Republic of Ireland General Discussion Thread 2026

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.

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

Didn’t even notice it was sold out, that’s not good coming up to Christmas

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 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.

You are correct

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

Lol.

It's a continuous debate.

LOI is lower L2/National League.

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.

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?

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.

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.