We are the worst team in the competition. Except maybe for Albania.
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I donât have a simple answer.
It would be great to have a more competitive League of Ireland. But attendances at the LOI per capita are about average in a European context. Itâs just not that attractive a league given our population, the competition on our doorstep and its unimpressive history.
That sort of constraint isnât holding back Wales or the six counties at the moment, though itâs always tempting to read too much into short-term results.
Iâm all for investment in grass roots, for more astro pitches, for more qualified coaches at youth level etc. But itâs inevitable with our playing population that we will continue to lose our best players abroad. I think weâre blinded by the likes of Scotland who are an absolute anomaly in terms of sustaining a decent league with a small population. Scotland, Cyprus and the Faroes are outliers in terms of getting people to games. Itâs not a model that we can expect to replicate.
In terms of short term results Iâd imagine there must be potential in tapping into the population in the US and getting Irish qualified players from a growing league there. Longer term we need to keep producing players at underage level but trying to find alternative routes to professionalism for them rather than being content being a sub in England. Unfortunately money makes that extremely difficult to achieve.
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The Italians are an elite tournament team mate, I fear itâll be similar to 2012 no matter who they put out.
We were shocking todayâŚevery player was beaten by their Belgian counterpart. Thought Randolph even was poor for the 2nd goal.
MARTIN OâNEILL SUGGESTED Irelandâs players let the occasion get to them to a degree today, as he believes ânervesâ were to blame for the sideâs failure to keep the ball.
We could also look at what Belgium have done over the last 10 yearsâŚtheyâre not a traditional power in European football by any means and their population isnât a world away from our own at 11 million or so.
Iâm not aware of the full ins and outs of it, but I believe their young players are staying in Belgium until theyâre at least 18/19 and getting a good education while playing football.
Could be something worth considering. They have got something very right, be it coaching or whatever.
Weâre well up there, no doubt about that, but we were better than Sweden and this Italian team is very limited, I donât expect us to beat or even draw with them but it wonât be as difficult as todayâs game.
A lot of it is coaching. Would be interested in knowing what the participation rates are at schoolboy level though. A lot of kids are being lost to the internet there days, combined with the competition from other sports. Maybe the immigrants will give us a decent ball playing side in 10-15 years.
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11 million is frankly a huge difference over our population. Theyâre also helped by their colonial past which has brought in higher immigration. Ireland might be better placed now in bringing in a larger and more diverse population but weâll never catch up with a colonial pest like Belgium in that regard.
That 11m population helps to sustain a domestic league that isnât hugely appealing outside of Belgium but can retain a healthy quotient of players through their teens. They also have no single dominant competitor. They lose players to France, Germany, Netherlands and now England. They have their own cultural differences which dictate attractions to other neighbouring leagues but they arenât dwarfed by a neighbouring country with the same language as them but more spending power than any other league by a country mile.
Belgium are the flavour of the month and understandably so. But weâve been copying a Dutch model that was hugely successful for a long time and itâs hard to know if itâs broken or not. Certainly it isnât helped by the money from England but the FAI canât do a thing about that. They can only work with players under 16. Even if we got our league up to Scotland standards, which would be a really remarkable achievement given Scotland top European rankings in getting people to watch domestic football, we would still lose most of our top players to England at 16. It would be far better if more players stayed and if other players went to different countries where they might develop better technically and would have less competition for players but when the money is so different itâs an impossible battle to win.
If we end this tournament being about as good as Sweden then that will be disappointing but itâs punching at or above our weight.
You donât see kids playing out on the green half as much as they used to even 20 years ago. Thatâs where you develop your football skills starting offâŚyou know 3 goals in with the two jumpers down or whateverâŚnowadays kids are staying inside playing Fifa on the playstation.
Thatâs is an issue your right there.
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Not sure if your tongue is a little bit in your cheek but itâs a valid point, itâs a surprise that thereâs any decent young lads at all playing these days, it goes to show that thereâs some good coaching going on because you never see young fellas playing on the green areas around Limerick anyway, we did fuck all else.
I assume itâs an issue all over the world though.
Thatâs how you learn to be comfortable on the ball.
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Yes, I said it on this thread before the game pal.
Edited to remove abuse of Rocko.
Agreed pal, I used to play ball for 5 or 6 hours with the neighbors who were a couple of years older and stronger at the time when I was a young lad and it made me a far better player then at lunchtime in primary school. Could be 7 of us playing 3 on 4 with fly keepers and youâd be entertained for the whole afternoon.
Thatâs where you develop your love for the game, and itâs lacking nowadays in neighbourhoods for whatever reason.
No one is born naturally comfortable on the ball, but theyâre never going to improve playing the game on a television screen like kids are nowadays.
Clubs can only do so much @backinatracksuit is right.
My lads train three days a week with the club and a match at weekends. They wouldnât look at a football any other time.
Fairplay to you for getting them to training 3 times a week and a match at the weekends, but if they were playing with their mates outside even casually kicking around the ball for an hour every other evening, theyâd be better players again for it guaranteed.
I know. But they couldnât be arsed.
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Thatâs the way it has gone across the board mate. Too many distractions.
I was sitting on the 18 yard line in the upper tier of the stand at the end where Belgium scored their goals and specifically watched James McCarthy for the 40 seconds or so leading up to the second goal. He looked like a player who wasnât bothering his arse. It was nice to make the comment âMcCarthy not bothering his arse to get back again, the lazy cuntâ to the person beside me, and to be proven right five seconds later.
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Small victories I guess
No 2nd or 3rd generation Irish-American is going to declare for Ireland over the US, unless they are utter shite and canât make the US squad. And they arenât exactly churning out quality at the moment. Their current squad is reliant on several German born rejects and 4 or 5 lads that played underage for Mexico but couldnât make the Mexican senior side.