the fact that our national team will not again qualify for a tournament of note in the foreseeable future is due to the state of the game in England. Whilst us Irish always find a way of blaming our neighbours i believe this to be true. In 1988 the old division one was dominated by players from UK and Ireland. So all the top british clubs would trawl ireland for the top talent, resulting in many of our lads playing for the top teams over there. At one stage the all conquering liverpool team had stan, ray and ronnie whelan in it, aldo aswell i think. my point is that the british clubs are not trawling through ireland as much anymore, the game over there is far more globalised and not just reliant on the talent from the UK and Ire. Thus some youngsters who in generations past may have been given an opportunity of professional football are not been given such a chance, the clubs instead pursue the various different leagues. iâd like to see the statistic of irish youngsters taken on trial or offered contracts now than in the 80s or early 90s. think itâd be interesting and would show that less and less of our lads are being offered a chance at pro football. we just donât have the numbers to chose from, not enough of our guys are playing the top level and only the best will whereas in eras gone some average players could also have played a decent standard in britain and the step up to international level wouldnât have been so great.
I was gutted after the game, obviously after the Cyprus debacle the performance against the Czechs looked good but weâre forgetting that this is a team that crashed out in the first round of the World Cup and lost their best player since then, to make an attempt at a lap of honour at the finish like the players did was pathetic. To put it simply we took one point from six in our most recent games, if you reverse the results we got (i.e. we drew with Cyprus and lost to the Czechs) Staunton would more than likely be down the job centre today. Since the 4-2 defeat in Moscow and the 2-1 defeat to the Swiss in Dublin in Autumn 2002 I genuinely think there has been something seriously wrong within the Irish camp, the players just arenât arsed. Steven Carr is a prime example of this, I know heâs had a serious injury but even still - he looks like he couldnât give a fk. I honestly think it was a simple as fearing Roy Keane that drove them on! Someone is bound to come back at me saying we put in a good display at the 2002 World Cup without Keane but I would put that down to the collective trauma that bonded the squad following the Keane/McCarthy eruption. The players are just a reflection of the way Irish society has gone though, over paid, over pampered and too self interested. I know alot of people gave Stan abuse for his part in the current shambolic state we find ourselves, however I would lay equal blame at the feet of the players. No ambition, no drive, no desire - Duffâs move to Newcastle is a prime example of this. Stay at Chelsea and fight for your fking place!
Basically we have two problems at the moment, the players arenât arsed and I wouldnât leave Stan in charge of my car if I was going on holidays, never mind my national team. I just wish one of the Irish âoligarchsâ would put their hand in their pockets like Roman has done for Russia and allow us to get a top class coach, at the moment weâre way off the ace as regards pay (AFAIK Stan earns 600k - Hiddink, who has been top of my wishlist for a long time, earns at least $3m with Russia). Christ Iâd even pay a tax. As things stand - Iâm in my mid 20âs and havenât been to a major finals to see my team play, I could very well be over the hill with a wife, kids and mortgage to pay next time we get there, that is a tragedy to great to contemplate.
Youâre bang on in the assumption that there are far fewer contracts being offered to Irish kids these days. More of them are going over later because English clubs have stopped offering proper terms to Irish kids. Years ago they got a shit allowance. Then with the Sky money they started giving kids a few hundred quid a week. Soon realised that the kids had no motivation to succeed anymore so most of the clubs have cut back severely on the contracts they are offering to youth players.
Until thereâs a proper alternative system for Irish youngsers though (i.e. a proper domestic structure) there wonât be any improvement to the national team as a result.
It still doesnât excuse the lame performances weâve had to put up with though. The guys who are there now are failing because of an inept coach and a brutal lack of desire or ambition.
You are correct on all counts there Bhoy, the combination of signing youngsters from abroad like Arsenal have been doing and signing experienced proâs on the cheap like Bolton have been doing has hugely decreased the chances for any young Irish kid trying to make it across the water. The best route forward is to develop the Eircom league as much as possible to give guys a chance to play some football over here before going across the channel, a la Kevin Doyle. At the moment the standard is still pretty poor in my opinion, have been to a good few League One games over the past two or three seasons and I reckon that the best Eircom League teams would struggle in it. In saying that, we are moving in the right direction on that front, however I think that it will be a 25 year solution, very slow and painful.
No Eircom League fan likes to hear this but the structures have to be changed if there is any chance for the league to become successful. There are no demographic reasons why the Eircom League canât be similar to the Scottish league or similar, if it was developed correctly. The problem lies with building fan bases to generate cash to raise the standard.
There are too many clubs in Dublin at the moment, with old British army and parochial affiliations. The nearest club to me are Shelbourne, who play in Fairview, are from Ringsend and want to move to Swords. They have hardly any fans and I have no affiliation with them. Add in Bohemians (another British army club about to move), Shamrock Rovers (who are still waiting on Tallaght), St Patâs (who at least have a permanent base), UCD, Dublin City (couldnât hack it), Bray and thereâs too many clubs fighting for loyalties. In spite of the âshame of sectarianismâ the religious divide has obviously sustained the growth of Celtic and Rangers in Glasgow as a fulcrum for particular population groups.
The domestic league here needs a huge overhaul with a decent spread of clubs around population centres and efforts to create bonds between the population and their local club. Itâs not helped when every league table in the Eircom Leagueâs existence has an asterix after the names of a couple of clubs to explain they have been deducted points.
Bit waffly this post but the point is the administration of the game here is a mess and I donât think reform will wash. I think they need to build the whole thing from scratch again, like Wales did with their rugby clubs. Itâs painful but the only way to make the league viable.