Saying that about the four European sides, are there any you'd say have improved on paper at this point? Obvious caveat again that it's still early days and subject to immediate change.
Derry you'd say so with Hoban all but confirmed and no huge losses. Brandon Kavanagh is a quality player but they already have some of his type so Kelly coming in probably gives them better balance too.
Rovers have lost Mannus, Poom, Clarke and a few older/squad players were let go, with only Burns in thus far as a notable addition.
Pats are a bit half and half, definite improvement in some areas but still some big departures and in the keeper position at least have a more pressing first eleven spot to fill than the others do.
Shels have made some solid moves but they relied for much of last season on Moylan, who was then latterly given great help by Wood and Jarvis, and I'm not sure they've replaced that quality as of yet.
Obviously the majority of the rest of the league have more work to do but still an interesting January ahead for everyone really.
Tbf, a lot of people who follow the First Division said Cork would struggle without significant investment and the two teams coming up this year are coming out of the weakest first division in history. I think a lot of people are understating just how poor the standard of the first division was last season. I expect Galway and waterford to struggle unless they do some good business.
Did anyone have Wilfred Zahibo suing Dundalk in their LOI off season bingo card?
https://thecurrency.news/articles/13...uing-the-club/
Paaatrick's Agletic
Drogheda have signed goalkeeper Jethren Barr from Portadown. He made his senior debut for South Africa only last year
Paaatrick's Agletic
BetweenTheStripes.net - Home of Between the Stripes LOI podcast.
we had no money or players in 2020 tbf, wasnt a big surprise. last season was a bigger shambles
https://m.soccernet.ee/artikkel/kuhu...ed-klubirindel
Markus Poom heading back to Shamrock Rovers on loan according to that article….
Irish by birth ,Harps by the grace of god.
I would love to share your optimism, but at the moment, we are in even worse shape than we were prior to last season. Players needed to be in by now and we have been very quiet in the transfer market. Dodgy and the back and nothing up front. If you can’t score and you leak goals you are in big trouble. I could honestly see us in a battle to avoid the relegation play-off spot. I hope I am wrong.
Last edited by nigel-harps1954; 04/01/2024 at 2:48 PM.
https://kesslereffect.bandcamp.com/album/kepler - New music. It's not that bad.
Poom back to Rovers for another season. Not sure what is happening with Clarke but they really have lost nobody they would want to keep,bar Mannus and maybe Kenny?
Manus is a big loss as is Clarke.
Ronan Finn has made the right move for himself long term to UCD and is a big loss, he played all the big matches for us ahead of the other WB's even when they were available. Kenny...........he is young and might improve but given he scored hardly any goals if he doesnt stay you couldnt say we would be weaker for it
"Players needed to be in" but who though?I'm not quite sure why people can't understand that we were never going to sign a load of players before this month. We got Rooney from Drogheda and Cornwall was a free agent. Everyone else home based went somewhere else or was under contract already.
Half the league aren't shopping here anymore cause the pool of available players is so shallow and that situation is going to get worse before it gets better. I understand it's frustrating but it is what it is.
For what its worth, I am definitely on the same page as this in terms of how anxious I am about the season ahead. The lack of activity in areas that were issues last year is boggling to me, in addition to my concerns around Devine as our manager. I'm also not sure is it Fenlon or Devine who is supposed to be identifying and getting players into the squad? If its not Fenlon, then what does he do?
Jay McGrath has left Pats for Doncaster Rovers. He played a vital role last year when Redmond was injured. I never got the impression that Daly rated him and his departure was expected.
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