Republic of Ireland Team 2023/24 [old thread]

It won't be Sagnol now. Unless he absolutely shites the bed this summer.

rather than making it up, they’ve just been guilty of over sharing, which has only served to craft a rod for their own back. The actual deadline is and has always been the September competitive games. Sooner would have been lovely and helpful, but that’s when the person HAS to be in place.

I think they felt like they had to chase positive attention so whenever they got close to agreement they set these expectations of ‘good news soon’, but did it before they had everything locked in, so just ended up looking dumb. I don’t particularly have an issue with how the process itself has gone - they’ve clearly been trying, and I appreciate making the harder decision of holding out for the best they can get over placating people with an inferior appointment - but their communication has been woeful.

The Senior Manager should have **** all to do with youth development. This is all unnecessarily silly.

If they don’t appoint someone until September they’ll be “holding out” for around 9 months since Kenny’s last game in November 2023 and it was well known that Kenny was on the way out a long time before that. Their “process” is nonsense. The stipulations that they are putting on the job are ridiculous, the candidate must have both club and international experience and also will have a role working with youth team managers. They’re “holding out” because they’ve made a mess of the “process”. They’re a shambles.

It's a leap. To blame the shenanigans and mismanagement of the last 40 or 50 years in particular on the GAA, you are stretching the hatred of the gealic games thin there, all we need now is blame the Catholic Church and Fianna Fail and you have the full set.

There has been plenty of money put into soccer in my lifetime, and invariably it's been pi55ed away.

I know two lads who got involved in a LOI club about 25 years ago. The club never had tuppence. They were bust (again), they got involved as chairmen, and brought a few more from about the town involved. Thay couldn't believe within months how much money was actually available. Queue several years of success, a new stadium, national honours and European football, before it eventually petered out and the group moved on. Within a year or two, the mlne9was all gone, and the club was running hand to mouth again. Something in soccer in this country attracts charletans and chancers, and until that is sorted, and the culture changes, no government money should really be committed to the Fai. (not that the government can't waste money as well....)

if money is such a constraint, why are we applying stipulations to the role around youth involvement?

If money is the issue, the best thing we can do is appoint the most pragmatic manager possible who can take the senior pool and win a couple of **** games.

Because we need someone to look after the youth side of the game and we don't have the money to get someone to do it as a stand alone job. The cheapest solution is to get the manager to do it for "free".

In a proper function football association they would be separate. But the problem is the FAI isn't one. Ultimately the job of the Senior Manager will be what's written in his contract and what the FAI tell him.

At this rate I'll be surprised if JoS isn't in the role full time in September anyway.

Not blaming GAA at all, just stating a fact that historically FAI have always been and will always play second fiddle to GAA both from Finance, Admin and in every aspect really.

Sure there's a pile of posters here that would have it solved in a day. Manager picked, below market rates and information delivered to the punters liking . 😉

I agree. It’s ridiculous. There’s a few posters here trying to make out that it makes little difference to throw a manager in at the deep end into a competitive fixture as opposed to giving that manager a couple of friendlies to have time to acclimatise to the job and familiarise himself with the players. Sometimes it can’t be helped but in this situation the FAI have had months to make an appointment and to have the time to give the new manager those friendly games to bed into the job.

There’s no excuse for it, it’s absolutely shambolic and posters on this thread arguing to the contrary are either being contrary for the sake of it or perhaps just don’t know anything at all about what they’re talking about.

I think you might have got to the kernel of the problem. It’s the FAI that’s the problem. Delaney was corrupt but he knew what he wanted in a manager and was able to source money from benefactors to pay the manager. He made a mess of other aspects of the job like development and promoting the league of Ireland.

This current FAI really seem to be in over their heads. Development of the game and promoting the domestic league is vital but it’s a separate job from being the national team manager.

Integrating the senior men’s team with the youth set up to impose a general style of play is perhaps a long term project but right now we just need a decent experienced manager for the senior men’s team. That in house interview that Canham gave when he was talking gibberish about they were after a manager with club and international experience and who would oversee youth set ups was very concerning. The guy didn’t sound like he knew what he wanted or was talking about.

I’d like to see him interviewed by a real journalist who might ask him to explain himself and these difficult conditions they appear to have imposed on the senior managers role. I suspect that he won’t be able to explain himself and that a guy like him sitting in that position is a real problem that needs to be removed before other issues like appointing a manager for the senior men’s team is addressed.

Get him out. Get someone with some common sense in there and appoint a manager for the friendly games in June.

The FAI needs to be disbanded and the quicker the better