Republic of Ireland Team 2023/24 [old thread]

my point was as I’m sure you know is that you felt Robbie was quite entitled to sit at home collecting 500,000 from the FAI seeing out a contract but can just walk from Macabbi. Maybe they should keep him to his contract?

You responded in a thread of someone saying his time in Israel was piss poor. By any objective standard, that’s quite clearly incorrect.

Have you seen Robbie’s contract? Are you aware what the termination clauses are? If the club wish to hold him to his contract, they’d be perfectly entitled to do so and Robbie would have no comeback. However, the statement as reported on the club website is that Robbie declined to extend his contract. Seems like he served his contract to the end.

So no, I don’t know what your point is. I do know it’s irrelevant.

I never understood this “not liking” thing, you pick a manager or a player on criteria such as ability to work with players and football abilities and knowledge etc. I never understood why people get fixated on public figures and come to some conclusions about them and whether they’re “likeable” or not. It’s not a popularity contest, don’t put me in that category.

I thought Neil Lennon was the best option of the realistic gettable options because he had the strongest CV. He’s not exactly “likeable” either, a lot of Celtic fans for example really dislike him but for me I don’t care because I won’t have to be living with him or even working with him. It appears that because of lurid tabloid headlines about Lennon’s private life from 10 years ago that there were some on the committee in the FAI that couldn’t stomach some of that lurid stuff from his private life from years ago being regurgitated. That’s not a reason to not appoint Robbie Keane by the way that because Lennon was ruled out for personal or PR reasons that Robbie should be ruled out also.

I digress. So you could argue that Robbie Keane is the best realistic candidate available now, and if they appointed him I’d support the team and him because he’d be the manager of the team and if the team wins he wins.

However on a personal level I would question Robbie Keane’s personal judgement. He took a job in Israel, did he have to take a job there? Was there no other offers or alternatives to him? He has quit now after one season despite it being a successful and he has quit for a reason, but he hasn’t elaborated on that reason. If he was offered the Ireland job he would have to address that which may make it not worth the hassle for the FAI to appoint him. That’s poor judgement from Robbie for himself in my opinion.

Also when he kept taking the money even though he was frozen out by Stephen Kenny and no longer doing anything for the money, the argument put forward by you and others is; it wasn’t his fault and he was entitled to the money because that was the contract. That’s true on the face of it. However again I would question his judgment there. Did he not think; I could take the money here but it might not sit well with the people at the FAI and if in the future I’m going into management and become good enough with experience to become a manager that perhaps it would be better to not take this money or not just sit there and take all of it because it might not sit well with these people who make these appointments in the near future. The smart thing for him to do was pick up the phone and say ok let’s come to an agreement here, pay me off with a bit of it and we’ll shake hands on it. There was no obligation on him to do that but for the sake of his personal relationship with them it might have been the prudent thing to do. Again; that’s poor judgment from Robbie for himself and his own outlook.

I think I’ve talked myself into thinking that I don’t think he should be appointed after all or at least that I can understand why some on the committee in the FAI wouldn’t appoint him.

Agreed, this is a better reason to not appoint Robbie Keane. Right now we really could do with an experienced manager to put a shape on the team and bring back some belief and confidence.

we couldn’t appoint a Hurzeler but we may be able to at least talk to a Alexander Zorniger

as it is I don’t see it as impossible that Oshea will be the intermin past September

If he had any self-respect he’d have told them to go jump when they came back for him for these games as an interim again! It was only supposed to be for the first couple of games.

He’s that desperate to get the role he’s willing to let them string him along.

Good for you !

Yeah the idea a proud ex pro couldn't step up when required without being labeled as having so self respect is a bit much.

That said, I hope if he's selected it isn't based on the fear he'd walk

It was a joke that Duffy was even allowed pull on the Irish jersey this month given his scumbag behaviour recently.

Even with the U21s our options at WB are lads not truly suited to the role. Roughan and Murphy play LB but their favoured positions are CB.

Curtis has those Lee O'Connor vibes that you wonder has he the physicality to make it at FB in senior level. Abankwah can play FB but he's also a CB.

Adaramola seems the only FB at U21 level which is suited to the WB role. Hard to say about the lads coming through with U19s but Sean Moore whose a winger has been used at WB by West Ham. Would still like to see Ogbene get minutes there for the seniors.

That made sense for the last window, doing the same things as the last few years when he got a 2nd chance to audition makes no sense to me.

To me it shows a lack of ambition and if I was a Chairman of Plymouth I wouldn't be looking at what he's done in a positive. Compare him to Duff, who took a club job and is getting experience of managing week in, week out.

it shows a lack of ambition to be an intermin manager rather than just telling an FA No when they ask you to be intermin?

Would actually be less ambitious if O'Shea sat at home doing nothing. Instead he's taken a chance at using these games as interim to further improve himself.

Don't think anyone would say Paddy McCarthy had no ambition by being Palaces interim manager. Instead he should have told them give me the job full-time or **** off.

Like I'm sure he'd love a managers job where he's working week in week out gaining experience. Until someone offers him that opportunity it's mad to say he's got no ambition for taking an interim role when the other option was to sit at home.

yeah agree, the idea that Oshea would be more ambitious if he sat at home is a really odd one.