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Republic of Ireland Golden Generation

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Daveysgingerlovechild said:
I know several proud Scots who harbour ill feeling towards McGeady and James McCarthy for 'abandoning' their country of birth. Apparently they'd have made the difference for the Scots.

A truly upsetting tale.
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Proper bafflles me the McCarthy one. Basically chose to play for Ireland because Scotland thought he was crap when he was 16.
 

Mikey_Fitzgerald said:
I mean, it's obviously England

Only one World Cup in 93 years despite the success of the Premier League and club sides in Europe

Scotland has one Champions League/European Cup to it's name, and that was in 1967. Nottingham Forest have won double the amount of Champs League/European Cups than the entirety of Scottish Football

Qualifying for major tournaments and just missing out on making the knockout stage is about par for Scotland

Ireland have actually managed to make the knockouts, as have Northern Ireland and Wales

From most under achieving to least underachieving you'd probably have to go

England (One World Cup and no European Championships despite having the players they've had? They massively underachieved in the 00's in particular)

Scotland (Should have really made it out of the groups at one of those tournaments in the 70's, 80's and 90's)

Republic of Ireland (Did well at times in the 90's, 00's and 10's, but look at some of the players they had to call on during those times, especially when they started recruiting English, Scottish and Irish players of Irish heritage)

Wales (probably the lowest level of club football of the five countries, but if you look at the players they had in the 80's and 90's then they should have made at least one tournament)

Northern Ireland (Small population, probably a better league than Wales ((I'd expect Linfield to beat TNS for instance)) and they did well to make the knockouts in 82. They've overachieved the most IMO)
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Ireland have a better head to head record Vs England in Tournament football.

Bow to us East Ireland!
 
Daveysgingerlovechild said:
You could argue a better question is which home nation has underachiever historically relative to population, football development infrastructure, and league strength/ popularity?

Indeed, I will. With a poll!
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The population argument is an interesting one. The population of Ireland is roughly 5.05m, that’s the number of registered Irish citizens living in Ireland. Josh Cullen, for example, is not one of those 5.05m. Neither are Shane Duffy, Callum Robinson or Will Smallbone. So how much stock can we put into the population argument when you factor in that all these players belong to a different population? Do we have to add a portion of these other countries’ populations to Ireland’s to make it fair and representative?
 
MikeH72 said:
The population argument is an interesting one. The population of Ireland is roughly 5.05m, that’s the number of registered Irish citizens living in Ireland. Josh Cullen, for example, is not one of those 5.05m. Neither are Shane Duffy, Callum Robinson or Will Smallbone. So how much stock can we put into the population argument when you factor in that all these players belong to a different population? Do we have to add a portion of these other countries’ populations to Ireland’s to make it fair and representative?
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You could argue *dons tin hat* that England are OVERARCHING due to the fine footballing resources (i.e academies and grassroots), strong leagues, and healthy competition for national team places creating a surplus of talent.

Enough to supply other home nations whilst reaching the end stages of international tournaments.

Purely a devil's advocate perspective. Please discuss respectfully and peacefully GOT.
 
Daveysgingerlovechild said:
You could argue *dons tin hat* that England are OVERARCHING due to the fine footballing resources (i.e academies and grassroots), strong leagues, and healthy competition for national team places creating a surplus of talent.

Enough to supply other home nations whilst reaching the end stages of international tournaments.

Purely a devil's advocate perspective. Please discuss respectfully and peacefully GOT.
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England is basically like a supermarket for the Welsh, Irish and Scottish national teams.
 
Just seen that Moldova have picked up 9 points in this qualifying campaign. A figure that is impossible for Ireland to now surpass.

I also couldn’t help noticing that Slovenia are topping their group and looking likely to qualify for the tournament.

To add to this, Kosovo, a country that has existed for 10 years, have picked up 7 points in this campaign.

I’m not saying Ireland should be expected to compete with these nations given the population difference of course. That would be unfair.
 

MikeH72 said:
Just seen that Moldova have picked up 9 points in this qualifying campaign. A figure that is impossible for Ireland to now surpass.

I also couldn’t help noticing that Slovenia are topping their group and looking likely to qualify for the tournament.

To add to this, Kosovo, a country that has existed for 10 years, have picked up 7 points in this campaign.

I’m not saying Ireland should be expected to compete with these nations given the population difference of course. That would be unfair.
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What is the population of Kosovo.
 

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