Republic of Ireland General Discussion Thread 2025 [CLOSED THREAD]

As someone who was pro Kenny I think this is a great appointment. It’s someone with relevant experience that fits the budget.

The worry for me was chucking a few mil at a PL has been or settling with someone like O’Shea or Lennon.

No, no, no. Results matter but aren't all that matters.

They are the most important thing by a mile

Not really and, to clarify, I'm not a SK advocate. Like I say, I know nothing about Icelandic football so I'm not passing judgement either way. He was joint manager when they did very well at Euro 2016. How much of that is down to him and how much to his co-manager? He did qualify them for Russia in 2018 but did he just get lucky with a good group of players? Did work that was done years before come to fruition? Or was it his great management? I've no idea.

And it's not that I'm not giving him any credit, I just don't know enough about the situation to judge one way or the other. He hasn't replicated that sort of achievement elsewhere so it's hard to know. And before anyone says it, that's not a shot at him, he hasn't really managed elsewhere to have the opportunity to replicate that success.

However, if you do want to see an impressive track record and the manager gets no credit from lots of people, look across the water.

Qualifed a country smaller than ours for two tournaments and you want to question his contribution.

I dunno seems a bit reductive to me. He did it with Icelandic players, it's not like he was managing Barcelona.

I did say “if I judge on what I do know, it’s a good appointment” in my original post. But I’m wary on judging stuff when I’ve no real knowledge about his history. It’s like using stats in isolation and out of context to prove a point.

I know dick all about Icelandic football or what went in to making that period a success. So I’m just cautioning against attributing it all to him and proclaiming this a great appointment unless you have a much deeper knowledge of Icelandic football than me.

On the face of it, this is as good an appointment as we could have hoped for but I’d say none of us know enough to really judge it one way or the other.

I’ll make my mind up when I hear what he has to say and when I see his Irish team playing.

No it isn’t. I’ve never seen anyone say that. Ever.

You've been pretty much told the important bits.

He was in charge when the qualified for two tournaments.

I'm not being funny, and this is going to be a tough job for him, but Is there something else you'd like to know about him?

seems a decent appointment, at least he has international management experience unlike JOS who should go get some club management experience

Reminds me of the time Leeds appointed Bielsa, can't get any more left field than that…….but we have

I'd say the FAI just want a legit connection to all the awesome Jamaican weed on their books.

Very underwhelming appointment, but then you expect nothing less from the FAI(Feck All Intelligence). He can't be any worse than Stephen Kenny.

I dont know about that, crowds were dropping off hugely at the end of MON and Mick when we were more pragmatic or trying to play "winning football". We've tried both and neither have brought us any long term success. I would rather stick with a style of play that tries to win rather than not lose.

On the new manager, as others said glad they went left field and not an ex english league manager. Just hope the style of play is some what decent, i stopped watching alot of the euros and the football was dire.

Damn missed calls....

Great article, thanks for pointing it out. It seems an awful lot of factors went into that success of which Hallgrimsson was one. It's a very, very interesting appointment. I'm intrigued to be honest.