Haven’t a clue but what I meant was football has already left the hands of its local communities here at least in the top few divisions, whereas I think it still very much is so over there. I do not think they would accept being a little sister no matter who the big sister was. Or rather, gleefully accept. Maybe in time they would come around to it given the club kept its integrity but Rosenior’s comments already took a great big steaming dump on that.
“Bournemouth owner Bill Foley is considering a bid for League of Ireland side Dundalk, just weeks after acquiring a 33 per cent stake in Ligue 1 club Lorient. The American businessman is one of three parties showing an interest in Dundalk, with Hull City’s Turkish owners Acun Medya also holding talks with the club. Foley is keen to build up a multi-club portfolio after paying £150million for Bournemouth and is also targeting teams in South America.”
Re: New Owners? Quote Post by seand » Sat Feb 25, 2023 12:27 am Shels are welcome to them, obviously. I mean in any meaningful way we're a bigger club than Hull City. Show us your trophy case. Seriously. (I mean no disrespect to the Hull fans, MrTiger99 and others. They have great supporters and proximity to the EPL means they've loads more cash than us, but we'll do us, you do you.) An absolute nonsense of an idea, the way it's being presented. Similar playing style? I don't think our manager knows what fukking style we're playing. We're absolutely brutal with players who aren't good enough for Millwall, Boro, West Brom and Swansea, I'm not sure how swapping those lads for ones who aren't good enough for Hull is going to improve things.
Well in some countries trophies are a lot easier to obtain, there's a great deal less competition. The League of Ireland, while they may be proud of it, has never been comparable to the Football League, not just the top divisions but the whole FA pyramid system below it as well. Organised football started here. Nearly all the best Irish players have developed and made their biggest success in the Football League, even if they won some trophies in Ireland before that.
Even the poster acknowledges he being tongue in cheek. That said no fan wants their beloved club from whatever league, to become a mere accessory to another team let alone one with such a proud history such as Dundalk.
I don't think Rosies comments have really helped. As much as I love him talking about dictating the style of play of another team is only going to piss people off.
But that's completely logical. I don't really understand what the Dundalk fans are moaning at. I think they believe they're of a higher standard than they actually are. I've seen talk that they're L1 level but that's laughable. After looking at a few articles, it seems their wage bill is somewhere between £1-2m a year. So that's more like L2/NL level
The main difference is Acun Ilicali putting millions in to their club. If someone does that they normally want something out of it otherwise you may as well just loan out to various clubs like we've always done. And if the idea is to get players qualified so they can play in England they would also have to play. The idea of some of them that only crap players would be sent to Ireland doesn't make sense to me. Obviously if we are investing in players they would have to be promising. They wouldn't be failed older players but young promising ones in need of matches. We want a development squad not just a matchday squad.
Being realistic I don't think we have that many youngsters that could go over to Ireland and make an instant impact either. I certainly don't believe we can send over the full development squad and they'll tear up the Irish League
Well we sent Snelgrove over to NI and he very quickly became a first teamer for Crusaders, who are in the European places in that league. Chadwick did well over there too. I know NI is slightly weaker than the Irish league, but if you flip it and look at players like Jordan Flores who looked nothing like being able to break into our League One side despite having been a regular for Dundalk, I think our promising youngsters would probably do pretty well. Not all of our development squad are going to become Football League players, as much as we'd love them to. You only have to look at Ahmed Salam, who was looking really promising and did alright at Linfield, but then couldn't find a club for love nor money upon his release and has ended up at Alfreton and has been in and out of their side, which is worrying because they're mid table in the National League North. The LOI is a decent standard and would offer proper men's football, an affiliate there is good but it is worth pointing out that it still takes 5 continuous years to earn Irish citizenships so there's no quick route to a work permit there and it's unlikely that any player would be picked for their country playing in the LOI, even the Irish ones tend to be few and far between. Serbia would be a better bet if we sign foreign players; it's not as local (obviously), but citizenship only takes three years (just ask Evandro) and the league is ranked 11th, whereas the LOI is ranked 36th (below Latvia, Kosovo, Liechtenstein and Azerbaijan) so you're more likely to get Work Permit points.
I think the idea is to get other people not just our best prospects, such as that Peruvian Yuriel Celi. Obviously not all will work out, but to get these players to their potential they need to play. The problem with loans is you don't know if they'll play anyway, as seen with Yuriel Celi.
In hindsight although I do genuinely like Friday night matches under the floodlights this post may have been influenced by it being posted on a Friday after a pleasant day’s golf and a few lunchtime pints, and me fancying going back out to watch City! I do acknowledge Bristol away would be tricky though get back from on a Friday night. So ideally I’d prefer all our home games on a Friday night and all our away games at 3pm on a Saturday. Not too much to ask is it?…
I think it would be perfect for our promising youngsters. It's the first loan and exposure to first-team football that we and many other clubs struggle with for young players. Greaves & KLP are obviously the recent shining lights of our academy but they were significantly helped by our relegation to L1. I think Greaves' path especially would have been a lot rockier and it would have been difficult to back up the Cheltenham loan and you don't want young players going stagnant. I think giving our youngsters game time in men's football in an environment we can control is perfect and we'll see them develop at a much quicker rate I've assumed a big part of the plan would be to hoover up a lot of Irish talent before PL sides can get to them as well. The likes of Collins, Bazunu, Kelleher, and Ferguson are all very bright young players who were taken by PL sides very young. Due to Brexit, this can't happen until they're 18 now so it would give us a massive advantage. For playing requiring work permits it wouldn't be much use mind.
We couldn't use it for players like Celi, he wouldn't get a work permit playing in the Irish League. And it's way too early to say Celi isn't playing when he only signed on Deadline Day and isn't up to match fitness. He was dropped for their last game because he went out partying for his Birthday
Well it looks like his focus is some team (any team???) in the LoI. One day it's Dundalk, next day it's Shelbourne. Watch him put on the charm after the accrual "Dundalk reminds me so much of Istanbul" LoI clubs come wrapped with dreadful stadia and a certain type of fan. Any player with talent is expected to go abroad. Just like rugby permeates all of NZ, in Ireland, the GAA codes dominate and influence all facets of society. Yes, soccer is played by many kids at community level in the same way that it is in the States - recreational and local. Watching and supporting Premiership and other top European clubs is popular just like everywhere else but when it comes to serious sporting commitment, it always leans towards GAA. Flying to England every Saturday to support Liverpool or whoever is very popular but watching and supporting a LoI team puts you into weirdo status like following ice hockey in New York instead of baseball and football.
