LOI Talk, Rumours, Gossip, Transfers etc 2018

Oat23

prodsc wrote: »

Cork are on Eirsport 1

Shams are also on CT Sport in CZ so there will be streams. That one starts an hour before Cork.

joeysoap

justshane wrote: »

Who's the best keeper in the league? Supple in my opinion but he didn't want to go apparently.

Dundalk wouldn't let supple play for a GAA club as well as for Dundalk. Bohs don't seem to mind and I agree Rogers is a bit long in the tooth now for this level.

The_Kew_Tour

Dundalk have upped the standard and that deserve respect for that, but feel they blew it a little tonight. But like Mushy said we have laughed at the thought few years ago

Ferris_Bueller

I think Rosenborg deserved to go through based on tonights game, the Dundalk players looked very tired for a lot of the second half and couldn't keep the ball out of their own third for the first 30 mins of the second half. McEleney having to come off was a big loss, I wonder would they have been better off bringing on Connolly at that point as McGrath didn't seem to offer too much. Dundalk didn't even play brilliantly over the two legs but they still went to the wire with a club much bigger than them and who are regulars in European group stages over the years, it just shows the level Dundalk are at that they can be disappointed not to progress. Massive credit to them for all they have achieved in Europe in the past 12 months. I'm assuming next year they will be seeded for a round or two in the Europa League so hopefully they will have another crack at qualifying next year.

Vemmelund was brilliant tonight, McMillan covered some amount of ground also he works incredibly hard for the team. Gartland is a weak link at this level I think, very good centre half in the league of Ireland but has made a lot of mistakes in European games. Hopefully Cork or Rovers (less likely) can progress tomorrow night, but I fear summer is over early for LoI clubs in Europe this year.

fullstop

Dundalk are a credit to the league, fair play to them. I never thought I'd see a LoI team go up against top teams with the belief and ability they have for the last 2 seasons.

riffmongous

Rosenborg were the better team over the 120 minutes I guess, but Dundalk got so close to winning with those 2 great chances that it feels really disappointing. They were too defensive for long periods of the game, but at other times they looked great, especially when they were going forward

Lyle Lanley

Mushy wrote: »

If somebody said 2/3 years ago that you'd feel deflated about a LOI team going out to Rosenborg, I'd have said they're mad. That was an opportunity for sure, defensive howlers cost them

Ehh 3 years ago we in Sligo were very deflated, having beaten Rosenberg away in the first leg..

red sean

Dennis O' Connor has resigned as Bray Chairman.

How does this effect the immediate future of Bray Wanderers now? How is the ownership of the club constituted?

joeysoap

Sue Pa Key Pa wrote: »

So you're saying that a club with a ton of money already has the best keeper in the league. Money talks

Dundalk might have more money (now) than mot LOI clubs but they have one of the tightest budgets. Not the smallest budget by a long way but also not the biggest budget. I think last year they had the 4th largest budget in the league. This year's budget was set at 10% bigger than last year - no more. Having said that Boyle, Horgan and Finn ( and before that Towell) were on decent wages. So there was room to wriggle with.

Dundalk missed seeding this year by .15 in the champions league (Harnarfjordur were seeded which proves the need to qualify every year for Europe) next year the coefficients start at 2013/14 and as Dundalk qualified each year since they should be seeded. Good news is that next year City - if they are beaten in their first round, will drop into the Europa league.

Lyle Lanley

joeysoap wrote: »

Dundalk might have more money (now) than mot LOI clubs but they have one of the tightest budgets. Not the smallest budget by a long way but also not the biggest budget. I think last year they had the 4th largest budget in the league.

It's a commonly known league of Ireland fact that no team has ever actually had the highest budget in the league.

joeysoap

Lyle Lanley wrote: »

It's a commonly known league of Ireland fact that no team has ever actually had the highest budget in the league.

dfx-

Hammer Archer wrote: »

I'm baffled at how Kenny didn't invest in another keeper before the start of the season. He was a big reason why they didn't reach the knockout stages last year.

Their defence hasn't been that great when you match them physically. They can bully LOI sides off the ball with Shields/SOD protection in front of them. Those two players have been hugely pivotal to their success.

But when that physicality is matched at EL level, they make errors.

Mushy

Lyle Lanley wrote: »

Mushy wrote: »

If somebody said 2/3 years ago that you'd feel deflated about a LOI team going out to Rosenborg, I'd have said they're mad. That was an opportunity for sure, defensive howlers cost them

Ehh 3 years ago we in Sligo were very deflated, having beaten Rosenberg away in the first leg..

That's true, but people would've expected Rosenborg to go through then. Before this tie, it was hoped they could get through it.

Omackeral

One thing for sure going forward is that European teams in future qualification matches, be it EL or CL, won't see Dundalk as a walkover. Very competent outfit at European level over the last couple of years, well able to play football and are a natural fit for that style.

White Horse

A great evening in the Lerkehdal last night. Yes, there was huge disappointment among the Dundalk fans who were there. There was also pride, pride at a huge performance over 2 hours of play. The objective is always to qualify for the next round, but the imperative for the players and the club is to win respect for themselves, the club, and the league. In that sense, they succeeded.

This was a different Rosenberg than we played in Oriel. The tempo they bought to the game in the first 20 minutes of the second half took a massive defensive performance to withstand. Rosenberg outnumbered Dundalk in central midfield and Kenny had to alter our formation to counter that. It worked, Rosenberg were largely neutralised. It meant sacrificing some of our creativity too. it was clear from that from there on, chances from both teams would be limited and it was a question of who would take their chance. We hit the bar but Rosenberg took theirs. Game over.

Winning ties away from home in Europe is tough. The tie was not lost last night, it was lost at home. We should have scored more than one goal last week.

CHealy

McCormack and Keohane in defense for City this evening, Bennett traveled but not even in the squad, he'll announce his retirement soon. Make shift defense means I see little hope of us qualifying. Sheppard on the bench aswell, must have got a knock while over there.

kksaints

Shams 2 down after 35 minutes.

wadacrack

rovers being taught a lesson

red sean

Cork 1-0 down as well.

farna_boy

red sean wrote: »

Cork 1-0 down as well.

The ref is so poor in the city game

joeysoap

Going to come in here now because it can't get any better (no more matches). Dundalk are up to 174 in European club co efficient rankings. I know they will drop places as the various competitions progress but their co efficient will remain 6.840 which should see them seeded in next year's Europa cup, should they remain in the top 3 from now until the season ends. They are not a stones throw away from of the bigger boys in europe. You really do need to qualify for Europe every year to have any chance of being seeded.

Corholio

That scrappy silly goal at the Cross was the sickener in the end. Not a whole lot between the teams overall, just didn't move the ball quick enough out there tonight to make openings. Ref wasn't at fault for going out but how he didn't see the penalty I don't know.

ShamoBuc

City could have done better. Ref was rather shocking, in both legs. Aek are nothing special and will probably go no further.

The_Kew_Tour

Very Poor from City over both legs. We are better then that, but deserve to be knocked out.

Ferris_Bueller

Bit of a disappointing year all in all for the league in Europe. The draws were difficult this year and can't say that anyone of the teams was expected to beat their opponents but no real shocks pulled off this year.

Was looking at our teams results in Europe over the past ten years and the variety of teams we have had competing is crazy. Cork, Dundalk, Rovers, Derry, Sligo, Pats, Drogheda, Bohs, Fingal, even UCD! But that has probably been a problem for the league that no team has really become used to playing in Europe and as a result it's hard to build on each year. Dundalk seem experienced now and Pats had a good run for a few years.

Hopefully Dundalk, Cork and Rovers can qualify consistently over the next few years and make a few more stabs at the group stages.

dfx-

Equally an enormous added problem is the rotating one year contracts. Plenty of players have played in Europe at some point by now, but it's for different teams every year.

Stable team squads qualifying consistently is the next major leap forward.

At this stage with the added monies from the last 2 season City and Dundalk need to be holding down key players to 3 year contracts and not losing them for nothing or pittance like Maguire, Towell, Horgan and Boyle. City are the only one who got a transfer fee, in €150k for Maguire and lucky at that as he was out of contract end of the season.

I read somewhere even if City lose all the European games next season we still get 1 million, that is basing it that we wont lose the major points advantage and win the league. I have given up on the FAI doing anything with prize money so we are relying on Europe.

So if City base their season on the prize money from last season ( i think it pays out later this year) which was close to 700k and the predicted gate receipts we should be looking at making at least 20 players full time with 2-3 year contracts as we have the smaller prize money (next seasons kitty) from this season but a very good average league attendance . Thats not including sponsorship's etc. Then if we are guaranteed a million from next season that should cover the contracts easily.

We have a high performance coach so not sure what exactly that entails but i assume some sort of strength and conditioning.

As much as Caulfield is doing great, i still don't believe in his philosophy going forward, Dundalk play far more attractive football. Before i get beaten down on this, i still think Caulfield did a great job moving the club forward i would just love to see him get more technical in his game

joeysoap

dfx- wrote: »

Equally an enormous added problem is the rotating one year contracts. Plenty of players have played in Europe at some point by now, but it's for different teams every year.

Stable team squads qualifying consistently is the next major leap forward.

One of the consequences of that might be a two tier league. The rewards are so great in Europe now that some clubs might be tempted to overextend to try to gain qualification.

The LOI prizemoney really does need to be increased, all the way to the club in 20th position.

What do the FAI propose to do with the match takings from the Man U vs Sampdoria match? Pay Delaney's wages?

Should be a minimum of €250,000 set aside for LOI promotion. How likely is that to happen? This is an organisation who only admitted to the €5m when FIFA let it slip.

Post crossed with Keeffo above, I agree with main points , but this will cement a two tier league.

Awesomeness

Yeah multi year contracts are really needed to provide teams with stability and to stop the best players getting picked up for nothing

GLaDOS

Some players might refuse to sign a longer contract if they think it will hold back their chances of going to England

Raoul

GLaDOS wrote: »

Some players might refuse to sign a longer contract if they think it will hold back their chances of going to England

The likes of Cork and Dundalk need to be strong then and point out that it is only from teams like Cork and Dundalk that players are getting picked from. So if you don't want to sing a 3 year contract then you are free to sign for a lesser club where you won't have any exposure.

eigrod

Oh look , Bray drew Cork City at home in FAI cup - no fix there at all, Ted.

gimmick

eigrod wrote: »

Oh look , Bray drew Cork City at home in FAI cup - no fix there at all, Ted.

Poor draw for CCFC tbh. But then any away draw is a poor draw. 4th cup game in a row away too :rolleyes:

Dundalk home to Derry certainly the biggest tie of the round.

No replays either for this round or the next. All the way to pens if required.

CHealy

We'll never be drawn at home again it seems.

eigrod

gimmick wrote: »

Poor draw for CCFC tbh. But then any away draw is a poor draw. 4th cup game in a row away too :rolleyes:

I firmly believe it's a fix. Bray need the money, the FAI need them to get the money, Bray got 1,800 through the gate for league game last Sunday, will probably top 2,000 for a cup game.

Guffy

eigrod wrote: »

I firmly believe it's a fix. Bray need the money, the FAI need them to get the money, Bray got 1,800 through the gate for league game last Sunday, will probably top 2,000 for a cup game.

If it were a fix would it not be rovers? Don't they bring the largest travelling suppirt to bray?

CHealy

eigrod wrote: »

I firmly believe it's a fix. Bray need the money, the FAI need them to get the money, Bray got 1,800 through the gate for league game last Sunday, will probably top 2,000 for a cup game.

??? Early rounds of the Cup are notorious for poor attendances. Although its on the same weekend as the All Ireland hurling semi final so if Bray have it on the Saturday evening there could be another big crowd from Cork at it, at least 700 City fans at the game last Sunday.

gimmick

eigrod wrote: »

I firmly believe it's a fix. Bray need the money, the FAI need them to get the money, Bray got 1,800 through the gate for league game last Sunday, will probably top 2,000 for a cup game.

If it were a fix Bray would have been away to CCFC as the gate is split and chances are there would be 3500-4000 there.

eigrod

gimmick wrote: »

If it were a fix Bray would have been away to CCFC as the gate is split and chances are there would be 3500-4000 there.

Fair enough. I'm probably a bit too suspicious when it comes to the cocktail of Finance + FAI + Bray Wanderers

SteelyDanJalapeno

Ballincollig - Athlone!

hufpc8w3adnk65

TiltedBrain wrote: »

Ballincollig - Athlone!

Ballibcolig -2 is being back all across Asia as we speak

joeysoap

Usually the way with cup draws; Dundalk v Derry in the cup one week and a week later they meet in the league.

Zebra3

eigrod wrote: »

Oh look , Bray drew Cork City at home in FAI cup - no fix there at all, Ted.

No FAI official would care enough about the league to fix a draw to help save a club.

They'd have too much to lose personally.

Could you imagine Gavin or Delaney going looking for work outside the FAI?

major bill

Ferris_Bueller wrote: »

Hopefully Dundalk, Cork and Rovers can qualify consistently over the next few years and make a few more stabs at the group stages.

Why though? why would you want to create a two tier league in the hope of teams getting through a couple of rounds in Europe? cos thats what that sounds like to me! it's not going to make the league stronger.

tanko

How much would Dundalk have gained financially from a tie against Celtic?

kksaints

Another super comeback win for the Supersaints tonight! Hopefully we can keep the form going for the next three matches which are HUGELY important for all the teams concerned.

ben.schlomo

We thumped a largely awful Drogheda side tonight. Gavin Holohan with a superb hattrick, another goal of the season contender for us with his second.
On a sidenote the referee, McKell has to be the most lenient I've ever seen in the league. The Drogs rb must have had a minimum of ten fouls without a card and at one stage a Drogs layer barged the referee after they didn't get a corner and he didn't do a thing.

dreamers75

Absolutely delighted to see Pats get that local "sponsor" and wear it on the jerseys and donate €10 from every jersey sold to Pieta House.

It is a charity I have help out with and needs more people to help out with and if anyone feels they need to talk to someone 1800 247 247

Fair play Saints.

NIMAN

Big 3pts for us tonight v Bohs. Back into 3rd spot.
Another 3pts now v Harps on Monday night !!

joeysoap

ben.schlomo wrote: »

On a sidenote the referee, McKell has to be the most lenient I've ever seen in the league. The Drogs rb must have had a minimum of ten fouls without a card and at one stage a Drogs layer barged the referee after they didn't get a corner and he didn't do a thing.

McKell is out of his debth in the premier division as he has proved more than once this year. (you can add McKell and Buttimer to the home for the bewildered referees) There are some decent referees in the LOI to be fair, but if you'r unlucky enough to draw McKell or Buttimer though you might not want to go to another LOI match if only to keep your blood pressure in check.