The Friday Mailbag.

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League of Ireland has great potential.

I would agree with David Toms that the League of Ireland has great potential.

As a Sligo Rovers fan the football that we have played over the last four years has been highly entertaining which has brought many plaudits, a league title & a few cups along the way.

There have been many players who have played in the league recently that have gone on to play in the English Premier League-Long, Doyle, Meyler, Fahey, Coleman, McClean etc.

Of course the league has many faults & failings but the reason I feel that it does not get the support it does is because of a lack of media coverage. How many national broadcasters cover the league? How many pages will there be on the league in one of the daily newspapers?

Up until recently the attention given by Balls to our domestic competitions has been paltry.

Here's highlights of last weeks title decider. Some quality play & goals

90% of life is timing.

To qoute the Dude

“This is a very complicated case. You know, a lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta what-have-you's. And, uh, lotta strands to keep in my head, man.”

But I shall persevere…

There are a number of factors involved, and a number of questions to be asked. I don’t have the answers, but maybe you do.

Timing
First of all, apart from our lucky result in Kazakhstan and getting our asses handed to us by the Germans, why are we having this discussion now? Why were we not talking about this after the Euros?

Were we all suffering from hang-overs? Both football and alcohol? Was there a clamour to get rid of Trap? If there was I don’t remember it. I know we lost to two of the best teams out there, but the manner of the defeats was not like us at all.

Granted, after the Euros, I was on a bus from Poznan to Berlin. I may have missed the debate.

But 90% of life is timing, and with the way the Faroes game fell when it did, the ball was in Trap’s court. He got the result and played his hand well. The FAI obviously couldn’t agree that getting rid now was the best thing to do. They are only human after all.

Finance
Much has been made of the cost of getting rid of Trap. Much has been made of the cost of having the Aviva Stadium empty for the next two home friendly internationals. There were sums to be done. I assume the FAI did those sums.

I presume they thought that the opportunity cost (or not) of the second scenario will outweigh the cost of keeping him on. Then again, the people who did those sums are the ones who have process John Delaney’s receipts. God help them.

Player Quality
This is a major argument for those who lament the recent treatment of Giovanni. “We don’t have the players.” I agree, to a certain extent, but it is a defeatist attitude. One that is not in keeping with our under-dog spirit.

I believe that what a team lacks in ability, they have to make up for in determination and application. Every one is given a job to do with in the overall system, and they do that job to the best of their ability. That organisation has been missing.

Even John O’Shea said after the 6-1 defeat “There’s a right way and a wrong way to lose a game, and that was the wrong way to lose a game.”

FAI Politics
We were led to believe, by a "senior FAI source", that the only way that Trap would have a job the morning after the Faroes game was if we had won 10-0. Well, we didn’t win 10-0, and the man still has a job.

I thought before the game that the FAI had to let the team know that Trap was a goner after the game, in order to get a performance of any quality out of them. I thought that meant actually telling them, and that’s what I thought was going on.

The players were told first, we would be told after. But I was wrong. They played well-ish, and in all fairness, a lot of the players have good things to say about Trap. But I can’t help thinking that the players played a bit better because they thought it was the last time they had to play for Trap.

Replacement Manager
There was no out-standing replacement readily available. No one that everyone could agree was the go-to man. If there had been, flags would have been flown and there may have been a stronger case for getting rid.

So there you have it, the thoughts of a confused man that will only service to confuse your own.

But I am good about it, there’s a beverage here man.

Kevin Murray

Do you want to express your opinion on anything sports related? Do you a funny story that you thinks deserves a bigger audience?

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