Staunton excluded on the grounds of gross incompetence. I’d a bit of time for Kerr but he was never confident enought to attack teams which was the undoing of him. I think he thought the media were on his back from the start and he just got too defensive all the time.
McCarthy had his bad days but at least we had a couple of cracking results under him and the team did appear to be motivated which is more than can be said about them at the moment.
When McCarthy left the post I don’t think I’d have believed that he’d have gone on to record the worst managerial record in the “history of the Premiership” and even then I’d still prefer him to the two lads who succeeded him.
McCarthy ten times out of ten. We finished second in every qualifying group under Mick and were never out of contention going into the final game. Had his mistakes, 3 at the back, Roy Keane as a sweeper etc. but we had some cracking wins too - beating Croatia (then the 3rd best team in the World) at home, beating Yugoslavia at home, obviously beating the Dutch at home. I’d love to have him back to be honest.
A passionate Irish man too who missed his own brothers wedding for a nothing friendly.
McCarthy as well - he was pushed out of the job by Keane
Got us to World Cup in a group with Portugal and Holland without losing a match and got us to play offs for the other tournaments (I would take this now)
Without Keane he wouldn’t have been to that world cup. I’d still have him though, with Kerr as his number 2. Combining McCarthy’s motivation with Kerr’s preparation.
I like Stan, think he’s getting a horrendous time from the gutter press but he’s completely out of his depth. Poor coont.
Staunton looks like he’s hating it now. Did you hear the press conference with him today? He went in with the intention of cutting it short so he started off with the injury announcements and then left after that - which he’ll be slaughtered for tomorrow. The interesting thing was though at the start when he’s just giving the news on the injuries you can hear how defensive he is in the tone of his voice. He’s afraid of getting criticised - and if you can’t handle the media you’ll fail.
McCarthy with Kerr as #2 is a cracking shout. Ireland have never really had a decent #2. McDonald seems shit, Setters was a joke, Ian Evans - who the fuck? Hughton was the best of a bad lot.
As much as i hate McCarthy he was a positive God compared to the other two. I wonder does he realise that a lot of his harshest critics at the time (anonymous people on internet message boards) are now almost pining for his return. It would be interesting to see him at the helm again purely to see if he’s learned anything from previous mistakes, and to see the Keane row flare up again when he omits some random journeyman from Cork.
I don’t have any coaching badges but I’d feel confident of doing a better job than any of the 3 mentioned. I’d pick McCarthy if I had to choose between the 3 charlatans though. I find it funny that Kerr has a column in The Times where he criticises Staunton all the time considering what an abject failure he was in the job.
How can it be so difficult to answer a few questions?
Even at the very start of his reign he was irrationally defensive when dealing with the media. Why are football managers generally so suspicious and confrontational with the media? Sure there’s a lot of clowns in the media but it’s part and parcel of the job and you owe to your supporters to communicate team news to them via the media.
If he can’t even handle a few basic questions about the upcoming game then he has no business being in the job. And not as if he can say ‘hey, judge me by my results on the pitch only’ because they are gash also.
It was an awful performance and it really won’t help his perception with the media at all - which will ultimately fuel his standing with the general public.
It’s a complete lack of experience and credentials for the job that’s tearing him apart. He’s clearly never given press conferences before so he starts to panic when he’s asked questions.