LOI Talk, Rumours, Gossip, Transfers etc 2018

joeysoap

Michael O'Neill would easily manage a championship side, superb at Rovers, superb with Norn Iron.

Pighead

AgileMyth wrote: »

Kenny to Villa? Surely not

Would be a step down.

Zebra3

The 1895 Trust (Shels) respond to the club's statement yesterday regarding the move to Dalymount.

https://the1895trust.com/2016/10/05/statement-on-move-to-dalymount-park/

pablomakaveli

****ty move to mug the fans off like that. Seems very cloak and dagger

the legions of Shelbourne fans who hold the club dear.

That gave me a chuckle though.:D

eire4

Zebra3 wrote: »

The 1895 Trust (Shels) respond to the club's statement yesterday regarding the move to Dalymount.

https://the1895trust.com/2016/10/05/statement-on-move-to-dalymount-park/

Personally I hope some way is found to keep Tolka park and have it redeveloped as well. It does not look good right now though it must be said.

sidcon

Postponed Dundalk-Bohs(a) game now taking place weekend Bohs were supposed to host Dundalk. Bohs have one home gate all October. Nice one FAI.

Taken from Check out @luke_oriordan's Tweet: https://twitter.com/luke_oriordan/status/783714639838314497?s=09

overshoot

Kevin McHughs season and therefore career is probably over with a hand injury... 174 LOI goals has him 5th on the all-time list. Great servant to harps
for the non-squeamish have a look at his twitter

joeysoap

Pighead wrote: »

Would be a step down.

:):)

WallyGUFC

overshoot wrote: »

Kevin McHughs season and therefore career is probably over with a hand injury... 174 LOI goals has him 5th on the all-time list. Great servant to harps
for the non-squeamish have a look at his twitter

How did he manage that??

GLaDOS

overshoot wrote: »

Kevin McHughs season and therefore career is probably over with a hand injury... 174 LOI goals has him 5th on the all-time list. Great servant to harps
for the non-squeamish have a look at his twitter

:eek:

NIMAN

Christ that's rough, good to see he's still smiling.

Heard of a few people in recent years suffering that injury. Always said getting married can be very painful.

Hope he gets well soon. Great player.

Wilberto

WallyGUFC wrote: »

How did he manage that??

He "hopped over a fence and the wedding ring got caught." Direct quote from him on twitter.

topmanamillion

overshoot wrote: »

Kevin McHughs season and therefore career is probably over with a hand injury... 174 LOI goals has him 5th on the all-time list. Great servant to harps
for the non-squeamish have a look at his twitter

what happened? Looks like hes driving!
surely his finger is gone.

GLaDOS

topmanamillion wrote: »

what happened? Looks like hes driving!
surely his finger is gone.

With prompt medical attention it should be saved.

Wilberto

GLaDOS wrote: »

With prompt medical attention it should be saved.

He doesn't sound very optimistic though looking at his replies on twitter.

topmanamillion

From what I can piece together something happened at training and he drove himself to hospital?
There's actually a much worse picture in the comments.

pablomakaveli

Wilberto wrote: »

He "hopped over a fence and the wedding ring got caught." Direct quote from him on twitter.

Rings can be surprisingly dangerous when they catch on something. I've heard of similar injuries caused by rings before.

Mars Bar

I haven't looked but from reading the thread I think it's the same thing that happened to Jimmy Fallon. He fell and caught his ring finger on something and nearly ripped it all off. It's called ring avulsion. He spent time in ICU because of it!

stevenmu

topmanamillion wrote: »

what happened? Looks like hes driving!
surely his finger is gone.

Not only is he driving, it looks like he's using his other hand to take a photo of his injured

Captain Havoc

This happened a Servette Geneva player about 10 years ago, he got his finger caught in a fence celebrating. He also go booked for excessive celebrating.

Video not for the squimish.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Koqk6gu0ndc

overshoot

GLaDOS wrote: »

With prompt medical attention it should be saved.

considering the Harps facebook posted he is being sent to Galway hospital not sure how fast it will have been!

From what iv seen it was done hopping a fence alright and the ring got caught. He had to drive himself to the hospital so doubt it was training as topmanamillion said... surely someone else would have been about to drive him? Plus that pic wouldnt be anywhere between ballybofey & LGH... we also train in the evenings as most of the squad has work, Kev works for the council. Sometimes train at the Aura Centre in Letterkenny though so cant rule it out tho... wouldnt have reason to travel along that road

Oat23

Another reason to avoid marriage. :eek:

dan1895

I thought he was training a schoolboys team when it happened.

irish_goat

He's put another photo up from the hospital.

Warning: It's a lot clearer and more gruesome than the first photo.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CuBs7bfWcAArqEX.jpg

gimmick

CCFCs last 2 games to be rescheduled is done now. 7 games in the next 21 days. Any advantage people thought we had with Dundalks congestion is void now.

08/10 A Galway United League 19:00
11/10 A Dundalk League 19:05
14/10 H Finn Harps League 19:45
17/10 A St. Patrick’s Athletic League 19:45
21/10 H St. Patrick’s Athletic League 19:45
24/10 H Wexford Youths League 19:45
28/10 A Bray Wanderers League 19:45

joeysoap

gimmick wrote: »

CCFCs last 2 games to be rescheduled is done now. 7 games in the next 21 days. Any advantage people thought we had with Dundalks congestion is void now.

08/10 A Galway United League 19:00
11/10 A Dundalk League 19:05
14/10 H Finn Harps League 19:45
17/10 A St. Patrick’s Athletic League 19:45
21/10 H St. Patrick’s Athletic League 19:45
24/10 H Wexford Youths League 19:45
28/10 A Bray Wanderers League 19:45

Only if you (selectively) ignore the Europa League matches.

gimmick

You have 1 more game within the league season. Not a massive advantage by any means.

White Horse

gimmick wrote: »

Any advantage people thought we had with Dundalks congestion is void now.

I am not sure how Cork have managed to get their fixture list almost as screwed up as Dundalk.

In my opinion, this will hurt Cork more as they have more players they cannot rest.

Injuries and lack of quality cover in key positions puts them as a disadvantage.

CHealy

White Horse wrote: »

I am not sure how Cork have managed to get their fixture list as screwed up as Dundalk.

Because we also had 3 rounds of European games to play maybe? And the FAI's refusal to let us play a couple of games before Europe, even though both City and those teams had agreed so, just shows the mess clubs can get into if they are in Europe. Of course Id rather have these problems than not.

gimmick

Biggest error was our own doing, postponing a game between the Linfield games. That was absolutely daft.

Ferris_Bueller

Ridiculous that both teams have so many games in such a short space of time, at least it's fair I suppose and it's not a case of one team having 8 games and the other having 4. I'm sure Cork or Dundalk fans would rather have the advantage but from a neutrals point of view it would be a shame if the league was won because one team had twice as many games over the next few weeks.

On the bright side, it is going to create a lot of media interest in the league! Between the end of the league season, the cup final featuring the 2 best teams in the country and Dundalks european run I can't remember the last time I've been looking forward to a period of LoI football.

White Horse

gimmick wrote: »

Biggest error was our own doing, postponing a game between the Linfield games. That was absolutely daft.

The season is just too short. Both Dundalk and Cork could probably identify one game as being unnecessarily postponed but that didn't create this mess.

My concern is that the LOI has two very good teams and the sporting public are going to witness them limping towards the line. That is hardly good promotion.

overshoot

dan1895 wrote: »

I thought he was training a schoolboys team when it happened.

Yea seems your right. Blanked on him coaching some of the harps academy teams

SantryRed

Unbelievable by RTE.

One of the biggest defining games of the season, to be played under lights on a Tuesday night, and they put it at bloody 7:05. That extra 40 minutes is huge. Such disdain for the league.

Pighead

Darren Meenan apparently had a good game in Derry which is good news. He's been left out in the cold the last couple of months (which I agreed with. Bar his set piece delivery he offered nothing in the majority of his appearances.) but could well see a bit of game time over the run in due to the amount of games being played. There is definitely a good player in there somewhere.

BOHtox

When we switched to summer football there was a clear intention to help clubs get past the very early stages of Europe. We achieved that. Now twice in the last five years have we had a team getting to the Europa League group stage. It should be a solid ambition to continue this trend and maybe even increase the frequency of how often a team gets there.

We have to adjust our football season to reflect this, the same way we adjusted our football season to ensure teams had half a season behind them when they played their first European match against a team just starting their pre-season. The league has to be extended by a month or so. Dundalk play their last 7 games in 21 days. If we're serious about getting clubs to the next stage in European competition, I don't think we can expect them to do it when they play games in europe 6 weeks after the season ends while they have to squeeze in as many league games as they do in the domestic season before October 28th.

Not only will spreading the fixtures out allow the teams to be fresher when they play their games, but many football fans cannot afford to travel to 7 games in 21 days, and if you can afford you have to be fairly tough-willed to go to 7 LOI games in 21 games :pac:. If this congestion was spread out I think there'd be an increase in attendances too. Games on Monday, Tuesday etc have noticeably lower attendances than Friday games.

Another aspect is I don't feel is mentioned is LOI players not getting the recognition they deserve on the international stage. MON said he didn't further include LOI players like Horgan and Rogers because of Dundalk's packed fixture list. Which is fair enough considering the problem they are facing. And they wouldn't be key elements of the Ireland squad anyway. But a call-up is what they deserve on merit. So extending the season probably would have seen a LOI player, like Horgan, play an international.

Hopefully we see the league start a week earlier( Last Friday in February), finish 3 or 4 weeks (Mid-November with the Cup Final the following week) later and have a week off in the middle for next season. As shíte as it is having football matches in that weather it has to be done at this stage. We've the same climate as the UK and they play winter football so it shouldn't be an issue

Pighead

BOHtox wrote: »

When we switched to summer football there was a clear intention to help clubs get past the very early stages of Europe. We achieved that. Now twice in the last five years have we had a team getting to the Europa League group stage. It should be a solid ambition to continue this trend and maybe even increase the frequency of how often a team gets there.

We have to adjust our football season to reflect this, the same way we adjusted our football season to ensure teams had half a season behind them when they played their first European match against a team in pre-season. The league has to be extended by a month or so. Dundalk play their last 7 games in 21 days. If we're serious about getting clubs to the next stage in European competition, I don't think we can expect them to do it when they play games in europe 6 weeks after the season ends while they have to squeeze in as many league games as they do in the domestic season before October 28th.

Not only will spreading the fixtures out allow the teams to be fresher when they play their games, but many football fans cannot afford to travel to 7 games in 21 days, and if you can afford you have to be fairly tough-willed to go to 7 LOI games in 21 games :pac:. If this congestion was spread out I think there'd be an increase in attendances too. Games on Monday, Tuesday etc have noticeably lower attendances than Friday games.

Another aspect is I don't feel LOI players get the recognition they deserve on the international stage. MON said he didn't further include LOI players like Horgan and Rogers because of Dundalk's packed fixture list. Which is fair enough considering the problem they are facing. And they wouldn't be kep elements of the Ireland squad. But a call-up is what they deserve on merit. So extending the season probably would have seen a LOI player, like Horgan, play an international.

Hopefully we see the league start a week earlier, finish 3 or 4 weeks later and have a week off in the middle for next season.

Thankfully the FAI seem to realise this and from what Fran Gavin had to say a few weeks ago it looks as though the extension could be in place as early as next season. Looks like we'll have a shorter than usual off season this year with the league back up and running again in February.

SantryRed

Pighead wrote: »

Thankfully the FAI seem to realise this and from what Fran Gavin had to say a few weeks ago it looks as though the extension could be in place as early as next season. Looks like we'll have a shorter than usual off season this year with the league back up and running again in February.

Jesus, they're going to extend it in Feb instead of Nov? What a stupid decision that is. Surely it makes sense to extend it in line with the European groups?

Captain Havoc

SantryRed wrote: »

Jesus, they're going to extend it in Feb instead of Nov? What a stupid decision that is. Surely it makes sense to extend it in line with the European groups?

I'd be in favour of that, FAI cup final was freezing last year. European matches start up around then also, if a team did get through, so need to start preseason earlier.

Paz-CCFC

BOHtox wrote: »

Another aspect is I don't feel LOI players get the recognition they deserve on the international stage. MON said he didn't further include LOI players like Horgan and Rogers because of Dundalk's packed fixture list. Which is fair enough considering the problem they are facing. And they wouldn't be kep elements of the Ireland squad. But a call-up is what they deserve on merit. So extending the season probably would have seen a LOI player, like Horgan, play an international.

O'Neill saying he didn't want the international team to interfere given Dundalk's congestion was a bollocks excuse. This interference didn't apply shortly after when Cork City had three players called up for a dead rubber U21 match. O'Neill clearly still doesn't rate Horgan enough to give a call-up, despite the fact that he well deserves it. If he did, he'd have called him up regardless, because he doesn't actually care about Dundalk or any other club. He just wanted to avoid flak for continuing to ignore the best winger in the league and one of the best wingers available to play for Ireland.

Agreed with extending the league. That's what the FAI are planning on doing anyway. They're looking at starting it earlier though, in February. Imo, it should stay starting in March, but it should end mid-to-late November like it used to up until a few years ago. This would also help any team in the European group stages by giving them competitive fixtures later into the campaign. There's the chance that by the time Dundalk's last two matches come around, they'll be rusty having had long gaps with only friendlies in between. You're also messing with pre-season timings by starting the league in early February and the pitches might not have had enough time to settle after the winter. November is a warmer month, so less chance of frost and it'd help more with crowds.

fullstop

irish_goat wrote: »

He's put another photo up from the hospital.

Warning: It's a lot clearer and more gruesome than the first photo.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CuBs7bfWcAArqEX.jpg

Someone else posted that in the comments to say they had the same injury, no?

BOHtox

Paz-CCFC wrote: »

O'Neill saying he didn't want the international team to interfere given Dundalk's congestion was a bollocks excuse. This interference didn't apply shortly after when Cork City had three players called up for a dead rubber U21 match. O'Neill clearly still doesn't rate Horgan enough to give a call-up, despite the fact that he well deserves it. If he did, he'd have called him up regardless, because he doesn't actually care about Dundalk or any other club. He just wanted to avoid flak for continuing to ignore the best winger in the league and one of the best wingers available to play for Ireland.

In fairness, O'Neill called Rogers in to the squad and it caused minimal problems for Dundalk. If O'Neill was to called Horgan in now it would cause havoc with Dundalk's squad. O'Neill isn't afraid to give LOI players, or youth players in general, a fair go.

And in fairness, O'Neill isn't the U21 manager. He didn't call up the three Cork players. But a longer season would mean that these fixtures could easily be postponed and played again and the fixtures backlog still wouldn't be anywhere near as bad as it is now.

Paz-CCFC wrote: »

Agreed with extending the league. That's what the FAI are planning on doing anyway. They're looking at starting it earlier though, in February. Imo, it should stay starting in March, but it should end mid-to-late November like it used to up until a few years ago. This would also help any team in the European group stages by giving them competitive fixtures later into the campaign. There's the chance that by the time Dundalk's last two matches come around, they'll be rusty having had long gaps with only friendlies in between. You're also messing with pre-season timings by starting the league in early February and the pitches might not have had enough time to settle after the winter. November is a warmer month, so less chance of frost and it'd help more with crowds.

Agreed.

joeysoap

gimmick wrote: »

You have 1 more game within the league season. Not a massive advantage by any means.

I agree with that league wise. Neither of our seasons ends until 6th November, and Dundalk do have a longish trip to St Petersburg before then. (Though Kenny Shields would probably argue its easier sitting on a plane to Russia than travelling to an away LOI match )As other posters have remarked Cork should possibly be in a better position fixture wise than they are, having said that, hindsight is a wonderful thing Quite possibility if City and Dundalk had not applied for postponements they might have both bowed out of Europe early.

SantryRed

Captain Havoc wrote: »

I'd be in favour of that, FAI cup final was freezing last year. European matches start up around then also, if a team did get through, so need to start preseason earlier.

Play the cup final earlier so if the weather is an issue.

Let's focus on being competitive in the group stages before discussing making it through the group stages! It makes tonnes more sense to continue the league into the end of November, therefore giving the players Christmas off and then starting pre season in mid January.

MD1990

Rodgers being called into the squad is a token gesture. O'Neill has no intention of playing him.

Paz-CCFC

BOHtox wrote: »

In fairness, O'Neill called Rogers in to the squad and it caused minimal problems for Dundalk. If O'Neill was to called Horgan in now it would cause havoc with Dundalk's squad. O'Neill isn't afraid to give LOI players, or youth players in general, a fair go.

Rogers' call up was nothing but a token gesture. It's easy to bring him up as the third choice keeper, knowing full well that there'd be no risk at all in having to play him. If the two lads ahead of him had gotten injured, O'Neill just would've called up another two and Rogers would've stayed third choice.

Has any LoI player been capped since O'Neill came in? I only remember things like call ups or lads being involved in training sessions, not sure of anyone playing?

And in fairness, O'Neill isn't the U21 manager. He didn't call up the three Cork players. But a longer season would mean that these fixtures could easily be postponed and played again and the fixtures backlog still wouldn't be anywhere near as bad as it is now.

They're both part of the same organisation. There's a direct natural link between both teams. If a policy like this is going to be implemented in the senior side, it's only right to follow it for the U21s. That's why I think it was an excuse rather than an actual policy by the Irish management.

topmanamillion

There are too many games in the season. There`s no need for 33 league games.
Either just play each other twice with play offs at the end or play each other twice and split the season after 22 games, meaning there`d be about 27 games.
With a few play offs and one cup every PD club would be guaranteed about 30 games.

We should be aiming to have no more than one game a week mostly on a Friday or a Saturday night during the season.
Monday or Tuesday games are a balls as its asking too much of fans to go to more than one game a week.
FAI cup replays before the semi final stage should be killed too. Just go to penalties after 90 minutes.
FAI cup final should be played on the first Sunday in October to give the winner an opportunity to parade the cup in a few home games.

As for extending our season to coincide with European Group stage competition - jumping the gun if ever I saw it. Our current qualification rate is once every 5 years and with the new CLQ format its only going to get more difficult.

joeysoap

As a banana boy this looks a very soft penalty to me. Maybe he was tripped, the 5th official thought so.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=61Qc_G3cYhI

Derry certainly firing on all cylinders for KS, look like a team who will be challenging next season.

artanevilla

topmanamillion wrote: »

There are too many games in the season. There`s no need for 33 league games.
Either just play each other twice with play offs at the end or play each other twice and split the season after 22 games, meaning there`d be about 27 games.
With a few play offs and one cup every PD club would be guaranteed about 30 games.

We should be aiming to have no more than one game a week mostly on a Friday or a Saturday night during the season.
Monday or Tuesday games are a balls as its asking too much of fans to go to more than one game a week.
FAI cup replays before the semi final stage should be killed too. Just go to penalties after 90 minutes.
FAI cup final should be played on the first Sunday in October to give the winner an opportunity to parade the cup in a few home games.

As for extending our season to coincide with European Group stage competition - jumping the gun if ever I saw it. Our current qualification rate is once every 5 years and with the new CLQ format its only going to get more difficult.

Reducing games reduces gate reciepts, and some games are more important that others, so a split league could have a huge effect on income.

Bohs/Rovers is a huge game for both clubs in terms of revenue, it would be a disaster to lose one of those games..

GLaDOS

Hate the idea of a split league