. Chris Coleman was in charge when Wales got to the Euro semis. Bar a questionable stint at Sunderland you couldn't say he's been involved in elite football since - his management career since has consisted of a spell at a bottom half Greek side, a trip to China and he is currently in Cyprus.

Well you can argue that given the lack of investment over the years and the lack of money now if they want to invest that getting the manager right becomes more relevant than ever.

Georgia have so far banked €12.5M for their involvement in the Euros. You get a guaranteed €9.5M I think it is just for reaching the Euros.

Every two years there's the chance for the FAI to earn €10M. So for an association that was on the brink of dying recently it becomes more relevant now that they get the manager right.

Government doesn't give a **** about football in this country. FAI probably can't pull a generous sponsor out of somewhere to help fund stuff. So tou

On the academies, if the plan is for the FAI to go the LOI academy route then they need to be ruthless and tell some clubs only a select few will benefit at the beginning.

While Croatia have 190 full time staff in academies compared to our 10, they've also only got 10 academies compared to our 24. If we compared what makes an academy an academy in Croatia I'd say none of ours fit the criteria.

While Luxembourg also have less than one full time staff per academy I'm assuming these only look at clubs because Luxembourg have a full time national academy where players get full time training. So we can't even compare ourselves to them or even NI who have a full-time national academy where players train full-time while getting an education.

We can't kept spreading tiny funds thin by trying to fund 24 LOI academies. They need to focus whatever limited funds they have into getting five good regional academies set up. Then work from there on helping LOI clubs improve their facilities.

Only using five as an example as that's what Georgia have done in the last ten years since working with UEFA. They've built five regional academies where players can get full time training and an education.

Very valid points there you make about having too many academies for the size of our country. Government up to now has not given a toss about football absolutely correct and that isn't helped by the FAI been at best a joke for a very long time. However now it can be clearly shown that consistent government investment actually brings back more then would be put in so for everyone government investment in football infrastructure is a win win.

I have long been an advocate for their been a full time national academy on top of the academy pyramid as well. The biggest keys are the number of qualified coaches vis a vie the number of players and the contact hours alongside of course good infrastructure and a good development pathway. All of that is achievable and would give us a strong long term foundation to produce top level talent on a regular basis. IMHO this is more important at the moment then who is or is not manager of the senior team given just how far behind we are in all the areas that need to be addressed to consistently bring talent through.

Rocco Vata looks set to join Watford on 4 year deal.