Jack Charlton: I'll Never Forgive John Aldridge

[RobbieOR]

Jack Charlton got ireland to two world cups and a European Championships and that is one achievement.A few of the players were playing in the best team in Europe at the time.Aldo,whelan,staunton etc.he played shite football and was eventually found out and was fucked because he had no plan B.

[TheHitman]

I know very little about the goings on in Irish football but this blog schooled me up on the Bob Paisley saga.

 

As the FAI stumble comically into their constantly exploding clowns’ car to start the search for yet another new manager, let me tell you about how I applied to manage Ireland the year Jack Charlton accidentally got the job. Four years earlier, Eoin Hand had replaced John Giles and got the job by one swing vote because one FAI board member thought that rival candidate Paddy Mulligan had thrown a bun at him on an away trip.

 

After Hand had resigned in 1985, the Merrion Square circus swung into inaction. Two senior FAI men - President Des Casey and Tony O’Neill - drove around England in a hired car looking for people to interview, while I sat at home and honed my CV. >>>

 

My Rival Candidates

 

 

Amidst a flurry of media speculation, the FAI declared their final shortlist as unchangeable: former Newcastle United manager turned after-dinner speaker Jack Charlton, Manchester City boss Billy McNeill and Irish youth coach Liam Tuohy.

 

Former Ireland boss John Giles had declined to enter the race. Then the Manchester City board refused to let McNeill apply. A senior FAI man told Giles he would get the job if he applied. Giles was now a candidate - but only if the FAI agreed to change their ‘unchangeable’ shortlist. At this stage I formally applied for the job.

 

My Application

 

In a print advert, the FAI’s only essential job requirement was an ability to speak English, and I could do that. I assured the FAI that:

 

While not intensely involved in competitive football so far this decade, my record during the early to mid seventies showed that my appointment would be a fitting end to the dignified race for this important job.

 

My enclosed CV elaborated on my relevant experience:

 

I played three games for Willow Park Wanderers U-11 side and nearly scored a goal in an U-13 five-a-side competition in Riversdale Sports Club in June ’72;

I shook hands with Turlough O’Connor after the 1976 FAI Cup Final between Bohemians and Drogheda United at Dalymount Park;

I got Derek Dougan’s autograph after the 1973 match at Lansdowne Road between Brazil and a Shamrock Rovers All-Ireland selection (the Doog’s car also ran over my foot in the car-park, effectively ending my playing career); and

I watched quite a lot of English football on the telly around the time that Leeds United used to come second in everything.

The FAI advert also expressed a preference for someone based in England, so I assured them that:

 

Although I was born in Éire, I will be as dedicated and committed to the cause of Irish football as would anyone born in a more appropriate country. I have also picked up enough ‘cockneyese’ from watching ‘Minder’ to feel at ease with our second-generation stars.

 

The Vote

 

I did not get the job but, after a heated debate, the 18-man FAI Executive did agree to add Giles to their ‘unchangeable’ shortlist. Then, with this precedent set, President Des Casey sensationally sprung a new surprise candidate: former Liverpool boss Bob Paisley.

 

Paisley could win with a 9–9 tie, as Casey had a casting vote, and Casey thought he had at least nine votes sewn up. And sure enough, Paisley got the necessary nine votes; while Charlton, Giles and Tuohy got only 3 each.

 

After a side vote eliminated Tuohy, the next vote was Paisley 9, Charlton 5, Giles 4. With Giles gone, the final vote was held. But one Paisley voter switched sides, upsetting the plan, and Charlton accidentally won by 10-8.

 

On RTE’s Late Late Show, host Gay Byrne was handed a sheet of paper. ‘I’ve just been told that Jack Charlton is the new manager of Ireland,’ he told his viewers, then he paused and added: ‘whatever that means.’

 

The Appointment

 

Months after interviewing him in a motorway café, the FAI couldn’t find Charlton to offer him the job. Charlton’s friend Jimmy Armfield rang him at his holiday hunting lodge: ‘Congratulations on getting the job, Jack.’ ‘What job?’ ‘Manager of Ireland.’ ‘Oh. I’d forgotten about that.’

 

Charlton would never forget his first dealings with FAI general secretary Peadar O’Driscoll. Charlton sent over the list of players for his squad, for the FAI to contact them, and O’Driscoll added on a few players that he felt should have been picked. From then until Tony O’Neill took over as general secretary, Charlton would only phone the FAI at lunchtime, when he knew O’Driscoll would be out of the office.

 

And now the circus begins again. Roll up, roll up!

 

Is any of the above actually true?

[RobbieOR]

I know very little about the goings on in Irish football but this blog schooled me up on the Bob Paisley saga.

 

As the FAI stumble comically into their constantly exploding clowns’ car to start the search for yet another new manager, let me tell you about how I applied to manage Ireland the year Jack Charlton accidentally got the job. Four years earlier, Eoin Hand had replaced John Giles and got the job by one swing vote because one FAI board member thought that rival candidate Paddy Mulligan had thrown a bun at him on an away trip.

 

After Hand had resigned in 1985, the Merrion Square circus swung into inaction. Two senior FAI men - President Des Casey and Tony O’Neill - drove around England in a hired car looking for people to interview, while I sat at home and honed my CV. >>>

 

My Rival Candidates

 

 

Amidst a flurry of media speculation, the FAI declared their final shortlist as unchangeable: former Newcastle United manager turned after-dinner speaker Jack Charlton, Manchester City boss Billy McNeill and Irish youth coach Liam Tuohy.

 

Former Ireland boss John Giles had declined to enter the race. Then the Manchester City board refused to let McNeill apply. A senior FAI man told Giles he would get the job if he applied. Giles was now a candidate - but only if the FAI agreed to change their ‘unchangeable’ shortlist. At this stage I formally applied for the job.

 

My Application

 

In a print advert, the FAI’s only essential job requirement was an ability to speak English, and I could do that. I assured the FAI that:

 

While not intensely involved in competitive football so far this decade, my record during the early to mid seventies showed that my appointment would be a fitting end to the dignified race for this important job.

 

My enclosed CV elaborated on my relevant experience:

 

I played three games for Willow Park Wanderers U-11 side and nearly scored a goal in an U-13 five-a-side competition in Riversdale Sports Club in June ’72;

I shook hands with Turlough O’Connor after the 1976 FAI Cup Final between Bohemians and Drogheda United at Dalymount Park;

I got Derek Dougan’s autograph after the 1973 match at Lansdowne Road between Brazil and a Shamrock Rovers All-Ireland selection (the Doog’s car also ran over my foot in the car-park, effectively ending my playing career); and

I watched quite a lot of English football on the telly around the time that Leeds United used to come second in everything.

The FAI advert also expressed a preference for someone based in England, so I assured them that:

 

Although I was born in Éire, I will be as dedicated and committed to the cause of Irish football as would anyone born in a more appropriate country. I have also picked up enough ‘cockneyese’ from watching ‘Minder’ to feel at ease with our second-generation stars.

 

The Vote

 

I did not get the job but, after a heated debate, the 18-man FAI Executive did agree to add Giles to their ‘unchangeable’ shortlist. Then, with this precedent set, President Des Casey sensationally sprung a new surprise candidate: former Liverpool boss Bob Paisley.

 

Paisley could win with a 9–9 tie, as Casey had a casting vote, and Casey thought he had at least nine votes sewn up. And sure enough, Paisley got the necessary nine votes; while Charlton, Giles and Tuohy got only 3 each.

 

After a side vote eliminated Tuohy, the next vote was Paisley 9, Charlton 5, Giles 4. With Giles gone, the final vote was held. But one Paisley voter switched sides, upsetting the plan, and Charlton accidentally won by 10-8.

 

On RTE’s Late Late Show, host Gay Byrne was handed a sheet of paper. ‘I’ve just been told that Jack Charlton is the new manager of Ireland,’ he told his viewers, then he paused and added: ‘whatever that means.’

 

The Appointment

 

Months after interviewing him in a motorway café, the FAI couldn’t find Charlton to offer him the job. Charlton’s friend Jimmy Armfield rang him at his holiday hunting lodge: ‘Congratulations on getting the job, Jack.’ ‘What job?’ ‘Manager of Ireland.’ ‘Oh. I’d forgotten about that.’

 

Charlton would never forget his first dealings with FAI general secretary Peadar O’Driscoll. Charlton sent over the list of players for his squad, for the FAI to contact them, and O’Driscoll added on a few players that he felt should have been picked. From then until Tony O’Neill took over as general secretary, Charlton would only phone the FAI at lunchtime, when he knew O’Driscoll would be out of the office.

 

And now the circus begins again. Roll up, roll up!

 

Is any of the above actually true?

 

Yep thats true alright!Big fuck up there.The cunts choosing hoof over pass and move.

[Gav]

you got that from Micks blog ,He's a Bohs fan ,used go to all the aways but I think when the FAI changed ticketing policy he got fucked off ...what the blog piece didnt mention is why the paisley voter switched ...Mick also does articles for the Sindo

his best was the "Twelve Maddest Things That The FAI Has Done"

 

 

1965 – Ireland was in a play-off against Spain to qualify for the 1966 World Cup. The FAI agreed to play the game in Paris, where there would be more Spanish fans, if the FAI could have the Spanish share of the gate money. The Spanish agreed, and won the game.

 

1970s – The FAI regularly organised friendlies in Poland, where officials enjoyed the ‘night life’ (yes, that means prostitutes), and once did not even stay in the same city as the match. The players travelled to one such game in the luggage carriage of a train, while the officials relaxed on seats.

 

1980 – After Johnny Giles quit, Eoin Hand beat Paddy Mulligan to the Ireland manager’s job by one swing vote. Afterwards, one FAI board member said that he had voted for Hand because he thought Mulligan was the person who had thrown a bun at him on an away trip.

 

1986 - Jack Charlton became Ireland manager by accident, after the FAI messed up a vote intended to give the job to Bob Paisley. At first Charlton got only three votes out of eighteen, compared to nine for Paisley. The FAI then couldn’t contact Charlton to tell him that he had got the job.

 

1986 – When a friend congratulated Charlton on his new job, he replied ‘What job?’ On being told he was Ireland manager, he replied ‘Oh, I’d forgotten about that.’ When Charlton sent his first squad list to the FAI, he found that an FAI official was adding players that he liked onto the list.

 

1994 - The FAI bought £296,000 of World Cup tickets, and gave most to a tout with the confidence-inspiring nickname of ‘George the Greek’, who unsurprisingly did a runner. The FAI ended up with a ‘trading shortfall’ of over £200,000, for which they obtained just 314 extra tickets for one Ireland match.

 

1996 – Two referees won a court case against the FAI after being downgraded for failing a new test. The judge called the FAI ‘an autocracy which was incapable of abiding by its own rules’. The FAI quickly reacted by writing to 142 other referees, banning them all from refereeing for not taking the same test - the exact opposite of the court judgment.

 

1999 – The FAI announced a plan to spend £65m on a new stadium, but forgot to include the £16m cost of the site, then spent years debating which of two non-existent stadiums they would use. During the optimistic FAI bid to host Euro 2008, the UEFA panel was photographed examining an empty field.

 

2002 – The FAI prepared for the World Cup by forgetting to bring proper footballs to an island that had no proper football pitch, causing a minor civil war back home. On returning, the FAI ordered an independent investigation into itself, and pretty much ignored the results.

 

2002 – The FAI tried to sell TV rights for Ireland games to the subscription channel Sky. When the Government told them that EU law protects important cultural events for terrestrial TV viewers to watch free, the FAI countered that Irish football is not culturally important.

 

2005 – The FAI fired Brian Kerr, the only Irish manager to have won European and World trophies, and vowed to replace him with a World-class manager. This turned out to be Stephen Staunton, the part-time unofficial coach of the defenders at a poor English third division team.

 

2007 – The FAI has just fined two League of Ireland clubs €500 each because their fans were throwing paper. This comes after they introduced a revised promotion system for last season, which infuriated a Dundalk fan so much that he occupied their offices and doused himself with petrol.

[TheHitman]

Yes this was the blog address i took it from

 

The First Time That I Applied to Manage Ireland « That’s Ireland

 

Wow speechless..

[RobbieOR]

you got that from Micks blog ,He's a Bohs fan ,used go to all the aways but I think when the FAI changed ticketing policy he got fucked off ...what the blog piece didnt mention is why the paisley voter switched ...Mick also does articles for the Sindo

his best was the "Twelve Maddest Things That The FAI Has Done"

 

 

1965 – Ireland was in a play-off against Spain to qualify for the 1966 World Cup. The FAI agreed to play the game in Paris, where there would be more Spanish fans, if the FAI could have the Spanish share of the gate money. The Spanish agreed, and won the game.

 

1970s – The FAI regularly organised friendlies in Poland, where officials enjoyed the ‘night life’ (yes, that means prostitutes), and once did not even stay in the same city as the match. The players travelled to one such game in the luggage carriage of a train, while the officials relaxed on seats.

 

1980 – After Johnny Giles quit, Eoin Hand beat Paddy Mulligan to the Ireland manager’s job by one swing vote. Afterwards, one FAI board member said that he had voted for Hand because he thought Mulligan was the person who had thrown a bun at him on an away trip.

 

1986 - Jack Charlton became Ireland manager by accident, after the FAI messed up a vote intended to give the job to Bob Paisley. At first Charlton got only three votes out of eighteen, compared to nine for Paisley. The FAI then couldn’t contact Charlton to tell him that he had got the job.

 

1986 – When a friend congratulated Charlton on his new job, he replied ‘What job?’ On being told he was Ireland manager, he replied ‘Oh, I’d forgotten about that.’ When Charlton sent his first squad list to the FAI, he found that an FAI official was adding players that he liked onto the list.

 

1994 - The FAI bought £296,000 of World Cup tickets, and gave most to a tout with the confidence-inspiring nickname of ‘George the Greek’, who unsurprisingly did a runner. The FAI ended up with a ‘trading shortfall’ of over £200,000, for which they obtained just 314 extra tickets for one Ireland match.

 

1996 – Two referees won a court case against the FAI after being downgraded for failing a new test. The judge called the FAI ‘an autocracy which was incapable of abiding by its own rules’. The FAI quickly reacted by writing to 142 other referees, banning them all from refereeing for not taking the same test - the exact opposite of the court judgment.

 

1999 – The FAI announced a plan to spend £65m on a new stadium, but forgot to include the £16m cost of the site, then spent years debating which of two non-existent stadiums they would use. During the optimistic FAI bid to host Euro 2008, the UEFA panel was photographed examining an empty field.

 

2002 – The FAI prepared for the World Cup by forgetting to bring proper footballs to an island that had no proper football pitch, causing a minor civil war back home. On returning, the FAI ordered an independent investigation into itself, and pretty much ignored the results.

 

2002 – The FAI tried to sell TV rights for Ireland games to the subscription channel Sky. When the Government told them that EU law protects important cultural events for terrestrial TV viewers to watch free, the FAI countered that Irish football is not culturally important.

 

2005 – The FAI fired Brian Kerr,the only Irish manager to have won European and World trophies, and vowed to replace him with a World-class manager. This turned out to be Stephen Staunton, the part-time unofficial coach of the defenders at a poor English third division team.

 

2007 – The FAI has just fined two League of Ireland clubs €500 each because their fans were throwing paper. This comes after they introduced a revised promotion system for last season, which infuriated a Dundalk fan so much that he occupied their offices and doused himself with petrol.

Basically that is the story of out laughable FAI.Delaney is a cunt and should be gone.That replacement of Kerr was a joke.thought they could get away with bobby robson as assistant.

[Gav]

Yes this was the blog address i took it from

 

The First Time That I Applied to Manage Ireland « That’s Ireland

 

Wow speechless..

 

 

this is main one Bionic Bohs

 

Some of his articles are quite decent reading

[El Rojo]

Charlton obviously had his flaws as a person and a manager, but Eoin Hand achieved fuck all with a very similar squad of players.

 

The football was wretched, but hugely effective, and his qualification record was excellent.

 

The FAI were a joke before, during and after his appointment.

 

It's become far too easy to piss on everything the guy's achieved these days.

[Fugitive]

The fella has got Shredded Wheat for Brains.

[Ian Sea]

Charlton shouldn't have been playing Aldridge out wide in the first place, the fuckwit.

[AL66GOLF]

Charlton shouldn't have been playing Aldridge out wide in the first place, the fuckwit.

 

He wasn't played out wide but if you played up front for Charlton you chased centre halfs & full backs all day and "put them under pressure" as he was fond of saying.

[JohnnyH]

I may get hammered for this, but I loved the Charlton era and I really like him.

[t1971]

I may get hammered for this, but I loved the Charlton era and I really like him.

 

I loved it too. And so did the vast majority of Ireland.

[aws]

I sense trouble ahead.

[El Rojo]

I may get hammered for this, but I loved the Charlton era and I really like him.

 

Yep, some serious revisionism going on here.

 

Whatever about the quality of football, there was a real bond between the players, manager and fans then.

 

Hopefully the Trap era can revive the same, but the football, though effective, might not be the most inspirational either.

[Franny DelMucho]

you'd think aldo went out of his way to make the mistake to fuck everything up for ireland. i have not seen many players who play with more passion or determination than aldo did. charlton probably thinks ireland would have went on to win the world cup and dominate world soccer - iferaddinabinferaldo.

[RobbieOR]

Yep, some serious revisionism going on here.

 

Whatever about the quality of football, there was a real bond between the players, manager and fans then.

 

Hopefully the Trap era can revive the same, but the football, though effective, might not be the most inspirational either.

Hopefullt Trappatoni can do the same but i believe he is only two years till the world cup and he will retire when we qualify and play in it.He can go out on a high.

[Trumo]

Jack Charlton passed away today, aged 85. He'll be barking at St Peter for not opening the bloody gates despite his name being on the list.

[Davelfc]

Jack Charlton, the former Leeds and England defender who won a World Cup winner’s medal in 1966, has died. He was 85.

Charlton had been diagnosed with lymphoma in the last year and was also battling dementia.

He spent his entire 21-year playing career at Leeds, making a joint club record 773 appearances, before retiring as a player in 1973 and going on to enjoy a successful and colourful career as a manager.

 

One of English football’s most popular and larger-than-life characters, he had spells in charge of Sheffield Wednesday, Middlesbrough, Newcastle and the Republic of Ireland, who he guided to their first major finals at Euro 88 and two more in the space of 10 years.

 

A family statement read: “Jack died peacefully on Friday, July 10 at the age of 85. He was at home in Northumberland, with his family by his side.

“As well as a friend to many, he was a much-adored husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather.

 

Charlton won the 1968-69 league title with Leeds, the FA Cup in 1972, the League Cup in 1968 and two UEFA Cups, in 1968 and 1971.

His golden moment as a player came at Wembley in 1966 when he and brother Bobby were team-mates in England’s World Cup win against West Germany after extra time.

 

Charlton did not win his first England cap until he was 29, in 1965, and played his 35th and final match for his country in the 1970 World Cup finals in Mexico in a group game against Czechoslovakia.

A towering, uncompromising centre-half, he won the Football Writers’ Association’s Footballer of the Year award in 1967.

 

He announced his retirement as a player aged 38 soon after missing out on Leeds’ 1973 FA Cup final defeat to Sunderland through injury and was made an OBE the year after for his services to football.

[deiseach]

He was asked on a Q&A session on a kid's show on RTÉ back in the day by a friend of mine whether winning the World Cup was best football memory. No, it turned out it was winning the league at Anfield with Leeds in 1969, and having the Kop chant ”CHAMPIONS CHAMPIONS CHAMPIONS" to them. RIP.

[Guest Pistonbroke]

He had a good innings, still shit for those who loved him. RIP. 

[Ronnie Whelan]

RIP Big Jack.

 

 

[Grinch]

Shit news but a good old innings

[Stickman]

R.I.P to the “Big Dirty Giraffe” as the Kop affectionately used to call him....Seemed a great bloke and as with Shankly when he was a manger “he made the people happy” 

[El Rojo]

RIP. He achieved brilliantly for Ireland and his critics in that regard are always quiet on why the national team never scaled the same heights before (with arguably better players) or after.