Collins sacked.

[Longfordian]

Every bit as good as Jake Dykes is, with us.:weep:
Its not just Roddy who practice's nepotism.

I'm off to look up the age gap between TC and Peter Hynes.

Hmm, 14 years. Maybe he's his nephew.

[Jofspring]

Pat Scully had his son with our under 19's, played him in a munster senior cup game against Waterford and had him as a sub for us on a number of occasions ahead of far superior senior players.

[Charlie Darwin]

You lot are being very harsh on Roddy. At least he didn't try and play his brother.

[Aaron]

I think it was the spoofing that lost him the job this early, especially the 'built on sand' stuff. If he had kept his gob shut and cut out the ridiculous diversion attempts like the Pat Hoban comments he might have lasted a few more weeks. Dont know how he thought the Derry support wouldnt see through his bull straight away. How good is his son, is he worthy of a place in an LoI side? - never saw him play.

I'll be honest Roddy Jr got a sore touch because of who he was, i'd like to see him given a chance with his da away because it seemed he was scared ****less of Collins Sr. From what I hear though he is free to leave along with JP MCGovern and Mark Stewart


Devine demonstrated how grounded he is - in stark contrast to the recently departed astronaut.

Pizza may be well liked, but his management track record is hardly inspiring. Do Derry folk see him as the right man for the job?

Derry fans are generally a hard bunch to please, but if we see a team giving effort, trying to play football the right way and a manager who doesnt talk ****e in public then we're always for giving people a fair crack of the whip.

Decky Devine was let go because the crowds were falling away and a rotten run after our European game cost him his job. Pizza may not have a great track record with Harps, but ye cant polish a ****, simple as.

He is currently doing his pro-license, held the position before and steadied the ship. He knows what the fans expect, and will have the respect of the dressing room.

I personally want Kenny Shiels, but Pizza is the next option to at least the end of the season if we cant get Shiels

[Nesta99]

Yeah thats what I was wondering - at what level could he play at if he wasnt tainted by the Collins snr, are people going to vilify him cause of his dad. As for Derry fans being hard to please you have described all LoI there. Claiming it would be a disaster not to win the league (as long as he was being serious) in a first season with a bunch of youngsters with a club built on sand well his P45 should have been handed over then and there as there is obnoxious self belief(delusion) and then there is R Collins. The board would have to have been thinking 'what the f*ck have we done'?!

[Nesta99]

You lot are being very harsh on Roddy. At least he didn't try and play his brother.

Or have Tony Quinn on the bench doing this hypno psyching opponents

[Darklordsbane]

I can't say I blame Roddy playing his son, if any of us were managers and had a son who could play we would probably all give him a chance, I only saw him play a couple of time for Athlone wasn't as bad as some of the players I've seen in the 1st div he might have been on very low wages as well

[bluewhitearmy]

I can't say I blame Roddy playing his son, if any of us were managers and had a son who could play we would probably all give him a chance, I only saw him play a couple of time for Athlone wasn't as bad as some of the players I've seen in the 1st div he might have been on very low wages as well


How does this apply to Roddy Jr then?

[Nesta99]

You could only play your son if he was substantially better than others available due to the likely backlash. Alex Ferguson was quick enough to off-load his son when there were better options available at Old Trafford. Still havent got an unbiased assessment of Junior - maybe there isnt one. Like if he signed for say Athlone would there be one big groan?

[nigel-harps1954]

You could only play your son if he was substantially better than others available due to the likely backlash. Alex Ferguson was quick enough to off-load his son when there were better options available at Old Trafford. Still havent got an unbiased assessment of Junior - maybe there isnt one. Like if he signed for say Athlone would there be one big groan?

Being perfectly and totally honest, he looked the weak link in Athlones title winning side last year anytime we played them. He would have to have improved substantially to be anywhere close to resembling a Premier Division standard of player.

[Bosco]

There was a lot of bad blood left over from when Roddy tried to take over down here last time with the club giving one version and roddy giving another in the press (After some of his comments in Derry I think we all know who to believe) so there's no way I can ever see Jim Hanley or anyone at Longford Town FC ever allowing Roddy Collins near this football club and rightfully so.

I wouldn't be so definite on him not being wanted by everyone at the club. It's come up in conversation quite a few times with some fans about whether they'd take him for a season to get us up, not just since he's been sacked and a lot of people have said they would.

When it comes down to it I don't think it would ever happen but I wouldn't be putting my house on it.

Stranger things have happened in this leauge and he is definitely going to be sniffing around now with Cousins under pressure.

[Dodge]

You could only play your son if he was substantially better than others available due to the likely backlash. Alex Ferguson was quick enough to off-load his son when there were better options available at Old Trafford.

Treatment of their sons isn't the only difference between Roddy and Alex Ferguson

[Macy]

Treatment of their sons isn't the only difference between Roddy and Alex Ferguson
Yeah - Fergie was toolmaker by Trade, Roddy a plasterer.


I wouldn't be so definite on him not being wanted by everyone at the club. It's come up in conversation quite a few times with some fans about whether they'd take him for a season to get us up, not just since he's been sacked and a lot of people have said they would.

When it comes down to it I don't think it would ever happen but I wouldn't be putting my house on it.

Stranger things have happened in this leauge and he is definitely going to be sniffing around now with Cousins under pressure.
I wouldn't be shoddy's greatest fan, but I'd take him if he got us up. There, I've said it. And I think he would with the squad we have.

The problem with him (and Dolan and their ilk), is boards/ management committee's buying into the hype machine and spending too much. If the board can be strong, I think he'd generate good interest in the team and club.

Now where did work put that handwash gel....

[Nesta99]

Treatment of their sons isn't the only difference between Roddy and Alex Ferguson

Yes but doe Roddy realise that?

[nigel-harps1954]

Spotted on Facebook there today. Fantastic.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152410057844941

[Sam_Heggy]

Derry fans are generally a hard bunch to please, but if we see a team giving effort, trying to play football the right way and a manager who doesnt talk ****e in public then we're always for giving people a fair crack of the whip.

Decky Devine was let go because the crowds were falling away and a rotten run after our European game cost him his job. Pizza may not have a great track record with Harps, but ye cant polish a ****, simple as.

He is currently doing his pro-license, held the position before and steadied the ship. He knows what the fans expect, and will have the respect of the dressing room.

I personally want Kenny Shiels, but Pizza is the next option to at least the end of the season if we cant get Shiels

I agree the Harps job is a tough one to say the least BUT, ye just sacked a manager who won the 1st Division last season on a smaller budget than Pizza had at Harps in the same division. Only Longford and Waterford had bigger budgets than us unfortunately.

On the other hand, Pizza is well respected around Derry (and rightly so after his playing career) so he will have the players playing again, I'd expect the local lads to get more game time with some of the "outsiders" possibly getting the road. Aaron Barry and Cliff Byrne being the most likely to be kept on of the new signings.

[Aaron]

I agree the Harps job is a tough one to say the least BUT, ye just sacked a manager who won the 1st Division last season on a smaller budget than Pizza had at Harps in the same division. Only Longford and Waterford had bigger budgets than us unfortunately.

On the other hand, Pizza is well respected around Derry (and rightly so after his playing career) so he will have the players playing again, I'd expect the local lads to get more game time with some of the "outsiders" possibly getting the road. Aaron Barry and Cliff Byrne being the most likely to be kept on of the new signings.

Barry and Cliff Byrne are really the only 2 who have shown any worth in them being signed. The rest are poor players.

[Bosco]

I wouldn't be shoddy's greatest fan, but I'd take him if he got us up. There, I've said it. And I think he would with the squad we have.

The problem with him (and Dolan and their ilk), is boards/ management committee's buying into the hype machine and spending too much. If the board can be strong, I think he'd generate good interest in the team and club.

Now where did work put that handwash gel....

I'm sure he would but I believe most managers should be able to get us up with the squad we have or at least make a better go of it then how things are this season.

Initially I thought i'd take him but I don't think i'd feel comfortable with him in charge.

True about the board but we've seen in the past when he isn't given the backing he expects he loses interest and even if he did get us up,what then?Replace him and start all over again with a new manager?I'd imagine the board would prefer a bit of continuity in that regard.

This being all hypothetical of course!

[peterc1992]

Yeah thats what I was wondering - at what level could he play at if he wasnt tainted by the Collins snr, are people going to vilify him cause of his dad. As for Derry fans being hard to please you have described all LoI there. Claiming it would be a disaster not to win the league (as long as he was being serious) in a first season with a bunch of youngsters with a club built on sand well his P45 should have been handed over then and there as there is obnoxious self belief(delusion) and then there is R Collins. The board would have to have been thinking 'what the f*ck have we done'?!


Last year Roddy Collins junior was our weakest player in the first half of the year but improved in the second.

Teams would exploit him down the right. I'm not sure how good he is or would be if his father wasn't manager but I get the feel he is probably just about first division standard but his father gave him a lot of footballer last year and I would say if a lot of young lads his age who junior football level were given the amount of game time he got they would be good enough to make a career

[wonder88]

Older folk will remember Michael Giles, playing for Shamrock R back in the day, when his father was manager at Milltown, I think Nobby Styles's son was also on the books at the time; the manager's nephew,but I never saw him play. So I think people are going overboard with Roddy junior, James McClean even mentioned it. Kenny Dagleish I think gave his son pro contracts at two clubs, this happens often and is hardly the outrage that Derry fans make it out to be.

[Charlie Darwin]

Older folk will remember Michael Giles, playing for Shamrock R back in the day, when his father was manager at Milltown, I think Nobby Styles's son was also on the books at the time; the manager's nephew,but I never saw him play. So I think people are going overboard with Roddy junior, James McClean even mentioned it. Kenny Dagleish I think gave his son pro contracts at two clubs, this happens often and is hardly the outrage that Derry fans make it out to be.
I think it's more a case that Roddy Jr has played for his dad at Monaghan, Athlone and Derry City, presumably getting a decent wage at the Brandywell. Fair enough if he rates his son and trusts him to play the way he wants his teams to play, but to the rest of the world it looks like nepotism.

[RiffRaff]

Older folk will remember Michael Giles, playing for Shamrock R back in the day, when his father was manager at Milltown, I think Nobby Styles's son was also on the books at the time; the manager's nephew,but I never saw him play. So I think people are going overboard with Roddy junior, James McClean even mentioned it. Kenny Dagleish I think gave his son pro contracts at two clubs, this happens often and is hardly the outrage that Derry fans make it out to be.
I was thinking of that example myself and I'm pretty sure Michael Giles ended up going to WBA with his dad as well despite doing very little with Rovers

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

http://www.derryjournal.com/sport/football/derry-city-latest/derry-city-roddy-collins-launches-scathing-attack-on-derry-city-mentality-1-6487423

Roddy on the offensive.

[Ezeikial]

http://www.derryjournal.com/sport/football/derry-city-latest/derry-city-roddy-collins-launches-scathing-attack-on-derry-city-mentality-1-6487423

Roddy on the offensive.
But is he right or wrong in the opinions he offers here?

It would be interested to hear from Derry fans

[El-Pietro]

interesting he didn't mention Cork City among his teams who would be competitive, considering we finished 2nd with asquad made up mostly of players from Cork and Munster.

[donnrua]

interesting he didn't mention Cork City among his teams who would be competitive, considering we finished 2nd with asquad made up mostly of players from Cork and Munster.
In fairness Cork has a twice the population of Derry and Munster has two top flight clubs. Derry has the Irish league on its doorstep!

[Ezeikial]

interesting he didn't mention Cork City among his teams who would be competitive, considering we finished 2nd with asquad made up mostly of players from Cork and Munster.

We had a squad made up mostly of players from Dundalk and Leinster

[donnrua]

We had a squad made up mostly of players from Dundalk and Leinster

When was that?

[Spudulika]

http://www.derryjournal.com/sport/football/derry-city-latest/derry-city-roddy-collins-launches-scathing-attack-on-derry-city-mentality-1-6487423

Roddy on the offensive.

Roddy can never just lose or get sacked without "somebody" after him, or basically that the blame never can fall on his shoulders. Regardless of how things are at Derry, as an outsider you go in, shut your mouth, appreciate how things are and change them bit by bit until they've always been that way. Roddy hasn't the emotional intelligence to understand that, which is sad as he had the potential to be a very bright manager, but ego and insecurity killed him.

[SwanVsDalton]

We had a squad made up mostly of players from Dundalk and Leinster

Not quite the same as Derry or Cork in fairness. We're not Dublin commutable.

[DannyInvincible]

But is he right or wrong in the opinions he offers here?

It would be interested to hear from Derry fans

Derry may be a close-knit community with an element of siege-type mentality, but I think any collective defensiveness is as a result of how the city suffered under an oppressive smog of surveillance during the Troubles; "besieged within the siege", as Seamus Heaney once wrote. There maybe is a bit of suspicion reserved for perceived outsiders, but the community had to be that way. My Roscommon-born ma seemed to think that, having moved up to the north-west from living in Dublin after marrying my da, although she also praises the warmth of the people and has great admiration and respect for that collective spirit.

Anyway, whatever about Roddy's sociological analysis of Derry (or my own! :p ), it's not really relevant insofar as what Spudulika says is true; it's always "someone else's fault" with Roddy; never his own. He's full of bluster and is just trying to deflect from his own failings by bitterly lashing out at the club, the players, the city, James McClean, Shane McEleney, whoever he can blame and whoever he thinks has it in for him... He clearly has a sour taste in his mouth because he couldn't quite work it.

Stephen Kenny was an "outsider" in Derry too, but he was relatively successful at the club and the supporters really warmed to him when he was in charge. Did Roddy even move to the local area eventually? Kenny settled in Fahan and uprooted his whole family to take the job; put his kids in local schools and everything. He also happened to have a lot of local players in his sides when he was pushing close for the title a few years ago. Why couldn't Roddy do it if Kenny, for example, could? That's what Roddy should be asking himself. If Roddy felt pressured into selecting local lads due to something he perceived, that's his own weakness for letting it get to him. I don't think the fact Roddy was an "outsider" was always or necessarily going to be something that would hold him back; I think his appointment was something that didn't go down well with so many because so many were already well aware of what an absolute charlatan the man is. It wasn't the "outsider" treatment he was getting; it was the "gangster" treatment. It was for that reason that he probably felt he had to dig his heels in more from the outset; not primarily because he wasn't from the local area.

[jinxy lilywhite]

Cork have a full Munster Senior league to select from all to themselves and Derry have the Irish league and Ulster league to select from

[DannyInvincible]

Derry have the Irish league and Ulster league to select from

I don't really see how. The Irish League isn't a Derry City feeder club; it has 12 top-flight clubs of its own, including four from Belfast (a city three or four times Derry's size), over whom Derry wield no influence whatsoever and certainly not by being a League of Ireland club in the north-west of Ireland. Derry can't just pick and choose at will any player from Ulster that the club might fancy.

[nigel-harps1954]

Cork have a full Munster Senior league to select from all to themselves and Derry have the Irish league and Ulster league to select from

It's not that easy. When Ulster Senior League clubs, and now, even Donegal League clubs, are able to compete on the wage scale, it becomes very difficult to attract players to travel the length and breadth of the country. That's completely putting aside the Irish League factor, where just across the border you have Institute, Coleraine and Ballinamallard, in the Premier Division alone, also competing for signatures.

Derry and Harps are competing for players within the same catchment area, and also to a lesser extent, Sligo.

I'd wager Cork and Cobh have similar problems with the MSL.

[SwanVsDalton]

Cork have a full Munster Senior league to select from all to themselves and Derry have the Irish league and Ulster league to select from

This has already been thoroughly debunked but just wanted to add a hearty LOL to the idea that Derry cherry pick players from the Irish League. We're not Real Madrid, we're only Derry. :)

[Martinho II]

seen an article in one of the tabloids yesterday about Derry City could be returning to the Irish League due to financial reasons. How realistic is this of it happening? I found it surprising to be honest.

[avvenalaf]

Can't happen soon enough. Fed up visiting that **** hole of a ground and their persecuted supporters.

[DannyInvincible]

seen an article in one of the tabloids yesterday about Derry City could be returning to the Irish League due to financial reasons. How realistic is this of it happening? I found it surprising to be honest.

Sounds like nonsense. It's always something that pops up now and again in the tabloids/online during silly season because it provides a talking point, but why would the club ever seriously consider a completely backwards and anti-ambitious move like that? In what way would it make or save the club any more money than the present situation? Did the piece explain how it might benefit the club financially at all? The club is very much an integral part of the League of Ireland and I think most, if not all, supporters would be proud of that. I don't see that changing any time soon.

[SwanVsDalton]

seen an article in one of the tabloids yesterday about Derry City could be returning to the Irish League due to financial reasons. How realistic is this of it happening? I found it surprising to be honest.

It's crapola.


Can't happen soon enough. Fed up visiting that **** hole of a ground and their persecuted supporters.

Where's your Christmas spirit. :(

[Martinho II]

Sounds like nonsense. It's always something that pops up now and again in the tabloids/online during silly season because it provides a talking point, but why would the club ever seriously consider a completely backwards and anti-ambitious move like that? In what way would it make or save the club any more money than the present situation? Did the piece explain how it might benefit the club financially at all? The club is very much an integral part of the League of Ireland and I think most, if not all, supporters would be proud of that. I don't see that changing any time soon.

there was very little substance to the article so there was very little talk on the financial benefits of it.

[Charlie Darwin]

It's crapola.
I'm assuming none of the fans would stand for that?

[Aaron]

I dont know about that, seems more and more of our fans are in favour, for the good of the club.

[SwanVsDalton]

I dont know about that, seems more and more of our fans are in favour, for the good of the club.

It's a handful of people, many of which happen to be on our club's message board. Can't see it gaining any real traction. And nor should it, it's a dreadful idea.

[Charlie Darwin]

I would assume a large proportion of Derry fans would be nationalists, so re-joining the league of a country they don't identify/identify less with would be some sight.

And won't somebody please think of James McClean?

[Nesta99]

Bigger fish in a small(er) pond. Less travel. More regular Derbys v Institute, Coleraine, (Limavady, Ballinamallard?) as Harps seem in no rush to get the North West Derby going regularly. Games v the big belfast trio. Big improvement in the political stuff. An association that may appreciate the involvement of a newish football powerhouse. Novelty factor reinvigourating crowds. Potential to be a dominant force with regular European football. Setanta Cup keeping the few trips South.

There is certainly an argument for defectors defection. Assuming the IFA would have a welcome back for Derry City. A loyalty to the League of Ireland due to admission in '85 is isnt a big enough reason to stick. Newry could come the other way :P and Derry could be a leading club in agitating for an all Ireland league, reform from within the IFA. Possibility of larger govt grants for a club competing within the jurisdiction of the granter. Where's the down side?

[Titan]

Having to start at the bottom of the pyramid? I.e championship 2. That would mean at least 2 years of playing at a much lower standard than they would wish.

[Charlie Darwin]

Having to start at the bottom of the pyramid? I.e championship 2. That would mean at least 2 years of playing at a much lower standard than they would wish.
They'll always be playing at a lower standard no matter what level of the IFA pyramid they reach. As much as I'm sure Derry players love playing there, they won't be as enthusiastic if the level they're playing at is lower than the one that allowed McClean, McLaughlin, etc to graduate to the UK (I know they started in the LOI FD).

[Nesta99]

Medium term strategy long term existance

[Charlie Darwin]

Quite frankly, if they're as badly run as they are in the LOI, they'll die even more quickly in the Irish League. Moving leagues is not a coherent business strategy.

[Sheridan]

It should be a declared aim of the FAI, IFA and UEFA to normalise the footballing status of Derry City F.C. and return the club to its native association. The rationale for the special dispensation it was granted in the 80s has largely dissipated. Throwing money at DCFC would be tie in neatly with Sinn Féin's bread and circuses manoeuvres as it seeks to offset the effects of its austerity politics in NI, so the club need have no worries on that score.