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I think we've been guilty of wanting the best of both worlds.
We were well set up under Trapattoni and O'Neill. Qualified for tournaments but weren't too pretty on the eye.
Then we seemed to think that we should be able to play football like Spain, and well - it was calamitous to say the least.

I really think we need to get back to brass tacks. Years ago, we still weren't as good as the European heavyweights. But they still didn't fancy playing us because they knew we'd be damn awkward and would play like our lives depended on it.

In international football, if you have even 3 or 4 lads playing at a good level you have a chance. Fill the rest of the positions with tactically disciplined players who are willing to run through walls. Wales over the last 10 or 15 years are probably the best example. They had Bale (admiteddly a generational player), Ramsey and a few others. But the rest weren't all that much better than we have now.

I'd go so far as to say go back to a simple 4-4-2, get good supply into Ferguson, with Troy Parrott poaching around.

Lockjaw (Donegal) - Posts: 10011 - 11/09/2025 13:55:53    2635721

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Community Sports Facilities Fund. Where the grants are going. Can filter by sports.

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GreenandRed (Mayo) - Posts: 8243 - 11/09/2025 15:58:52    2635746

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Replying To GreenandRed:  "Community Sports Facilities Fund. Where the grants are going. Can filter by sports.

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Are you trying to make a point with linking the sports fund website and no comment on it?

KillingFields (Limerick) - Posts: 3826 - 11/09/2025 18:19:37    2635758

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Replying To alalalalalum:  "Hope Bob Geldof gets the nomination nod. A genuine advocate of making the world a better place and has walked the walk on this. I think he has impeccable credentials to become our president"
Is this the same Bob Geldof that said that the 1916 rising was a mistake and that Ireland should still be in the British Empire?

Ollie2 (Louth) - Posts: 1151 - 11/09/2025 20:12:52    2635772

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Was Armenia beating Ireland on Tuesday night the lowest point ever? A team ranked 105th in the world and who the Faroe Islands beat away from home last November in the very same stadium that Ireland played in.

Ollie2 (Louth) - Posts: 1151 - 11/09/2025 20:17:18    2635773

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For as far back as I can remember the FAI has not delivered or lived up to its responsibilities and its failings were blatantly obvious therefore few of the good clubs around the country became great clubs. The FAI headquarters are now looking for 40 redundancies for starters, all their prudent moves are in the name of saving money not spending it, so too was the appointment of the current national team manager made to save money.

Headquarters and its officials are not seen to be working as professionals and when that filters down to the clubs and players they too will not be seen playing as wannabe professionals, so as of now the conveyor belt is running almost empty.

supersub15 (Carlow) - Posts: 3268 - 11/09/2025 21:25:51    2635778

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I remember reading this a while back and thinking why couldn't we do something similar.

https://www.fifa.com/en/news/articles/reasons-behind-the-revolution-of-moroccan-football

Then again, if the FAI were handed €13m they'd probably go off an dbuy magic beans with it.

Lockjaw (Donegal) - Posts: 10011 - 12/09/2025 10:12:30    2635801

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Replying To Ollie2:  "Is this the same Bob Geldof that said that the 1916 rising was a mistake and that Ireland should still be in the British Empire?"
I wouldn't agree with him on that but the context he said it in was we became a kind of church state and I dont believe he said we should still be in British empire, just at the time of independence. And it is a fact that old age pension etc was reduced the minute we became independent, censorship increased etc.

Academic now because he won't be president.

alalalalalum (USA) - Posts: 17 - 12/09/2025 10:46:32    2635811

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Replying To KillingFields:  "
Replying To GreenandRed:  "Community Sports Facilities Fund. Where the grants are going. Can filter by sports.

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Are you trying to make a point with linking the sports fund website and no comment on it?"
No comment needed, but it's tricky to filter details on it on a phone. Some posters here query funding to different sports so it has some details, more than speculation. Shairoze Akram compiled the data with a colleague called Kieran Tuohy.

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GreenandRed (Mayo) - Posts: 8243 - 12/09/2025 10:53:01    2635815

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Replying To GreenandRed:  "You didn't think there was anything wrong with continously kicking high ball on top of the Hungary defence? We had an extra msn and didn't try to play around them, a bit of variation of tactics. What chances we created were poor ones. Ida goal was only because Hungary briefly switched off and gave him a bit of space. The manager said they did well in that second half. Nothing about how he could have had better attacking tactics or maybe he has none."
Sure our players aren't technically gifted enough to pass the ball around. The football has been coached out of them, mostly at their English clubs.
Like the old saying all politicians careers end in failure, the same can be said about Irish national team managers. There isnt a leader amongst that Irish team and no game changer.
Inevitably I think the next manager will be Roy Keane, and he won't get them qualified either.

alalalalalum (USA) - Posts: 17 - 12/09/2025 10:54:45    2635816

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Replying To FullOfPorter:  "There are no top class players of any description in the Ireland squad. Kellegher a very solid goalie. But no top clubs were banging the door down to sign him. All you have to do is look at the clubs the Irish squad play for. Barely any with experience of Champions league. Similar again for the second tier European competitions. A handful play for mid table to bottom half Premier leagure. The vast majority playing down the divisions. We aren't even getting the odd very talented individual anymore. Hungary have two lads playing for Liverpool and another few playing for RB Leipzig and Galatasary, clubs operating at a much higher level than those the Irish lads are at."
The fact that no top Premiership clubs were bid for Kelleher shows that recruitment managements do have blindspots. Kelleher is more solid and a better keeper than Onana for instance for whom Man Utd paid 51 million euro and are now offloading on loan. Arguably he is as good if not better that the keeper Utd currently have. He is also better than the Spurs keeper whom a Spurs fan I know constantly complains about (Apologies...might be a stretch to call Spurs a "top club" though!). Obviously Arsenal have 2 keepers with high reputations so they wouldnt have been in the hunt for him anyway.

PoolSturgeon (Galway) - Posts: 2077 - 12/09/2025 11:24:12    2635827

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Replying To alalalalalum:  "Sure our players aren't technically gifted enough to pass the ball around. The football has been coached out of them, mostly at their English clubs.
Like the old saying all politicians careers end in failure, the same can be said about Irish national team managers. There isnt a leader amongst that Irish team and no game changer.
Inevitably I think the next manager will be Roy Keane, and he won't get them qualified either."
You'll need better bait than that gasun.

GreenandRed (Mayo) - Posts: 8243 - 12/09/2025 12:38:48    2635847

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Replying To Lockjaw:  "I think we've been guilty of wanting the best of both worlds.
We were well set up under Trapattoni and O'Neill. Qualified for tournaments but weren't too pretty on the eye.
Then we seemed to think that we should be able to play football like Spain, and well - it was calamitous to say the least.

I really think we need to get back to brass tacks. Years ago, we still weren't as good as the European heavyweights. But they still didn't fancy playing us because they knew we'd be damn awkward and would play like our lives depended on it.

In international football, if you have even 3 or 4 lads playing at a good level you have a chance. Fill the rest of the positions with tactically disciplined players who are willing to run through walls. Wales over the last 10 or 15 years are probably the best example. They had Bale (admiteddly a generational player), Ramsey and a few others. But the rest weren't all that much better than we have now.

I'd go so far as to say go back to a simple 4-4-2, get good supply into Ferguson, with Troy Parrott poaching around."
The window for us to play a bit more of an attractive and sophisticated type of game was under Jack and maybe McCarthys first spell when we actually had some top class players on the European and world stage, and some of those in midfield positions. You think of Brady, Whelan, Keane. World class defenders as well in O'Leary and McGrath.... O'Leary was nominated for a Ballon dOr! A significant bunch of the other players would have been considered some of the best in their positions in the English league at times, Irwin, Stapleton, Aldridge. Also despite us recruiting some brilliant players not born in Ireland, most of the top talent were Irish born.

There isn't one player now with a bit of serious class. That can't be helped with the way things have deteriorated with regards to player production. More worringly is the complete lack of leadership and work ethic. Coleman seems to have been the last with those attributes. For our generation that grew up watching the Charlton team and the next good bunch of Duffer, Keane, Given, do we really have to take a good dose of the reality coffee and realise that we are so far off things in terms of player quality? Massive over reaction to young lads that come on the scene like Aaron Connolly, Ferguson and Obafemi like they were going to be the next Duff or Keane and lead us to World Cup and Euros tournaments. Mad pressure on lads who hadn't even been proven at top club level. I think you are right we need to get back to a basic set up, 4 4 2. Be disciplined and hard to beat. It won't be pretty but at elast we might be able to stay in games. If we score even better we might even get in the mix for qualification sometimes. The playing posession front foot football experiment has well and truely failed but at least it might have opened our eyes (and especially pundits and journos) to what level we really are operating at. I hate to say it but maybe we need a good dose of Big Sam!

FullOfPorter (Roscommon) - Posts: 350 - 12/09/2025 12:45:42    2635848

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Replying To PoolSturgeon:  "The fact that no top Premiership clubs were bid for Kelleher shows that recruitment managements do have blindspots. Kelleher is more solid and a better keeper than Onana for instance for whom Man Utd paid 51 million euro and are now offloading on loan. Arguably he is as good if not better that the keeper Utd currently have. He is also better than the Spurs keeper whom a Spurs fan I know constantly complains about (Apologies...might be a stretch to call Spurs a "top club" though!). Obviously Arsenal have 2 keepers with high reputations so they wouldnt have been in the hunt for him anyway."
Did the Spurs fan mention Ange Posteglou's tactics v Thomas Frank's when he talked about Vicario? Raya is a good keeper but I don't think Kepa has a high reputation. Seems happy to sit on the bench whereas Caoimhín is not.

GreenandRed (Mayo) - Posts: 8243 - 12/09/2025 12:50:46    2635851

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Replying To PoolSturgeon:  "The fact that no top Premiership clubs were bid for Kelleher shows that recruitment managements do have blindspots. Kelleher is more solid and a better keeper than Onana for instance for whom Man Utd paid 51 million euro and are now offloading on loan. Arguably he is as good if not better that the keeper Utd currently have. He is also better than the Spurs keeper whom a Spurs fan I know constantly complains about (Apologies...might be a stretch to call Spurs a "top club" though!). Obviously Arsenal have 2 keepers with high reputations so they wouldnt have been in the hunt for him anyway."
No European clubs went for him either, Leeds and West Ham were interested so you'd wonder is it blind spot or is there something else.

FullOfPorter (Roscommon) - Posts: 350 - 12/09/2025 12:59:44    2635855

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Replying To FullOfPorter:  "No European clubs went for him either, Leeds and West Ham were interested so you'd wonder is it blind spot or is there something else."
Could be salary, maybe he knew Keith Andrews would be his manager. Different clubs had different criteria for signings. He's rumoured to be on 35K per week when he was on 10K at Liverpool. Would Liverpool sell him to Manchester United, though even if they were interested? Soccer has loads of rumours and half truths especially around the transfer window so there's no way of knowing unless Caoimhín talks about it.

GreenandRed (Mayo) - Posts: 8243 - 12/09/2025 13:43:30    2635863

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Replying To GreenandRed:  "Could be salary, maybe he knew Keith Andrews would be his manager. Different clubs had different criteria for signings. He's rumoured to be on 35K per week when he was on 10K at Liverpool. Would Liverpool sell him to Manchester United, though even if they were interested? Soccer has loads of rumours and half truths especially around the transfer window so there's no way of knowing unless Caoimhín talks about it."
I'd say you could be right there. Liverpool selling to United is a big no no.

FullOfPorter (Roscommon) - Posts: 350 - 12/09/2025 16:05:11    2635897

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Replying To FullOfPorter:  "No European clubs went for him either, Leeds and West Ham were interested so you'd wonder is it blind spot or is there something else."
Perhaps there was some interest in Europe but only as a No 2. He spent long enough as a No 2 so I can see why he wouldn't want that. In fairness out of the 2 mentioned & Brentford, Brentford is the best place for him.

Square_B (Leitrim) - Posts: 1509 - 12/09/2025 17:17:40    2635906

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