Greatest League in the World 2024 [new thread available]

Salmon Leap wrote: »

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Bob Prole:
Been thinking about doing this post since I joined this forum. Trying to get my head around all the things that got us here. A lot of this is me filling in gaps based on what's public. If anyone can correct bits work away.


The consortium took over in January 2018. The Jordan Gardner quote is "this is a really interesting club, it was in the Europa League group stages in 2016, there is a lot of financial upside to being in European competition, it’s a very modest club so there is a lot of financial upside there". That's still true. Stephen Kenny lords over the place and the new owners mostly stay out of his way. We win the Double and chairman Mike Treacy runs around the place with trophies taking the cheers. Everyone is happy.

Stephen leaves in December 2018. Probably the offer of the Ireland job two years later meant he would always go but possibly he saw something in the new owners that helped make up his mind. He might tell us someday. Him going leaves a vacuum in the club.

The owners decide to go with Vinny as his replacement and bring in Andy Burton supposedly as Head of Recruitment. Burton is a contact through Bournemouth and appears to be friends with Matt Hulsizer. Treacy loves him. Vinny insists he will have the "final say" on recruitment. By April it seems like the owners have lost confidence in Vinny. They talk about Burton as an advisor as if he has a bigger say than just recruitment although they never formally announce any role for him and it's Burton that has told the owners Vinny isn't up to it.

First cracks behind the scenes show over Hoban's contract talks. Burton falls out with Hoban and his agent Liam Carroll. Vinny takes Hoban's side while Treacy appears to take Burton's side. Burton tries to smooth things over with Vinny by arranging the phone call from Mourinho after Riga, which handily enough also shows everyone the contacts he has in the game.

James Rogers publishes a story detailing all the duds and players that would have cost a fortune that Burton was lining up for us. The story also says he was lining up Nick Barmby as a coach. This proves Burton was undermining Vinny all along and it seems obvious to me that either Vinny or Carroll planted the piece with Rogers to damage Burton as part of the behind the scenes knife fight. In response pointless CEO Mark Devlin bans Rogers and writes a silly letter to the Argus. My guess is Mike Treacey was behind that. Devlin wasn't awake long enough to know what an Argus was.

We win it all in 2019 more or less. Was that Vinny? The players? The likes of O'Donnell and Higgins? Stephen Kenny vapours? Loads of opinions but I'd say Vinny deserves the credit but the other things mattered too. But the loss to Slovan has damaged Vinny. Burton looks at the owners and says "see?" Meanwhile volunteers are leaving, sick of what's going on. Someone says something to Matt Hulsizer and he sends his dad in to clean up the mess. Bill takes Vinny and Carroll's side because the Hoban contract is sorted out quickly. Victory for Vinny. Burton is pushed out and Treacey leaves for personal reasons. I think he'd have been removed anyway. Bill likes what he sees and Matt lets him take over to keep dad happy.

Everyone is happy again. Bill is a nice guy and seems really enthusiastic. Vinny is happy his enemies are gone and he thinks he can manage Bill. The locals are happy that the fighting is over and think Bill will let them get on with things without interfering. Volunteers return and Martin Connolly is made COO and he brings in Gavin and Minto. Carroll and FFP are happy because there's money to be made.

But Bill doesn't have a scooby doo. He wants to be involved in everything. His demands are ridiculous and when anything goes wrong he blames it on people not following his demands. The infighting starts again. The lads who care about the club versus the lads who know there's coin to be made out of Bill. The players are getting pissed off with Vinny. That gets worse after Higgins leaves. Vinny realises too late that he opened the door to the Bill monster, tries to stand up to him and gets fired. Anyone else who tries to push back walks or gets fired. The smartest guys in the room are the FFP guys, who make sure they stay in Bill's good books.

It's time to replace Vinny. But they can't. They don't know anyone. They have no contacts in the game of any use. That's why we end up with a guy who has never managed an adult club side and knew nothing about the LOI. Also who even owns us by now? Gardner is gone. It's not clear Woolfolk was ever there. Now Spencer is gone. Are we 100% Peak6?

Bill tells Liam to find him a Sporting Director. Or maybe Matt does, realising Bill is out of his depth. Against all expectations we make the Group Stage and we get a big influx of money. Bonuses all round. Matt tells Bill he can spend the cash as if he's an oul lad on an oxygen tank in Vegas at the slots. One rule. 12 month contracts only. Is that to enable an exit this year or some sort of dumb amateur psych move that players will play better if their futures are in jeopardy?

My opinion is that the idea behind 12 month contracts is to facilitate big budget swings - they think we have a 'roster'. If you do well in Europe you can splash out, don't do well you let everyone go and shop for cheaper replacements. The idea of growing the club year on year to be a 'European club in Ireland' is dead. You still have to qualify though. I wonder did Matt realise we're not guaranteed Europe every year? He's never that stupid, is he?...

Anyway Filippo done good. He is let sign some players and he goes for Abibi, Sonni and Midstkogen. Filippo hadn't a clue. You'd think multiple defeats would have taught him. Bill's buddy Liam - part of the official travelling party in Europe and the Cup Final - spends the rest for Bill. Probably gets a finders fee for each one. That went well. The ground needs maintenance. The pitch needs maintenance. Relationships with fans and sponsors need maintenance. So we sign a Korean. Any Korean will do after the big bad FAI stopped us signing that first Korean. Doesn't matter if we never play him. Once we get a Korean. We supposedly paid a defensive midfielder 200 grand up front to come to the club. We already had two defensive midfielders.

The guy we claimed was the manager had to do all the paperwork because the admin side of the club has been allowed to collapse. A lot of the paperwork included getting a bunch of Z-rated Americans in. Have you heard of Jamie Vardy by the way? We announced a new academy. Made a sweet video. Then what? Must be Covid, that's it. Mistakes have been acknowledged at least, they say! Yep, we should have sold cardboard cutouts of our fans. That was the mistake. The interview that everyone heard and no one listened to.

The 'manager' left. Said he felt like a fraud. It was sad. Then the manager left. Now we have no manager. Apparently managers in football are important but sure Jim can do it. Or not do it. Or yes do it. Performances are all over the place? Must be just the players. All 30 of them that have played since lockdown ended. Clear em out. Start again. The ones that have left are all higher up in the table now you say?

Bill says we'll still win the league. We have two points from five matches. He's been humiliated. We might not hear from him again. Son is angry. Who did this to his old man? Demands an investigation into the spending. The lads have milked the club dry and Matty is pulling the plug. Rudderless and leaderless on and off the pitch. FFP have found themselves in possession of a club they don't own. Don't blame Matt - he's just the owner.

Edits: I was asked to correct a couple of things

joeysoap wrote: »

Well, we couldn't go on with no manager much longer. Beat Shamrock Rovers, pats and Drogheda and then lose to waterford. Magilton didn't name the same team twice.

Dillonb3 wrote: »

Mixed fortunes with our second round draws Dundalk will play Levadia Tallinn or St Josephs. Sligo will play Rosenborg, Bohs will play Dudelange and Rovers will play Youngs Boys or get Bye to 3rd round of Conference League

Salmon Leap wrote: »

How do Dundalk fans feel about this?

joeysoap wrote: »

Well, we couldn't go on with no manager much longer. Beat Shamrock Rovers, pats and Drogheda and then lose to waterford. Magilton didn't name the same team twice.