Next Senior Men's Team Manager - Runners and Riders

[Razors left peg]

I'd be shocked if its Bilic. I find it hard to believe he'll be the de facto head of all Irish teams like the brief seems to be

[Diggs246]

But" the brief " s from the fai. An organisation that under no circumstances can be trusted or relied on, moving the goal posts is their Forte

I'd be delighted with bilic too

[Razors left peg]

Has anyone looked at Bilics club record. He has more clubs than Tiger Woods. Never stays long. He's no different than Chris Coleman really, he just has a fancy foreign name.

https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/sp...deal-al-fateh/

Says here he signed a 2 year deal in Saudi last year. So unless he knows he's getting fired already I can't see how he would break that contract for a job on much less money.

[Eirambler]

Definitely the fear would be that, like others, he comes into view and then is ruled out within 24 hours.

But maybe there might be something to this. The O'Shea announcement came with a confident sounding suggestion that there would be a permanent announcement in April, as though they had got their man, but he wasn't available just yet. Bilic's situation in Saudi Arabia would fit with that.

Money wise, it sounds like Bilic has made tens of millions out in Saudi, so might be happy enough to take a low paying job now to get back to Europe. Especially an international one with less day to day intensity than a club job.

I like Bilic, always have. I remember reading about the coaching work he did with Dara O'Shea at West Brom and how much he both liked Dara's attitude but - as a centre back himself - was also able to bring him on hugely as a player. I think he'd be a good fit for the job as well as an interesting personality and I'd be a lot more hopeful for the future if it ended up being him compared to almost every other name touted so far.

Feck it anyway, I've gone and gotten my hopes up here...

[Jolly Red Giant]

Wasn't the trapped nerve something that Dunphy claimed in the studio, as evidence of the poor preparation, and Harte completely refuted it?

No - Harte was injured for the duration of the tournament. He was subbed off in three of the four games. The morning of the Spain game the Independent published an interview with Ian Harte by Dion Fanning. In the interview Harte said that he was suffering from a trapped nerve in his foot, that he couldn't run flat out because his foot would go numb and how the injury was so bad that it was impacting his ability to strike the football - “Ok, you’ve got the adrenalin rush because of a free-kick or something, but it affects the way you’re running because you have to keep pulling your toe back and cracking the bone. Then it comes again and you’re forever thinking about your foot more than you’re thinking about the ball. It’s difficult.”

Not alone did McCarthy pick Harte, knowing that the Spanish would have been aware of his injury and the impact it was having, he also had Harte take the penalty in the second half that Harte missed and only for Harte being off the pitch, he would have been taking the penalty that Keane scored in injury time at the end of the game.

Furthermore, there was no planning by McCarthy as to what would happen in the event of a penalty shoot-out. McCarthy went to the players at the end of extra time and said 'who wants to take a penalty?' - Niall Quinn, Mark Kinsella and Damien Duff had all scored in penalty shoot-outs, Duff was having the game of his life in a green shirt and, with Harte subbed off earlier, Kinsella was the best striker of the ball on the pitch - yet instead McCarthy let David Connolly, Matt Holland and Kevin Kilbane take the penalties because they were the first to volunteer - and all three missed .

[Eirambler]

Has anyone looked at Bilics club record. He has more clubs than Tiger Woods. Never stays long. He's no different than Chris Coleman really, he just has a fancy foreign name.

https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/sp...deal-al-fateh/

Says here he signed a 2 year deal in Saudi last year. So unless he knows he's getting fired already I can't see how he would break that contract for a job on much less money.

I wouldn't agree in terms of his record. He did six years with Croatia. Finished seventh and eleventh in the Premier League in his two seasons at West Ham. Took an average West Brom team into the Premier League not too long ago. Coleman hasn't anything like that kind of club record, he basically just had one good stint with Wales thanks to Ramsay and Bale.

I have no idea what his situation is in Saudi but often in those countries if a player or manager has had enough and wants to go, both sides often just rip up the contract and walk away. Money means nothing to the Saudis, they'll just find someone else to throw 10 or 15 million at for a couple of years.

The main criticism I'd have of Bilic is that he has made some poor enough career choices - Saudi Arabia, Russia, Turkey, China and Watford is basically a hit list of places not to go to in search of stable employment. His other roles have been largely successful though.

[Jolly Red Giant]

I wouldn't agree in terms of his record. He did six years with Croatia. Finished seventh and eleventh in the Premier League in his two seasons at West Ham. Took an average West Brom team into the Premier League not too long ago. Coleman hasn't anything like that kind of club record, he basically just had one good stint with Wales thanks to Ramsay and Bale.

I have no idea what his situation is in Saudi but often in those countries if a player or manager has had enough and wants to go, both sides often just rip up the contract and walk away. Money means nothing to the Saudis, they'll just find someone else to throw 10 or 15 million at for a couple of years.

The main criticism I'd have of Bilic is that he has made some poor enough career choices - Saudi Arabia, Russia, Turkey, China and Watford is basically a hit list of places not to go to in search of stable employment. His other roles have been largely successful though.

Bilic has a way better record than Coleman (and Lennon) - on a par with Hughton (with better success at international level but not as good with club football) - he did have a good squad when manager of Croatia. The guy is also very smart and I prefer to see smart people getting a job like this (another reason why Bilic - or Hughton - should be ahead of Coleman and Lennon). Like Hughton, money has never been a major issue for Bilic in management - and being in semi-retirement in the Saudi pro-league an international job might appeal to him

[Razors left peg]

He's a bounce around the place guy, never stays anywhere more than a year or 2 and we expect the FAI to give him a 4 year contract?

Expect to hear by Monday that he's no longer in the running.

[Jolly Red Giant]

He's a bounce around the place guy, never stays anywhere more than a year or 2 and we expect the FAI to give him a 4 year contract?

Expect to hear by Monday that he's no longer in the running.

Spent six years with Croatia - and, unlike Coleman, he never walked away from any club - no matter how poorly things were going.

[Eirambler]

He's a bounce around the place guy, never stays anywhere more than a year or 2 and we expect the FAI to give him a 4 year contract?

Expect to hear by Monday that he's no longer in the running.

Again, he did six years with Croatia. International football is different to club football in that respect.

Having said that I wouldn't be at all surprised if your second sentence turns out to be correct.

[Razors left peg]

Coleman did 5 or 6 years with Wales, hence my comparison. No point in arguing over something we know isn't gonna happen anyway LOL

[John83]

My recollection down the years is that O’Shea was more a source of dissatisfaction on footie than was ever deserved.

I was in awe of his first season at left back at Man Utd. After that, he never seemed to me to be as good at full back. I think he was coached to be more cautious or something. I never liked him at full back for Ireland, but he was a really decent player for us at centre half.

[pineapple stu]

The42 don't think much of the Bilic rumours anyway.

[seanfhear]

A load of bilge !

[mark12345]

I was in line with the far post. I thought he was unlucky at the time. Caught it well enough.

My recollection down the years is that O’Shea was more a source of dissatisfaction on footie than was ever deserved.

My recollection of O'Shea was he was a highly promising prospect at Manchester United. I remember a particular slide tackle on Gianfranco Zola where he not only won the ball but turned defensive into attack all in one movement). I thought at that stage he was going to be the next Paul McGrath or better. But that was one of very few highlights in his career. The lowlight being his performance against Italy at Lansdowne Road when we had to hang on for 3 minutes for a famous 2-1 victory.

[Fixer82]

The lowlight being his performance against Italy at Lansdowne Road when we had to hang on for 3 minutes for a famous 2-1 victory.

Oh God I hoped I'd never remember that again

[JR89]

[Razors left peg]

Pretty clear it's Carsley at this point I would think

[SkStu]

Interesting - probably points to Carsley - but equally could be anyone and I'm struggling to think of many contractual arrangements that would require FAI to keep schtum...?

Would be funny if they were truly about to announce Carsley and then he identified something in his contract that required everyone to slow it down and caused this cat and mouse game to play out.

[Razors left peg]

I think Carsley just doesn't want to be dealing with it while he's still English manager. Wants to get on with the job.