Greatest League in the World 2024 [new thread available]

artanevilla · 26-02-2021 1:51pm

We are going to run out of Burt licence plates in the club shop if he keeps this up.

joeysoap · 26-02-2021 2:07pm

https://www.dundalkfc.com/ryan-becomes-a-lilywhite/

3 years according to Jim Magilton

joeysoap · 26-02-2021 2:12pm

artanevilla wrote: »

We are going to run out of Burt licence plates in the club shop if he keeps this up.

Some great signings from Long. As usual

johnnyryan89 · 26-02-2021 2:23pm

Treaty United will announce their squad tomorrow at 1pm. They've signed 26 players to their squad.

topmanamillion · 26-02-2021 2:27pm

hardybuck wrote: »

I don't know how much the likes of Rovers and Dundalk are paying guys, but I'm surprised we don't have more players moving to League 2 clubs - as the standard seems to be fairly even.

Hoban was over there for a bit and looked out of his depth, came back here and hit 30 goals in his first season back.
Make of that what you will.

MD1990 · 26-02-2021 2:42pm

joeysoap wrote: »

https://www.dundalkfc.com/ryan-becomes-a-lilywhite/

3 years according to Jim Magilton

I watched 10 mins of that friendly.

He looked a good young player. Nice left foot

joeysoap · 26-02-2021 2:44pm

How many on loan . 26 :rolleyes:?

Joking, welcome ‘back’

MD1990 · 26-02-2021 2:45pm

topmanamillion wrote: »

Hoban was over there for a bit and looked out of his depth, came back here and hit 30 goals in his first season back.
Make of that what you will.

League of Ireland is about the same level as the National League in England is my guess.
Although the National League has much more depth

joeysoap · 26-02-2021 2:56pm

Enjoyed that. I’ve seen poorer on tv ..my mom was Cleary.

Tchaikovsky · 26-02-2021 2:57pm

Lovely ball in from the Latvian lad for McMillan's goal

GLaDOS · 26-02-2021 2:58pm

Good run out for both teams, lack of subs for Bohs told towards the end with tired legs (We're playing UCD this afternoon).

Super set up for the stream, really enjoyable.

Big Ears · 26-02-2021 3:02pm

topmanamillion wrote: »

Hoban was over there for a bit and looked out of his depth, came back here and hit 30 goals in his first season back.
Make of that what you will.

I think Strikers/Forwards is an area where the league is weak compared to what goes on across the water.
Our attacking players rarely seem to score much when they go over, even if they otherwise succeed.

Even Maguire's (although perhaps he's being played out wide ?) Goalscoring seems to have dried up.

Another thing to note is despite what the average wage may be in League 2, the median wage is much lower. Usually the top 2-3 players earn multiples of what squad players would.
One of these would typically be a striker (the likes of Eoin Doyle at Bolton) and players under the age of 21 brought through the youth academy are typically on a pittance.
That's before you factor in there being a lot of loan players, where the parent club could be covering a chunk of the wages.

So we've got a scenario where our top players will go to Championship/SPL/League One, and only the next grade down would be considered for League Two.
League Two clubs wouldn't want to risk the money they've set aside for 2-3 marquee players on an unproven player from Ireland, and if we drop down to what squad players would be earning, it mightn't be much more than some guys are already on, plus they'd have to uproot themselves etc.

Of course some guys do still go over, but that's why more don't.

joeysoap · 26-02-2021 3:06pm

GLaDOS wrote: »

Good run out for both teams, lack of subs for Bohs told towards the end with tired legs (We're playing UCD this afternoon).

Super set up for the stream, really enjoyable.

Stream was great.

Ferris_Bueller · 26-02-2021 3:31pm

With all of the lads coming here on loan from English clubs, would our clubs be paying their wages for the duration of the loan or do the parent club pay it while they are here?

Big Ears · 26-02-2021 3:52pm

Ferris_Bueller wrote: »

With all of the lads coming here on loan from English clubs, would our clubs be paying their wages for the duration of the loan or do the parent club pay it while they are here?

It really depends on the loan.
Sometimes the club loaning the player pay it all, but often they'd only be paying 70-80% of the players wages, and the parent club pays the rest.

Sometimes the parent club might be willing to cover a higher % of the wages (or very very rarely all of it), but usually the loan club will pay the bulk at least.
This is based off of what happens in England anyway, but I can only assume it's the same process here in the LOI.

wadacrack · 26-02-2021 4:06pm

Soccer Republic shelved it seems is a blow. Their needs to be a highlights show of some sort. Watching 90 mins is not for everyone. Some analysis of teams etc helps generate interest too

Amirani · 26-02-2021 4:12pm

wadacrack wrote: »

Soccer Republic shelved it seems is a blow. Their needs to be a highlights show of some sort. Watching 90 mins is not for everyone. Some analysis of teams etc helps generate interest too

I do agree. I think that format of show seems a bit stale though. I'm not much a social media user, but something that fits in there more easily might be a better option.

GLaDOS · 26-02-2021 4:13pm

Highlights are up on social media pretty quickly these days, havent bothered with soccer Republic much since that's started.

artanevilla · 26-02-2021 4:16pm

The hour long Soccer Republic/MNS at 7pm was worth a watch, the half hour one at 10pm was not.

joeysoap · 26-02-2021 4:25pm

MD1990 wrote: »

League of Ireland is about the same level as the National League in England is my guess.
Although the National League has much more depth

Hypothetical, couldn't see a national league side scoring 3 against Rapid or indeed scoring twice against Arsenal.

topmanamillion · 26-02-2021 5:04pm

joeysoap wrote: »

Hypothetical, couldn't see a national league side scoring 3 against Rapid or indeed scoring twice against Arsenal.

You're clearly unfamiliar with the FA Cup.

Big Ears · 26-02-2021 5:50pm

I don't think comparisons of the LOI to any league in England is fair.

The top players in the league are capable of operating in the Championship all going well.
There's other guys getting starts who mightn't get a start with a team playing National League North/South, and everything in between.

irish_goat · 26-02-2021 5:56pm

Harps keeper won't want to see this one again. Not that Gartside intended it either.

https://twitter.com/derrycityfc/status/1365336708573765635

wadacrack · 26-02-2021 6:08pm

Big Ears wrote: »

I don't think comparisons of the LOI to any league in England is fair.

The top players in the league are capable of operating in the Championship all going well.
There's other guys getting starts who mightn't get a start with a team playing National League North/South, and everything in between.

I dont think so, League One I would say is more accurate. Not common to see players go from LOI to Championship now. Possibly some younger ones may develop enough but its a big ask.

Very few from say the SPL(Celtic and Rangers aside) would get a move to a Championship club and that is a higher standard than LOI. The Championship in England is very strong league

Oat23 · 26-02-2021 6:17pm

irish_goat wrote: »

Harps keeper won't want to see this one again. Not that Gartside intended it either.

https://twitter.com/derrycityfc/status/1365336708573765635

Neither team seems to have reported on this game? Weird.

Hopefully it wasn't McNicholas in goal

overshoot · 26-02-2021 6:40pm

Oat23 wrote: »

Neither team seems to have reported on this game? Weird.
Hopefully it wasn't McNicholas in goal

I did see a line up involving him.... Where I don't know though! Pretty strong wind at carry a ball that evening.

We've brought in keelin shanley from Hibs on loan. Sadiki did a good job for us and still here, so hopefully more of the same. Some academy players announced and McGinley back from NI, I'd say our squad is more or less done now.

Big Ears · 26-02-2021 7:13pm

wadacrack wrote: »

I dont think so, League One I would say is more accurate. Not common to see players go from LOI to Championship now. Possibly some younger ones may develop enough but its a big ask.

Very few from say the SPL(Celtic and Rangers aside) would get a move to a Championship club and that is a higher standard than LOI. The Championship in England is very strong league

Well Danny Grant did just sign for a Championship club, Aaron McEneff allegedly turned down Championship offers for Hearts (probably felt getting game time would be much easier), and Jack Byrne imo would have been up to the level aswell.
Of course that doesn't mean all would thrive there but imo with the right club they would.

Eoin Doyle has pretty much been a success and a failure at Championship, League One and League Two, depending on which club he was at.
The difference between him and some other better quality LOI players that moved there is he stuck at it in England rather than moving to Scotland or back home. Failing with a club simply meant things not working out with that particular club rather than that level.

Most people would probably write Richie Towell off as a flop when he went over there, but a Rotherham fan likely won't say that.......they will probably call him money hungry for dropping down the league's to play for Salford mind you.

You're right though, the Championship is a very strong league and it's not an easy one to establish yourself in. Hence the likes of McEneff and Jamie McGrath (another who could potentially be up to Championship level imo) chose the Scotland route.

joeysoap · 26-02-2021 7:35pm

The championship is one of the best (when we had attendances) supported leagues in Europe. Way higher than most ‘premier’ leagues and higher than the 2nd tier In Spain, Germany and France,

topmanamillion · 26-02-2021 8:46pm

Big Ears wrote: »

Well Danny Grant did just sign for a Championship club, Aaron McEneff allegedly turned down Championship offers for Hearts (probably felt getting game time would be much easier), and Jack Byrne imo would have been up to the level aswell.
Of course that doesn't mean all would thrive there but imo with the right club they would.

Your opinion on Byrne, yet no Championship club was willing to stump up the cash to buy him over the past 2 years and he ended up signing as a free agent in Cyprus.

Likewise Hearts come in with money for McEneff and clubs in England don't fancy it so walk away as it's no longer a low risk enough signing.

Grants a good example as he went to Huddersfield for a development fee.
He did his Hamstring last month and their manager puts it down to the step up to fulltime training.

That's it in a nutshell really, the league here is part time and the EFL is fulltime.

Hoban flopped in lower league England, McCann at Shams is in wind down, McEleney, Burke, Junior, Boyle and all have chequered histories in the UK. Even by his own admission Michael Duffy is still here because no club showed any interest in him from England or Scotland.

While L1 and Championship clubs pick up our best and brightest and stick them in development teams/squad players
What does the league get in return? 6 month loan deals for kids no-one else is interested in taking on. And people here think we've players in the league up to championship level.

Irishmale0399 · 26-02-2021 9:14pm

Some lads in here need to take off the Shamrock glasses and realise the LOI in its current state is not at a level anywhere near the full time professional leagues around Europe. You will find the odd player in Ireland who will make it in the first 3 divisions in the UK, however that is it...the odd one. It is not a rule of thumb.

LOI standard wise is about low second or average third division in Holland and Belgium, mid fourth division in Germany and maybe low second division in Sweden, Denmark etc. If the standard of player was as high as many here think, European clubs would be shopping in the LOI, which is not the case.

Ohmeha · 26-02-2021 9:48pm

Shels so flush of cash these days we're sending contracted 1st team players out on loan to other 1st division teams, Alex O'Hanlon loaned to Wexford for the season. Wonder what the story is behind that, after 2 seasons with us he certainly doesn't need extra experience to go to a basement team

kksaints · 26-02-2021 10:11pm

Ohmeha wrote: »

Shels so flush of cash these days we're sending contracted 1st team players out on loan to other 1st division teams, Alex O'Hanlon loaned to Wexford for the season. Wonder what the story is behind that, after 2 seasons with us he certainly doesn't need extra experience to go to a basement team

Not needed but on a 2 year contract from last year maybe? Wexford have signed a number of our under-19 team from last year in the last while. Kyle Robinson joined them on loan today. Very interested to see how he gets on in the first division, he was very impressive for our underage teams.

We're beating Wexford in a friendly 4-0 atm.

dfx- · 26-02-2021 10:39pm

topmanamillion wrote: »

Your opinion on Byrne, yet no Championship club was willing to stump up the cash to buy him over the past 2 years and he ended up signing as a free agent in Cyprus.

Likewise Hearts come in with money for McEneff and clubs in England don't fancy it so walk away as it's no longer a low risk enough signing.

Grants a good example as he went to Huddersfield for a development fee.
He did his Hamstring last month and their manager puts it down to the step up to fulltime training.

That's it in a nutshell really, the league here is part time and the EFL is fulltime.

Hoban flopped in lower league England, McCann at Shams is in wind down, McEleney, Burke, Junior, Boyle and all have chequered histories in the UK. Even by his own admission Michael Duffy is still here because no club showed any interest in him from England or Scotland.

While L1 and Championship clubs pick up our best and brightest and stick them in development teams/squad players
What does the league get in return? 6 month loan deals for kids no-one else is interested in taking on. And people here think we've players in the league up to championship level.

League 1 and Championship clubs on and off the field are basket cases. Your deferance to their decision making isn't rational.

Championship teams are the same cookie-cutter standard because doing anything different gets you sacked. Tall, physical strikers that win the ball in the air. Norwich probably don't and they are ten points clear. Buendia supplies Pukki and they run riot. Leeds did something different and coasted promotion, Swansea a few years ago walked the league by playing football on the ground, Bournemouth arguably the same. :eek:

If you're built like Matt Smith, there'll always be a Championship club for you. The concept of using a Duffy, Burke or Byrne supplying chances is just not entertained.

wadacrack · 26-02-2021 11:00pm

dfx- wrote: »

League 1 and Championship clubs on and off the field are basket cases. Your deferance to their decision making isn't rational.

Championship teams are the same cookie-cutter standard because doing anything different gets you sacked. Tall, physical strikers that win the ball in the air. Norwich probably don't and they are ten points clear. Buendia supplies Pukki and they run riot. Leeds did something different and coasted promotion, Swansea a few years ago walked the league by playing football on the ground, Bournemouth arguably the same. :eek:

If you're built like Matt Smith, there'll always be a Championship club for you. The concept of using a Duffy, Burke or Byrne supplying chances is just not entertained.

This is just totally wrong. Most teams play a technical style now. Daryl Horgan is playing with Wycombe who are botom and really struggling. Horgan was outstanding in the LOI, no defender could handle him. Football is about levels physically and technically not as simple as just labelling teams as long ball etc. LOI fans love to down play English football but the standrads over their are extremely high now.

dfx- · 26-02-2021 11:19pm

They don't and I watch it every week. The league is littered with the 'big man' upfront, usually experienced. Murray, Waghorn, Smith, Moore, Deeney, Akinfenwa, Hugill, Toney, Fletcher, Collins. Soft goals from set pieces are a signature. Brentford dropped Toney last week and looked like a bunch of strangers who never played together before.

Wycombe are the worst offenders at it and they're bottom - there wasn't any worse club for Horgan to go to...but really they are a mid-table League 1 team, they finished 8th last season. There are several better League 1 teams - Peterborough and Oxford.

Bournemouth's manager was sacked after six months with them in the hunt for the playoffs, the idea of teams getting the time Bradley, Long or Horgan has got is alien. The average EFL tenure as manager is 1 year. Of course they are going to pick the non-risky choice.

topmanamillion · 26-02-2021 11:21pm

dfx- wrote: »

League 1 and Championship clubs on and off the field are basket cases. Your deferance to their decision making isn't rational.

Championship teams are the same cookie-cutter standard because doing anything different gets you sacked. Tall, physical strikers that win the ball in the air. Norwich probably don't and they are ten points clear. Buendia supplies Pukki and they run riot. Leeds did something different and coasted promotion, Swansea a few years ago walked the league by playing football on the ground, Bournemouth arguably the same. :eek:

If you're built like Matt Smith, there'll always be a Championship club for you. The concept of using a Duffy, Burke or Byrne supplying chances is just not entertained.

As Wadacrack has pointed out this is full of old fashioned notions and very cliched.
Championship clubs are desperate to get into the EPL and they`re fully aware good football and scoring goals is what gets them out of an extraordinarily competitive league. A team drawing their way to promotion over 46 games just isn`t going to happen, clubs needs to hit 70 goals just to get near the play offs.
Also, 2 of the 3 players you mentioned played in the Championship and weren`t up to it.

dan1895 · 27-02-2021 9:42am

Ohmeha wrote: »

Shels so flush of cash these days we're sending contracted 1st team players out on loan to other 1st division teams, Alex O'Hanlon loaned to Wexford for the season. Wonder what the story is behind that, after 2 seasons with us he certainly doesn't need extra experience to go to a basement team

Very strange move. One of the better players last year and played in every game.

Zico ! · 27-02-2021 10:55am

wadacrack wrote: »

Soccer Republic shelved it seems is a blow. Their needs to be a highlights show of some sort. Watching 90 mins is not for everyone. Some analysis of teams etc helps generate interest too

those fcukin egg chasers in charge of rte dont give a fcuk abt football

BonnieSituation · 27-02-2021 12:15pm

Zico ! wrote: »

those fcukin egg chasers in charge of rte dont give a fcuk abt football

You're in for some shock when you see how little rugby is on RTÉ.

Corholio · 27-02-2021 1:52pm

dfx- wrote: »

They don't and I watch it every week. The league is littered with the 'big man' upfront, usually experienced. Murray, Waghorn, Smith, Moore, Deeney, Akinfenwa, Hugill, Toney, Fletcher, Collins. Soft goals from set pieces are a signature. Brentford dropped Toney last week and looked like a bunch of strangers who never played together before.

Wycombe are the worst offenders at it and they're bottom - there wasn't any worse club for Horgan to go to...but really they are a mid-table League 1 team, they finished 8th last season. There are several better League 1 teams - Peterborough and Oxford.

Bournemouth's manager was sacked after six months with them in the hunt for the playoffs, the idea of teams getting the time Bradley, Long or Horgan has got is alien. The average EFL tenure as manager is 1 year. Of course they are going to pick the non-risky choice.

Of the players you mentioned, Toney, Deeney and Hugill (who has hardly played) play in teams that don't play at all in the 'big man up top' way. Players like Collins, Akinfenwa and Smith are perennial lower league/bottom half of table players of the ilk that struggling teams in any league always have. It certainly doesn't represent the league as a whole.

eire4 · 28-02-2021 5:00am

BonnieSituation wrote: »

You're in for some shock when you see how little rugby is on RTÉ.

There do not care a jot about the League of Ireland sure but not because they are in love with Rugby thats for sure.

28-02-2021 2:43pm

Zico ! wrote: »

those fcukin egg chasers in charge of rte dont give a fcuk abt football

Ryle Nugent is gone so they have stopped showing under 15's Rugby,

But they've enough money for another attempt at getting Amy Huberman/Doireann Garrity or some lame social media comedian a show

Oat23 · 28-02-2021 3:04pm

I'm sure the Harps fans here already know but just in case..

Rovers/Harps streaming on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rtiiXD6ZWM

dfx- · 28-02-2021 3:09pm

Corholio wrote: »

Of the players you mentioned, Toney, Deeney and Hugill (who has hardly played) play in teams that don't play at all in the 'big man up top' way. Players like Collins, Akinfenwa and Smith are perennial lower league/bottom half of table players of the ilk that struggling teams in any league always have. It certainly doesn't represent the league as a whole.

We've also been told that the middle or indeed bottom of the LOI is reflective of the standard here, so it's the same there. You could say the top teams are chasing the golden ticket (sounds familiar). 11th-17th could best be described as dogged.

And they may be lower half team players but they seem to get an inordinate number of opportunities at Championship clubs, no matter how badly their last team did.

Hugill has hardly played at Norwich, but they are the outliers with Pukki and Buendia and it shows in the table. He still gets plenty of games and opportunities from Preston to Middlesborough to QPR and almost certainly another next season.

Chris Wood had about ten EFL clubs before settling at Burnley. Burke played behind Tom Eaves at mid-League One Gillingham and it's a combination that doesn't work. Eaves went back to play 40 times in the Championship at relegated Hull. They persevered with him to the very end..

That's all very well, Championship teams make decisions suited for them, but they are not the impartial arbiters of quality like some make them out to be here.

dfx- · 28-02-2021 3:12pm

Rovers are playing in Cobh now and Cork later. I don't think there's any stream - there wasn't last week at Roadstone.

Oat23 · 01-03-2021 11:51am

Disappointing news about Jack Byrne. He has been out for a few weeks now with a back problem and now needs surgery. He'll miss the rest of the season.

https://twitter.com/EmeraldExiles/status/1366318285067874306

Tchaikovsky · 01-03-2021 12:31pm

There seems to be an awful lot of Irish players injured at the moment, or who have been injured for more than a couple of weeks in recent times.

Tchaikovsky · 01-03-2021 1:12pm

153857594_3739598439451247_1493291933889901785_o.jpg?_nc_cat=108&ccb=3&_nc_sid=8bfeb9&_nc_ohc=7Zt99Al_JO4AX8WcTP7&_nc_ht=scontent-dub4-1.xx&oh=eec979108568e30998cacdf8a66fc5ae&oe=60641A49

Aerial photo of Dalymount Park from Ireland v West Germany in 1956.

Pawwed Rig · 01-03-2021 4:38pm

I was at the last international played in Dalymount. Morocco 1990.
If I remember rightly David O'Leary came very close to scoring a spectacular og. Perfect lob of Packie Bonner which fortunately hit the crossbar.

Does anyone know if I am remembering the right game here? I used to get the £2 school boy tickets at the time so went to a fair few friendlies around that time.

artanevilla · 01-03-2021 5:02pm

Last international (to date) at Dalymount was a friendly v Morocco in 1990 yes.

Greatest League in the World 2024 [new thread available]

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