Greatest League in the World 2024 [new thread available]

NIMAN

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119845829#Comment_119845829

I'm with you on Higgins.

I think he is a very one dimensional manager, we are a hard watch at times. He seems to love over-passing the ball for the sake of it. A lot of the players are very conservative in their game, rarely take on the opposition and too eager to pass it backwards.

I mean who else would play Patrick McEleney in front of the back 4 for most of the season? Before he left Dundalk, I have a memory of him running at Alkmaar and scoring 2 goals, now he is taking it off the back 4 and passing it into midfield.

But dare criticise him in the city! You'd be lynched. I'm curious as to how he is going to approach the final. This is a great chance to go out and really attack Shels on the big pitch, but I think it'll be a bore.

joeysoap

Vitesse. And his 2nd goal was magic.

https://youtu.be/NNJcI4ZJaqY

(the sound is poxy) 10 mins on tape.

scored the winner in the 2218 cup final

NIMAN

2 great goals. Both inside the box.

I don't think Patrick has been inside the opposition box twice this season.

chopperbyrne

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119847928#Comment_119847928

Goal scorer and time traveller!

joeysoap

😀😀 moved him on a bit there

i didn’t realise he was mom as well,

https://youtu.be/im7q0GXcD3M 3mins

NIMAN

Arriving in the box....he hasn't done that once this season.

Liberta Per Gli Ultra

The head of the mercenaries' union laying down the law for the brave new world, and hoping to build on it in the future by coercing clubs into having a certain amount of full-time players (aka a racket).

https://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/league-of-ireland/if-clubs-cant-be-full-time-next-year-because-the-minimum-wage-cant-be-paid-they-can-go-part-time-pfais-stephen-mcguinness-42129609.html

Meanwhile, Shels are going to become part of someone's "portfolio". Modern football at its beautiful best.

sidcon

Declan Devine was swinging the axe in Dalymount yesterday, and lots of players are released, and even some with "multi year" contracts

Levington, Murphy, Ryan, Kelly all told find somewhere else. More on the list but will wait till I'm a bit more certain to name for these

topmanamillion

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119851645#Comment_119851645

What's the issue with players getting paid a decent wage? Hard to believe anyone could have a problem with that. It's not really going to effect the top 4 or 5 clubs in the league but it'll root out any of those clubs paying players €150 / week and calling them full-time players. As McGuiness said if they can't afford to pay a fulltime player €430/week then go part-time. There are clubs paying certain players 1000s/week and the only reason they can do that is because they are short changing some other player(s) in the squad.

It's a positive development and a good pulling of the reigns at a time when there's sh1t talk about the league being fulltime pro next year. Full-time pro is 16 players at a club on 52 week contracts. Any club outside that a is semi-pro/part-time outfit. To be a fulltime pro league the Premier would need a turnover of about €10 million every year. That's purely the money the league generates itself in sponsorship and funding. It's currently around €1.5 million.

GLaDOS

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119851954#Comment_119851954

Where'd you hear that? I'd happily see most of the squad gone, and certainly the whole defence.

artanevilla

I think Ciaran Kelly is a loss. I'd have kept Levo as well but he'd probably just be a squad player. The other two no loss at all.

DvB

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119852783#Comment_119852783

Even as a Rovers fan I'm surprised at Kelly being released, always looked decent enough when playing against us and haven't seen many others across the league not already at the top 3 or 4 likely to be an upgrade.

GLaDOS

I'd keep Kelly myself, but he is prone to absolutely horrific performances every 4 or 5 games.

PGE1970

I'd be delighted if Kevin Doherty took Ciaran Kelly back to Drogheda next season.

shanec1928

https://twitter.com/FinnHarpsFC/status/1590362479703785473?s=20&t=Pv9GL8U_vMCFkjzqiIO1Ig

artanevilla

I always felt he created his own narrative of "working miracles" up there and lowered expectations by his lack of ambition and that's how he stayed in the job for so long.

topmanamillion

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119853705#Comment_119853705

They play in a 350 seater ground a half an hour outside of Letterkenny and he kept them up for 4 seasons while the likes of Shels, Cork and Waterford tanked. He was the definition of a miracle worker!

DvB

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119853137#Comment_119853137

He's definitely of PD standard anyway, Drogheda or Shels would be my guess.

artanevilla

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119853941#Comment_119853941

Probably would be filed under "what's your controversial LOI opinion?"

joeysoap

Ollie on the sidelines (a few years ago) to his players against Kennys dundalk '' run''. Worth the admission. Didn't need a loudspeaker either.

shanec1928

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119854207#Comment_119854207

Could say the same about any team looking back…Alarm bells should have been ringing when caufield had about 7 right backs.

ArnoldJRimmer

Did Ollie ride your wife or something CorkRed? You've been banging this drum all year about him getting sacked. The club aren't Watford or Forest where they can hire and fire managers at will ffs. They should have sacked him in May and brought in Big Sam or Gary Megson perhaps?

Since the split into two divisions in the eighties, Harps have spent most of that period in the First Division, with a glorious few years in the late 90s that saw them stay in the Premier for a few years and reach a cup final. Ollie got them promoted twice and kept them up for the last 4 years. Thats a very successful return. He had to assemble almost an entirely new squad this year, and took some gambles that didn't work out. He had built up more than enough good will around the club for those mistakes to happen.

I wish him all the best in whatever he does next, he's definitely left the club in a better place. And with the new stadium project up and running, the future is bright

Jarhead_Tendler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119851954#Comment_119851954

Will their contracts have to be paid off?

I'd take Ollie at LTFC No problem

howiya

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119854955#Comment_119854955

I can see CorkReds point of view. It was very clear from early on in the season that it was between Harps and UCD for the bottom spot. Shels and Drogheda got a very easy ride.

Shels beat Drogheda in the penultimate game of the season. Their last win in the league before that was in July.

There's no guarantees in football but maybe there would have been a bounce in Harps form with a new manager. They would have only needed to finish ahead of UCD for a crack at a playoff. Then again the year Shels went down it looked like they were safe until Ollie got Harps on a great run towards the end of the season. Won three of last five games if I recall correctly.

Not for a minute saying he should have been sacked or resigned during the season but sometimes a change of manager works and other times it doesn't leading to another change in manager. And as you rightly ask who would they have been able to get in...

Ohmeha

Horgan was brilliant for them overachieved with shrewd transfers on limited budgets and getting the most out of many limited players, this was his 'jumping the shark' season with his crap squad sourced from everywhere on the planet who could not have come cheap

overshoot

There is a good interview with ollie on donegal sport hub if anyone wants a listen.

He had his personal issues last year that delayed an appointment/putting a squad together. Hegarty and William were losses on the coaching side on top of that.

I don't feel there were local players left out that would have done better, many kept on from last season didn't perform to last seasons levels. We lost locals, coyle, mcelaney to full time and other players to better deals tunde, boyd (although if you knew boyds full backstory too respect).

He turned it around many times before after bad runs so imo deserved to be backed mid season.

We over achieved most seasons. He got us promoted on less money than Hutton/Felix prior (lower d1 finishes). 6/9 years premier. Its about 6/15 prior. We underachieved this year, outside of ucd/drogs we operate on maybe 2/3rds the budget of other Premier clubs at best. Survived v cork, Waterford, shels.

Miracle worker, don't know, but he has done an excellent job. We don't have a Wilson/desmond, comer, o'doherty, kelleher, etc. To write checks, not got the core of sligo/bohs, In a county of 160k with derry and sligo pulling at corners for fans as well as the Irish league for part time players. Am I ready for a change, yes... am I convinced someone will do better, far from it

Dr. Bre

Jim McGuinness linked to the Finn Harps job

hardybuck

Finn Harps will probably continue in that space of scrapping for promotion from the First Division and scrapping to stay in the Premier for the foreseeable.

That's probably a realistic long term objective with the resources they have available to them. I don't understand the criticism of Horgan in that context. Nine years is a hell of a long time in the context of the LOI with all the madness that goes on, and I'd say he probably regrets not going out on a high after last year's performance.

Should be a good atmosphere in Richmond Park on Friday. Waterford have sold out their original allocation in one day but got an additional batch which followed - sounds like more than 2k making the trip up. Hopefully no more structural issues in the stadium this week!

joeysoap

it doesn’t help that Finn Park is not the best stadium in ballybofey.

chopperbyrne

Also doesn't help that it's in Ballybofey.

damemcd

Rumours that Burt and Coote are going Southside, Tallaght direction.

artanevilla

Burt is angling for a UK move but there's an offer on the table from both Rovers. It's been known for a while now. Coote I heard was going to Shels.

artanevilla

Nothing more other that others mentioned earlier in the thread so far. Varian has another year left I think. Lot of people don't rate him at all but I think there's a player there if he gets the right support.

Not sure how he'd be set when Ofalabi and Junior are back fit though.

PTH2009

Let's hope Waterford get over the line tonight. UCD a bit of a bogey team for us and the club really needs to be playing Premier Division football

Oat23

Paddy Kirk has left Sligo Rovers. No idea where he's going but I think he was linked with Shams a month ago. Think he'd flourish playing LWB in their team.

artanevilla

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119862312#Comment_119862312

He's been linked heavily with a return to us.

irishmanmick

https://twitter.com/bfcdublin/status/1591101991417417730

Adam McDonnell signed for Bohs. What did you make of him Sligo fans?

Oat23

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119862404#Comment_119862404

Happy we didn't re-sign him. Always willing to get on the ball but rarely does anything with it. Prefers to pass backwards, doesn't score and rarely creates goals. There's a section of our fanbase online (mostly young lads) who sometimes treat him like the second coming of Joey and call him a "baller" because he appears busy in games without making any meaningful contribution.

Midfield is an area we desperately need to improve this winter. Aidan Keena was played as a CAM a few times and outplayed every other midfielder we have.

PGE1970

Best of luck to UCD tonight from a Drogheda fan.

I reckon that any chance of us staying up next season is on the basis of UCD being in the division.

artanevilla

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119862437#Comment_119862437

Passes backwards and doesn't score goals? He'll fit right into our midfield so.

Mushy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119862476#Comment_119862476

Got your wish anyway

Ferris_Bueller

Jesus Waterford. Balloon a 93rd minute penalty over the bar and lose the playoff final 1-0. They were fairly brutal, I only watched the second half and Patterson must have taken at least 5 long range shots in that space of time alone. UCD have improved a lot as the season has gone on in fairness and can't begrudge them staying up. Myler has done a good job there.

Oat23

That penalty decision was a f**king disgrace from Rob Harvey. Thank god they missed it.

PGE1970

Well done UCD, fully deserved.

Shocking decision to award a pen to Waterford in the last minute.

ben.schlomo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119863491#Comment_119863491

We said it after Waterford beat us last week that a footballing side like UCD would likely win this. All we did was lump the ball at them and Baptiste and Cantwell ate it up. Myler was sat a couple of rows in front of us and he obviously saw how to get at them.

Fair play to UCD. Waterford staying down heaps more pressure on JC now, he'll have an excuse when he doesn't get promoted again next season now as Waterford will also likely be full time.

Oat23

Here's the penalty decision. Not a single appeal from Waterford.

Could've cost UCD their spot in the league on another night.

NIMAN

We've sold 20,000 tickets for the final.

It's like being back in the 1980s again.

ben.schlomo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119863651#Comment_119863651

That is shocking stuff. Absolutely horrendous.

Hammer Archer

We could still be playing and Waterford wouldn't have scored. Can't remember Moore having a save to make. They were shocking in front of goal.

From where I was standing (the opposite end of the pitch), it looked an extremely harsh decision for the penalty but seeing the replay, it was a disgraceful decision.

Great achievement to stay up.

joeysoap

Shocking penalty, UCD took 4 points off us last year, Waterford would’ve taken 6 points next year ( guessing) so happy with result.

Macari and Bradley’s loans ended and both have returned to their clubs in the UK. There’s no way we would have held on to Macari.

did Waterford ever win a playoff?