The New Official Republic of Ireland Football Thread

I think the FAI and government should develop our own world class academy in the national sports center in Abbotstown.

Just copy the best academies in the world like La Masia, Clairefontaine, Benfica, Ajax etc...

I'd have accommodation and a specialist school for lessons scheduled around training and games.

I'd include athletes from other sports like swimming, athletics, rowing, boxing etc...

Kids would start at 13 and stay until 18. They can live there if they wish.

If we want to develop top talent, we need our own world class academy.
 
Nah, you can go and shite with your dedicated academys. That's too expensive.

Instead, with 4 games left in the group, we should be playing squads of exclusively 15-18 year olds from the North, or from England with Irish grannies.

I haven't done the maths but if they play 3 times, they're trapped with us forever. We'd be able to kidnap around 20 talents or so, then you hope 2 or 3 of them turn into good players in the future.

Keep the dentist - he's cheap. Do this over the next 4 years worth of qualifying campaigns and nations leagues and we'll be set for the following 10-15 years.

Then do another 5 years of cradle snatching. We can call this our "incubation period".

That'll be Irish football's blue print. A 5 year incubation period where you trap young talent that doesn't know any better, and then run them into the ground for 15 years. Then you go all over again.
 
next_number_seven said:
I think the FAI and government should develop our own world class academy in the national sports center in Abbotstown.

Just copy the best academies in the world like La Masia, Clairefontaine, Benfica, Ajax etc...

I'd have accommodation and a specialist school for lessons scheduled around training and games.

I'd include athletes from other sports like swimming, athletics, rowing, boxing etc...

Kids would start at 13 and stay until 18. They can live there if they wish.

If we want to develop top talent, we need our own world class academy.
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Nah, what they probably need to do is start scouting players earlier, from u10s and up and start moving them to regional centres of excellence probably one in every county. Where these players can still play with their clubs, but also benefit from the extra contact hours, but they will also play against other regional teams.

These players need to be properly scouted in game settings, not put through trials where they only get sent because they are the coaches kid or friends of coaches etc.

There's no proper talent identification network, players are not picked up early enough and they're missing out on too many contact hours with proper coaches at crucial development stages between from 8-14.

After 14 they should be moving to LOI academies where they get more competitive football at a higher level against a higher standard of player. Rather than being the best player expected to do everything in a small local team.
 
Oranges038 said:
Nah, what they probably need to do is start scouting players earlier, from u10s and up and start moving them to regional centres of excellence probably one in every county. Where these players can still play with their clubs, but also benefit from the extra contact hours, but they will also play against other regional teams.

These players need to be properly scouted in game settings, not put through trials where they only get sent because they are the coaches kid or friends of coaches etc.

There's no proper talent identification network, players are not picked up early enough and they're missing out on too many contact hours with proper coaches at crucial development stages between from 8-14.

After 14 they should be moving to LOI academies where they get more competitive football at a higher level against a higher standard of player. Rather than being the best player expected to do everything in a small local team.
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I agree with this also. 8 to 13 is vital. I'd invest in that also.

But if we're serious about developing talent, we need a world class academy.

I'd include other sports such as the Olympic ones as it's easier to sell to the tax payer and it benefits a broader spectrum of society. The recent Olympics were incredible for Ireland.

It's important to invest in the LOI academies, but realistically they'll always be a million miles away from the top academies in PL and Europe. Shamrock Rovers are the best in Ireland but they'll never be anywhere near a La Masia or Clairefontaine or Ajax or Benfica or United or City etc...

But I think we've the resources and talent to build one world class academy in Dublin.


Then in time I'd build one in Cork to cover Munster.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
All the club football leagues for kids 18 or younger runs from September to May.
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I thought the league of Ireland academies are in the summer.

I don't think it'll happen anyway but if we're serious about developing talent, we need to build a world class academy.

Instead of complaining about the manager or the FAI or the GAA or the players etc...

Players will be here until they're 18, other than the few that go to Europe at 16, so we need to take it serious.

It wouldn't cost much as the facilities are already there and it would bear fruit in a few years.
 
Obviously the Armenia result was disappointing but I think people tend to turn one bad match into a broad referendum about Irish football too often. Which is undoubtedly underfunded and poorly managed.

But also that has a very vague effect on the ability of Matt Doherty, Dara O’Shea and Nathan Collins to hold a level defensive line. I know we could have better players but the head loss against Armenia in the second half was more mental and psychological than a talent issue.

I also think Armenia was severely underrated by Irish fans and looked like the Irish team underestimated them too. From what I’ve read their ranking was a bit false based off the terrible job of a previous manager. Their star player is one of the best players in the Russian league, looked a level above our creators. Again another under the radar one because Russia is banned from UEFA competitions.

Ireland have never beaten Armenia by more than 1 goal in 5 encounters. Overall record of 3 wins, 2 losses. But 2 of the wins were lucky, one dodgy penalty that led a ref to be hated forever in Armenia. The other was a last minute penalty by Robbie Brady in Dublin. So really we could have a negative record against them. They also took 4 points out of 6 off Wales in the last qualification campaign.

Someone pointed out that the world rankings are far too inexact and vague with different confederations that a European ranking would be better and the difference between Ireland and Armenia would be the same as if Czech Republic beat Switzerland in Prague. Would hardly lead to a national Swiss crisis then.

Ireland played like a team who felt ‘why aren’t we beating these’ and got more impatient, ragged and frustrated as the game went on, whereas if they had have shown a bit more control and patience at 1-0 down they might have turned it around. Should woulda coulda I suppose.
 
KeanoMagicHat said:
Obviously the Armenia result was disappointing but I think people tend to turn one bad match into a broad referendum about Irish football too often. Which is undoubtedly underfunded and poorly managed.

But also that has a very vague effect on the ability of Matt Doherty, Dara O’Shea and Nathan Collins to hold a level defensive line. I know we could have better players but the head loss against Armenia in the second half was more mental and psychological than a talent issue.

I also think Armenia was severely underrated by Irish fans and looked like the Irish team underestimated them too. From what I’ve read their ranking was a bit false based off the terrible job of a previous manager. Their star player is one of the best players in the Russian league, looked a level above our creators. Again another under the radar one because Russia is banned from UEFA competitions.

Ireland have never beaten Armenia by more than 1 goal in 5 encounters. Overall record of 3 wins, 2 losses. But 2 of the wins were lucky, one dodgy penalty that led a ref to be hated forever in Armenia. The other was a last minute penalty by Robbie Brady in Dublin. So really we could have a negative record against them. They also took 4 points out of 6 off Wales in the last qualification campaign.

Someone pointed out that the world rankings are far too inexact and vague with different confederations that a European ranking would be better and the difference between Ireland and Armenia would be the same as if Czech Republic beat Switzerland in Prague. Would hardly lead to a national Swiss crisis then.

Ireland played like a team who felt ‘why aren’t we beating these’ and got more impatient, ragged and frustrated as the game went on, whereas if they had have shown a bit more control and patience at 1-0 down they might have turned it around. Should woulda coulda I suppose.
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I think it's more we're a soccer mad country with a decent population so we should be a tier 2 nation in Europe.

But we're tier 3 at the moment.

We've a population of 5.5m plus we get northern Irish players and we get English players and from other countries.

We should really be qualifying for the Euros since half the teams qualify.

We should qualify for the odd world cup also but it's obviously difficult.

In the short term we need improve our ranking and seeding.

I think my idea of building a world class academy in Dublin has merit but it's unrealistic.

Really we have to invest in the LOI academies but if the government don't fund it, it's impossible. The FAI and LOI are broke.

It seems to be an endless debate though about improving our coaching structures and improving the LOI.

Ruud Dokter did loads of work years ago but it doesn't seem to bear fruit. He was here from 2013 to 2021 and introduced the LOI youth leagues.

My point about creating our own world class academy is that I don't think playing against Longford and Athlone and Kerry (no offence to these teams) under 15 and under 17 is a high enough standard to prepare kids for professional soccer.

It's spread to thin.

If we created one national academy they could play challenge games against PL youth teams and teams in Europe, so they'd be playing at an appropriate standard.
 
next_number_seven said:
I agree with this also. 8 to 13 is vital. I'd invest in that also.

But if we're serious about developing talent, we need a world class academy.

I'd include other sports such as the Olympic ones as it's easier to sell to the tax payer and it benefits a broader spectrum of society. The recent Olympics were incredible for Ireland.

It's important to invest in the LOI academies, but realistically they'll always be a million miles away from the top academies in PL and Europe. Shamrock Rovers are the best in Ireland but they'll never be anywhere near a La Masia or Clairefontaine or Ajax or Benfica or United or City etc...

But I think we've the resources and talent to build one world class academy in Dublin.


Then in time I'd build one in Cork to cover Munster.
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Yeah, with the multicultural nature of the population, it's probably more important than ever that more sports are catered for going forward.

But soccer just requires, facilities, top coaches and decent pitches. There's plenty of places around the country the FAI could help develop into better facilities to cater for proper training hubs.

Pogue Mahone said:
The underage league is in winter, not summer.
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Depending on the league, I'm involved across two underage leagues, one is a winter league one is summer.
 
Oranges038 said:
Yeah, with the multicultural nature of the population, it's probably more important than ever that more sports are catered for going forward.

But soccer just requires, facilities, top coaches and decent pitches. There's plenty of places around the country the FAI could help develop into better facilities to cater for proper training hubs.



Depending on the league, I'm involved across two underage leagues, one is a winter league one is summer.
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There's plenty of pitches and coaches in Abbotstown.

La Masia and Clairefontaine have kids living there from the age of 13. I think the Portuguese ones also.

By having a school and accommodation there, you can increase the number of training sessions and contact hours.

Most kids at that age have 2 hours of training but with an academy like this, you can increase it to 4 or 5 hours.

I think it's more efficient and cost effective to have other sports as you can have nutritionists, physios, psychologists, sports doctors etc.. all on site.

We would still need to invest in LOI academies and the crucial 6 to 13 years in schoolboys.

I think I might email a minister about it.

The thing is we'd see positive results fairly quickly with our under 15 and under 16 national teams. Literally just 2 years and we can see the progress.

I think the LOI academies aren't elite enough.

La Masia picks the best from Catalonia which is 8 million people.

France has 14 regional academies, each would serve an area of millions of people. Clairefontaine covers a region of 12 million.

We've 20+ LOI academies for 5.5m. It's not high enough quality really.
 



:lol:

The whole JD affair was a wasted opportunity to start completely afresh. Olympic Federation of Ireland previously the Olympic Council of Ireland have come on leaps and bounds since it's complete overhaul in the aftermath of Pat Hickey (another JD type)
 
next_number_seven said:
There's plenty of pitches and coaches in Abbotstown.

La Masia and Clairefontaine have kids living there from the age of 13. I think the Portuguese ones also.

By having a school and accommodation there, you can increase the number of training sessions and contact hours.

Most kids at that age have 2 hours of training but with an academy like this, you can increase it to 4 or 5 hours.

I think it's more efficient and cost effective to have other sports as you can have nutritionists, physios, psychologists, sports doctors etc.. all on site.

We would still need to invest in LOI academies and the crucial 6 to 13 years in schoolboys.

I think I might email a minister about it.

The thing is we'd see positive results fairly quickly with our under 15 and under 16 national teams. Literally just 2 years and we can see the progress.

I think the LOI academies aren't elite enough.

La Masia picks the best from Catalonia which is 8 million people.

France has 14 regional academies, each would serve an area of millions of people. Clairefontaine covers a region of 12 million.

We've 20+ LOI academies for 5.5m. It's not high enough quality really.
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Having a proper football school like that makes sense. But, this is Ireland, anything that makes sense like that will never happen.

Regional development squads have been crucial to feeding LOI academies, but I think those players need to be identified before 10, so they are getting better coaching from a younger age. The primary 5s is a great wee tournament and that's a great place to start looking for players, you just need people to do the scouting.
 
Oranges038 said:
Having a proper football school like that makes sense. But, this is Ireland, anything that makes sense like that will never happen.

Regional development squads have been crucial to feeding LOI academies, but I think those players need to be identified before 10, so they are getting better coaching from a younger age. The primary 5s is a great wee tournament and that's a great place to start looking for players, you just need people to do the scouting.
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Most academies start at under 6 now I think.

I think a national sports academy would be brilliant.

Now is the time to do it, especially with the good will after the Olympics.

It's not even far fetched as France has been doing it for decades and have shown the benefits.
 
Oranges038 said:
Another one heading for London, 2m fee in place. There looks to be some good young players coming through.

https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/202...-and-arsenal-agree-record-fee-for-ozhianvuna/
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Missing out on 2 years of development though.

On the other hand LOI clubs are getting bigger fees.

I can see the transfer record being broken consistently every few years with young talent coming through.

The Danish league regularly sells young players for 10 to 20 million.
 
next_number_seven said:
Missing out on 2 years of development though.

On the other hand LOI clubs are getting bigger fees.

I can see the transfer record being broken consistently every few years with young talent coming through.

The Danish league regularly sells young players for 10 to 20 million.
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Yeah, there seems to be a good line of talent coming through. I've heard of 1m being offered for other players, it can only bring more money into the Irish game with the solidarity payments tricking down to grassroots clubs.

There are also few making moves to Germany & other European teams at 16 rather than waiting for the PL teams. It's an extremely tough decision to make at that age, if you go you're guaranteed more regular pitch time and training with other players your own age. But if you stay, you could end up playing LOI for 2 years, which isn't a bad introduction to first team football.
 
Oranges038 said:
Yeah, there seems to be a good line of talent coming through. I've heard of 1m being offered for other players, it can only bring more money into the Irish game with the solidarity payments tricking down to grassroots clubs.

There are also few making moves to Germany & other European teams at 16 rather than waiting for the PL teams. It's an extremely tough decision to make at that age, if you go you're guaranteed more regular pitch time and training with other players your own age. But if you stay, you could end up playing LOI for 2 years, which isn't a bad introduction to first team football.
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I still think you're better off going at 16 but it depends on the kid.

The academies are a much higher standard. Better players, coaches, facilities etc...

Playing "mens football" in Ireland isn't so beneficial, but obviously the LOI has produced Wes, Coleman and many others.

I think we'll see fees of 5m soon. I think Mason Melia should've gone for more.

Copenhagen sold a 19 year old midfielder for 22m recently.
 
Will happily take another 60 minutes of this absolute wank.
 
Would love a point here. Defending very well, not outlandish to think we could create something on the break.

Probably lose 3-0
 
edgecutter said:
Need a win. That armenia game has totally destroyed our chances if we can't beat Portugal.
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Not really. Beat both Hungary and Armenia and, as long as Portugal win all of their games, we should qualify for playoffs on head-to-head. That's even if we lose tonight.
 
Thank Christ he left Liverpool. I can actually let myself like him now
 
Who knew hiring a dentist to manage the country would fail
 
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