Don't know whether his teams have been expansive or not but he's been very successful at any level he's managed at.
He's won trophies all over the place so he obviously has something about him. So far he's had 2 League runners up & a Cup runners up in two seasons at LOI level. He's just been unfortunate to have come up against a very talented & well drilled Dundalk squad.
Declan McGrath produced an brilliant piece earlier this year about the 'impact' LOI clubs have on their community, i.e. what percentage of the locality attend the games. On average it was 3.8%, which is decent compared to foreign leagues. Cork was slightly below this at 2.84%. In fact most clubs were slightly below the average, while Dundalk (5.86%), Longford (6.8%) and Sligo (11.5%) were well ahead. (Sligo seem to have the biggest impact on their community by a mile, probably because of all the excellent community work they do and investment in facilities over recent years etc).
It's a bit of a read, but it's v informative. I recommend it to anyone interested in LOI attendances. Here's the piece on extratime.ie - http://extratime.ie/newsdesk/article...e-attendances/
What's Dundalks budget? How much higher than Corks if at all?
Stephen Kenny took a squad of players that no one wanted and made a league winning team. Do you think he did that with a huge budget? Even with winning the league do you really think his budget increased dramatically?
Isn't that what he's done at every club he's been.
I don't know what Dundalk's budget is but they must be spending the money on something because it's certainly not the stadium.
If Dundalk lose Towell & Horgan then we'll see what he can do next season on the low budget that some seem to think he has.
I've no doubt at all that Kenny is a very talented manager & coach but he's not doing it on buttons.
This is done to death but there are extenuating circumstances currently that is preventing ground investment. When these issues are sorted we will start to see progress in this area. One thing that is currently developing is the Dundalk FC savings a/c. In the past when grants were awarded they were tough to get drown down when 20% had to be raised by the club. Currently having the finances in place to draw down any allocated grants will mean that improvements wont be so protracted (unless planning objections happen). It is true though that keeping a winning squad together gets more expensive as players want a slice of the pie. This time we may see the players budget drop if Towell and Horgan leave and stopping the 3 and bust scenario that has blighted clubs in the past (assuming of course that we are on for a 3 in a row which is in no doubt really).
I would guess that the following Cork players wages would be on par with their Dundalk peers (bar Towell):
Miller, Healy, McNulty, Bennett, Murray, Gaynor, Dunleavy, B Dennehy, Shepard, O'Suillivan...
Players would not be resigning with a club if the wages were poor.
I don't know about the rest but Dan Murray has had a full time job for the past few years. Don't think hes earning all that much.
Ok lets go through them.
Miller, Healy, McNulty, Bennett, Murray are all local & all in their mid thirties.
Miller, Healy & Bennett returned home to Cork having exhausted any possibility of a contract elsewhere.
Murray first came to Cork in 2002 aged 20.
McNulty is local & has never played with anyone else except Cork.
Gaynor is a wanderer having has about 7 different clubs. He actually from Louth.
Dunleavy came back from the UK aged 20 at the end of the 2011 season having gone over as a kid & not done much over there.
O'Sullivan came from the Munster Senior League & played under JC at Avondale Utd.He was 30 before he even made his LOI debut.
Miller. Healy & Bennett would have decent LOI wages I suppose but they wouldn't be big considering they're at the end of their careers & wanted to come home anyway. The rest wouldn't be on great money. I don't know about Shepperd but he was mostly a bench player with Rovers.
The Dennehy brothers are from just down the road in Tralee although Billy was released at the end of the season.
We couldn't hold on to Horgan because we couldn't give him what he's got from Dundalk & we certainly couldn't match what Towell is getting.
I think a lot of the players resigned because they're happy here & there isn't much money in the LOI now in any case.I presume our budget has improved this year to be able to sign Beattie & Bolger + hopefully a couple more if what we offer is acceptable to them.
We're hopeful of a more attacking style next season but that depends on who we can get in. The main thing is that we want to improve rather than Dundalk going backwards.
I think some folk on here are getting worried about the rebel rising.some might regret trying to **** against the wind. Could be a potential Banana skin for some.
Last edited by strikeforce; 25/11/2015 at 10:27 PM.
Gary Buckley signed a two-year deal with Cork.
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