Limerick FC 2018 season

osarusan

As it's 2018, I thought it was time for a new thread on everybody's favourite local LOI club.

Last season was our first in the Premier division after being promoted, and it was a rollercoaster of a season. A 5-1 win on the opening day, a cup semi-final for the first time in donkey's years, but also some woeful performances.

Martin Russell only lasted a handful of matches into the season, and Willie Boland took over until the arrival of Neil McDonald. We ended up finishing in a reasonable 7th place, although we flirted with the relegation zone a few times during the season.

This season, we have lost some of our better players and, for the most part, failed to replace them, and our squad is pretty threadbare at the moment. To make matters worse, McDonald has quit to return to England for a job at Scunthorpe. So we are in serious disarray at the moment.

Here is our squad at the time of posting:

Goalkeeper:
Brendan Clarke
Freddy Hall

Defenders:
Tony Whithead
Barry Cotter
Killian Brouder
Shane Tracy

Midfielders:
Shane Duggan
Cian Coleman
Henry Cameron
William Fitzgerald
Daniel Kearns

Strikers:
Chedozie Ogbene
Danny Morrissey

(I'll edit this as things change, of if anybody else points anything out to me)


For the rest, I'll just paste and update what I wrote in the opening post of last season's thread:

Fixtures
The season starts away to Sligo on Saturday February 17th, and we are at home to Bohemians the following Saturday 24th. You can see a full list of fixtures here.

Tickets
You can get information on tickets (matchday tickets or season tickets) here: http://www.limerickfc.ie/club-shop/match-prices

Tickets can be bought outside the ground on matchday. The club have adopted a new (and in my opinion, misguided) system of pricing, with Category A and Category B matches. So if you are buying on the day, the price might be different to what you expected.

Support
You can follow the club and developments through their website, and also through the facebook page, and on twitter.

As a supporter, you can also get involved with the Official Supporters' Club, the Blue Army, or the Limerick Independent Football Trust (LIFT)

For away games, both the Official Supporters' Club and the Blue Army try to organise buses as much as possible, and being a member of those groups increases your chances of getting a seat.

Sponsorship
For those of you who have money to burn, the club would love if you sent it their way, and there are a range of ways to sponsor the club, which you can find here: http://www.limerickfc.ie/commercial/sponsorship

johnnyryan89

Conor Ellis was in training with the club yesterday and today. Any know where the teams training seeing as they're not welcome in UL at the moment?

Edit; Turns out they are still using UL, hope they ask for cash up front 😂😂

diusmr8a504cvk

Bray announced a combined ten re-signings and new signings today. They'll be one of our main competition this season in what you'd have to assume would be a relegation dogfight at this stage.

https://twitter.com/braywanderers/status/949359246856130560

With the season being six weeks away I just don't know how we'll get a decent manager. As well as that, not many players will be attracted to a club that doesn't have a manager and can't even re-sign their own players.

Copper_pipe

Ogbene could be on his way to Scunthorpe too..

johnnyryan89

Copper_pipe wrote: »

Ogbene could be on his way to Scunthorpe too..

Probably just lazy journalism linking the former manager to his former clubs best player whose been in England on trials.

Harpy

johnnyryan89 wrote: »

Conor Ellis was in training with the club yesterday and today. Any know where the teams training seeing as they're not welcome in UL at the moment?

Edit; Turns out they are still using UL, hope they ask for cash up front 😂😂

What happened with U.L that they wouldn't be welcome??

kilburn

Copper_pipe wrote:

Ogbene could be on his way to Scunthorpe too..

Aston Villa are looking for him also

brendanwalsh

johnnyryan89 wrote: »

Conor Ellis was in training with the club yesterday and today. Any know where the teams training seeing as they're not welcome in UL at the moment?

Edit; Turns out they are still using UL, hope they ask for cash up front 😂😂

Why aren't they welcome in UL?

Has lee Jay been training with anyone? Heard he was going to sligo.

Shame the limerick forum on foot dot ie was shut down, found it was a great source of inside itk info.

Copper_pipe

brendanwalsh wrote: »

Why aren't they welcome in UL?

Has lee Jay been training with anyone? Heard he was going to sligo.

Shame the limerick forum on foot dot ie was shut down, found it was a great source of inside itk info.

Owe UL money for training facilities.. probably still trying to pay off Thomond Park as well

diusmr8a504cvk

Somewhat relevant

https://twitter.com/muafc_/status/950681367142191104

Paddico

Copper_pipe wrote: »

Ogbene could be on his way to Scunthorpe too..

I'm hoping its back to City for him though I think JC has explored that option. Looks like Ellis is heading to ye anyway

osarusan

Paddico wrote: »

I'm hoping its back to City for him though I think JC has explored that option.

Anyhthing can happen in football, but the way Ogbene and the Cork team and fans were with each other in the final two matches of last season, it would surprise me.

johnnyryan89

Jane Screeching Queen wrote: »

Somewhat relevant

https://twitter.com/muafc_/status/950681367142191104

Probably a good move for him, did well at UCD. I liked Martin Russell as a coach, his out look on football was positive especially when it came to youth football but as a manager he was too stuck in his ways. Either he didn't have a plan B or was just too stubborn to change his style up, always struck me as someone whose best off as an assistant manager.

Still no official news or rumours from reliable sources on the manager front but one name I've heard is Trevor Croly the Bohs assistant manager, which might explain why Eoin Wearen is down training with Limerick.

Also Galway have signed ex Limerick academy player Tadgh Ryan, who was with Huddersfields u23s on a permanent deal after he left by mutual consent. Good move for him and hopefully see him back at Limerick again in the future.

Copper_pipe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PiBmIIrxG0

johnnyryan89

Copper_pipe wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PiBmIIrxG0

Fair play to the man, he's spent a lot of his money that he worked for on the club knowing he'll never see a penny of it back or would only see a tiny percentage of it back if he sold the club. But think he's doing the right thing in looking to sell majority of his shares or even all of his shares, with all the good he has done I also think he's spent a lot needless money.

Think he thought he could throw money at Limerick and transform the club overnight which was gonna be next to impossible, Bruff was an excellent idea in theory but could turn into a massive white elephant given Pat has sank a lot of money into the place while also still spending a ton of money on using the UL for training and hotel accommodation for players. But at the end of the day without him there would be no Limerick fc, so while there's things to criticise about his ownership of the club there wouldn't be a club without him.

Maybe now is the time for talks about a trust and fan ownership, clubs like Wexford and Galway have done it just recently and Cork plus Sligo have been doing it awhile as well. Pats always said he wants the fans to come out in numbers and maybe no better way to do it than a fan owned club.

lionel ritchie

yay I found a Limerick FC discussion!

osarusan

What are the odds that we will find another owner willing to spend millions without any material reward?

Copper_pipe

JP would hardly step in?

johnnyryan89

Copper_pipe wrote: »

JP would hardly step in?

If he hasn't done it now I doubt he'll come in and himself and Pat are good mates.

osarusan wrote: »

What are the odds that we will find another owner willing to spend millions without any material reward?

Slim to none imo, you'd want to be absolutely off your game to invest your own money into a league of Ireland club. Think it could be time for LIFT to strongly think about a fan ownership.

Jofspring

Usually the type of people that buy into football clubs are rich people looking for ways to spend their money and do it for the love of sport or just to keep themselves entertained. If we are lucky we find someone with a genuine interest in football and deep pockets. That wil be extremely hard to come by.

Team have been training away with a few new faces, and old, so hopefully we see some signings in the coming weeks.

Jofspring

johnnyryan89 wrote: »

If he hasn't done it now I doubt he'll come in and himself and Pat are good mates.




Slim to none imo, you'd want to be absolutely off your game to invest your own money into a league of Ireland club. Think it could be time for LIFT to strongly think about a fan ownership.

In ideal world you would have a combined ownership, fans/trust and a backer/businesses to back it financially.

brendanwalsh

Heard O sullivan owes thousands to UL and hotels across the city for accommodation and training.

osarusan

johnnyryan89 wrote: »

Think it could be time for LIFT to strongly think about a fan ownership.

Without meaning to disrespect LIFT (I know jofspring on here is involved and they do good work) I don't think they, or even an unlikely combination of all the supporters' clubs, would be in a position to take over.


We are talking the guts of €200,000 each season (if not more) just to field a team of amateurs. There aren't enough fans and there isn't enough money.

mastershake

I admire Pat O'Sullivan for taking on Limerick FC when he did and turning the fortunes of the club around. He has done it all for the right reasons and has invested a lot of he's own personal money into the running of the club. He has also orchestrated the move back to the Markets Field which has reinvigorated the club and has given it a good base to push on from.

Having said all that you have to wonder why he purchased the Bruff secondary school. He has said that it was needed as a training and youth academy facility for the underage sides but a location such as St. Endas would have been a ready made facility for that purpose. The location and the pitches there would have been ideal for both the first team and the youth teams and would have meant not having to fork out payment to UL and other facilities to train on. It could have saved the club considerably. 

It will be interesting to know what will happen with Bruff if this take over happens as it was always Pat's idea to locate the club there. Hopefully the deal happens soon as a new management team and additional players need to be found quickly before the start of the season.

johnnyryan89

mastershake wrote: »

Having said all that you have to wonder why he purchased the Bruff secondary school. He has said that it was needed as a training and youth academy facility for the underage sides but a location such as St. Endas would have been a ready made facility for that purpose. The location and the pitches there would have been ideal for both the first team and the youth teams and would have meant not having to fork out payment to UL and other facilities to train on. It could have saved the club considerably. 

It will be interesting to know what will happen with Bruff if this take over happens as it was always Pat's idea to locate the club there. Hopefully the deal happens soon as a new management team and additional players need to be found quickly before the start of the season.

Was cheaper to buy Bruff compared to the price the Clare County Council wanted for the land out in Knockalisheen plus was double the size but imo while it was more value for money I don't think Bruff will work as it's too far out imo. No player will want to live in a converted convent in Bruff if they come to Limerick they'll want to be living near the city centre and quite a few parents will say is it worth driving their son out to Bruff 2 or 3 nights a week plus matches when they could go to Aisling Annacotty and receive possibly better training for half the price.

What facilities are in Endas though exactly? Did a course there last year and FAS own the school building and the old swimming pool is knocked now but hasn't that building been condemned for awhile? You also could have bought Seanchoill about 2 yrs ago or a year and a half ago for less than €100,000. Comes with a ready made all weather pitch, club house and gym.

johnnyryan89

osarusan wrote: »

Without meaning to disrespect LIFT (I know jofspring on here is involved and they do good work) I don't think they, or even an unlikely combination of all the supporters' clubs, would be in a position to take over.


We are talking the guts of €200,000 each season (if not more) just to field a team of amateurs. There aren't enough fans and there isn't enough money.

As jof pointed out in an ideal world you'd have an owner, fans and businesses combined funding a club. I don't know the situation with Galway but if they can be fan owned then I'm sure Limerick could. Both clubs would be the same size and have roughly the same size support base with Limerick possibly having the potential bigger fan base with the likes of Ennis, Shannon, Nenagh and Charleville only out the road which the club's should be tapping into.

If it's that Limerick are over spending compared to clubs the same size as them then maybe it's time for the club to cut back and live within its means.

johnnyryan89

Limerick are playing Galway Saturday week the 20th in a friendly, time and venue to be confirmed but doubt it will be the markets field as there's a rugby match the night before.

diusmr8a504cvk

johnnyryan89 wrote: »

Limerick are playing Galway Saturday week the 20th in a friendly, time and venue to be confirmed but doubt it will be the markets field as there's a rugby match the night before.

Jackman?

johnnyryan89

Jane Screeching Queen wrote: »

Jackman?

UL would be my guess

mastershake

What facilities are in Endas though exactly? Did a course there last year and FAS own the school building and the old swimming pool is knocked now but hasn't that building been condemned for awhile? You also could have bought Seanchoill about 2 yrs ago or a year and a half ago for less than €100,000. Comes with a ready made all weather pitch, club house and gym.[/QUOTE]

I haven't been in there since the school closed but there were a number of pitches including an all-weather pitch there. It would probably have needed a good deal of investment but I always thought that it would have been a good location for Limerick FC to base itself. Its close to South Hill and O'Malley Park and a youth centre with links to these communities would have being fantastic.The latest I heard was that Limerick GAA were looking at planning permission at St.Endas for a number of pitches for their own development teams. Football's loss is the GAA's gain I guess.

Anyone hear of any transfer rumours? What are the Dennehy bros up to? Any chance of attracting them down for the year.

mastershake

What facilities are in Endas though exactly? Did a course there last year and FAS own the school building and the old swimming pool is knocked now but hasn't that building been condemned for awhile? You also could have bought Seanchoill about 2 yrs ago or a year and a half ago for less than €100,000. Comes with a ready made all weather pitch, club house and gym./QUOTE]

I haven't been in there since the school closed but there were a number of pitches including an all-weather pitch there. It would probably have needed a good deal of investment but I always thought that it would have been a good location for Limerick FC to base itself. Its close to South Hill and O'Malley Park and a youth centre with links to these communities would have being fantastic. The latest I heard was that Limerick GAA were looking at planning permission for a number of pitches there for their own development teams. Football's loss is the GAA's gain I guess.

Anyone hear of any transfer rumours? What are the Dennehy bros up to? Any chance of attracting them down for the year.

c.p.w.g.w

In terms of what Limerick owe, its rumoured to be over €250,000 between UL and a few other companies/institutions:eek:

johnnyryan89

mastershake wrote: »

I haven't been in there since the school closed but there were a number of pitches including an all-weather pitch there. It would probably have needed a good deal of investment but I always thought that it would have been a good location for Limerick FC to base itself. Its close to South Hill and O'Malley Park and a youth centre with links to these communities would have being fantastic. The latest I heard was that Limerick GAA were looking at planning permission for a number of pitches there for their own development teams. Football's loss is the GAA's gain I guess.

Anyone hear of any transfer rumours? What are the Dennehy bros up to? Any chance of attracting them down for the year.

Don't think Endas ever had an all weather pitch. They had an indoor sports hall which would have been perfect for futsal which is something I think all youth teams should be doing.

Think the GAA have levelled the sports building as it was beyond repair, think I read they're spending over a million quid to build it back up and work on the pitches.

There's a few lads training with them at the moment, Eoin Wearen who played with Bohs is down training as well as Connor Ellis from Cork. There's a lad from England called Levi Gilmar Di Silvà Fernandez training as well as another guy who haven't a clue what his name is and only showed up today.

diusmr8a504cvk

mastershake wrote: »

Anyone hear of any transfer rumours? What are the Dennehy bros up to? Any chance of attracting them down for the year.

Eoin Wearen from Bohs, Shaun Kelly, Jason Hughes and Conor Ellis of Cork have all been training. Conor Ellis is expected to sign on loan soon.

https://twitter.com/Cunneen92/status/951509401701093376
Transfermarkt.com is the only place I can get info on him, couple of articles floating around about him because him and Neymar look somewhat similar.

According to The Sun, Rovers are interested in Ronan Coughlan and Joel Coustrain.

johnnyryan89

Jane Screeching Queen wrote: »

According to The Sun, Rovers are interested in Ronan Coughlan and Joel Coustrain.

Would love to see the lads playing with Limerick, Coughlan was signed to the 19s before moving to England and Coustrain was in training with the club last summer before joining Balla.

diusmr8a504cvk

johnnyryan89 wrote: »

Would love to see the lads playing with Limerick, Coughlan was signed to the 19s before moving to England and Coustrain was in training with the club last summer before joining Balla.

Absolutely, lads like that we should be looking at in our current situation. I was speaking to my brother lately discussing what Junior players we reckon would be worth a go with Limerick and he reckoned Stephen McGann (played before granted) and Danny O'Neill which I would agree with, anyone else you'd like to see?

Speaking of local lads, former Limerick FC and Newcastle West AFC player Liam McCartan is after signing with Wexford. He signed with Athlone Town last July.

https://twitter.com/WexfordFC/status/951544469031149568

Jofspring

I definitely think Joel and Ronan should be asked in. In saying that they might have been asked and either turned it down or are going to show up in a few weeks.

A manage has to be the priority though. Let him come in and start talking to players.

On the Bruff situation I think it is a combination of the amount of land available and the facilities for staying over two of the main reasons they went for Bruff. It has dorms, kitchens, bathrooms, classrooms and acres of land. The club want it to be a revenue stream outside of match night. They have had groups stay there already including exchange students and sports teams. Ballinamallard had their underage down and are looking to bring their senior team down for a pre-season. It could be a greag option if developed right. The club are going to be receiving grants of €250,000 a year for the next few years to develop it also. Before buying Bruff the club also looked into about 20 greenfield sites across the city and couldn’t find anything suitable. Bruff is only 20 minutes from the city centre also so not too far. All over the uk teams train 30-40minites outside of the city is its not unusual.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Limerick owe businesses money. Sadly it’s the the story with most LOI clubs. You can’t get a premier license though until you start clearing those debts so you would hope that it done soon.

midg23

We started the 2018 Limerick FC podcast last night and you can check it out here.

https://audioboom.com/posts/6595598-2018-episode-1

Let us know what you think and anything that you'd like to see discussed.

diusmr8a504cvk

Tommy Barrett is the new manager.

brendanwalsh

Christ. Very worried for season ahead.

c.p.w.g.w

Wow that is pretty worrying, Limerick to finish bottom with 17 points...Calling it now

johnnyryan89

I'd love to see Tommy succeed, he's a local lad and a sound bloke. But this appointment says that nobody else wanted the job and screams we've no money.

c.p.w.g.w

johnnyryan89 wrote: »

I'd love to see Tommy succeed, he's a local lad and a sound bloke. But this appointment says that nobody else wanted the job and screams we've no money.

Agree, love if he did well but it points to the cheap option to be honest

johnnyryan89

c.p.w.g.w wrote: »

Agree, love if he did well but it points to the cheap option to be honest

I wanted him to get the job when Russell was sacked, would of had a half decent squad then and a decent starting 11 but at this stage he's been handed half a squad and told sink or swim. It's not going to end well for Tommy imo, would love do be proved wrong though.

mastershake

I'm starting to wonder where Limerick FC would be currently if Martin Russel hadn't been sacked and instead he was kept on.Why sack him and pay him out only to then take on an English manager with no LOI experience and who presumably was on a a lot more money when in a years time the money to the club was going to be pulled. The short term outlook from the people running the club is staggering.

Its amazes me that we've gone from a potentially well run club with aspirations for Europe to relegation certainties in the space of a year. I think Pat O'Sullivan and the board must have placed all their eggs in the Europe basket last year. Once they realised that this wasn't going to happen they have had to pull the plug. A lot of players were left go and were never replaced. I'm grateful for Pat for what he has done but it would seem a lot of money was thrown away needlessly after a rash call to sack Martin after the result at home to Cork and to replace him by installing an expensive management ticket.

Having said all that we are where we are and I wish Tommy well and hopefully he can come in and manage some miracles.

brendanwalsh

16 training this morning in UL. Lot of young faces. I presume chedozie will be flogged soon to provide a cash infusion into the tin. Talks Conor Ellis going back to cork. Limerick are screwed.

johnnyryan89

mastershake wrote: »

I'm starting to wonder where Limerick FC would be currently if Martin Russel hadn't been sacked and instead he was kept on.Why sack him and pay him out only to then take on an English manager with no LOI experience and who presumably was on a a lot more money when in a years time the money to the club was going to be pulled. The short term outlook from the people running the club is staggering.

Its amazes me that we've gone from a potentially well run club with aspirations for Europe to relegation certainties in the space of a year. I think Pat O'Sullivan and the board must have placed all their eggs in the Europe basket last year. Once they realised that this wasn't going to happen they have had to pull the plug. A lot of players were left go and were never replaced. I'm grateful for Pat for what he has done but it would seem a lot of money was thrown away needlessly after a rash call to sack Martin after the result at home to Cork and to replace him by installing an expensive management ticket.

Having said all that we are where we are and I wish Tommy well and hopefully he can come in and manage some miracles.

If Russel was kept on imo we'd have been relegated. I liked Russell as a person and a coach, his views on football and especially youth football were positive but as a manager he seemed stubborn and unwilling to change up how his team's play. If plan A wasn't working he'd keep at it until it finally worked and too many teams knew how to nullify it.

I'd say there was more money needlessly thrown away by the club long before McDonald came in. At the beginning of the 2015 season Pat came out with a similar speech on how the club needs to live within its means and that he couldn't keep pumping his own money in but fast forward 12 months and the club were paying full time wages for a part time schedule cause think they only trained at most twice a week to play against part time players and kids.

brendanwalsh wrote: »

16 training this morning in UL. Lot of young faces. I presume chedozie will be flogged soon to provide a cash infusion into the tin. Talks Conor Ellis going back to cork. Limerick are screwed.

Any sign of Eddie Hickey at training or are Brendan and Freddie still training by themselves?

Also who was taking the training session, was Kinder and Gamble there?

johnnyryan89

Pre season fixture against Shelbourne on Sunday, Feb 4th kick off 3pm up in Larney Park in Finglas. Still no announcement from either club about the Longford game and Limerick have said nothing about the Galway game but is listed on the Galway website as Saturday, 20th kick off 6.30pm.

osarusan

c.p.w.g.w wrote: »

Agree, love if he did well but it points to the cheap option to be honest

No doubt, and so obviously the cheap option that I doubt we'll have the money to bring in anybody of real quality from other LOI clubs (especially as many of those are already signed up anyway). Perhaps he can attract the best of the local talent to join the club.

Anyway, unless the finances change and soon, I think it's going to be a long and grim season, and a sign of what's to come after O'Sullivan separates himself from the club completely.

Jofspring

LIFT

After Pat O’Sullivans video released by the club last week, LIFT propose now is the time for the fans of Limerick Football Club to come out and show our support. We suggest the Trust, with the support of Limerick fans everywhere can become an important part of the future of the club.

LIFT are calling a public meeting for Wednesday January 24th at 8pm in Jerry O’Deas Bar on Mulgrave Street. We would call on anyone with any interest in Senior football in Limerick to come in for information on what we are about.

We would like to thank all those who have continued to support the Trust to date and also those new members that have joined in more recent times.

If you have an interest in joining up and “helping us to help Limerick FC” then you can contact us at limerickseniorfootballtrust@gmail.com

Yours in Sport,

LIFT Committee.

#strongertogether

c.p.w.g.w

Barry Cotter across the pond on trial...if we can get €10,000 we should take it...his nowhere near good enough