2017 was not the best of years for Martin O’Neill and Roy Keane. It was only in November of 2016 that the Republic of Ireland secured a 1–0 victory over Austria, their first victory in Vienna in a long time, which put Ireland firmly on top of their qualifying group for the World Cup. Everything seemed to be going Ireland’s way, Wales were the main danger of the group given their exploits in the European Championships but were struggling in their groups. All Ireland needed to do was avoid losing to Wales and beat the teams that they should be beating — the likes of Moldova and Georgia- and they would be heading to Russia for their first World Cup since 2002.

Yet, Ireland struggled. A serious injury to Seamus Coleman in the first game against Wales threw everything down and Ireland were now without their best player. Still, there was an opportunity for the Irish to advance but failures to beat Serbia and shockingly Georgia meant that Ireland now had to play Wales just to make the play-offs, with a thankful James McClean scoring to put Ireland into the play-offs. Ireland managed to avoid any of the ‘danger’ teams in the draw and ended up with Denmark, a draw that would have pleased both countries. This was the ideal draw for Ireland, the ‘easiest’ draw they could have possibly had with many believing that O’Neill’s defensive tactics should be able to snuff out the creativity and danger of Christen Eriksen. But that isn’t what happened, O’Neill bizarrely allowed Eriksen all of the space in the world to operate in, he wrecked havoc on Ireland to put Denmark through with ease. An embarrassing result that meant Ireland would not be playing in Russia in the World Cup this summer.

In one year from being on top of the group with everything in order to being dumped out in the most humiliating fashion possible. Ireland only managed to secure two competitive victories in 2017.

But none of that seemed to be of much of a concern to the Football Association of Ireland. The FAI quickly signed O’Neill up to a new contract after there was slight talk of O’Neill becoming the next Stoke manager after Mark Hughes was sacked. O’Neill has been rewarded for failure, given another shot at trying to get Ireland into the 2020 European Championships.

But ultimately, the problems go much deeper than O’Neill. While his pre-historic tactics are a cause for concern, his renewal shows a strong lack of ambition from the FAI. They are content with putting up with O’Neill than look for a new manager, it’s all too similar to when Steve Staunton and Giovanni Trappattoni were at the helm and kept onto their jobs for far longer than they should have. There is a belief that because O’Neill did well in getting Ireland as far as he did in the European Championships, that he can do it once again. But when you look at the Irish squad, not only is it not very good, it’s a vastly aging squad. The majority of the players are either in their thirties or approaching it, it says it all when the country’s most creative player is Wes Hoolahan who is thirty five years of age and plays for Norwich in England’s second division.

There are no prospects coming up, the state of the countries youth development is abysmal. There is not enough money being invested by the FAI into producing better quality youth players, just like there is not enough money being invested into attempting to improve the quality of coaching in Ireland. There’s a reason why you do not see many upcoming Irish managers or coaches, why there is no upcoming youth prospects. Stephen Kenny might be the only one, who has led Dundalk superbly into the Europa League but he is the only Irish manager who has potential. Youth standards are far behind the times, coaches are more fixated on physicality than they are technical ability and it reflects back into the National team. Ireland do not produce creativity nor flair kind of players, those are shunned away for those who are big and strong. It’s a process that is twenty years behind the times with no signs of changing. John Delaney is far more content to pocket any money he receives than invest it back into the countries future.

More and more children would prefer to go and become Gaelic Footballers or Hurlers, playing for their local counties for free in the hopes of winning the All-Ireland than go to become professional footballers. That isn’t because of a lack of interest in football in Ireland, it’s the country’s most popular sport but there isn’t that many pathways for one to go and become a professional footballer in this country. Most kids will have to move away to England, which isn’t exactly easy for most families to just pack everything up and move away, especially when these kids are more than likely only moving away to a Championship or League One side. Not that should be taken as disrespect to those sides, but that isn’t going to convince many to let their teenagers off aboard in the feint hopes of success.

The League of Ireland itself may as well not exist. A semi-professional league, it isn’t of any particular interest to anybody apart from the most hardcore. The FAI surely do not have any interest in it, Delaney himself making about ten times more a year in wages than the league champions. No investments made into the league to improve it, to try and entice fans, especially younger ones, to flock out to their local teams to help clubs improve their struggling finances and grow an attachment to these clubs. Dundalk under Stephen Kenny showed that there is potential there, with his side reaching the group stages in the Europa League in 2016 who gave a good showing of themselves and were unfortunate not to qualify from the groups into the knockout stages.

There needs to be an overhaul in the FAI, there needs to be a change in the way that football is taught and thought about here — culturally and technically. The FAI needs to establish an actual plan, a long-term plan that can benefit the country where youth development is better — where flair, creativity and technical ability is celebrated over brawn and raw physical strength. Actual pathways to success, youth coaches who know how to produce these kind of players. Not only should be a need to improve the state of the Irish league itself, but also to strengthen the National team as well. This requires money, ambition and long-term planning/patience. For this to happen, John Delaney needs to leave his position in charge of the FAI as swiftly as possible. He’s a cancer to Irish cancer and nothing will ever change with him at the helm.

Ireland desperately need forward-thinking, they need progression and the renewal of Martin O’Neill with his prehistoric football is not a sign of any of that.