“Oh no it isn’t”, says @EstebanSexface.
Spock and I are living rent free in your head mate - I make no apologies for that
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I should confirm that I’m conflicted here…I shouted “miss ya fucking cunt…booooooooooooooo” at various Spartak Moscow players when behind the goal in Celtic Park during a penalty shoot in a Champions League final preliminary round shoot out around 15 years ago. I definitely psyched out their Brazilian midfield playmaker - his effort was pitiful.
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the crowd does get to you. I was a gossun making my debut for a club on the right wing, Friday night, lights, couple hundred in the stand on my wing (right wing). I don’t see the ball for first 10 minutes, get it deep on the right, skin the left mid, skin the full back get a cross in. Centre forward misses a sitter.
Jogging back to position I hear from the shed “Who is this fella”
Next ball, skin the left full again and get to the byline. I went to cross it and my standing leg knicked the ball away and I shanked it and kicked my own ankle.
Jogging back into position, I hear “I don’t know but he is fucking useless”
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It’s really noticeable how strongly and consistently the players support the manager and want him to continue. It’s easy pick up of they’re on the fence. Says it all for me.
The real story is Irish soccer journalists nagging the players with this question
Says it all
I was at the game when we played Portugal in 2005 when they were wearing the black and white jerseys. There was a crowd of Irish supporters near us on the terrace booing Ronaldo every time he got on the ball, Liverpool supporters no doubt.
One of the stupid cunts turned around to the other after about ten minutes and asked ‘Does he play for Rangers?’.
I knew the good times were coming back when I saw James Collins’ “ring entrance” for the table tennis tournament final at the summer international meet up on Instagram. Flip flops, white dressing gown, hood up, eyes closed, lost in the moment, walking into the hotel function room along with his entourage to the haunting strains of Sinead O’Connor, while the rest of the squad were pissing themselves. Wonderfully raucous scenes that spoke of a group starting to enjoy themselves again. cc @peddlerscross
Ireland Ireland Ireland
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Yeah, and lads like @Big_Dan_Campbell who want to turf out the manager and get Mick McCarthy or some journeyman English club manager in who will “play more pragmatic football”.
I don’t know why everything has to be framed as a Mick v Steo argument.
Mick presided over what was one of the most thrilling, exhilarating periods in Irish football in his first tenure, when the sense of long term building was constant. The football was often excellent. There was never a doubt that Mick was massively emotionally invested in the job.
The problem with Mick’s second tenure was that he was given a short, finite period of time, a year basically, and as it turned out the gap between his first match and last match was just eight months. That short term, finite nature of the contract he was given dictated that his approach could only be short term.
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worst home results since 1972 mate
The Portuguese anthem is absolutely iconic.
I love the way Ronnie turns his body slightly to look down the line at his men during it.
Something else which is lost in the shuffle which people did not appreciate at the time was just how good both Denmark and Switzerland are as teams and how tough they are to play against. They mightn’t have the big names that Portugal have but they are both better than the sum of their parts and really tough teams to play against. Their form at the Euros and the current campaign bears that out - one goal conceded between them in 14 games.
I don’t think i have seen anyone saying Mick Mick should be brought back, but there was definitely an argument that he should have been allowed see out the Euro playoffs. I would also argue that we would be in a much healthier position if Kenny had stayed with the under 21s and got them to back to back European Championships and was about to step into the senior job at the start of 2022 with a massive amount of goodwill for him.
For all this talk of change, the team last night had a large core of 29 year old + players playing who were the core of the last group. Funny that @glasagusban is making comments about pragmatic football when this irish team under Kenny has become a more pragmatic under Kenny compared to his first 10 games in charge. Surprise, surprise the performances and results picked up too.
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Bruno was so pissed off he wasn’t getting booed like Ronaldo that he refused to touch the ball for 75 minutes
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The performance against Denmark in Mick’s last game was at least as good as last night’s performance.
The poor performances were against the weaker teams in Mick’s reign and similar in Spock’s reign so far
In fairness Gibraltar away was an utter eye sore but it was the first game and they had a couple of days prep before playing on an astro pitch in a wind tunnel.
The performance at home to Georgia a few days later was an excellent front foot performance. The Georgia and Switzerland away games we never really got going and really missed David McGoldrick. But as Sweden found out last night and Scotland did in Euro 2016 qualifying Tbilisi can be a very tough spot when you need a result.
While last night was a grand game and performance, it had a bit of an exhibition game feel to it whereas the night against the Danes in 2019 really, really meant something.
I’d rate the Danish performance miles ahead of last night.
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The Ratoath footix didn’t boo him as they only watch matches between the Big Six and didn’t realise he played for Manchester United.
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I wouldn’t agree @Cheasty that the booing affected Ronaldo at all. He’s booed all the time and has played in far worse atmospheres than a no consequences qualifier like last night. I thought he played better as it went on and was just pissed that when he went centre forward they only managed a cross or two towards him. His movement was deadly to watch, but was heavily toward getting himself a header.
Is Spock the only manager who can play “progressive football” around? Is there one out there who could do that AND manage to finish ahead of Luxembourg in a group?