Republic of Ireland General Discussion Thread 2026

That Times article is paywalled.

I was sk sure this is how it would go.

Be 2-1 up and concede in the 96th minute and like always end in a draw.

That times article has bosnia 75th, why would a win put them into pot 2 ahead of us(62 in that times article)?

Wouldn't mind Slovakia, watching this.

Most people accept that SK's reign didn't work out.

There are more now trying to rewrite history for Mick's reign, trying to make out that it wasn't that bad and that he would have won the playoff against Slovakia when there was zero evidence he would have done so.

Kenny’s Ireland scored one goal in his first 8 matches. Micks team hadnt that sort of a record. One more goal vs Denmark would have qualified them directly.

And how in the name of Jesus could anyone argue Kenny’s reign did work out without resorting to strong drugs.

why we even have to talk about it I don’t know

Didn't we set some record for consecutive games without scoring ?

That was the closest I ever came to total apathy for Ireland. At least when Stan was useless you knew there was a team there if he would fuk off and with Kenny I liked the kids coming through despite the results. But that weird team of journeyman had some lads I actively hated and seeing Jeff Hendrick and Cyrus Christie would almost have you cheering for the opposition.

We went 14 months (7 matches) without scoring a goal under SK - from his second to eight match. The signs were there early on. He would have been devastated at how it all turned out but football doesn't give much room for sentimentality.

the people trying to say it wasn’t that bad or wasn’t that worst than other regimes do him no favours as they just get responses that showed how much worst than every other regime we’ve ever had.

What the actual f*ck are you talking about?

You're replying to my post which specifically says the SK reign didn't work out, trying to argue why it didn't work out as if I've said something different.

I'm talking about people in this thread who are arguing that Mick would have done a better job. There is zero evidence to support that, because his second term was so sh*te and he achieved nothing, and he achieved it with a squad that needed to be gutted out quite frankly.

It's impossible to talk to anybody here, because when there is a frank and honest conversation to be had about how sh*te Mick's second term was, it's just a bunch of people saying 'but but Kenny'. Talk to me about Mick, because that's the point I'm arguing.

If you think the spell we had in the doldrums would have been different under any other manager, you're deluded. It's that simple. It's that entitled obnoxious arrogance I was talking about earlier that Ireland should be doing this, that and everything because we are Ireland, and nothing to do with the players available to us at the time.

well no…you said “Most people accept that SK's reign didn't work out.” So I queried were those not in the “most people” group under the influence of drugs? I reacted to your own statement.

If you want to discuss the Mick reign - it ended with a one one draw vs Denmark where one more goal and a win would have qualified us. So…pretty acceptable..then Kenny took over and we scored once in the next 8 games.

"One more goal and win would have qualified us."

And yet we never even came close to it. We poxed a draw against Denmark and we were delighted with it. Let's also not forget those 4 goals in 4 games against Georgia and Gibraltar. Exhilarating stuff.

At least now we're winning games and we're not looking like one-trick ponies while doing it.

Mick never looked like winning a game against a team at our level. That is the fact of the matter here. How you can take those results and suggest we then would have beaten Slovakia is mindblowing mental gymnastics.

I said we’d have beaten Slovakia did I? (I didn’t)

Micks team usually scored. Kenny’s team didn’t for 7 of his first 8 matches. So micks team had a better shot of qualification imo.

we understand each other. We don’t agree. Best of luck to you 👍

Yeah Mick definitely would have kept picking the retired Randolph/McGoldrick/Whelan etc. Thank god Kenny was such a visionary to pick from out of the blue Bazunu, O'Shea, Cullen, Ferguson etc. No other manager could possibly have envisioned picking players playing in the Premier League over retired players. Revolutionary.

The desperate straws that are grabbed to try and retcon Kenny's reign are gas.

This thread proves humans will always find a way to argue about shite no matter the circumstances.