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Post by flynnfan on Jun 13, 2010 8:57:03 GMT
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Post by Tim P on Jun 13, 2010 15:29:31 GMT
he is bang on with everything he says.
key areas for me:
* make home games intimidating, hostile experiences.
* encourage a siege mentality within the squad. 'non-believers' ditched without mercy.
* never return to the mill stad - under any circumstances.
* tactics to become far more flexible. the kind of players we have, and their varying abilities, means we can't successfully play one specific style of game. we need a flexibility that allows hard working cloggers to function with silky flair players. see: allardyce's bolton Project.
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Post by Tim P on Jun 13, 2010 15:33:03 GMT
his point about the LOW is perfect. somehow, it needs to improve so that it can become a breeding ground for decent Welsh lads. my Idea - Welsh players only. its not as if we'd be missing out on zola, berkamp and ronaldo - just a load of scouse rejects.
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Post by flynnfan on Jun 13, 2010 16:28:41 GMT
Totally agree with that idea - if the LOW was for Welsh qualified players only then fans and players alike would understand more just what the point of it is. We need to raise the expectations of what the LOW can achieve. There should be more Mark Delaneys out there willing to believe they can get to the very top. Plus, there are plenty of other leagues that scouse rejects can play in. And ffs, change it to a summer league already!!!! More fans (fewer Wrexham, Cardiff, Swansea, premiership games etc), more press interest, more chance of actually winning a game in Europe once in a while!!
Amazing the amount of sense Nev is talking these days. I remember last year he mentioned the fact that the Welsh football team are not marketed/promoted at all, despite the fact that really good players like Bale and Ramsey are very marketable. They are huge fans favourites at their (massive)clubs but when it comes to Wales we feel almost embarrassed to say that we've actually got some good players. And this is despite the fact the we have just appointed a 'marketing guru' to head the FAW. Well, if Johnny Ford reckons getting Miss Wales to do a photo shoot with Walsall reject Mark Bradley is going to get the fans behind the team, he might have to have a little rethink... (see FAW website for evidence of this piece of marketing genius, but please don't stay on the site too long , cos it's still rubbish)
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Post by Tim P on Jun 13, 2010 16:58:35 GMT
yep, the summer league would be a perfect idea. you would also open up the possibility of quality young Welsh lads from Cardiff, Swans and Wrecsam going there.
has there been a serious debate about this?
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Post by flynnfan on Jun 13, 2010 17:15:01 GMT
I remember when Llanelli lost their 1st leg away lead to go out 3-1 against Motherwell last year. Jason Perry ( i think) was on radio Wales making a huge case for it to change to a summer league, almost imploring the FAW to make this change. He then went on to say that one of the managers in LOW voted against it because he didn't want to have to change his summer holiday plans!!!! (I think that answers your question about 'serious debate' Trendy. No wonder the LOW is generally considered such a joke)
One area where I slightly disagree with Nev is that we desperately need a striker who the opposition are scared of before we start qualifying for things. Well, we had scary strikers when Nev was playing (Rush, Hughes and Saunders) and guess what? We still never qualified for anything. And as far as I can make out Slovenia, Serbia and Switzerland don't have scary stikers and they've still qualified from the hardest section for this world cup. Whereas Bulgaria (with Berbatov) and Bosnia (with Dzeko) didn't.
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Post by Tim P on Jun 14, 2010 12:20:20 GMT
right. who on here is going to step up and write a letter to the FAW asking about this?
surely they can recognise that they'd get bigger crowds in the summer?
not to mention possible bbc wales coverage in addition to s4c
plus the chance, albeit slim initially, to win more games in europe
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Post by flynnfan on Jun 14, 2010 12:54:15 GMT
There are so many reasons to change the LOW to a Summer league, but its been debated before and the proposal always gets thrown out for ridiculous reasons like the summer holiday one. I will be writing to Johnny Ford about this, (as well as a few other things) though. Surely he can see the potential practicle benefits for Welsh football?
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Post by saints19 on Jun 16, 2010 14:53:48 GMT
his point about the LOW is perfect. somehow, it needs to improve so that it can become a breeding ground for decent Welsh lads. my Idea - Welsh players only. its not as if we'd be missing out on zola, berkamp and ronaldo - just a load of scouse rejects. That would not really help the league improve. Instead of getting 'scouse rejects', we'd just get Welsh rejects instead. The problem is that interest in the league just isn't high enough; 300-odd people go to watch the games, and relatively few young players play for clubs in the Welsh Premier. It can be argued that much of this can be accounted for by the influence of the Premiership and the Welsh clubs in the Championship, who monopolize media interest. That is why I agree with the summer league idea. However, another important factor in raising the profile of the league (and the league's profile has increased significantly over the last ten years or so in my view) has been the Premier Cup, because it has given the WPL sides the chance to test themselves against really decent quality of opposition. Cardiff and Swansea tend to field reserve teams but even these are of a higher standard than the average WPL team. Playing against these teams often gives the WPL side their highest gate of the season. If the FAW could find a way of running a summer league and keeping the Premier Cup (set to return next year) then it would reap benefits in the long term. Realistically, we have to accept that players like Mark Delaney only come along perhaps once in a decade. We can point to Kevin Doyle as an example from the Irish league, but who else has emerged from that league recently who has gone on to really become an international regular? The closest I can think of would be Shane Long, who has a battle on his hands to get in the Reading team and has made one or two appearances for Ireland recently. Not too different from a certain much-maligned centre-back from TNS who made a few appearences for Wales not too long ago. They're in the same boat as us, really. |
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Post by Tim P on Jun 16, 2010 20:28:54 GMT
yes, Welsh rejects - but there are plenty of players who dont make the grade first time and just need the opportunity to battle back. i'd rather see them do this in the Welsh league; giving an advantage to Welsh 'english league' clubs as to when/if they'd be ready to step up again.
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Post by flynnfan on Jun 16, 2010 21:46:14 GMT
Realistically, we have to accept that players like Mark Delaney only come along perhaps once in a decade.
This is the sort of thing thing Nev was talking about though. Let‘s at least AIM higher.
And I hope the FAW cup does return - if the LOW was a summer league this wouldn't be a problem- they can play the rounds up till the quarter finals till August, then Cardiff/Swansea/Wrexham/Newport reserves can join in.
Also, something I thik would be a good idea would be a LOW vs league of Ireland match at the end of each season (for players qualified for Wales and Ireland/NI only though) the principle would be a bit like the sate of origin matches in Australian rugby league- these are matches that the players really aim to play in. There would (hopefully) be decent media interst- I'm sure Irish TV would show the match live and hopefully S4C would. And I guess there would also be be scouts at the game and the players know they would have a chance to impress.
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Post by cymruunedig on Jun 17, 2010 10:04:44 GMT
When I read Big Nev's article I couldn't believe it was him saying these things! He covered the issues that us fans have been saying for a long time now - the need to improve and modernise the Welsh Premier, the urgent need for FAW to market itself better, adopting a closer, club-like spirit within the national squad and play our games with results rather than £ as a priority etc, well done Nev!
I hope some of you email Mr Ford to reiterate these comments, I sent him my 'vision' of Welsh football at the beginning of the year (basically saying what's been said on here/DS for a long time!) and, if I'm honest, I can't see any improvements so far...I tried opening the FAW Megastore link the other day and it wouldn't work! Since the revamp of the new FAW website it's slowly getting worse by the month, wouldn't be surprised if a picture of Carl Robinson re-emerges...
We can, and should do better. Look at Slovenia - in the World Cup, 2 million people, small country, and they've won a game already. Look at Uruguay - 3.4 million people, slightly larger than Wales, doing well in the World Cup and competing with the likes of Argentina and Brazil on a regular basis. There's no reason why Wales couldn't do the same, but a lot of things need to change first!!
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