Greatest League in the World 2024 [new thread available]

Ohmeha

Congratulations to Shamrock Rovers from a Shels fan, truncated season or not, financial investment from Dermot Desmond or not, got recruitment spot on, Bradley developed as a manager, played the best football and most importantly your players worked for it

Lesson for Shamrock Rovers, despite the huge levels of UEFA European money it still doesn't take alot of to end up in the First Division three years later like Cork City have tonight

CSF

Still think its a terrible idea for Cork to mess with the fanowned model. This relegation is quite low down in the list of things that have happened to football supporting folk from Cork over the years.

overshoot

kksaints wrote: »

What the hell was the Harps player doing making that tackle? Completely brainless.

Agreed.

Good to be sure of avoiding the automatic drop, commiserations cork, congrats shams.
One defeat in 8 atm, hopefully we could have a rattle at avoiding the playoff with 3 home games left.

Zebra3

Congrats to Rovers, commiserations to Cork.

Hard to see it not being Rovers' decade, Cork should bounce back quick enough.

MonkstownHoop

Great night all round!

9 days off work, I may indulge slightly!

Ohmeha

CSF wrote: »

Still think its a terrible idea for Cork to mess with the fanowned model. This relegation is quite low down in the list of things that have happened to football supporting folk from Cork over the years.

Back in 2017 with Cork's dominance some would have said there was evidence that the fan owned model works, some might day now in 2020 that there is evidence that the fan owned model doesn't work

No matter what the business model of the club the correct player recruitment and managerial/coaching hiring are absolutely critical to a clubs prospects on the pitch. Cork made a balls of it in a short period, Dundalk have been treading a fine line with the US 'professional investors', the margins between continuing success/failure are increasingly expanding for clubs in the UEFA coefficient nations from 30 below

Ohmeha

Zebra3 wrote: »

Congrats to Rovers, commiserations to Cork.

Hard to see it not being Rovers' decade, Cork should bounce back quick enough.

I was convinced back after 2011 Rovers would win every league for the rest of the decade, similar for Dundalk since then. Rovers look in good shape but even in the LOI things can change surprisingly quickly

Captain Havoc

That second goal was weak from Bohs. Champions

overshoot

Ohmeha wrote: »

Back in 2017 with Cork's dominance some would have said there was evidence that the fan owned model works, some might day now in 2020 that there is evidence that the fan owned model doesn't work

Think dominance is a stretch, unreal first half of the season but they did make hard work of securing it after Maguire left.

Caulfield and fenn both used their budgets poorly the last few years, crowds/income dropped and corks board struggled to cut their cloth so poor management on and off field.
Sligo, bohs, harps are also in the premier on fan owned models and ex covid been relatively stable and operated within their resources. The club's with owners could be very quickly in precarious positions should their owners pull out or hit financial issues a la Limerick and many more before it. Fan owned may mean more meagre budgets less instant success but in general more stability.

topmanamillion

Zebra3 wrote: »

Congrats to Rovers, commiserations to Cork.

Hard to see it not being Rovers' decade, Cork should bounce back quick enough.

Congrats to shams, but they thought it'd be their decade when they won the league and got into the EL groups at the start of the last decade.
Byrnes the key there, if he goes back to England in the next few months the rest get a lot closer to them.

Richard Hillman

CSF wrote: »

Still think its a terrible idea for Cork to mess with the fanowned model. This relegation is quite low down in the list of things that have happened to football supporting folk from Cork over the years.

We know full well what they will do after they sell it. Sign a load of players on stupid wages, wrack up a load of debt from local businesses and then run away from all of their obligations through administration. Then set up a new fan owned club at Turners Cross with a different name (of which they'll eventually change back to Cork City) and have absolutely no debts.

It is fraud.

ACitizenErased

Sad day for us in Cork. Especially as a FORAS member, I feel like the group has a lot to do with this fall from grace.
Lots of rebuilding to do and a big week ahead with the selling vote on Wednesday.

kksaints

CSF wrote: »

Still think its a terrible idea for Cork to mess with the fanowned model. This relegation is quite low down in the list of things that have happened to football supporting folk from Cork over the years.

I'd agree with this but I will add the caveat that the fan owned club model isn't necessary the pancrea to all of a football clubs problems. A fan owned club can still make the same mistake as a private owned club can and can still run into financial problems.

Zebra3

topmanamillion wrote: »

Congrats to shams, but they thought it'd be their decade when they won the league and got into the EL groups at the start of the last decade.
Byrnes the key there, if he goes back to England in the next few months the rest get a lot closer to them.

Rovers are in a far stronger position especially off the field than they were 9-10 years ago.

Very hard for Bohs to catch them while part-time. Redeveloped Dalyer years away.

Dundalk bit all over the place. Got lucky with EL, but who knows what will happen next.

Cork relegated.

The rest? Nowhere near.

artanevilla

We aren't trying to challenge Rovers, it would be madness to try. Europe is our aim and 2nd place this year would be an unbelievable achievement considering where we've come from and how we got there.

overshoot

overshoot wrote: »

Think dominance is a stretch, unreal first half of the season but they did make hard work of securing it after Maguire left.

Caulfield and fenn both used their budgets poorly the last few years, crowds/income dropped and corks board struggled to cut their cloth so poor management on and off field.
Sligo, bohs, harps are also in the premier on fan owned models and ex covid been relatively stable and operated within their resources. The club's with owners could be very quickly in precarious positions should their owners pull out or hit financial issues a la Limerick and many more before it. Fan owned may mean more meagre budgets less instant success but in general more stability.

i question the board at the time JC was there as he was allowed to run amok with having 30 in his panel of players for at least 2 seasons, signing players and barely using them (bizarre RB fetish he had) - Fenn had to make do with scraps and loads of loans of young players with limited experience and rely on a past it McNulty and Bennett

Corholio

Richard Hillman wrote: »

We know full well what they will do after they sell it. Sign a load of players on stupid wages, wrack up a load of debt from local businesses and then run away from all of their obligations through administration. Then set up a new fan owned club at Turners Cross with a different name (of which they'll eventually change back to Cork City) and have absolutely no debts.

It is fraud.

Who is 'they' in this regard? The club did not 'run away' from the debt you talk about it, it was very specific individuals. I mean you very well know this, but it takes less letters to type and less brain cells to just type 'Cork' to every specific instance, regardless of circumstances. Nuance isn't some footballs fans strong point.

The problems are rooted deep in the previous boards complete lack of acumen about what was going on financially with the club, add that to incredibly poor signings by JC and it was a storm that came home to roast today. Anyone just blaming Fenn is very misguided.

Gareth Keenan

I must say that I find all this blaming of Caulfield for Rover's record title win very unfair.

You'd almost want to call Stephen Bradley out though. 5-year project my hole.

dfx-

Needs stability and a few years in Europe. For a few years Rovers needed the Dundalk v Cork cup finals to get by. Fourth spot needs to be nailed down by someone.

Harps could be playing Athlone or AC Milan next year still...

joeysoap

Congratulations Rovers


and commiserations to City
Contested 4 cup finals in a row . All good humored and great fans. ( mixed in the hotels before matches and Connolly station later. Kept us honest over 5 years.

I think artanevilla hit It on the head though regarding challenging Rovers. I think Jc tried too hard to compete with Kenny and basically went for broke in doing so. ( Damien Delaney springs to mind, City we’re going well before him and appeared to go backwards afterwards. Wrong player, wrong time)

As regards Europe. Coefficients can make a difference, certainly up to a point, easier draws etc and Dundalk are getting over 140k coefficient money, that they never earned before.

joeysoap

Be interesting if Rovers lose to Harps ( in the league match) and then beat Shels :eek:

dreamers75

**** Cork
**** Rovers


All is well now

joeysoap

joeysoap wrote: »

I think artanevilla hit It on the head though regarding challenging Rovers. I think Jc tried too hard to compete with Kenny and basically went for broke in doing so. ( Damien Delaney springs to mind, City we’re going well before him and appeared to go backwards afterwards. Wrong player, wrong time)

In fairness, thought the Delaney signing was great at the time. He was a player who was coming home, from a premier league squad, we thought it was the such a coup. Obviously it was a bust.

Omackeral

Fair play to Rovers. Won the league without losing a single game, truncated season or not, that's the mark of champions. Wonder can they see it out undefeated. Hard to feel sorry for Cork tbh, always found it very unwelcoming down there.

pgj2015

How has Daryl Murphy played for waterford? I see he has had 2 appearances.

Ferris_Bueller

It's mad how quickly it has turned around for Cork. From league winners in 2017 to one of the worst teams in recent Premier Division history. How did it go so tits up so fast? Was it just poor recruitment and wasting money on average players or was it something more? Maybe most clubs aren't far off that happening to them.

bocaman

So Cork are relegated and Shamrock Rovers are champions. Always felt that winning the league in 2017 was such an effort for Cork that they'd nothing left. Shamrock Rovers being crowned champions isn't surprising. Hopefully the league wont degenerate into a situation where only one or two teams would ever win the league ie Shamrock Rovers and Dundalk.

topmanamillion

bocaman wrote: »

So Cork are relegated and Shamrock Rovers are champions. Always felt that winning the league in 2017 was such an effort for Cork that they'd nothing left. Shamrock Rovers being crowned champions isn't surprising. Hopefully the league wont degenerate into a situation where only one or two teams would ever win the league ie Shamrock Rovers and Dundalk.

I think the league has already gone that way. The Euro prize money is so far ahead of anything in the league there`s almost 2 tiers in the one league i.e the clubs that are in Europe and the ones that aren`t.

Things like UEFA saying they`ll have to reduce prize money for the next few years and the EL2 with presumably less prize money again will probably close the gap a bit.

Of course with Shams and Dundalk it is the LOI so one or both of them hitting the rocks and imploding financially is always more than a possibility.

Dundalk`s chairman sticking notes at the bottom of their accounts saying they`re grand look away from the big deficit and Shams offsetting debt by valuing kids in their academy in excess of a million euro should give the rest cause for optimism.

joeysoap

Best team won, probably should have been more. Still don’t know why Dundalk signed McMillan and let Kelly go. Any time I see him he’s close to useless. Daryl Murphy was handy.

PTH2009

Great win for Waterford

Now Rovers or Bohs win the cup, St Pats and Derry please implode

Finn Harps away won't be an easy game

dreamers75

PTH2009 wrote: »

Now Rovers or Bohs win the cup, St Pats and Derry please implode

We havent played a match since the 3rd of october

Dunmoreroader

Well done Blues, finally getting the rub of the green after leaving points behind in so many recent games.
Tough trip to Ballybofey for final match but we owe Harps one and possible Euro football at stake will see Waterford hugely motivated. Can't wait.
Inexplicably how far Cork have fallen in a couple of seasons, with all the disruption at Waterford this season, was fearful it would be us going down, not Cork. Even if they don't get Euro football next season, it has been an amazing season considering the turnover of players and 3 managers.
BTID.

Captain Havoc

I don't think Shamrock Rovers will dominate the league for the foreseeable purely on the basis that the league of Ireland is possibly the most competitive league in Europe. In the past 20 years we've had eight different champions and at times, it seemed as though some teams would continue to dominate such as Bohs spearheaded by Glen Crowe, the Shels team that reached the Champions League playoff, the rovers team that reached the group stages of the Europa League, the Dundalk team of recent years and now rovers with what appears to be a fantastic underage system. Each of the those team's players were picked away and a new team took over the mantel, I expect the same will happen to Rovers after a couple of seasons. Money will be spent and teams are like Icarus, wanting to fly too high.

cms88

People saying fan owed clubs isn't good. I think the problem is a lot of the fans who are owners do little in terms of helping out etc and it's left to the same yet people all the time. I also think clubs also become too reliant on the modal in terms of rasjing funds etc and don't look at other ways. In general it' a good idea, but like everything it's not perfect.

Ferris_Bueller

Ferris_Bueller wrote: »

It's mad how quickly it has turned around for Cork. From league winners in 2017 to one of the worst teams in recent Premier Division history. How did it go so tits up so fast? Was it just poor recruitment and wasting money on average players or was it something more? Maybe most clubs aren't far off that happening to them.

Combo of the last board, in house fighting, Caulfield wasting money on RB's and players resulting in a bloated squad, not replacing maguire (falling out with players), Fenn while not the main problem, wasn't the right choice and again poor choice of players (particularly in the attacking front) ... ive a feeling they have to take up the Preston guy's offer, unless another new Cork City 2K21 reforms...i cant see foras fixing the situation...this would probably sum up the situation

joeysoap

So Robbie Keane is moving ‘ home’ from Beverley Hills to Malahide.

How the fcuk did he manage his position under McCarthy and Middlesbrough and live in California? Not surprised Kenny wouldn’t have him.


https://www.irishmirror.ie/sport/soccer/claudine-robbie-keane-move-home-22901416

Zebra3

I thought he'd just got a job with LA Galaxy.

irish_goat

Rovers v Derry match called off again, positive test in the Derry squad plus backroom.

PTH2009

irish_goat wrote: »

Rovers v Derry match called off again, positive test in the Derry squad plus backroom.

ffs just draw the game

dundalkfc10

Interesting to see what the FAI do after stating no more games would be off.

Is that them out of the FAI Cup as they are due to play Sligo on Sunday

joeysoap

Zebra3 wrote: »

I thought he'd just got a job with LA Galaxy.

He left LA Galaxy in 2016, I was wondering how he managed the Middlesbrough and Ireland jobs in 2019/ 2020 Collecting free money.

joeysoap

Forfeit the match. That’s what Uefa do in the same circumstance.

CSF

joeysoap wrote: »

Forfeit the match. That’s what Uefa do in the same circumstance.

But Rovers have had numerous games postponed for them. You couldn’t just forfeit to them the minute someone else has cases. Granted it doesn’t matter to Rovers now anyway.

Mars Bar

joeysoap wrote: »

He left LA Galaxy in 2016, I was wondering how he managed the Middlesbrough and Ireland jobs in 2019/ 2020 Collecting free money.

He left as a player in 2016 but the rumours are that he is in line to take the manager job. Tough gig for him...they've been ****in woeful.

pgj2015

Mars Bar wrote: »

He left as a player in 2016 but the rumours are that he is in line to take the manager job. Tough gig for him...they've been ****in woeful.

I reckon he will make a good manager, he was always said to be a great guy to have in the dressing room as a player.

joeysoap

dreamers75 wrote: »

We havent played a match since the 3rd of october

With tomorrow’s match off Rovers won’t have played any matches in October at all.
(FWIW Dundalk will played 8 matches in October, Pats 2)

joeysoap wrote: »

Forfeit the match. That’s what Uefa do in the same circumstance.

And Pats before that. Making fish of one and flesh of another is poor optics . according to the fai the league is ending on 8/11 and Derry won’t be back before that. ( if they isolate for 14 days)

pgj2015 wrote: »

I reckon he will make a good manager, he was always said to be a great guy to have in the dressing room as a player.

He might make a great manager. He was assistant at Ireland and Middlesbrough while home was 10,000 miles away. I accept he didn’t live fulltime there.

artanevilla

Got some amount of cash as Ireland coach for doing fúck all.

joeysoap

Dead hand of Delaney. Still 2 to years to go and €500,000 to collect.

Come to mama

pgj2015

sugarman wrote: »

Much like Roy Keane before him, what was he on €600k a year? For laying out a few cones?

And telling the players how $hit they are.

overshoot

dundalkfc10 wrote: »

Interesting to see what the FAI do after stating no more games would be off.

Is that them out of the FAI Cup as they are due to play Sligo on Sunday

possibly... rte article saying the squad is stood down for 14days and the matter reffered to the fai diciplinary committee
could be Derry's season over... so...
-thank feck we beat bohs as cork could get a 3-0 (edit - stood down until the 6th, so will play cork)
-All 3 below derry would need to pick up a point or 6 for harps for them to end up in the playoff even with the hit to goal difference.