It was good alright. No Irish or English interviews though. Jesus but Schmeichel had some rubbish technic for some of the goals he let in.
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brought football to the people, had a degree of influence in UEFA never before seen ( akin to lads from qatar in FIFA or “dan” in boxing but w/o the cash) where he had this country being part of a european finals for the the first and w/o him the last time ever, had us put into a group with gibralter and denmark instead of azerbaijan , holland and germany, and also if he was still here you’d be damn sure that the fixtures would be organised so that kenny would have the 6 nations league friendlies to prepare for the slovakia game - quinn will probably give those slovak cunts a goal start and if they qualify shift the games next year to bratislava citing concerns social distancing or some shite
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O’Neill’s problem as well was he went to war with the press, Kerr almost did the same thing you know
vincent hogan had a decent piece ( and he is good now , he’s also not a part of that wanderly wagon of irish football “hacks”) and he compiled the relationship between the press and managers over the years.
he cited a huge pissup thrown on by the FAI for players and media after they arrived in Saipan, playing table football with Jack in a boozer before the holland game in 1995- mick, jack were media darlings - Trapp couldnt speak thellanguage and O Neill from very early on went to war, he only ever gave an interview to one irish journo and that was Kimmage, but he cosyed up to the english media a lot.
Now, the fawning around stephen kenny is a bit twee, he is unproven here totally and if he starts getting short with the boys at the pre match i dont know will they still be rolling out those pieces.
you see Kenny is on first name personal terms with the lot of them- for various reasons i was in israel in 2016 at wedding and i so happened to be in dundalk hotel in netanya the day before the game - kenny was sat in the lobby shooting the breeze with boys in their shorts - now this could turn but i still of am the opinion it could be a while before the coverage of kenny is any way objective
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I’d like to see Kenny do well but you are right that it is too early to judge.
Is it not a positive thing that the FAI have gone down the road of hiring a man who has earned his stripes in the domestic game rather than handing some washed up EPL manager like Allardyce or Pardew an easy pay cheque? OK it didn’t really work out with Kerr but it may be worth the gamble
Time will tell .
O’Neill’s problem was that he went into the second half against Denmark without a midfield. Up until then, he had done alright but I’d say the players lost respect for him after that
oh i want to do him do well, and i think its a good appointment tbh but i just hope that the coverage in the media is objective as the various campaigns unfold
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Yeah that was a shambles. In fairness we were in big trouble and he rolled the dice but it didn’t pay off and, whatever about the players, he lost the media and the fans then.
Though Mickee is right - he had a poor relationship with the media throughout. A media that had become emboldened during the Trap era and were annointing heroes of their own - some worthy enough like Wes (though overblown); some ridiculous (like Hunt).
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He is also a bit of a prick which didn’t help
Ah he’s a different character. But he rubbed people up the wrong way. If Tony interviewed me after a TFK AFC game back in the day I’d have felt his questions were beneath me.
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I’d agree with that on O’Neill. His tenure up until half an hour into the Danish game stands up well to any Irish manager.
He went for bust at half time and it backfired spectacularly but at least he tried. I wouldn’t hold that against him.
There was no way back though after it and he should have resigned that winter. When a manager loses the players/fans/media the game is up.
Similar to Mick Ryan with the Tipp hurlers in 2018.
Yeah O’Neill presided over wins against Germany and Italy (rotated squad), as well as away wins against Austria and Wales. He had done a solid job up until that infamous 1-5 against Denmark.
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I always considered O’Neill a lucky general. I thought we were pretty mediocre in our performances for the WC 2018 qualifiers aside from the performance away to Austria. Two points from 9 at home to Wales, Austria and Serbia and a good few flat performances away from home. The results weren’t terrible but we very much looked like a side who lacked any real purpose or plan and when luck failed us against Denmark and we had to take the game to them we were dismantled. Results far exceeded performances and that was never going to last
Even the Euro 2016 qualification relied on the scots capitulating with qualification in their own hands and us somehow getting 4 points off Germany despite being utterly outclassed by them both days.
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We’ve been rubbish for the last 10 years to be fair. O Neill was poor but trapatoni was the pits for me. Depressing times.
Indeed . Wasted years with all the players we had playing at champions league level
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We could still pass the ball surely better than the likes of Georgia, Kazakhstan etc.
Georgia are a decent side we have been cursed to draw them as 4th seeds in our last few qualifying groups along with the Danes.
A much nicer 4th seed to draw than Scotland (2016 qualifiers) or Serbia (2018 qualifiers).
Are the up and coming U21 generation as good as the media would have you believe? Be great to have an exciting team to follow in the next few years.
I think molumby will be a star, Parrott too hopefully. I reckon James McCarthy will definetely come back in. Could be McCarthy, molumby and Hendrick 3 in midfield maybe.
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