Should we give up football?

And on a pitch from January 1988. 

A way of playing football might be in our cultural DNA, but maybe that can be changed with better coaching at young age.

I sometimes wonder if cultures that have intricate rhythmic drumming and dancing like a lot of S American, Asian and African cultures have an experience of time and space that is more complex than us in NW Europe with the Riverdance stomping that just seems to build up in a straight line to a crashing climax, and that this shows in the way they can play football.

We do produce exceptions, like Brady and Duff.

We have a small population and are not a country with high levels of investment in sports infrastructure and coaching and we are also sporadically dispersed in relation to other countries.  Throw in that a huge amount of our kids also play GAA and rugby and football although played lots is politically a poor relations and has been run by a shower or amateurs.  Throw it all into the mix and you get a midfield of middle of the road English’s championship players 

Well it is a hobby for 99.9% of the population. I'm not sure under 10's training 4 nights a week is really beneficial for anyone other than the minute number that go on to play professionally.

Four games= no goals 

There is some strange national aversion to risk at work that becomes very obvious in sport. Football teams have always struggled to score - apart from Robbie Keane, who was a complete freak in Irish terms.

The rugby team - functional. Gaelic football - taken over and ruined by defensive tactics. The women's hockey team reached a world cup final by grinding out penalty shoot-out wins.

The nick-a-goal cult is everywhere!

Richie Sadlier said same when he came back after he retired from playing. He said when he left to go to England teenagers here were training 2 nights a week and a game at the weekend. He came back ten years later it was the very same - even for the top level of young lads here. Meanwhile over in Millwall the u-10s trained 5 nights a week and a game at the weekend.

Whatever your opinion on whats "too much" - its that level of hours spent from a young age that produces "talented" players - look at the amount of good young players England produce. Theses are a direct result of all the academies, attached to professional clubs, across England - with kids putting in the hours similar to Millwall from a young age.

Duff tried to implement similar at Shamrock Rovers when he was there, taking his learnings from England - straight away he got big push back from parents.

A lot of people here think anything approaching serious commitment is "too much".  If we want to produce a consistent production line of good players this attitude needs to change.

razzmatazaz wrote: You're underselling Longford, Trap.

 I will make the exception for Glorious Granard.