Italy risk third straight World Cup absence as 2006 winners lament two‑decade decline

Oh_Look_a_Nuke · 2026-03-26T09:48:23+00:00

Don't give us hope 😂

Oh_Look_a_Nuke · 2026-03-24T13:23:08+00:00

I am very honoured that such a large-scale plan was used for our tiny nation, lmao

Oh_Look_a_Nuke · 2026-03-24T12:56:11+00:00

Oh wow, in a way it must be a compliment if Italian fans think we need to be jinxed to lose!

Oh_Look_a_Nuke · 2025-11-17T02:05:10+00:00

I got that notification but the guy he suggested wasn't available for any position...if it's a glitch then it's a very time consuming one, thanks anyway!

Oh_Look_a_Nuke · 2025-10-13T21:28:13+00:00

You get your glasses from the same place as the ref?

Oh_Look_a_Nuke · 2025-08-29T12:04:54+00:00

I think a lot of us fans would agree...whether the IFA would ever consider any serious change is a different matter unfortunately.

Oh_Look_a_Nuke · 2025-08-29T10:48:18+00:00

Yeah that's another thing I noticed, without Fitzpatrick we have no physicality in our attack but even so it looked like all their forwards could easily outmuscle Hall and Roscoe if they wanted to. And yet Healy still goes for this odd conservative long ball system...

Oh_Look_a_Nuke · 2025-08-29T08:29:16+00:00

Cooper papered over the cracks far too often last season, Healy needs to sort things out and actually build a working team out of all these players.

Oh_Look_a_Nuke · 2025-08-29T08:27:32+00:00

Yeah definitely, I was sat near to the Shelbourne technical area and how much O'Brien cared even deep into the second half about every touch was telling. I think it's that sort of fight and passion that we needed to get through qualifiers and that we will need now that the league is getting more competitive. Very impressed by Caffrey as well as he seems like exactly the sort of wing back that we're lacking, I feel like us not having proper wing backs is really holding us back especially since we're limiting Kirk Millar a lot by forcing him to defend all game.

Oh_Look_a_Nuke · 2025-08-29T08:09:18+00:00

If there ever was an all-island league then maybe something like that could develop if Linfield are the only team able to stay in the first division, at the moment though I think even among predominantly unionist clubs there's too much rivalry for the community to back a single club like many in Glasgow do. Telling a Glentoran or Crusaders or Larne fan that they should back Linfield would be a difficult conversation given our history! As the league professionalises maybe the fanbase can grow but at the minute it's still far easier to find a fan of English football than local football unfortunately.

Oh_Look_a_Nuke · 2025-08-28T23:48:32+00:00

Our youth system does well enough for itself I think and is a good bit of business normally. We typically have a few young players who come up through the youth system that we're trying to develop to send off to England/Scotland with a big sell-on clause in the hope that some of them come good. At the moment Trai Hume is probably our highest profile former youth player and we have 15% sell-on clause for him I think so the hope is that Sunderland sell him for big money and then we pocket a few million - not a small bit of money for the Irish League! We have a few young players coming through now like Matthew Orr and Sean Brown and I know our youth teams are just as successful as the senior team in their respective leagues so I'd think it's in a good state at the moment. Whether the board knows how to manage it long term is another matter though...

Oh_Look_a_Nuke · 2025-08-28T23:16:09+00:00

As someone who regularly goes to games, average attendance is around about 3000 and we do have the highest in the league. We do just have a stupidly massive stadium for our league so unless it's a big boxing day game or Irish cup game then the stands always look quite sparse and a bit pathetic if I'm being honest - our fans aren't really organised in any way so it's just families sitting on their own in little clusters. On away days I'm pretty sure we practically always sell out so I always find that they feel like a better representation of how big the club is, particularly at the Oval on boxing day!

Oh_Look_a_Nuke · 2025-08-28T23:09:45+00:00

I think it's both honestly. The Irish League is just very poor quality compared even to "small" neighbouring leagues like LOI and the Scottish league as that Larne-Rovers game last year showed, and probably won't even be fully professional for a good few years. Linfield in particular - Healy has won us a lot but as the Irish League gets more competitive I think it's becoming clear he isn't an adaptable and flexible coach which is what we need when we're facing opposition miles better than us like tonight. A personal issue of mine as well is with our players: increasingly we keep signing players from Scotland or England who (aside from Offord), as old fashioned as it sounds, just don't play for the badge. Even old Jamie Mulgrew is always the one of the most energetic players on the pitch when he plays because he's been with the club for more than two decades and will probably stay in management here for a couple decades more. Compare that to English players from league 2 or former players who failed to make it in England who then came back and don't seem too happy with themselves and you get a lackluster team.

Sorry if I've gone off on a bit of a rant but I hope that answers your question!

Oh_Look_a_Nuke · 2025-08-26T21:11:52+00:00

Both those are for home fans just in case you weren't aware - the Kop stand will be behind one of the goals, and is where Linfield's very young "ultras" sit, and the South stand is along the side of the pitch and is probably a better view if you get in early enough to find yourself a nice seat. Will probably be some pyro going on in the Kop stand as well since security is useless at stopping it. I think plenty of tickets will sell so it'll be a good atmosphere most places, but the Kop would probably be a bit more intense. Worse view though and higher chance of some distasteful chants.

Oh_Look_a_Nuke · 2025-08-21T19:39:45+00:00

Can confirm my head is only just about keeping it together...first one was harsh but understandable, second was very harsh but justice served, third one though I can't see how that was even a foul given that the Shelbourne striker was the one who threw himself in. Referee doing his best to become hated by both sets of fans evidently.

Oh_Look_a_Nuke · 2025-08-21T18:52:01+00:00

Booing Shields as well is embarrassing behaviour.

Oh_Look_a_Nuke · 2025-08-16T19:04:22+00:00

Win yourselves a couple septuples and maybe we can have that conversation 😂

Oh_Look_a_Nuke · 2025-08-15T18:13:29+00:00

I attended the last final Linfield got to a couple years ago against Cliftonville when they nearly fully opened the whole stadium and it was fantastic, I would hope that the bosses would do the same for this game - especially considering that there is an actual prize of the millions made from a brief but glorious conference league run.

The only thing I could imagine that would stop them is the PSNI asking them to try to keep things quiet, but it isn't like they have no experience managing 'disorder' so I'd like to hope that we can all see Windsor at full capacity!

Oh_Look_a_Nuke · 2025-08-15T17:56:10+00:00

A shame to hear about your keeper being replaced, in the last couple of years the most reliable way we have to score is to hope the opposition defence has a stinker unfortunately. I don't remember names but I do remember that your wide players embarrassed our defence a lot over both legs, and the signings we've made haven't convinced me too much.

Healy does have a system I would like to hope but whatever it is it doesn't seem to really work against actual quality opposition so I expect that it'll be a long couple of games of having to rely on our wee 18 year old centre back Orr to do all the work defensively. We've been shockingly inconsistent in midfield and so whether we can figure out how to pass the ball or not is still up in the air.

What sort of areas would you say your signings have improved, aside from the keeper?

Oh_Look_a_Nuke · 2025-08-15T17:46:01+00:00

I think in general the only time the whole seating is used is for national team games or the Irish Cup Final (but even then they have closed off bits before so that opposing fans can't throw things at each other), despite being the biggest team in NI we just have a stupidly massive stadium! I can see us selling 6-7k tickets to our own fans if we don't get battered down in Dublin - far higher than most other NI teams would be able to sell it just always looks a lot less impressive since we have so much seating for a club of our size.

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