A decent striker and a bit of luck go a long long way at international level.
Roy Keane was sent home by McCarthy. This is a fact.
McCarthy proceeded to play extra time against Spain not knowing the Spanish were down to 10 and he is the hero here for a few lads.
I’d say some lads are painfully ashamed of being Irish
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Lads around here don’t like facts.
The West Brit type lads will be on to say but but but he called Big Mick a cunt. Big Mick has been called and said worse himself.
Big Mick and the FAI made a clean fuck of the preparation and Big Mick couldn’t handle being called on it
A good manager wouldn’t have had such a shit setup in Saipan. A good manager wouldn’t have called a press embargo when the players had so much free time.
A good manager wouldn’t have called a squad meeting basically looking for support when what he knew would happen, happened exactly. A good manager would have had a one on one and talked the situation down, with his captain.
Roy Keane was being a captain. McCarthy was being a sneak
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You know somebody is badly rattled when they have to wheel out the old classic “West Brit”.
Mick McCarthy never shirked a tackle or a challenge in his life and never did so while playing or managing Ireland. As a servant to Irish football, somebody who always gave their all, despite their limitations, there are few if any finer.
Keane as we all know did shirk his responsibilities. He left his team in the lurch in Iran and he did so again in Saipan. It was his choice to go postal.
Had he had either the decency or the pragmatism to apologise, Mick would have taken him back in a heartbeat.
Keane had neither of those things. It was his loss. The rest of the players demonstrated that the notion of it being a one man team was baloney. They played for their country. Keane didn’t.
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You have to put your ego to the side though. He may have thought he was doing what was best for his country by demanding higher standards and sticking to his principals. But it’s a World Cup and the honour of captaining or just playing for your country there should take a precedence to everything else. I’d say he regretted it greatly. It was a sad state of affairs that he didn’t play. I’d imagine he was in turmoil for most of that summer, albeit he had the his sizeable club salary to numb the pain to some extent.
As @Cheasty mentioned the refusal to play in that tricky game in Tehran was a black mark against him too. You needed a fearless bastard in midfield in an intimidating venue like that. He was probably too loyal to Fergie back in Manchester at times, understandable in a way because he obviously viewed him as a significantly superior manager to Big Mick but Fergie wasn’t long tossing him to the side a few years later.
he was injured. He hadn’t played for the bones of a month before the first leg, he played and the leg didn’t react well. Ferguson and McCarthy agreed he wouldn’t play the second leg. I fail to see how that’s Keane’s fault
“Roy’s knee stiffened up considerably this morning. It was obvious he would not be able to play two games in five days and we had no choice but to send him back to his club”.
A managers job is to manage his players.
Mick couldn’t handle one of the best players in the World and one of the biggest personalities in the game.
Roy Keane shouldn’t have played in the first leg against Iran but did so against medical and Ferguson’s wishes
Keane played 90 minutes for Manchester United against Leicester in the Premier League at Old Trafford 48 hours after Ireland’s play-off in Tehran.
The knee must have miraculously unstiffened.
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We’ll get to here eventually
Brady and Hendrick were in very good form. McCarthy had a great Euros. I think the midfield was better, significantly in 2016. The back 4/5 is potentially better, significantly, now and the front 2/3 would be too. Is soccer in general better now or 5/6 years ago would be the question then in order to accurately compare it
That’s a fair enough analysis I’d say. See also his exit from man united and incredibly bitter grudge against Ferguson. He is what he is though and can be a very likeable fella a lot of the time with a great line in self deprecating wit.
He can to be fair but he’s living a lie about Saipan and it’ll eat him up for the rest of his life.
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Full back area is becoming a big problem for us. Ralston and Taylor Scotland’s 3rd choice full backs would start for Ireland in my opinion.
It is an issue but the solutions are there.
The Ole Ole Ole crowd are as bad as the English fans. Using 1966 as a benchmark “we should be in world cup finals”, the Ole Oles still think it’s 1990.
Who are the ole ole crowd here, the spock fan boys or the normal people
the normal people. spock fan boys will leave him be and potter away with what he has. International football is fairly poor fare these days anyhow.