SLOW DEATH OF THE IRISH GAME

From 1988 onwards, Ireland have enjoyed about a two decade-long love affair with the beautiful game. That relationship is disintegrating and it may even already be dead.

 D. Ray Morton, 31st August 2015.

 

The decline of the Irish twenty-something



For the past four years, this writer used to play six-a-side football on Monday nights. The games were played in a new facility, a lovely artificial grass surface in a suburb of Cork City. As a weekly activity, the games brought a lot of fun and were a nice way to get through the gloomy fog of a Monday evening. After a long run of games, the weekly match is slowly unravelling to nothing, the player numbers simply no longer available. Whether off to Dublin, London, Toronto or Sydney, the young people have left. Some frightening statistics illustrate this with a massive exodus of twenty-somethings leaving the country in their droves. Adding to this, the teenagers are not interested in soccer any more and the lads in their 30s and 40s don't take good enough care of themselves to run around for an hour a week. A small tale of tragedy but an indicator of a bigger picture.

The Republic of Ireland went mad for football from 1988 onwards. They qualified for their first major tournament that year and trips to the World Cup in 1990 and 1994 added to the hysteria. Irish players were of a high level. We had a world-class centre-back in Paul McGrath and midfielders as talented as Ronnie Whelan and Roy Keane. The likes of Damien Duff and Robbie Keane followed. Unfortunately the supply line has dried up. If James McCarthy is the future, that is one worrying future.

Once upon a time, Ireland used to produce players capable of winning the PFA Player of the Year award. Those days are over

 

Ireland play Gibraltar in a Euro 2016 qualifier this Friday in a game no-one really cares about. Then they play at home, after a big GAA weekend, Monday against Georgia. The attendance could be embarrassingly low. The League of Ireland is hanging in tatters, arguably no better than it was in the '90s as some of Europe's other minor leagues develop through sensible investment and advancing through the earlier rounds of UEFA's club competitions. Ireland remains in a quagmire.

Rugby, with the success of the Irish national team, has become the sport of the common man now. This was not always the case as rugby is something of a specialist sport in its own right. It is not as if the average man is fifteen stone of bodybuilt muscle. The sport of the people is a sport played by giants. Not a sport where size, see Lionel Messi, necessarily matters. Despite the fact that thousands still watch the Premier League and the Champions League, Ireland are on the periphery feeling the effects of the more globalised English game that once allowed many Irish, Welsh and Scots to dig out successful careers.

The end is nigh for football in Ireland and it may take many, many years or something extremely radical to change that. Over to you, John Delaney.

O'NEILL'S RETURN TO LEICESTER A GODSEND FOR THE FAI

Rumours are emerging this afternoon that the Football Association of Ireland are happy to allow Martin O'Neill to vacate the Irish manager role to return to Premier League management with his old club Leicester City. Perhaps this is the best arrangement for both parties after an uninspired two years in charge at the Aviva Stadium.

D. Ray Morton, 10th July 2015.

Martin O'Neill looks likely to step down from the Ireland job after only joining in 2013

This afternoon, The Guardian are reporting that a bookmaker has halted bets on Martin O'Neill becoming Leicester City's new manager after the sacking of Nigel Pearson over a week ago. This means that he will vacate the Irish manager job likely leaving Roy Keane in charge of their failing European Championship qualification campaign.

Since O'Neill took over in 2013, his tenure in charge has seemed utterly uninspired. Irish fans expected O'Neill's tactics to be conservative but they felt he would bring an air of authority to the team after the shambles of Giovanni Trapatonni's last World Cup qualifying campaign. We got the conservative tactics part but we never got the inspiration. O'Neill completely failed to get anything positive out of his willing, albeit limited, squad. It all felt a bit like Paul Lambert at Aston Villa. Decent manager, terrible situation.

Failing to convince Jack Grealish to play for Ireland aside, O'Neill persisted with a deeply negative 4-5-1 system as Scotland, our main rivals in qualification, went with attacking football which ultimately outdid us over two close fixtures. Currently Wales are ranked 10th in the FIFA world rankings. Ireland are not even in the top fifty. This would have been unthinkable some years back but we really have been overtaken. We live in an era where the small teams of Europe are emerging, yet Ireland stays stuck in the mud. This is across the board too. Last night, Cork City FC were knocked out of the Europa League by an Icelandic (Iceland themselves looking a good shout for Euro 2016 qualification) team. The League of Ireland has never been considered hugely competitive but being outdone by minnows like KR Reykjavik was an unwelcome extra kick in the teeth.

Back to Ireland and O'Neill though. The current campaign, let us face facts, is done. Keano will preside over a series of dead fixtures but is unlikely to stay on as a permanent manager. The FAI will have a lot of time to come up with the new guy. They have to get this right or else Ireland will continue to sink. We will be 4th seeds in the draw for the World Cup qualifiers after the Euros. This is a pretty terrifying prospect. Thinking hat on, John Delaney.

IRELAND'S PARKHEAD WOES/FERGIE'S CONTINUING INVOLVEMENT IN THE GAME

The Republic of Ireland sank to a disappointing 1-0 defeat away to Scotland to fall down to fourth place in UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying Group D. Can they pick themselves up and get vengeance against the Scots at the Aviva next June?

 

D. Ray Morton, 17th November 2014.

Shaun Maloney celebrates the goal that shattered Ireland's dreams in Glasgow

Scotland put the Republic of Ireland to the sword at Celtic Park on Friday night thanks to a finely-worked late winner from Shaun Maloney to spell trouble for Martin O'Neill's men early in this European Championship qualifying group. Speculation before the game had centred on the Republic's Glasgow-born duo, Aiden McGeady and James McCarthy, with the ex-Scottish international Gordon McQueen hoping the Parkhead crowd would give them a "horrible reception" for choosing to play for an international team they were not born in. McCarthy pulled out with an injury and McGeady started but it did not seem as if he was targeted for any special treatment on the night.

If there was anything focused on McGeady, it was drowned out by what was a raucous atmosphere in general. Any player in possession, Irish or Scottish, felt bellowing roars from the rafters of one of Europe's most intimidating arenas. This lead to a somewhat disjointed and quite ugly game of football. Possession was gifted cheaply, especially by Ireland with their overall completed passes actually being less than that against Germany in a game which they snatched a point despite a barrage of  German attacks. There is such a thing as playing with passion but there is also playing with recklessness and Ireland certainly achieved both on this occasion.

Their play resembled that of a scrappy rugby team. They got stuck in and the challenges were wild. There was no intelligence to their play. The missing pair of the aforementioned McCarthy and Wes Hoolahan hit Ireland hard. Without their bit of craft of the ball, the Irish resorted back to Trappatoni-esque tactics of aimless long ball for the most part. Robbie Keane had been dropped in favour of starting Shane Long as a lone target man but the gamble failed.

Stephen Quinn was supposed to be Ireland's "plan B" off the bench but his performance typified his side's reckless play and was lucky not to be sent off on the night

In RTÉ's analysis of the match, pundit Richie Sadlier had rightly suggested that Ireland's gameplan had been focused on effort over skill. Liam Brady felt they had been outplayed by what was, on paper, a slightly weaker team and that it showed Scottish manager Gordon Strachan had won the tactical battle.

O'Neill's post-match interviews deflected the focus on their rematch at the Aviva next summer. He gets off lightly because Ireland have made a good start all things considered. No-one expected Ireland to draw in Germany and their points total is probably acceptable. The manner of play is another story. O'Neill will be forgiven if he can turn it around in Dublin but until then, the sceptics will be sharpening their knives.

Former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson heads a panel of "elite coaches" which give UEFA recommendations for changing rules in their continental competitions. Considering some of his decisions outside of actual football management, is he the right man for this role

 

 

Gone from the game, or is he? Ferguson is still manipulating the football world despite retiring as a manager a year and a half ago

He was the man that brought David Moyes to Manchester United sinking them into mid-table obscurity and now he leads a panel that recommends changes in UEFA rules that will directly effect the European Champions League. His recommendations seem to be based on personal dissatisfactions with the rules and do not reflect what is best to bring the game forward.

One of his recommendations is to change rules in the Champions League which sees players suspended from the final. He has experienced this in his own managerial career having lost Paul Scholes and Roy Keane for United's clash with Bayern Munich in Barcelona is 1999 and with Darren Fletcher for the tie against Chelsea in 2009. The rules probably do need sprucing up but it is somewhat disconcerting that these changes would be made only because the retired Scottish managerial legend kicks up a fuss about it. Teams, players and managers have had the same problems with the rules for years, just ask Xabi Alonso who missed the showcase final last season, but does this mean UEFA will only listen when it is the likes of Ferguson speaking up about it?

He has also suggested a ludicrous "sin-bin" system borrowed out of rugby which could cause a huge amount of confusion and tactical cynicism. As the current rules stand, a red card means a player's involvement in the game is over. A sin-bin system could involve calculated fouls designed so the punishment only lasts a set amount of time. One imagines a shrewd manager with a dark side could use such a rule deviously.

Alex Ferguson's post-managerial decisions in football have been poor. He is a legend of the game but he needs to step away from it as he only seeks controversy, more praise and more recognition. His presence at Old Trafford last season was an uncomfortable one and never gave David Moyes a chance to breathe. This season, despite Louis van Gaal's shaky start, there is a greater sense of ease around the club without old purple nose behind his back. This feels like a clean slate and it allows for optimism. Walk off into the sunset, Fergie, before you start to ruin your great legacy.