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Replying To Lockjaw:  "Champagne Football is an excellent read. It is a microcosm of Irish life. Shady transparency, cronyism and corruption abound. And as you quite rightly pointed out - zero culpability and accountability.

The likes of you and I would find ourselves in court eventually for not paying car tax and insurance. Or if we spent beyond our means the bailiffs would be at our doors. But for a certain cohort in Ireland the rules are seemingly different.

Anyway. I like the fact that we're at least trying to play a bit of football now. The last two performances offered some hope. What we're really lacking is a bit of genuine quality in the final third. Obafemi has potential but would need to be playing regular Premier League football to improve. In international football one or two players of real class makes a huge difference.

Look at Wales for instance. Taking Bale, and to a lesser extent Ramsey, out of the equation - pound for pound I don't think they're any better than us. If you threw a peak Robbie Keane and Damien Duff into our current eleven I don't think we'd be too far away from qualification for big tournaments."
True, in Ireland the scales of justice are fairly uneven. Reminds me of an auld maxim about financial institutions and debt: "If you owe them ten grand, it's your problem. If you owe them ten million, it's their problem".

Wales are lovely to watch and I was happy to see them qualify at last, think it's 1958 since they were last in it. Granted, Bale and Ramsey probably add a lot to their team, but for Ireland, the question should be: why aren't we producing those sorts of players any more? Even relatively poor Irish sides produced very good quality players like John Giles, Liam Brady, Peter Farrell, Jackie Carey, Tony Dunne, Charlie Hurley etc. We don't seem to produce anyone near that quality any more, possibly because of the globalization of the Premier League. But I think we need to go with the times and try to offer a better quality of football at home, or if not, get young players deals in other European leagues.

Gleebo (Mayo) - Posts: 2104 - 25/06/2022 17:37:27    2427434

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How much of a joke have Manchester United become?

johnocarroll17 (Limerick) - Posts: 399 - 25/06/2022 19:55:18    2427477

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Replying To johnocarroll17:  "How much of a joke have Manchester United become?"
Utd seem to be more content to be a "content" generator and measure success by number of clicks rather than titles these days. They really need to get back to basics at that club big time.

Lockjaw (Donegal) - Posts: 7880 - 26/06/2022 09:32:53    2427526

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New manager has a huge task on his hands… Glazers lining their pockets with huge sums of cash each month while the stadium and training ground is crumbling to pieces… Fans go out protesting yet fill the stadium every home game… what idiots

ForeverBlue2 (Cavan) - Posts: 754 - 26/06/2022 10:26:10    2427537

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New manager has a huge task on his hands… Glazers lining their pockets with huge sums of cash each month while the stadium and training ground is crumbling to pieces… Fans go out protesting yet fill the stadium every home game… what idiots

ForeverBlue2 (Cavan) - Posts: 754 - 26/06/2022 10:30:33    2427539

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Replying To Lockjaw:  "Yeah that Yugoslavia team was class. They won the 1987 u20 World Cup and were well on their way to becoming a very serious international force up until the Balkan War and the fall of the country. Red Star Belgrade won the European Cup in 91 and I reckon they probably would have won Euro 92 if they had not been expelled due to the war. The 1994 World Cup would not have been beyond them either in my opinion. Their attacking talent was ridiculous - Suker, Pancev, Boksic, Savicevic...and then you had a midfield containing the likes of Boban, Prosinecki, Jugovic, Stojkovic, Asanovic...

If you're interested, there is a fantastic documentary on the FIFA website about that the great Croatia team of the mid to late 90s and how it developed from the old Yugoslavian team - https://www.fifa.com/fifaplus/en/home"
Thanks Lockjaw. Will check it out. Have you listened to the "Italia 90 one day at a time" podcast"? It's brilliant stuff.

Malonemagic (Laois) - Posts: 709 - 26/06/2022 10:31:41    2427540

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Replying To Lockjaw:  "Utd seem to be more content to be a "content" generator and measure success by number of clicks rather than titles these days. They really need to get back to basics at that club big time."
They are being run into the ground by mercantile capitalists, who couldn't care less whether they win another trophy or not. That the roofs at Old Trafford are leaking and the gates rusting is symbolic of how they do things.

A lot of people will compare them to the oligarch owners at Chelsea and Manchester City, who are also undoubtedly ruthless businessmen. But rightly or wrongly, those regimes demand success and dispense with those who fail to deliver it. Compare that with United, who persisted with the likes of Solskjaer for three years when it was obvious from early on that he was way off the standards set by Guardiola and Klopp.

The recruitment has also been pathetic, the likes of Sanchez, Pogba, Matic, Maguire etc. have all been major flops. The Super League fiasco was the cherry on top of the cake.

Gleebo (Mayo) - Posts: 2104 - 26/06/2022 11:06:01    2427545

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Replying To Gleebo:  "True, in Ireland the scales of justice are fairly uneven. Reminds me of an auld maxim about financial institutions and debt: "If you owe them ten grand, it's your problem. If you owe them ten million, it's their problem".

Wales are lovely to watch and I was happy to see them qualify at last, think it's 1958 since they were last in it. Granted, Bale and Ramsey probably add a lot to their team, but for Ireland, the question should be: why aren't we producing those sorts of players any more? Even relatively poor Irish sides produced very good quality players like John Giles, Liam Brady, Peter Farrell, Jackie Carey, Tony Dunne, Charlie Hurley etc. We don't seem to produce anyone near that quality any more, possibly because of the globalization of the Premier League. But I think we need to go with the times and try to offer a better quality of football at home, or if not, get young players deals in other European leagues."
Yeah it's a big problem that we haven't any players operating in the upper ranked PL teams. Matt Doherty was looking like he might be establishing himself as Conte's first choice right-wing back until his injury. It'll be interesting to see if he if can re-establish himself when he's fit again. But other than him I don't think there's anyone close. As you say it would be better for our lads to try their hand in other European Leagues and establish themselves as first team players rather than a succession of loan spells around England. It would take a bit of bravery though in terms of new culture, language, climate etc.

Lockjaw (Donegal) - Posts: 7880 - 27/06/2022 12:21:11    2427945

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