Let's not get carried away with unrealistic ambitions
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Sport for many is a discipline of ritual.
Players have their superstitions; the left boot before the right shin guard, running out in a certain position in the team line-up or my own favourite, Kenny Dalglish alternating the order in which he ate biscuits in the famed Liverpool dressing room of the 80s.
Fans too like to stick to routine; the lucky scarf, the same car park space or maybe a sly pint in the regular pub. For me the most endearing one is the spectacle that often revolves around the post match interview - a chain of events that takes place away from the prying eyes of the paying public.
Picture the scene if you will? The stadium clears as fans depart and analyse the events of the night as floodlights disappear onto the horizon. Players who have toiled for 90minutes seek refuge in the dressing room, managers craft spin while journalists hover outside the door hoping for a brief audience with one of the participants. What unfolds can often be unfulfilling for all involved. A frequent inconvenience for those who get ambushed by a deluge of microphones and too often for those of us wielding them the source of answers that stretch credulity and a repetition of the same mantra you’ve recorded and reported for many of the previous weeks of the season. In a world where little comes out of such situations, those who do speak freely can often be seen as simply antagonists, mouth pieces or blatant headline seekers.
Twice over the past week Pete Mahon was vocal on issues that would grate with some within the Irish football family. Last Sunday after his side were beaten 1-0 by Shamrock Rovers he quite righty questioned if enough was being done to accommodate League of Ireland club’s playing in Europe. A reasonable request to have the game delayed by 24 hours to allow his players recover from their efforts in Iceland fell on deaf ears. Later in the week as the build-up to the return leg kicked into gear he warned against getting carried away with the notion that clubs within the League are within touching distance of a place within the Champions League or Europa League group stages.
St Pat’s players will wake up this morning and have full rights to be over the moon with their efforts last night. From what was written ahead of the tie few people seemed to give them a serious chance of advancing. You’d also fancy them to advance against Shaktyor Karagandy. It’s important though that fans and observers don’t get punch drunk with ideas that Pats’ season will come anywhere near to being defined by their European success. It’s hard to admit to for some but realistically the League of Ireland’s chance of progressing en masse in Europe has to be diminishing rather that growing. Rather than the full time professionals who did so much in recent years we are increasingly sending part time players, already struggling to achieve work-life balance, into battle but still expecting them to emulate the great nights of recent years.
When you talk to former players and managers their European escapades are prominent amongst the stories they tell. We’re still a long way away from the stage where they will come close to challenging domestic competition as the bread and butter of any clubs. European advancement offers the League a mean through which it can achieve a level of respect internationally. Hopefully for clubs it can serve as a vehicle through which clubs can entice people through the gates whilst making good use of a financial windfall. There are also practicalities that few seem to have considered or offered a solution to. How in a League that operates from early March to late October how would it be possible for a team to maintain a level of competitive football in the Champions League for example when the business end of the group stages take place in November and December.
There is no sin in having ambition but let’s have realistic ambition and not wish for our best teams to over stretch at the cost of the League’s image and their own standing.
Players have their superstitions; the left boot before the right shin guard, running out in a certain position in the team line-up or my own favourite, Kenny Dalglish alternating the order in which he ate biscuits in the famed Liverpool dressing room of the 80s.
Fans too like to stick to routine; the lucky scarf, the same car park space or maybe a sly pint in the regular pub. For me the most endearing one is the spectacle that often revolves around the post match interview - a chain of events that takes place away from the prying eyes of the paying public.
Picture the scene if you will? The stadium clears as fans depart and analyse the events of the night as floodlights disappear onto the horizon. Players who have toiled for 90minutes seek refuge in the dressing room, managers craft spin while journalists hover outside the door hoping for a brief audience with one of the participants. What unfolds can often be unfulfilling for all involved. A frequent inconvenience for those who get ambushed by a deluge of microphones and too often for those of us wielding them the source of answers that stretch credulity and a repetition of the same mantra you’ve recorded and reported for many of the previous weeks of the season. In a world where little comes out of such situations, those who do speak freely can often be seen as simply antagonists, mouth pieces or blatant headline seekers.
Twice over the past week Pete Mahon was vocal on issues that would grate with some within the Irish football family. Last Sunday after his side were beaten 1-0 by Shamrock Rovers he quite righty questioned if enough was being done to accommodate League of Ireland club’s playing in Europe. A reasonable request to have the game delayed by 24 hours to allow his players recover from their efforts in Iceland fell on deaf ears. Later in the week as the build-up to the return leg kicked into gear he warned against getting carried away with the notion that clubs within the League are within touching distance of a place within the Champions League or Europa League group stages.
St Pat’s players will wake up this morning and have full rights to be over the moon with their efforts last night. From what was written ahead of the tie few people seemed to give them a serious chance of advancing. You’d also fancy them to advance against Shaktyor Karagandy. It’s important though that fans and observers don’t get punch drunk with ideas that Pats’ season will come anywhere near to being defined by their European success. It’s hard to admit to for some but realistically the League of Ireland’s chance of progressing en masse in Europe has to be diminishing rather that growing. Rather than the full time professionals who did so much in recent years we are increasingly sending part time players, already struggling to achieve work-life balance, into battle but still expecting them to emulate the great nights of recent years.
When you talk to former players and managers their European escapades are prominent amongst the stories they tell. We’re still a long way away from the stage where they will come close to challenging domestic competition as the bread and butter of any clubs. European advancement offers the League a mean through which it can achieve a level of respect internationally. Hopefully for clubs it can serve as a vehicle through which clubs can entice people through the gates whilst making good use of a financial windfall. There are also practicalities that few seem to have considered or offered a solution to. How in a League that operates from early March to late October how would it be possible for a team to maintain a level of competitive football in the Champions League for example when the business end of the group stages take place in November and December.
There is no sin in having ambition but let’s have realistic ambition and not wish for our best teams to over stretch at the cost of the League’s image and their own standing.
