If Delaney took a pay cut we could afford to get Alex Ferguson in with Jose Mourinho as his number 2!!!

@Billy, agree with most of what you have said except for the Brian Kerr comment. He was only one victory away from qualification in reality (a home loss to France) and his record was almost identical to that of Trapp’s current one is, in that all the competitive games against our main rivals ended up in draws. I feel he was unlucky and to offer a man that had served Irish football so well a mediocre 2 year contract was a bit of an insult. Many believe that he was sacked but quite simply his contract wasn’t renewed. He should have been given 2 full campaigns to establish his credentials. And the upshot? The most successful underage manager we have ever had is no longer involved in the Irish game at any level (very few realise we are the ONLY country to hold the U-16 & U-18 European Championships simultaneously thanks to Kerr).
Anyway on Trapp I believe if we don’t get a play off we should look elsewhere. Who else is available and could we afford? Personally I’d have McCarthy back, proven at every level and while his management of the Saipan incident will divide the nation forever more, he had a pretty decent record with us and played decent football (remember, we would have qualified for the 2000 Euro’s under him were it not for a painful last minute goal by Macedonia). Other than that only Martin O’Neill springs to mind. And please, spare me the Roy Keane for manager debate. Had a honeymoon period with Sunderland and has been pretty unsuccessful ever since.
My biggest gripe with Trapp is the style of play, we’re not Brazil, but we’re not as bad as he allows us to be either. For now I think we should give 100% support to the lads for Tuesday. If we win we have Andorra away and then Armenia at home to qualify outright. I know it’s a big if but we can’t keep drawing and losing to higher ranked sides away from home. Eventually we will put that record to rest, which we did after 90 minutes in Paris, so we have the ability to get a one off big result. I don’t think the debate on Trapp’s successor should take place until we see what tomorrow brings.

Martin O’Neill’s free as far as I know. Sign him up Delaney!

Ah-is there not a “Sack Delaney and the board because what the know about football I could write on a stamp” option? Aren’t they the people who appointed Brian-who had no major club management experience, and Stephen, who hadn’t even household budget management experience, let alone football management experience! You pay peanuts and you get monkeys-it’s that simple. Trapp is not rubbish-look at his record, and so deserves GOOD pay. Therefore the problem with Irish football at the moment is not management, but the board, the players or luck. Take your pick.

Sadly I think the two points dropped on Friday will come back to haunt us. I can’t see us picking up anything in Russia and 6 points is the least we can expect from the last two games but then again Ireland can struggle against teams like Armenia, we’ve seen it before. Trap has had a good shot at it but alas he has failed to get us qualified. I think it’s time for a change, for some new thinking and definitely time for some new faces. The majority of the team have been together for the last two qualifying processes and they have failed to get the wins when we needed them, they have failed to beat the big teams and even the equally ranked teams when it mattered. It’s time for a new start and a new manager, the world cup group we are in is even harder than the current Euro group and under the current system I can’t see any improvement in results coming our way. Delaney needs to consider his position too given we have not qualified for anything since 2002 and especially in light of the disastrous home nations fiasco.

Trap has to go