Republic of Ireland General Discussion Thread 2024 [use match threads for games]

I see tickets aren't quiet so expensive for the Greece game. 55 each compared to 90 each for the England game.

id nearly go for 55 but we will probably get outplayed and loose 2 nil again.

Our biggest issue is we cant get the ball into the box to the strikers, our players make that task look impossible, and then we the ball breaks to one of out players in the box by accident, they cant even hit the target, unless its opposition like Andorra.

Could you imagine if England had managed to nab Haaland. Suppose we can take comfort in the fact they didn't and let them have Rice and Grealish scoring against us than them having a player that could enable them to win stuff.

Anyways on a more serious note, albeit I find it strange the fact JOS picked this team I can at least be positive for the future under the new manager. We have reasons to be positive, maybe not as many as we'd like but it can't get worse before it gets better surely?

I think I have seen him play 1 good game for Ireland. he isnt the same player we saw at spurs and wolves when he pulls on the Irish shirt, he just walks with the ball, never really runs like he does when playing for his club.

Exactly. Some clubs could be trusted well if allocated this funding but others would just pìss it away.

Clubs need to sort themselves out before any money could be given.

Galway United aswell back better than before. Pouring money into the mess that was Salthill Devon/Mervue/SD Galway wouldn't have been great use of FAI funds. What about UCD who are essentially just a development team for students plus maybe the odd veteran. Then when Shamrock Rovers had their B team in the league, would Shamrock Rovers get twice the payments?

The League is not stable enough to be trusted. Whats gone on at Dundalk is a disgrace.

This John O'Shea thing is gonna turn into a handy excuse whenever something negative happens. He'll get blamed next when the team bus is late.

At the end of the day the buck stops with the manager. He's the one that gets paid the big money to make these decisions. If he's happy to let O'Shea and McCarthy have more of a say this window the buck also still stops with him.

He's now seen how we play up close and personal so if we go out Tuesday and play the same way again the buck stops with him not O'Shea and McCarthy.

This isn't a negative HH and positive O'Shea post because I was cool with the appointment of HH and was also vocal about O'Shea not being involved with the current set-up.

I remember you mentioning him at the end of last season so kept an eye out for him at the start of this season and must have been injured in pre season.

Missed their first three games and played three, two sub appearances and a start.

Definitely has the attributes that would have suited HHs Iceland so hopefully the manager is keeping tabs on him.

It's also a bit unfair to label him as x number of choice given he was employed with a contract for another two years when the FAI began their search.

Wouldn't have been on their radar given they would've needed to pay off his contract with Jamaica.

Festy has been called up as a replacement for Coleman.

Thank the FAI. Football in this country has never been run properly.

The IRFU and GAA are competent well run organisations. I don't begrudge other sports their facilities. They get things done, they innovate, they have all the right systems in place.

The FAI has always been a sh!tshow by comparison.

The sad part is, as others have said, even if everything was fixed today with academies and money and the league it would be decades before we would see the real benefits.

This is the price Irish fans are paying for the Delaney era and every era leading up to it.

Basically paying amateur clubs and B team clubs the same as professional clubs to implement youth reform is insane. Shamrock Rovers had two teams to try to fill out the first division and while Mervue and Salthill were ambitious they were not competitive Galway did not have enough player pool for 2 decent teams. Not until the merged-ish SD Galway came about anyway. I wasn't slagging UCD just stating they already function more so as an academy than a professional team, which actually has great benefits tbh.

Could we not setup a county based league? Like the GAA. Although Dublin could be split N/S at inception.

Or would it by like the Welsh rugby teams and ultimately ruin the local clubs?

I feel like there's so little support fpr most LOI teams as is that a county based keague/team could take off once the money was there from government.

But where is the market for it ?

Kerry FC are in their second season, they probably average less than 1,000 per home game, they finished bottom last year and are second bottom to this year.

There were decent crowds early on but they started to go down after a few months.

One would wonder how long they can stay in the league with the expense of it.

Mayo are due to join in a few years and I can't see it being any different for them.

OK so the structure/admin of LOI is OK as far as people who support it are concerned?

It just needs money? Can the government tie a sports development type grant to all the LOI clubs where funding is ringfenced for youth academy setups only?

Maybe other stipulations to be purely beneficial to the national interests etc.

Wouldd that break any UEFA rules?

Don't think MON let Roy do the talking (as well as select the squad, and possibly the team and system) in his first bloody window.

I suppose letting O'Shea pick the squad is to a degree understandable this time around. But he's talking about how he'll probably leave it to O'Shea pick the squad next time around too? That's a bit much imo. Surely he should have an idea once he's been watching the players at their clubs for 2 months or so.

Apparently he's quite an adaptable manager, rather than being too dogmatic. Has his defensive mindset, and intention to make the most of possession, but doesn't have a definitive set formation he has to play. Seems more about doing what best suits the players we have to find that solidity and goalscoring capability. Which is a good thing. Dogma at all costs doesn't work with a limited playing pool.

Not gonna get too upset or read too much into a few press conferences at this stage. It's clear he was the one taking training and getting across his values. The rest will take care of itself as he spends more time with them and gets his own sense of their attributes and personalities for himself. Realistically everything is bollocks in international football until you have at least two full proper windows anyway, there's just no time to make anything significant stick before then. Which is of course why it was a bit of a disaster getting someone so late, as those two friendly windows would've been invaluable, but we are where we are and hopefully we can cobble together a few results in the meantime before the longer term approach is properly embedded.

Sometimes small issues can spiral out of control...

JOS "The boss is the boss", but he is nowhere to be seen....😟 (At the official pre match conference, where he is supposed to be)

You talk like the players are looking at this from the outside, same as us - they're the ones on the inside and know what the actual experience is. We're the ones jumping to conclusions based on snippets of information.

I honestly can't believe how quick so many people are to jump on a new manager. Literally days after his first time meeting the majority of the players. I would say the communication to the outside world has been poor, but ultimately that's irrelevant. All that matters is what's happening in the training and strategy sessions, where we already know he's very much taken the lead. It's just totally pointless coming to any serious conclusions or opinions before we've had two windows.

O'Shea being used as a mudguard.

Had we got a result on Saturday this wouldn't be happening.

I'm not going to judge Heimir yet but if we were to lose tomorrow night it's a fairly dismal start, especially if he goes with the same formation as the other night (O'Sheas tactics).

He has only been with the players a few days which I understand, but the man has probably earned about 100k off the FAI so far and doesn't seem to have gone to watch any or many of our players in the UK and is relying totally on the previous coaches for tactical instruction. He needs to put a mark down at some point and show why he was chosen, if it's not tomorrow then OK but next window at the very latest.

There are some players that need to be dropped as a statement such as Doherty and/or Brady (understand that leaves us very light at wing back). Losing 2-0 to England isn't a catastrophic result, to be expected if anything, but the fact the players didn't seem to buy into the occasion at all was hugely disappointing. We haven't been outclassed like that against a top team in a long time.