Republic of Ireland Team 2023/24 [old thread]

They can take their time and appoint someone for June. They have the rest of April and May to find a decent manager. They’ve been spending since last November and before that because everyone knew Stephen Kenny was gone at the end of the last campaign looking for a manager. It’s hardly a rushed job. I don’t believe they’ll have better candidates at the end of the Euros. Wouldn’t surprise me if they end up appointing O’Shea at the end of August that’s if he doesn’t tell them to stick it when they get around to asking him to continue to caretake. I think he should say to them if you want me to continue give me a contract. At this stage they may not get anyone better.

The FAI haven’t a clue what they’re doing

It's the "could become available" bit that I would take issue with. All the FAIs preferred candidates have turned it down (Carsley,Poyet and Barry).

Who are we hoping becomes available? Not a decent Championship manager because we won't get them. We don't want the likes of Bruce, Lennon and Duff who would take it.

Is the hope Sagnol has a stinker of a Euros with Georgia and then we see if he fancies it? Because if Georgia have a strong showing he'll move out of our orbit.

It's easy to see why the FAI went years without a main sponsor for the international team.

The comments from a decade ago? Think that was all cleared up and clarified back then, after the comments were misinterpreted, with him talking about players coming from some African leagues being good physically and technically, but hadn't been trained tactically to the level needed in the top leagues (same could perhaps be said of a lot of our own academies). The way he phrased it initially was dumb, but the explanation after seems plausible enough, and it doesn't seem to have hung around him too much over the last 10 years.

The FAI's problem is that nobody wants the job!

There are so many other options out there for potential candidates to go for they are waiting for something more promising.

It's looking like John O'Shea is available again as a temporary manager to see the team and any friendly fixtures through for 2024. The FAI know he will jump at the option, so they will plough along hoping someone else takes a gamble on the Ireland position before giving it to O'Shea.

😕

Man united and Ralf rangnick springs to mind

I thought they’d eventually just give it to O’Shea given they had nobody else and he is reasonably popular. If only just to end the circus.

But at a certain point, Canham had to choose between just appointing O’Shea or making a public apology for the drawn out process and the nonsense he spouted - and he opted for the apology.

If the FAI's insistence on these alleged conditions is impeding an appointment then they should consider ditching them.

But Jesus Christ, do you have a source for that waffle in the latter part of your post?

Only problem there, certain board members did'nt want Lennon!

We already have a DOF so doubt the FAI are wanting their new manager to be a coach/DOF.

I wouldn't say it's a strange choice to want your senior manager to have input into youth matters. Basically the goal is developing players for the senior team. If say the next manager wants his FBs to bring pace and athleticism then senior manager should be allowed have talks with the underage coaches about what FBs meet the criteria for his needs and maybe fast track certain players in the youth teams or certain players should be prioritised.

Example: new manager could go to Crawford and say if Adaramola is fit to play then he should be prioritised at LB over Roughan because Adaramola fits my system for the seniors better than Roughan who plays CB at club level.

Another example is Bosun Lawal. Senior manager should be allowed go to Crawford and say Bosun Lawal should play in midfield and not CB for the U21s because he feels that Lawal would offer more to us at senior level playing CM than CB. Now do think this can also be done by the senior manager having a go-between him and youth coaches.

Canham is DOF so surely it can be his job to report stuff to the senior manager and get some feedback from senior manager to pass back onto the youth coaches. Or John Morling if he's open to coming back if they move Canham on or even if they don't.

Some said a player development role would be good for Kenny but can the FAI afford a DOF and a youth development coach or technical director that oversees all the youth teams and liaisons with the senior manager . If they can then that would be a great gig for Morling and actually surprised Canham got the DOF job ahead of Morling. Always wonder if that was Hills call to have more allies working with him at the FAI. New interim manager that is COO is another ex FA guy.

Maybe this is why the FAI are wanting the new manager to have a base in Ireland so these talks can happen with all coaches in the room at once. Now if they want the new manager based in Dublin fulltime then that's stupid but if they want the senior manager to be in Dublin for a few days once a month that's acceptable.

”We have a young team with a lot of potential so we want someone on the pitch with them, helping them to get better and help improve our results ultimately" - Hill in February

You post reads like you interpret that as saying he should be out on the pitch with the kids teams, when i'm pretty positive that comment actually refers to be being out on the pitch as a hands-on coach for the senior team - as opposed to the types of managers who leave their staff take training. They've made that point very clear a number of times, repeatedly specifying that distinction between 'manager' and 'coach'.

<edit> I see you've now just deleted that quote from your post. I don't think they want someone anywhere near as involved in active youth coaching as you suggest. I think they want this person to have a say in the structure - the type of system they play etc - but not an ongoing active involvement.

FAI desperately hoping we gets something out of the games in June so they can appoint Sheasy with international experience full time. Mightn't even need results at this point for him to be announced as permanent manager two weeks before the September England game... Would have loved it John had told them to shove it for June. Our Mark coming out in his update video last week indicating that they hadn't even spoken to John about taking on the June fixtures was outstanding really. The local corner shop probably has a roster done out 3 months in advance.

Hope England's U21s were busy and that the FAI haven't asked to play the U20s instead to avoid playing against a Lee Carsley team.

If JOS was gonna get the job full-time he would have gotten it by now imo. Hungary and Portugal will be going through the motions in Junes games because they've got more important things to worry about. Could win both games 1-0 and shouldn't really change a thing.

Only thing more meaningless than March friendlies before a tournament is friendlies in June. We play Portugal a week before their opening game. They'll give less **** than Belgium did in March as their main worry will be pre-tournament injuries. Once again begs the question why the FAI left Stephen Kenny see out the last qualifiers and not appoint an interim mid qualifiers.