New thread as the last thread seems to be broken.
From what I remember Mick McCarthy 2.0 had one of the best defensive records out of all the groups. Only 5 goals conceded. And most of them were v the Swiss? It was a Very hard Irish team to break down. Scoring goals was the major issue.
Isn't that what it comes down to? SK was some sort of Pep Guardiola because he came from the League of Ireland. Unfortunately his results show otherwise. It's the LoI you support, not SK.
Just wondering does anyone know where I could buy the blue Caoimhin Kellegher kit for an 8 year old for Christmas. I can’t find it. Many thanks in advance
can see the kids jersey online at castore’s website but can’t see the full kit. Not sure if this is too big for him
https://shop.irelandfootball.ie/ie/kids-ireland-home-goalkeeper-jersey-77421020.html
https://shop.irelandfootball.ie/ie/variation?pid=77421020&dwvar_77421020_LSSSize=S
I found this but it's out of stock right now unfortunately.
Great that the youngsters today have the likes of Kelleher, Parrott and Katie McCabe to look up to.
Didn’t even notice it was sold out, that’s not good coming up to Christmas
Retro stuff is nicer anyways! It's mad, going to games now, I'd say 2 in 3 jersies are retro. The castore stuff hasn't taken off really. And the prices are absolutely outrageous
He got us to 27th in FIFA rankings.
We went into freefall under Kenny.
Our player talent pool is so shallow I wouldn't give credit to anyone for picking players. They've no real choice. We've about 30+ players playing at a decent level.
Kenny probably went too far in picking young players though.
The retro stuff isn't much better for price now that it's cool. Used get them cheap from unassuming charity shops but the lads selling them now know their worth. The USA 94 stuff is gonna go way up in price.
Have to laugh at Castore's "90s inspired" plain black Irish jersey that looks nothing like anything Ireland ever wore in the 90s.
The argument that Mick wouldn’t have done a better job than Kenny is madness. No offence Pete, but that’s one of the worst takes I’ve seen in a long time! Maybe you’re close to Kenny so I don’t want to rub it in, but there’s absolutely no rational basis for that argument whatsoever.
Of course Mick should have managed the team in the playoff against Slovakia. I felt that at the time but with the benefit of hindsight it’s completely clear.
As someone else said, we didn’t score for a year under Kenny and had to resort to organising a friendly against Andorra to get his first win! The tactics were awful and the players clearly weren’t buying into them or Kenny as a person. Harsh to say but those are the facts.
Best week of Irish international football at senior level in a decade.
I foolishly thought this thread would be buzzing. I’m gonna keep an eye or watch wales/bosnia games , while some fans continue to argue about who is the worse of two previous managers.
As for people saying the LOI is conference level quality , it’s prob closer to at least upper division 2, to division 1 (rovers at least). And maybe if more EPL fans supported it and stopped making excuses that “it’s crap” it would help improve the infrastructure so it can be better.
No issue with people supporting an English team, I do it myself, but “the FAI is the problem” is not the only reason Irish football is in the state it’s been. If the reported 800k + United/Liverpool fans in Ireland also supported a local team, the league would be in a different state altogether. Even if they all threw in a €100 for a LOI season pass, imagine what that could do for the league!
The championship in England is one of the top 10 supported leagues in world football. Lower leagues don’t do well just because of the EPL , English fans support English teams. The support of the larger clubs don’t affect them in the same way support of big EPL clubs from Irish fans supporting epl affects Ireland.
Support an English team but don’t be making excuses (it’s all FAIs fault) , own how that impacts Ireland in the soccer stakes if you have zero interest in Irish grass roots and/or Irish club football. There is less investment and funds for infrastructure in Irish football as there is simply less support for it. If the million plus EPL Irish fans were supporting the league you can bet even politically our youngsters would be getting state of the art facilities which greatly improves quality of the league and national team.
Given Mick’s teams were solid enough but really really struggled to win games, I’d say the same outcome of a penalty shootout was probably pretty likely.
Mick 2.0 or Kenny, two lovely blokes, but two awful awful choices to be arguing about.
I suspect that it will be Wales that will let us down tonight.
Macedonia are no tomato cans.
it’s a result from Macedonia we want though, right? Pushing Wales down to pot 4 via the nations league.
We need; Bosnia to draw or lose in Austria
And
North Macedonia to win or draw in Wales
I think it's gonna happen. A win and a draw respectively.
You are correct
We are a soccer mad country so you're correct.
The LOI is growing year or year though so maybe the tide is turning a little.
The real game changer would be a TV deal but we're probably 10 or 20 years from that at least.
I pay my annual LOI sub even though I don’t use it. Like you I wish more would.
I don’t think the LOI is League one level because players who boss the LOI dont do that well at L1 level. I provided umpteen examples when this debate was had a few weeks ago.
So I don’t think this debate needs to be done as it was done over 3 pages about a month ago and each side just didn’t agree
Sport seems to only function properly in Ireland if it is centralised to one owner/body that controls everything bar coaching.
Unfortunately, our clubs would be banned from European competition under such circumstances.
Lol.
It's a continuous debate.
LOI is lower L2/National League.
Its there no UEFA rankings or something concrete that could put the argument to bed?
I dont agree with saying attendance or salary makes the decision because England's population is larger and theres more to moving jobs than just money.
The commemorative centenary blue strip from a few years back was one of the nicest ever made. Shame it was never produced commercially - anyone who has one is a lucky SOB.
If you were playing in the LOI and were offered 3 or 4 times your salary to play in England, wouldn't you go for it?
Even just for a couple of years.
If you succeed at L1, you could move to a Championship club which is a big jump again in salary.
Besides attendances and salaries, probably looking at players who have played in both leagues is a good indication.
Padraig Amond was a NL striker on his last legs and is one the best strikers in the LOI.
Richie Towell was the best player in the LOI and ended up L2.
So I think NL/Lower L2 is a fair assessment.
I supppse it depends on the person, their situation, current salary and their current quality of life versus quality expected after move.
I could earn 2.5 times my current salary if i went stateside but ive less than zero interest.
Where as im actively looking for a job in Spain that based of current offers will probably be a 20/30% drop in wages but the improvement in quality of my life imo will offset that drop.
Far too many variables imo. Is there no UEFA metric?
The blue centenary shirt did go on general sale. I’ve got one at home.
You're probably at a different stage in life.
I'm talking about lads in their early 20s whose dream was always to play in England but didn't get the offer when younger.
Some lads like Chris Forrester might just be genuinely happier at home. He could definitely play L1 or upper L2.
Also England isn't comparable to the US, it's just a short flight.
I don't think there's any UEFA metric.
I asked AI and they said the same thing NL/L2.
Im still early 20s in my head 😃
Anyway there's no point comparing but this discussion comes up all the time.
I still think the LOI is a sleeping giant.
Attendances grew again last season I think.
I think the LOI academies are breeding fans more so than players.
We're a soccer mad country with probably at least 2 million proper soccer fans so we should have a league comparable to Denmark really.
the truth of it is that league one is actually an extremely high level for a mid tier league level. The club pyramid in England blows the club pyramid in every other European country out of the water.
Evan Ferguson was able to score at will vs an Italian 4th tier side while a 4th tier side in England can beat a 1st tier side on their day.
With funding coming about hopefully we see the fruits of it in next 5-6 years. It will take bit of time but I think finally we are going in right direction.
