Ah what are you doing Ben. You watched the match with me, you must have an opinion in the game.
Delaney out.
I was as disappointed as anyone with Aiden’s display last night as I’ve seen what a good player he is when he’s playing confidently in a professional set up. That said I don’t think it’s fair to lay the blame with a 21 year old playing out of position, and that goes for Stephen Kelly too.
There are better players than Aiden McGeady who never had the best of international careers but he’s got time on his side to improve on what’s been a pretty inauspicious start to his own one.
As for his two performances in the last week - he’s been well below par while playing in a position he’s unsure off, when asked to do a role he’s not used to and this in a struggling side when he’s less than 10 caps himself too so it’s naturally going to be difficult to bed in and look the part straight away.
And when you have a totally incompetent manager and a shambolic set up then it makes it exceptionally difficult.
The young guy is always going to get the sharp end of the flak and I think the lads on RTE singled him out a bit too much as an easy target. And in fairness they’re not going to slaughter the English based players and then turn around and say, ‘Join us on Saturday night for our coverage of The English Premiership, the best league in the world.’
And Flano, I wasn’t overly impressed with his display at Falkirk last month to be honest. We’ll see if he’s selected for Caley Thistle on Saturday.
I didn’t know Aiden had been singled out by the rte lads. I would like to see him do well to be honest. I have previously seen rare glimpses of what he can do. But he has been utter sh!te in the Ireland games.
I’m not going to get into the FAI and Stan debacle, everyone on here knows what needs to be done.
Delaney out.
The FAI are sticking with Stan! I think John Delaney expects us to win the World Cup in the next 10 years judging by his comparison with the French.
http://www.fai.ie/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2407
FAI officials believe that the senior international squad is making progress despite last nights disappointing result in Prague against the Czech Republic. Ireland lost 1-0 and saw control of their Euro 2008 qualification hopes slip out of their hands.
Speaking to www.fai.ie, FAI President David Blood said: Last nights defeat was the first in ten games and I thought that the team deserved something for their display. They showed great character to recover from the setback of conceding an early goal and came close to equalising on several occasions.
Like everybody else, the FAI is disappointed with the result in Prague but the performance offers a lot of hope for the future. Stephen, his backroom team and the players must continue the work they are doing.
The senior international team is in transition. In the nine games we have played in this campaign Stephen has used 32 players which is well above the average of 21 over the previous ten campaigns. In addition 15 players have been given their first taste of competitive action and I have no doubt more will follow in the remaining three games.
Stephen is a young manager but he has already put his stamp on the squad and has been instrumental in fast-tracking young emerging talent through the ranks.
While qualification for Euro 2008 is now out of our own control we still want to finish as high as possible in the group and also improve our seeding for the 2010 World Cup campaign ahead of the draw on November 25.
Chief Executive John Delaney said the association is firmly focused on ensuring that future transition periods will not require the type of surgery currently being performed by Staunton
We are taking steps to ensure that we improve the conveyor belt of future talent coming through to our senior international team with the introduction of the Emerging Talent and High Performance Programmes and the creation of a National Academy at Abbotstown. The results of that investment wont reap dividends immediately but will over the medium to long term…
Despite their result last night, people now look on France as a footballing power and nobody refers to the wilderness years of French football when, after winning the European Championships in 1984 and finishing fourth in the 1982 World Cup and third in the 1986 World Cup, they failed to qualify for Euro 88, Italia 90, and US 94. They did qualify for Euro 92 but failed to win a game in the group stages.
However, during that period they ploughed significant resources into the technical side of their game and have qualified for every tournament over the past ten years, winning the World Cup in 98 and Euro 2000 as well as finishing runners-up in the 2006 World Cup and reaching the semi-finals of Euro 96.
The French Federation invested resources in the development of elite players and FAI is mirroring that strategy even though we are working off a much smaller population base and, therefore, reservoir of talent. We will spend 10m this year on our Development Plan and in the past eight years we have grown our coaching staff from two employees to over 80 today with more on the way.
In addition to Emerging Talent and High Performance we also have development strategies for other key areas of our game while more, such as the review of the amateur and schoolboys game, are currently being devised.
We are putting more coaches on the ground to work on the development of the game and our players. The FAI is determined that we improve our success rate in qualifying for major tournaments but the required level of success is created by hard work and patience and not by waving a magic wand.
We are already making huge progress on key projects such as the construction of the New Stadium and the establishment of new headquarters for the association at Abbotstown as well as focusing on our core business of fostering and promoting the game at all levels. We have over 450,000 participants and are working hard to improve every aspect of the game. We have made tremendous strides over the past two years across the game and are determined to continue to build the game for the future.
Missed the Ireland game because I was away but managed to see France v Scotland and most of the goals from the games around Europe.
The Scots were excellent in Paris. McLeish had his failings at Rangers but he had a tendency to do well in European ties which suggests he has some tactical nous, he just couldn’t get consistency in the SPL. They played 4-5-1 with McFadden leading the line superbly and a midfield of McCullough, Ferguson, Hartley, Pearson, Brown who were more than a match for the French. I’ve a fear of Brown getting his legs broken soon though. He was annoying them all night not through anything dirty but just being tough in every challenge and standing up to them. Nasri came on and went straight for Brown with the studs and could have done huge damage.
Turkey v Hungary was a laugh. At nil all Turkey conceded a dubious free. The ball was switched quickly to Gera who is hacked down in the box but Stuart Dougal sent Gera off for diving.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pAImAWPYyg
He’s scythed down completely there. Stuart Dougal is some fooking clown.
Delaney is just an easy target for a lazy, past it journalist.
The decisions to take control of the League of Ireland, establish the Setanta Cup, increase television exposure and switch to summer football have all come under Delaney’s watch.
I believe crowds may be down slightly (I’m not certain about this) but in the long run television exposure is the only way to grow the senior game here. The standard is definitely better than it has been for some time.
Delaney never gets any credit for the positive work he does.
Setanta established the Setanta Cup, it was little or nothing to do with Delaney - he just didn’t object and how could he with the money on offer?
The decision to take control of the League of Ireland needed to be done but it will only be a worthwhile move if something actually changes. There’s no point in just changing administrators if it doesn’t lead to an improvement in the league and there has been no evidence of that so far.
id say that there is already an improvement with the league- clubs are now better run & we havent had the situation that we had previously where teams turned up for matches & there are no referrees appointed to the game - stadiums are getting better -