LOI Talk, Rumours, Gossip, Transfers etc 2018

Zebra3

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Waterford Utd have been approached about a takeover can't find any info on it though.

Involving their current manager? :pac:

gimmick

It appears Fran Gavin has said they are now open to extending the season by 3 days, but would prefer to finish it on time.

Joke shop.

Looking to extend the season by a few weeks in 2017

http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/league-of-ireland/league-set-for-extended-campaign-in-2017-season-35069208.html

gimmick

Also, we always talk about a 40 week season. This season start to finish will be 36 weeks. too bloody short.

Also, is there any good reason why the cup semis are on the Sunday? Why cant at least one be played Friday and that opens up the Monday for a fixture then as well.

I suspect the reason for this is Dundalk have a EL game the thursday, so they are getting further help from the FAI by making CCFC play their semi on the Sunday as well.

CHealy

gimmick wrote: »

Also, we always talk about a 40 week season. This season start to finish will be 36 weeks. too bloody short.

Also, is there any good reason why the cup semis are on the Sunday? Why cant at least one be played Friday and that opens up the Monday for a fixture then as well.

I suspect the reason for this is Dundalk have a EL game the thursday, so they are getting further help from the FAI by making CCFC play their semi on the Sunday as well.

To be fair, bar last year, cup semi's have both been played on the Sunday for a good few years, this is nothing new. But if the FAI allow Dundalks season to run on for an extra three days then it just makes a joke of the entire league. Ye made the EL after some heroics in the qualifying rounds, fantastic stuff, now ye have to deal with it.

justshane

Cork fans are the same crowd that come on here and state how right they are to get a game called off when a couple of players get a international call up, but when someone mentions a 3 day longer league Dundalk should 'deal with it'. Pathetic attitude lads, towards a team that is increasing every club in the leagues profile with outstanding European displays.

CHealy

justshane wrote: »

Cork fans are the same crowd that come on here and state how right they are to get a game called off when a couple of players get a international call up, but when someone mentions a 3 day longer league Dundalk should 'deal with it'. Pathetic attitude lads, towards a team that is increasing every club in the leagues profile with outstanding European displays.

Except we are exercising our right to have a game postponed when we have 2 or more players called up to the u21 squad, this is OUR RIGHT as according to FAI league rules. The only pathetic thing here is your reply, go do some research before making a fool of yourself.

Corholio

justshane wrote: »

Cork fans are the same crowd that come on here and state how right they are to get a game called off when a couple of players get a international call up, but when someone mentions a 3 day longer league Dundalk should 'deal with it'. Pathetic attitude lads, towards a team that is increasing every club in the leagues profile with outstanding European displays.

Funnily enough I don't think it should have been called off and the team could have certainly coped with it. Nice throwing all Cork fans together with the same opinion, regardless if they had or not. Not sure about increasing 'every club in the leagues profile' either, how do City or Finn Harps benefit from it? It's been great to see Dundalk's run and I hope they pick up a few wins definitely but no need to exaggerate something just to show the tired old 'somebody is moaning' argument.

CHealy

Corholio wrote: »

Funnily enough I don't think it should have been called off and the team could have certainly coped with it. Nice throwing all Cork fans together with the same opinion, regardless if they had or not. Not sure about increasing 'every club in the leagues profile' either, how do City or Finn Harps benefit from it? It's been great to see Dundalk's run and I hope they pick up a few wins definitely but no need to exaggerate something just to show the tired old 'somebody is moaning' argument.

You dont think it should have been called off and we should have played Dundalk without McGuire, who now has 11 goals in his last 8 games, or Kevin O'Connor, one of the leagues best full backs????? Ok.

justshane

Plenty of research done. I never said or implied Cork did anything illegal in getting the match called off, same way Dundalk wouldn't be doing anything against the rules playing 3 days after the season ended if the FAI saw it right to extend the season by 3 days. Nothing wrong with my post except for the fact I did group all Cork fans together, for that I'm apologise Corholio. It was only aimed at Cork fans that made a big fuss when anyone suggested Cork should just play Dundalk and avoid the postponement.

gimmick

It would have been madness to play Dundalk without those 2. However Finn harps a different story assuming the postponements were 2 seperate requests.

CHealy wrote:

To be fair, bar last year, cup semi's have both been played on the Sunday for a good few years, this is nothing new.

I appreciate this, but given the absolute chaos of a backlog in fixtures it would have made sense to fix one of them for the Friday. The 2 semis on the same day is a pretty recent thing so its not like its unprecedented to play one semi Friday, the other Sunday.

If they did that, we could play one of our backlogged games (Wexford) on the Monday/Tuesday.

gimmick

justshane wrote: »

Plenty of research done. I never said or implied Cork did anything illegal in getting the match called off, same way Dundalk wouldn't be doing anything against the rules playing 3 days after the season ended if the FAI saw it right to extend the season by 3 days. Nothing wrong with my post except for the fact I did group all Cork fans together, for that I'm apologise Corholio. It was only aimed at Cork fans that made a big fuss when anyone suggested Cork should just play Dundalk and avoid the postponement.

Thing is Dundalk have no "right" to ask for the league to be extended. The LOI have bend over backwards to accommodate them thus far, going so far as to break their own rules in juggling fixtures with the whole Bohs/Wexford game fiasco. Extending the league by any margin is simply pandering to them. Dundalk, same as CCFC, could have played league games during the early european run. Both teams chose not to. But only 1 team is requesting an extension.

justshane

CHealy wrote: »

You dont think it should have been called off and we should have played Dundalk without McGuire, who now has 11 goals in his last 8 games, or Kevin O'Connor, one of the leagues best full backs????? Ok.

Can nobody else take a decent penelty for Cork?;)

justshane

gimmick wrote: »

Thing is Dundalk have no "right" to ask for the league to be extended. The LOI have bend over backwards to accommodate them thus far, going so far as to break their own rules in juggling fixtures with the whole Bohs/Wexford game fiasco. Extending the league by any margin is simply pandering to them. Dundalk, same as CCFC, could have played league games during the early european run. Both teams chose not to. But only 1 team is requesting an extension.

True, but only one team qualified for the group stage creating a massive congestion of fixtures. I'm saying this as a neutral, I think any team in Dundalks position should be given the same assistance.

MD1990

gimmick wrote: »

Thing is Dundalk have no "right" to ask for the league to be extended. The LOI have bend over backwards to accommodate them thus far, going so far as to break their own rules in juggling fixtures with the whole Bohs/Wexford game fiasco. Extending the league by any margin is simply pandering to them. Dundalk, same as CCFC, could have played league games during the early european run. Both teams chose not to. But only 1 team is requesting an extension.

Only one team is in the the EL group stage.Not pandering to them at all. The League & the FAI is at fault for having a 3 week break in June during the Euro's.

gimmick

justshane wrote: »

True, but only one team qualified for the group stage creating a massive congestion of fixtures. I'm saying this as a neutral, I think any team in Dundalks position should be given the same assistance.

MD1990 wrote: »

Only one team is in the the EL group stage.Not pandering to them at all. The League & the FAI is at fault for having a 3 week break in June during the Euro's.

But why should the other 11 teams be inconvenienced? Im sure there are players at less ambitious clubs who would have holidays booked for Saturday 29th. What do they do? Or guys who did the same the moment their club was knocked out of the cup.

It is the price of success. They simply should not have requested so many postponements int he summer. Its as simple as that.

There is no way the season should be extended.

MD1990

gimmick wrote: »

But why should the other 11 teams be inconvenienced? Im sure there are players at less ambitious clubs who would have holidays booked for Saturday 29th. What do they do? Or guys who did the same the moment their club was knocked out of the cup.

It is the price of success. They simply should not have requested so many postponements int he summer. Its as simple as that.

There is no way the season should be extended.

What about the 3 week break in June? Impossible to be sure players have holidays booked on the 29th also. Also Dundalk getting past the Iceland team was crucial.
If it was Cork in Dundalk's position I'm suspect your opinion would be different.

SantryRed

Extending the league would be absolutely ridiculous. FAI will be hoping that there's no draws in the cup semis.

Logistical nightmare.

gimmick

MD1990 wrote: »

What about the 3 week break in June? Impossible to be sure players have holidays booked on the 29th also. Also Dundalk getting past the Iceland team was crucial.
If it was Cork in Dundalk's position I'm suspect your opinion would be different.

I am always hypercritical about how the LOI is run so I am not sure my opinion would be worlds away from where I stand right now tbh.

I agree re the 3 week break. It was daft. There should be no break in a 36 week season.

GLaDOS

gimmick wrote: »

There should be no break in a 36 week season.

I think legally the players are entitled to holiday time. When contracts run year round this isn't a problem as they can take it in the off season, but when they only cover the playing season they have to get a break at some point. The 3 week break allows players to take time off without missing games.

Corholio

CHealy wrote: »

You dont think it should have been called off and we should have played Dundalk without McGuire, who now has 11 goals in his last 8 games, or Kevin O'Connor, one of the leagues best full backs????? Ok.

I was talking about the Finn Harps game. Ok.

joeysoap

Could the 4 teams in Europe not have played matches against each other during the 'break'. Might have got 2 matches each in and still take 2 weeks?

How about for next year when the fixtures are announced early in the year there are matches involving the 4 qualifying teams only during this period. One each at home, one each away. One on Monday and one on Friday, or leave it both on Friday and take the break then?

CHealy

justshane wrote: »

Can nobody else take a decent penelty for Cork?;)

Going by Stephen Dooleys "attempt" a few months back at the Dundalk home game, I would say the answer to that is no.

doncarlos

I don't think the league should be extended. Yes it's a struggle for Dundalk but the rules were set out before the season started. Might well work out in Corks favour but thems the breaks

johnnyryan89

doncarlos wrote: »

I don't think the league should be extended. Yes it's a struggle for Dundalk but the rules were set out before the season started. Might well work out in Corks favour but thems the breaks

doncarlos wrote: »

I don't think the league should be extended. Yes it's a struggle for Dundalk but the rules were set out before the season started. Might well work out in Corks favour but thems the breaks

The league is only gonna be extended if it needs to be so might not happen in the end.

And if it does its only gonna move a game to the October bank holiday Monday which will probably be the rescheduled Dundalk vs Cork as the title decider

It will definitely benefit Cork more seeing as they have more league games left than everyone else. Will also benefit Dundalk and Pats who have played just one league game more and all three teams are in the semi finals of the cup and could have an extra game if it goes to a replay so it's benefiting a few clubs not just Dundalk.

Edit
Plus I think there's another u21s game next month so Cork might have to call off another match.

ShamoBuc

CHealy wrote: »

Going by Stephen Dooleys "attempt" a few months back at the Dundalk home game, I would say the answer to that is no.

Pretty sure there was a rocket type pen scored v rovers last week.

topmanamillion

gimmick wrote: »

It appears Fran Gavin has said they are now open to extending the season by 3 days, but would prefer to finish it on time.

Joke shop.

Looking to extend the season by a few weeks in 2017

http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/league-of-ireland/league-set-for-extended-campaign-in-2017-season-35069208.html

Why is this a joke shop?

Dundalk won't be physically able to fulfill their fixtures.
The league schedule was never designed for a team playing 9 European games during the season. Something had to give.

Some of the begrudgery on here is pathetic. And I'm not even a Dundalk fan. Best of luck to them. If they need 3 days added to the season to give them a better chance of putting points on the board in the group stage then let them have it.

I'd be of the view that our European sides should pay X amount into a pool and clubs that have their fixtures effected are compensated.

The season needs to be extended. That seems to be a plan and that's a positive move.
I accept that will put a few sides under strain, but the likes of Dundalk, Cork, Shamrock, Sligo, Derry and a few more are capable of pushing on.

MD1990

Maybe Gimmick wants Dundalk to not fulfil a fixture & just hand the title to Cork.
There is a bitterness towards Dundalk's success with some people.

Zebra3

gimmick wrote: »

Thing is Dundalk have no "right" to ask for the league to be extended. The LOI have bend over backwards to accommodate them thus far, going so far as to break their own rules in juggling fixtures with the whole Bohs/Wexford game fiasco. Extending the league by any margin is simply pandering to them. Dundalk, same as CCFC, could have played league games during the early european run. Both teams chose not to. But only 1 team is requesting an extension.

Dundalk have the right to ask for whatever they want as have any other club.

But that doesn't mean it should be adhered to.



This isn't the first time a side has made the EL group stages and any club with ambitions to do so should have been approaching the league before the season not now.

Did Dundalk bring any scheduled home league matches from July forward to April or May? This is what Ollie did over a decade ago at Shels and is the logical thing to do for a club with ambition.

If Dundalk want to extend the season, does this mean other clubs paying extra wages to accommodate the league's richest club? Not exactly fair IMO. Plus opposition players at that stage of the season just want to be finished. Dundalk playing unmotivated opposition would be extremely handy for them...

DvB

Dont remember much being done to assist Rovers when they were in the same position back in 2011, they actually had more fixtures to fulfill from the time they bt Partizan than Dundalk did when losing to Legia... they played the games, the world didn't end & they managed to do okay in the league that year into the bargain...

The fixtures are being rearranged as best they can so the league finishes on time, Dundalk & Cork are just going to have to deal with it, thats the price of success. We all knew the dates from before a ball was kicked this season so moving the goalposts to accommodate clubs at this stage is unfair on the league as a whole IMO.

A_Sober_Paddy

Imagine winning the league because your closest rivals were unable to physically fulfill their fixtures, would be a very hollow cork title

CHealy

A_Sober_Paddy wrote: »

Imagine winning the league because your closest rivals were unable to physically fulfill their fixtures, would be a very hollow cork title

Hollow my arse, all clubs agree to a schedule before each season, if Dundalk dont think they can fulfill that then thats tough. And let me add, a season extension could benefit Cork City aswell should we need a cup replay or the Galway away game is postponed due to international call up, but I still wouldn't agree with it, no way. Cork Citys schedule isnt too far off as hectic as Dundalks, we still have three league games that we dont know when they are going to be on.

Hollow hahahaha.

gimmick

topmanamillion wrote: »

Why is this a joke shop?

Dundalk won't be physically able to fulfill their fixtures.

This is Dundalks fault, not anyone esles. They postponed games willy nilly in the summer, so they had to know that if they did succeed they would face some serious fixture congestion. The LOI haver given them plenty leeway thus far, especially by re arranging a fixture to suit them and only them.

The league schedule was never designed for a team playing 9 European games during the season. Something had to give.

See above.

One area where I can agree is the season is too short. A 36 week season is ridiculous.

joeysoap

1) Dundalk have 12 European matches this year, 2 out of season the other 10 During the league

2) Rovers did brilliant at home but got 'nul points' in the group stages.(Dundalk may not get any more but they broke that duck)

3)If Cork ask for a postponement for another U21 match their match against Dundalk could be played on BH Monday (wouldn't suit me but that's a by the way)

4) afaik Dundalk did bring forward the match against also Longford, hence Caulfield moaning the league were favouring Dundalk by allowing them to play more matches than Cork

5)When a Dundalk match was brought forward (because CC applied for a postponement)it affected Wexford. Can't have it both ways (bring forward matches, don't affect other clubs)

6) I haven't heard Kenny complaining (well, I did, but it was the 'other' Kenny) about tiredness, in fact he called it a festival of football.

gimmick

With regard to your 4th point, that is a luxury which was refused CCFC. We asked to have at least one game brought forward (I think Sligo to May) but were refused by the LOI. So double standards rightt here.

With regard to your 5th point - it affected Wexford, but also Bohs. They now have 3 away games to finish their season. Hardly fair. Taht said, and I have said this before also, no way should Bohs have agreed to this.

I think I have addressed the others more than enough by now.

MD1990

gimmick wrote: »

With regard to your 4th point, that is a luxury which was refused CCFC. We asked to have at least one game brought forward (I think Sligo to May) but were refused by the LOI. So double standards rightt here.

With regard to your 5th point - it affected Wexford, but also Bohs. They now have 3 away games to finish their season. Hardly fair. Taht said, and I have said this before also, no way should Bohs have agreed to this.

I think I have addressed the others more than enough by now.

Bohs have nothing to play for & probably were willing to help Dundalk. I don't see why they should have not agreed to it. Also how do you know Dundalk did not ask for some league games to be brought forward & were refused too?

gimmick

MD1990 wrote: »

Bohs have nothing to play for & probably were willing to help Dundalk. I don't see why they should have not agreed to it.

Financially having your last home game 3/4 weeks before a season ends cannot be great for any club in the league.

Also how do you know Dundalk did not ask for some league games to be brought forward & were refused too?

They had their game with Bohs brought forward didnt they

Did they not have a game with Longford brought forward too?

Ill say again, the cup semi with CCFC and SPA should have been arranged for Friday 30/09. That would allow CCFC rearrange one of their fixtures then for 03/10. But I doubt this was even considered.

simonw

MD1990 wrote: »

Bohs have nothing to play for & probably were willing to help Dundalk. I don't see why they should have not agreed to it. Also how do you know Dundalk did not ask for some league games to be brought forward & were refused too?

Bohs have no interest in helping Dundalk or Cork for that matter, it ****s up cashflow for the end of the season. We were either promised something by the FAI in exchange or not given an option to refuse.

CHealy

simonw wrote: »

Bohs have no interest in helping Dundalk or Cork for that matter, it ****s up cashflow for the end of the season. We were either promised something by the FAI in exchange or not given an option to refuse.

Phoenix Park?

How long will that be for Bohs without a gate, 4 or 5 months?

simonw

CHealy wrote: »

Phoenix Park?

How long will that be for Bohs without a gate, 4 or 5 months?

Possibly, seems coincidental alright, but I don't know how long that was in the works for. It definitely wasn't moved out of a sense of fraternity with Dundalk anyway.

Last home game is due to be Rovers at least so it will be a big last gate, although we would have had that anyway. Maybe we were promised a discount voucher for the inevitable fines :pac:

dundalkfc10

simonw wrote: »

Bohs have no interest in helping Dundalk or Cork for that matter, it ****s up cashflow for the end of the season. We were either promised something by the FAI in exchange or not given an option to refuse.

The reason Bohs agreed to play us on that Friday, the Cork game was called off is because they knew if they played us on the Friday and not some Mon or Tues night in Oct, they would get a massive away following and it worked out for them. About 5/600 paying €15 into away end instead of 2/300 paying €15 into the away end.

johnnyryan89

Have Dundalk actually come out and ask for the season to be pushed back by three days because from what I gather is the FAI may extend the league by three days if it needs to be but are still planning to have it finished on the 28th. Only way I can see it maybe being extended by the three days is if one of the cup games go to a replay or Cork have players called up to the 21s and they'll probably have the Dundalk vs Cork match played on the Monday while everyone else finishes on the Friday night.

Going by the way some people are reacting you'd swear Stephen Kenny just called up Delaney and was like "here pal you wouldn't mind extending the season to gives us a hand and oh by the way **** Cork lolz". This season alone has proved that the 36 week season is too short and that by taking the three week break during the Euros was a massive mistake. Hopefully it's extended to 40 weeks next seasons or just get rid of the league cup or could reform it to have all the Munster teams plus Galway, Sligo and any big junior clubs play in a cup similar to the Munster senior cup and have all the Leinster clubs plus Derry and Finn Harps play each other and the winner of each section play off for the league cup.

topmanamillion

gimmick wrote: »

This is Dundalks fault, not anyone esles. They postponed games willy nilly in the summer, so they had to know that if they did succeed they would face some serious fixture congestion. The LOI haver given them plenty leeway thus far, especially by re arranging a fixture to suit them and only them.



See above.

One area where I can agree is the season is too short. A 36 week season is ridiculous.

Your argument is Dundalk shouldn't have qualified for the EL groups ?
I can fully understand why Dundalk prioritised Europe over the league, namely one draw in Holland was worth more in prize money than a 33 game league winning campaign!
Any and all help clubs in Europe can get should be given.
Look at the profile Dundalk and the attention the league is getting now.
There are countless articles doing the rounds that the Ireland national team should play more like Dundalk.

overshoot

topmanamillion wrote: »

Your argument is Dundalk shouldn't have qualified for the EL groups ?

cork got plenty of help and screwed other clubs around just as much while they were still in the competition. quite frankly, its long past annoying seeing some of their fans moan about the help dundalk are getting.

topmanamillion

johnnyryan89 wrote: »

This season alone has proved that the 36 week season is too short and that by taking the three week break during the Euros was a massive mistake.

I agree with most of what you said but there was no option but to take a break while the Euro's were on and it wa playing a couple of game a day. Also the league usually takes a 2 week break every summer. Mostly as a player welfare issue to let people go on summer holidays. Which is fair enough.

Also, the reason we have a 36 week league is because that's what the clubs voted for as they wouldnt be able to pay players for any longer than 40 odd weeks.

As a point of interest the Icelandic league is played from May to September. There are 12 sides in it. They only play each other twice.
Yet Iceland have been above us in the Coefficients in the last few seasons.

My reason for mentioning that is we need to find a system that works for us. Clearly the amount of games played at the moment doesn't work. Either in terms of attendances or scheduling.
People are event junkies and like to go to finals and big days out. The LOI rarely has anything more than 3 points at stake.

I would suggest keeping the current league length.
Clubs play each other twice in the league.
A group stage for the last 16 in the FAI cup.
League cup optional.
European play offs/Championship playoffs similar to the Pro 12 in rugby.

Paz-CCFC

topmanamillion wrote: »

Dundalk won't be physically able to fulfill their fixtures.

A_Sober_Paddy wrote: »

your closest rivals were unable to physically fulfill their fixtures

These quotes are laughable. What exactly is preventing Dundalk from "physically" fulfilling their fixtures? Have all their players been crippled or something?

All this fixture congestion means is that they won't be getting a week between games. So what? In 2011, Rovers had to play two matches in three days (a Saturday and a Monday). Dundalk wouldn't even have to do that. They have four games to re-arrange (well, three now that the game v City has been set). They have as many Monday nights free to fit them all in. This would give at least three days between fixtures (four days in some cases). It wouldn't even be as bad as Rovers in 2011. So, please explain what has "physically" disabled them from playing football.

Also, just to add, whilst Dundalk have two extra Europa League games to play, Cork City have an extra league game on them. Dundalk have only one more game to play than City between now and the 28th of October. Does 90 extra minutes of football turn you from fully fit to physically disabled?

gimmick

topmanamillion wrote: »

Your argument is Dundalk shouldn't have qualified for the EL groups ?
I can fully understand why Dundalk prioritised Europe over the league, namely one draw in Holland was worth more in prize money than a 33 game league winning campaign!
Any and all help clubs in Europe can get should be given.

You know full well that is not I meant.

Re prioritising, thats great and they did what they had to do, but they always knew the consequences if everything went to plan. They always knew the league season was due to end on Oct 28th. As mentioned above, they just have to cope with the congestion now. Price of success and all that.

Dundalk have been given plenty help. So have CCFC. And fair play to the LOI for that. But the short sightedness of both club and the league needs to be addressed.

SteelyDanJalapeno

The game is scheduled for Oct 11

CHealy

overshoot wrote: »

cork got plenty of help and screwed other clubs around just as much while they were still in the competition. quite frankly, its long past annoying seeing some of their fans moan about the help dundalk are getting.

Explain please.

joeysoap

I can *remember 12 teams leagues from the 60's and 70's where you played 22 league matches . I have never thought the 33 league match was fair (Limerick will have to play away twice to Dundalk next year under present set up. As will the team who wins the playoff between 1st division team and 2nd from bottom of premier league, not much fair about that. And I mean from a financial point of view as well)

* I can also remember the one year that 4 points were awarded for away win, 3 for a home win, 2 for away draw and 1 point for a home draw. The league winners that year : who else, Dundalk

dundalkfc10

joeysoap wrote: »

I can *remember 12 teams leagues from the 60's and 70's where you played 22 league matches . I have never thought the 33 league match was fair (Limerick will have to play away twice to Dundalk next year under present set up. As will the team who wins the playoff between 1st division team and 2nd from bottom of premier league, not much fair about that. And I mean from a financial point of view as well)

* I can also remember the one year that 4 points were awarded for away win, 3 for a home win, 2 for away draw and 1 point for a home draw. The league winners that year : who else, Dundalk

We have played Rovers twice away last season, and after this season ends (In December 2016:D) we will have played them twice this season.

Cork had us away twice last season and this. I dont know how to decide this?