Republic of Ireland assistant manager Roy Keane gave a typically frank verdict on the 2018 World Cup qualifying draw which took place last Saturday.
Ireland received a favourable draw consisting of Wales, Austria, Serbia, Moldova and Georgia but Keane was quick the downplay any suggestion of an easy group.
I don’t think teams will dread playing us. Every draw at the moment for Ireland is going to be tough.
I'm always a bit weary, because people always seem to make two comments, seeing it as a good or a bad draw, I never see it that way, I just see it as a draw.
I've been involved before and thought that’s not a bad draw for us, and we didn't do very well, another draw I thought it looked tough and we managed to get out of it, obviously it’s going to be difficult.
Ireland will be attempting to qualify for their first World Cup in 16 years and many were pleased to avoid heavy-hitters such as Germany, Spain and the Netherlands but Keane also spoke on Wales ascendancy to become top seeds for the qualifiers.
They have a lot of lads playing regularly in the Premier League. I think we are short of lads playing week in and week out in the Premier League, never mind the Bale's and the Ramsey's who are playing Champions League football.
Wales are now ranked 10th in the FIFA World Rankings, 102 places higher than just over four years ago and now 42 places ahead of Ireland. Keane compared the under-performing Irish to their Celtic counterparts.
We need lads first and foremost playing regularly and we don’t have enough lads doing that in the Premier League.
A lot of the lads are in the Championship. So it makes it difficult. It rubs off on other players when you are working with top players. It does make you a better player. So we just need to get more players playing regularly in the Premier League.
Keane was speaking at the launch of the SSE Airtricity National U17 League which took place earlier today at FAI headquarters in Abbotstown.
[RTE.ie]
