Another disappointing night for Ireland. In fairness though, I should really have been writing this post after Saturdays draw with Slovakia. The Czech Republic aren’t the worst team around and I was really hoping against hope that we could get a win last night.
The Irish side were poor again last night and I don’t think that was the fault of the players. I lay that blame solely on Steve Stauntons shoulders. His team selection was poor, he still doesn’t seem to know how to motivate his team and he is far from a leader off the pitch.
The only ray of hope we seemed to have was when Stephen Hunt came on. Through his OWN desire he took the game by the scruff of the neck and carved out a few opportunities for us. But why wasn’t our manager able to instill this believe in the rest of the players?? That is his job at the end of the day.
I think it’s only fair to say now that that should have been Steve Stauntons last game as manager of the Republic of Ireland soccer team. We need the time now, to give a new manager the best chance of bringing this team to the next World Cup. I also believe it’s time to get rid of that John Delaney guy he seems to be making what he calls “World class” decisions.
Watching the analysis on RTE after the game was quite funny. Eamon Dunphy went off on another one, likening Steve Stauntons lack of training for the job to someone without a train driving license. He posed the question to Bill O’Herlihy, “Would you let someone drive the train to Cork without lessons?”. He even went as far as mimicking out someone with a steering wheel, so one things for sure, don’t let Eamon Dunphy drive a train to Cork, he thinks trains have steering wheels……
One person I felt a bit sorry for though, was Liam Brady. When he was asked did he agree that Staunton should be sacked to allow time for a new manager to come in and do something with the team, he reluctantly agreed. He admitted that he was a good friend of Steve Staunton and that he was only giving his professional opinion, even though he would have preferred not to.
I’m not a Steve Staunton hater, I just never believed he was the right man for the job. Why get rid of Brian Kerr who had at least some experience in coaching and managing to bring in a novice? Anyway, here’s hoping we can qualify for the World Cup, since we’ve another summer of football without our participation 