Gavin Cooney got hoodwinked by @Bandage . Hasn’t a breeze
The Kenny Kids brigade/ Newstalk generation remind me of self styled “anti-imperialist” tankies.
The tankies have a particular caricature of what constitutes “imperialism”. To them “imperialism” means any country or any entity which has good relations with the USA. So in their minds the Government of Ireland is imperialist. The EU is “imperialist”.
Anybody who opposes good relations with the USA is “anti-imperialist” in their minds. Therefore Ukraine is imperialist and the fascist invaders of Russia are anti-imperialist.
In their own tiny minds, the tankies insist on “purity”. Anybody outside their caricature of “purity” is cast aside and vilified.
The Kenny’s Kids/Newstalk generation are simultaneously consumed by both a xenophobic nativism and a hopelessly deluded idea that that xenophobic nativism is in fact internationalism.
The Kenny’s Kids/Newstalk generation have a particular caricature of what they want to oppose. That is: any experienced UK football manager with a passable record in the game, ie. the exact cohort which gave us Jack Charlton, Mick McCarthy and Martin O’Neill.
They oppose pragmatic football. Therefore Giovanni Trapattoni, whose Italianness (meaning he wasn’t British) was initially acceptable to the KK/N generation, soon met with rejection by them because he played pragmatic football which suited the limitations of his players.
What the KK/N generation want in a manager is somebody PURE.
That means:
i) Somebody Irish.
ii) Somebody from the League Of Ireland.
iii) Somebody who has never managed in England.
iv) Somebody who believes Ireland have the players to play like Barcelona 2011.
Negotiable characteristics (very grudgingly):
i) If the person in question is non-Irish, they should be non-British. Preferably somebody Austrian or Croatian. Oooh, exciting.
ii) If the person really mustly has to be British, they must have no senior managerial experience (hence Lee Carsley and Anthony Barry are acceptable, but Chris Coleman and Sam Allardyce are not). Neil Lennon is NOT acceptable because he’s “British” and has won five League titles and won trebles and beaten Barcelona. Also “No to Lennon, Up the RA, Sinn Fein, fuck any Catholic from the North who ever played for the North, Ireland for the Irish.”
iii) They must be Football Manager computer game gurus.
iv) They must be EXCITING (dance, dance)
v) They must promise to play like Barcelona 2011.
Clichés such as “innovative”, "joined up thinking, “fresh”, “a new era”, “pathways”, “philosophy” must be liberally used about them.
It doesn’t matter what the results are. Purity is what matters. The purer the better. We don’t need wins playing pragmatic football under a British manager. That’s football “imperialism”. We need to go as far away as possible from that. We need football “anti-imperialism”, no matter if it means home defeats to Liechtenstein and Andorra and finishing bottom of our groups for the next decade.
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I suppose its the idea of a bunch of lads making a career out of carrying on like a guest on Revista De La Liga. It rubs me the wrong way. You Footix for the love of the game like. All those cunts need to do a 12 hour shift in Tesco once ina while.
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To paraphrase the great John Gregory; if I’d a gun I’d have shot that curly prick Early the time he said we’d no divine right to beat Luxemburg at home.
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I like Ken Early.
Ken Early’s failure to go in hard on Stephen Kenny when it was obvious there was a serious problem early in his tenure was client journalism.
I wonder what Spock’s next role will be actually.
I could see him taking over at Cork City or something.
Not even sure he’d get an English League 1 or 2 job.
His underwhelming stint at Dunfermline means he’s not rated in Scotland.
I dunno who his agent is but he could conceivably end up as one those completely random appointments. Like to a second tier club in a Nordic nation.
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In his defense, I don’t think he actually watches the games.
Ken Early sums up the current day Irish football talking heads ‘journalism’.
Constant talking. And saying nothing.
Tweets, podcasts, discussing Roy Keane’s performance as an analyst on Sky Sports.
And he in particular seems to have an arrogance, or at least a very arrogant annoying way of talking.
Fuck the lot of them.
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A brief stint in Cyprus (like Mick McCarthy) or Malta (like Roddy Collins) could be an option. I’d say he’ll go back into League of Ireland though. He could bid to stifle Shamrock Rovers dominance by making an emotional return to Dundalk. It would be a fitting riposte to the club who locked him out of a dressing room. If Stephen O’ Donnell doesn’t deliver progress this season then there may be an opening.
He’ll have a second crack at Bohs
I like Early. He sounds like an absolute tosser but I’d often find myself agreeing with what he’s said. He can take a fresh view on stuff I find.
But he, and a host of other journalists, are completely destroyed in my eyes because of the soft-touch approach they took to Kenny
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He slagged the arse off Gareth Barry there in one column years ago, a good considered EPL midfielder. I just said fuck this guy.
Ken Early is an entertainment man. He’s also a literary man.
He just works in football talk.
That combination is highly listenable and enjoyable.
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The Newstalk generation using the old reliables “progressive”, “imaginative” about Lee Carsley on the radio now.
They’re struggling with this.
How much would a Gavin Cooney or a Mike/Mick McCarthy be making per year?
I’d say the real coin is in cracking the podcasting like Woolie. I’d love to know though.
The Dundalk job is the one he will surely end up back in. Still lives locally. Be a good position for active travel.
Did he get to the Euros, Ken?
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Sutton destroyed him there
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Colemanballs out of the running.
https://x.com/dafpritchard/status/1759677896472375774?s=61&t=ywRfELeDxVX6PcFItqXOXw