2012: How confident are YOU?!

[Lim till i die]

So, we're heading towards the end of January and with everyone presumably back in pre season training (bar the new clubs who may or may not be in :bulgy:) how do you rate your teams chances??

Will the two Rovers and Pats breakaway at the top of the Premier??

Are Bray doomed to relegation unless someone goes bankrupt??

Can anyone in the First Division touch Limerick??

Discuss the issues.




For the record, I expect (nay DEMAND) we win the First Division by 5 to 15 points. :ball:

[Hoggyrs]

I expect a good performance from City this year, probably a finish in the top half of the table anyways.

Can't see past Rovers winning the prem again

[Martinho II]

I have the feeling that we will have our best season since 2005.. theres a buzz around the club and supporters at the moment.. I think we will get into the play off spot and after that its the lap of the gods..TC has made some crackin signings along with keeping the nucleus of the squad from last yr

[nigel-harps1954]

I can't see us anywhere near anything but the bottom half of the first division. Another disappointing year and not happy with the signings from Pizza and Healy so far.

[PartySaint]

I look at our squad and get very excited for the new season but there is still a lot of inexperience in keys positions for us, We should be favourites to be the next club behind the 2 Rovers but we will have to wait and see

The First Division is going to be very exciting this year but probably a bit lower in quality than it has been for the last 4 or 5 years, Limerick will run away with it but second place could go to anyone. I'm not sure why but I'm hoping Athlone get it or Cobh if they go back into the league

[L.T.F.C.]

FD will be between Limerick, Waterford and us.

[abcd]

Not confident :ball: Think GUST or whatever form it takes need to sort out their issues and get a proper setup in place for 2013 but you've heard enough on that issue already.

Its been a great few seasons for Sligo but its a measure of how far they've come that anything less than the title this season will be failure. Need to hit the ground running this season while Stephen Kenny is adjusting to life at Shamrock Rovers. St. Pats probably don't have the squad the other two will have but will be strong again, Cork, Shels, Derry should make up the next mini-league in no particular order and the rest will probably be left to scrap it out in the bottom half.

Limerick should walk division 1 if everyone in the squad is on the same wavelength. 2nd is anyones guess. You'd imagine Waterford but they haven't delivered for a couple of seasons now. Longford maybe a mentioned above have been building. Mervue have consolidated their squad and should make the top half. Very weak division 1 this year though which would be made weaker with any kind of GUST team added imo.

[PartySaint]

FD will be between Limerick, Waterford and us.

Look at your Anti-Athlone bias coming out

Come on Athlone!!!

[thomas72]

SHAmrock rover again for premier followed closely by sligo would not rule out Derry either.


FIrst division has to be LimeRicks they have a very powerful squad full of top premier players I think players like denis behan, Joe gamble, Stephen bradly, Sean Kelly, rory gaffney etc etc will walk through that division also hearing there in talks with another 2 or 3 top top players.
2nd place between longford and waterford there both making some decent signings.

[Spudulika]

Don't know how it's all going to pan out as there will be so much to take into account, however right now it looks like Sligo to win the PD, with Rovers, Pats 2nd/3rd, with Derry, Shels and Cork scraping for 4th. Drogheda and Bray will be battling with Bohs, while UCD, Monaghan and Dundalk will be heading down (2 of the 3). Can't see any surprises.

The 1st will be between Limerick, Longford and Waterford, with Limerick winning. Athlone (I hope) will give a little push, though there is going to be more competition between the clubs outside the top 3.

I'm just hoping, on a personal level, that no club goes bust, that no manager throws a tantrum and invents a reason to run away, that there are no asterisks after any team and that each team wins a round in Europe with at least one winning a couple of rounds. And that Dundalk can survive until the season's end.

edit: the only thing that would go against me tipping Limerick to win the league is that they have a crap pitch which goes against the players they've brought in.

[punkrocket]

Wasn't the plan to be back in the Markets Field by this season's start? The pitch there might be lovely.

[Mr A]

Not confident currently but things have improved a bit over the past week. We may have an OK first eleven but little evidence of depth to the squad as yet. The front line is the only department I think we're strong in.

[El-Pietro]

can someone tell me why everyone thinks Pats are so good? I see that they have a decent keeper, and then a bunch of Bohs players

[El-Pietro]

Wasn't the plan to be back in the Markets Field by this season's start? The pitch there might be lovely.
they are staying put while they are in the first division, taking more time to get Markets Field ready

[KevB76]

edit: the only thing that would go against me tipping Limerick to win the league is that they have a crap pitch which goes against the players they've brought in.

The pitch at Jackman is actually quite well looked after: it can be rough at the first half of the season due to sheer number of games played each week. When its had a few weeks to recover after that its actually quite good.

[Dunny]

Dundalk for the league. (U12's)

[White Horse]

Basically petrified. We'll have a team that will make UCD look like veterans. No doubting the quality of the players but McCaffrey is going against all perceived ideas of how to do well in the LOI.

[Macy]

Expectations are so high, I think we're fecked.

[GCdfc]

We're screwed.

[sheao]

Optimistic about the year ahead. Think top half finish should be where we end up , if we can bring in a decent striker along with a midfielder then no reason why we can't have a crack at Europe .

[gormacha]

I genuinely don't know what the season holds, and whether any confidence would be misplaced or not.

You look at the first division and an honest appraisal would suggest that it is weak. Limerick are the only genuinely strong outfit. With Cork, Shels and Monaghan now gone, and no competitive side being relegated (I feel genuinely sorry and gutted for our galway brethren), second should be ours for the taking, with perhaps only Longford to compete with (and God knows they have a habit of beating us, so even that would be far from assured).

But given how poor we were last season, and the fact that we have been down in the FD for what feels like several millenia (well, it does straddle two), and that we still have only eleven players signed, then who knows?

Signing Gary Dempsey seems a good bit of business, and we have a promising attack with Kiely, Maguire (who is untested at this level but looks the real deal) and young Walshe, and having some decent other players suggests we should have too much for most teams in the division, but we still have no keeper and only half a defence, having lost the best centre-back pairing in the division. We also re-signed Gary Keane, and whilst he works his proverbial off, he is not LoI standard, and re-signing him in my view shows a lack of ambition, funds and vision - all of which is worrying.

My heart says second. My head says I have no frickin clue - maybe as low as fifth if we don't sign well in the upcoming weeks.

[LFC-Zulu]

we have been down in the FD for what feels like several millenia
Lord help you. Try nineteen years since you've had Premier football.


Signing Gary Dempsey seems a good bit of business, and we have a promising attack with Kiely, Maguire (who is untested at this level but looks the real deal) and young Walshe, and having some decent other players suggests we should have too much for most teams in the division, but we still have no keeper and only half a defence, having lost the best centre-back pairing in the division. We also re-signed Gary Keane, and whilst he works his proverbial off, he is not LoI standard, and re-signing him in my view shows a lack of ambition, funds and vision - all of which is worrying.
Willie John was very off last year, and didn't look any way decent. Fair enough, the personal setback would have hindered him, but he still looks half the player he was a couple of years ago. I've never rated Daragh Walshe, or Danny Furlong (who btw, played for Wexford in a friendly last week, making his move seem questionable?) but young Maguire is meant to be top class. It's a big year for him. A keeper and two defenders are required. I know Seamus Long almost went to Limerick; he's a good re-signing. I'd consider playing McSherry in midfield, ye look very fragile there and he has a way about him. I reckon Waterford should finish third. I think there's a lot of hype associated with them over the signing of Dempsey. Longford have a better squad as it stands I think.

[Nailor]

IMO.
PD: 1ST: Rovers, 2nd Shligo, 3rd Cork City FORAS

Relegation: Any 2 from Bohs, Dundalk, Bray, UCD, the latter two being the most likely.

FD: 1ST: Limerick, they should walk what looks like a poor league, 2nd Waterford, 3rd Longford, the fight for 2nd/3rd will be the only interesting duel in the FD I reckon, with maybe Athlone giving it a bit of a go.

39 days and counting. :)

[nigel-harps1954]

The only confidence I can take so far, is it's one of the first years in my memory of first division football that nobody has suggested Harps should be pushing for promotion. So, hopefully, I'm praying for some sort of miracle season where we win the league and shock the footballing world...sort of.

[harpstilidie]

Don't hold much hope this season to be honest going by the players we have signed. Mid to low First Division finish for us :(

Then again, these past few seasons we have been so optimistic and have all ended in disaster so being pessimistic this season, you never know.

[Acornvilla]

Longford man living in Limerick. Either way I'm on to a win for once!

[pineapple stu]

Are Bray doomed to relegation unless someone goes bankrupt??
In fairness to Bray, they at least signed some players last week. They look a lot less screwed after that.

We've lost our three most experienced players. Harding is probably replaced (Douglas), but we don't really have replacement wingers, unless you count Mulhall, in which case, we don't have any strength up front. I think Cork and Shels will finish ahead of us, in which case, it's another season similar to last, just without the hilariously bad Galway to take pressure off us. So could be a long year.

Has relegation/promotion been decided? Used to be two up/two down and a play-off with a 12-team league (and presumably other scenarios too going back in time)

[Guinney]

Starting to get worried to be honest, when your oldest player signed is only 23 and 5 out of the 9 players signed for the upcoming season are teenagers, saying we lack experience would be an understatement. Then two of the nine players signed (Osborne and Shanahan) won't be available until a couple of months into the season. We have a bunch of trialist at the Oriel at the moment so hopefully some of these show they are good. In the youths we have a bunch of good prospects that will likely to be involved this year, but still experience players need to be signed. But to be honest all the better ones seemed to be snapped up. At the moment Cherrie is training with us so hopefully that will be out first choice goalie sorted.

I really don't want us to be in a relegation dogfight, but with the squad we have at the moment, I can't see much else happening. The two Rovers look the strongest, with Pats not far behind.

[gormacha]

Lord help you. Try nineteen years since you've had Premier football.

If it wasn't for the prospect of a 16 team PD, I wouldn't bet against it.


Willie John was very off last year, and didn't look any way decent. Fair enough, the personal setback would have hindered him, but he still looks half the player he was a couple of years ago. I've never rated Daragh Walshe, or Danny Furlong (who btw, played for Wexford in a friendly last week, making his move seem questionable?) but young Maguire is meant to be top class. It's a big year for him. A keeper and two defenders are required. I know Seamus Long almost went to Limerick; he's a good re-signing. I'd consider playing McSherry in midfield, ye look very fragile there and he has a way about him. I reckon Waterford should finish third. I think there's a lot of hype associated with them over the signing of Dempsey. Longford have a better squad as it stands I think.

I agree re WJK - he was very poor last season. In addition to the personal stuff, he also got a few injuries so he never got a run of games, and his fitness was consequently poor. By the time he was playing regularly we were so off the pace that motivation was clearly a problem. I don't know enough about Walshe to judge yet, and Furlong is an imponderable as he hasn't signed (which is kind of my point about not being sure of much of anything). I don't want to add to overly high expectations re Sean Maguire, but in every outing I've seen in him so far, he has been outstanding.

I'd go further than you and suggest we need another four defenders, and I agree that midfield is where McSherry should play. He likes a tackle, and he brings a really good all-round game. You're again right that we were feeble in midfield last season.

I really hope we re-sign Paul Walsh, although I have heard he is training with Dundalk? Open to correction on that. He is a top quality right winger, and his delivery is amongst the best in the LoI.

Your analysis is pretty much spot on. You sure you're not a Waterford fan in disguise? ;)

[SkStu]

quietly confident of mid to lower table obscurity. Would like a win out Tallaght way this season. Interesting times ahead for Bohs fans.

[blue til i die]

Your analysis is pretty much spot on. You sure you're not a Waterford fan in disguise? ;)

Would you believe, he actually is ;)


Realistically, we need 3 defenders, 3 more midfielders and another striker, along with two keepers. Still confident we'll finish second.

[Donohoe10]

can someone tell me why everyone thinks Pats are so good? I see that they have a decent keeper, and then a bunch of Bohs players

Not only have we a "bunch of Bohs players". We have James Chambers a great centre midfielder, Jake Kelly probably the most consistent performer in the LOI in the last 2 years, John Russell a consistent performer for Sligo the last few seasons. We also have gone with some promising youth players this season ie Jake Carrol, darren meenan, Chris Forrester. Also from last year we have signed back Conor kenna arguably one of the best centre halfs in the league, Ian Daly a talented young man and Sean o connor a midfielder who gets a lot of goals.

We have IMO a better squad then we had last year. so were bound to improve. We didn't play great football last season and this season that will change with Liam Buckley in charge.

[El-Pietro]

Jake Kelly hasn't signed yet I don't believe?

Chambers is decent in fairness - Russel is solid if unspectacular and Kenna is a very good centre half, ther than that though you don't look that strong to me

I don't see where your goals will come from, that young lad Fagan had a good season last year in fairness but will he replace North and Kavanagh? Daly got 2 goals last year in a bit part role (including 9 starts), is he going to get 10 -12 goals?

Pats had a very good year last year - and I don't blame ye for booting out last years team, I thought ye should have done it mid season if it were possible (unfortunately not) but I don't think ye have improved.

[Dodge]

I don't think theres much confidence in Pats at all. Most are predicting top 3/4 based on the troubles of others more than any strengths we have. Looks like Bohs and Dundalk will be worse off this year. Derry are a bit in limbo. I think Shels and Cork will be alright but will they challenge for Europe? Maybe Everyone else will be the same as last year (ish)

[El-Pietro]

thats a fair point Dodge. Derry and Bohs are most certainly weaker (at this point) then last year, City and Shels have decent sides but are both lacking in certain areas and we don't really know how well some players will perform at the higher level

[forza]

Jake Kelly hasn't signed yet I don't believe?


According to yesterdays Evening Herald he has.


Kelly snapped up by Pat's

ST PATRICK'S Athletic have made another move on the domestic transfer market by signing Bray Wanderers forward Jake Kelly.

The striker had been linked with a move abroad as clubs such as Bradford City and Aberdeen had inquired about taking him on trial.

But Kelly, who scored seven goals for Bray last season and was heavily linked with a move to Shamrock Rovers, has opted to stay closer to home and will join Liam Buckley's new-look side at Richmond Park next season. Kelly is the 13th close season signing by Buckley

http://www.herald.ie/sport/duffy-has...s-2996774.html

Its the the last story down the page.

[legendz]

2012: How confident are YOU?!

With reports of an 8 team first division, I'm not confident at all!

[El-Pietro]

you will have to forgive me for missing that "confirmation" as I do not read the Hedald

[passerrby]

Don't feel we can win the league but a second place will have to do, who am i kidding would be happy with 7th or 8th

[Spudulika]

I think there may be a case for Pats giving it a rattle, especially if they start well. I know I said the same thing last year, though LB is a good coach and manager and I just feel that Rovers could slip. Sligo have it wrapped up unless they have a serious meltdown.

[SwanVsDalton]

Mid table. Thin squad, new manager in his first main gig, we haven't replaced the quality we've lost - I think the struggles of nearly everyone except Shams and Sligo means we're fairly fortunate. Optimistically we might sneak into the top four if Devine can pull in some quality within budget in the next few weeks.

[A face]

I definitely want to stay up and if we dont then questions will be asked but i dont want to put on any pressure other than that. I think we have a squad that can finish in the top half but it depends on how they all gel together. If we can get going early then we would have a good chance.

[osarusan]

It's early doors yet, but if we can stand up and be counted, take it one game at a time, and hunt in packs, we'll be there or thereabouts.