The players: I would agree with his synopsis of the players. A lot of players have performed poorly and are simply not good enough. Our 2 full-back are terrible. John O'Shea has never delivered in a green shirt and Ward on the other side is barely a Chapionship standard player. Mark Wilson was not offered the same forgiveness as Jon Walters last May and is still in the wilderness. A large portion of responsibility must be placed on Shay Given who is clearly not fit. Kieron Westwood should have started instead. Given has been to blame for several goals. His time is up unfortunately and like his Donegal predecessor Packie Bonner he will leave the international stage disappointed. Not one player has come out of this with any pride in tact. We are a limited side but "they showed plenty of effort" doesn't cut it. Watching Xavi make 127 successful passes is an abomination of our pride. He waltz around 90 minutes with no pressure on him. Simon Cox didn't have a clue what he was doing. In the end we should be thankful it was only 4 goals.
The fans: I would also say that their is a huge party element with the fans. Not a lot of them attend the home games and this tournament is merely an early holiday. It has been described favourably as Oxygen(music festival) on steroids which is a sham (ironically that festival is not on this year). There was an estimated 32,000 at the Spain game. There could easily be same number of seats empty when the qualifiers come around. Fans seem more concerned at partying than performance on the pitch. With all means support the team but as Keane mentioned the "win or lose we are on the booze" is not acceptable. I would have been gutted had I been over there - a night with plastic plastics after the Spain game would have infuriated me. 10 years of attending home games and I am still recovering from the Israel game in 06 qualifiers. I am hearing "the worse team and best fans" and "the fans deserve an award" been thrown about- very patronising and embarrassing. Another heavy defeat v Italy would leave me wondering if we would have been better off not qualifying at all. Our fans are epitomised by the head of the FAI John Delaney - a shambles of a man, Earns 300,000 a year and has been on the piss up for the whole tournament with the fans. Our domestic game and youth setup is in disarray. He is also revered by the fans
The future: I can see Trap brining us close to qualification and leaving us in the dark ages for a long time afterwards. Germany, Sweden and Austria are in our WC group. Swedes are decent in qualifying despite their poor performances. As for our fans we need to take a look at ourselves - maybe set up a Des Lynam inspired fan academy ;). Interesting to see the attendences for the qualifiers as well
My predictions have been terrible. Still think Roy Ken will do something to Chiles though!
