Transfers 2019 season

[marinobohs]

Trevor Clarke signed for Rotherham and apparently stretchered off with a brace on his leg in his first game, terrible luck if it's a repeat of his previous injury....
Hopefully not, a good chance for the lad and hope he gets the chance to give it a real go.

[joey B]

Thomas Byrne signs for Glentoran,Patrick McLean and himself will bring great harmony im sure!

[Martinho II]

Thomas Byrne signs for Glentoran,Patrick McLean and himself will bring great harmony im sure!

whos thomas byrne btw? I cant place him at all!

[D24Saint]

whos thomas byrne btw? I cant place him at all!

Played for Drogs then us, lovely pair of feet but an absolute headcase with no discipline. At one stage at Pats he had as many cards as appearances.

[Ezeikial]

whos thomas byrne btw? I cant place him at all!

A once promising player at Brighton who is now a a fast decent towards junior football, unless someone can save him from himself.

A talent being wasted up to now

[Weatherman]

Though McCabe has been one of Pats better players whenever iv watched them so surprised Pats will be willing to let him go. Very organised player. Lennon and Clifford both up there aswell but other than them nobody else has been decent and thats including Forrester.

[micls]

We've signed Eoghan Stokes. Wasn't getting much of a look in at Derry.

[Asterix]

Burke confirmed on loan to Rovers until July 2020.

[sbgawa]

Burke confirmed on loan to Rovers until July 2020.


Delighted with that and that he is around for next season as well ( i assume he will stay on again after the loan expires)
Wonder can he play tomorrow night or be on the bench , i assume not .

[mcgonigle]

No brainer of a signing for Rovers, they'll be delighted with that.

I'd imagine that's Burke's time at Preston over, hardly going to impress enough for them to offer him a new deal and bring him back. I wonder if he had other loan options in the UK

[White Horse]

Great business by Rovers, €300k in the bank and the player back in double quick time.

[brendy_éire]

We've signed Eoghan Stokes. Wasn't getting much of a look in at Derry.

He wasn't, and we were never sure why. Looked decent the few times he did get on, and scored a couple of penalties.
Cork is likely a decent move for him, I'd assume he'll get plenty of game time there.

[marinobohs]

Burke confirmed on loan to Rovers until July 2020.

Good signing if he can recreate the form that got him his move. Maybe too late to catch Dundalk this season but a selection of hat stands for the run in.

[ger121]

Great business by Rovers, €300k in the bank and the player back in double quick time.

Said the same elsewhere. Great business model!

[Nesta99]

Good signing if he can recreate the form that got him his move. Maybe too late to catch Dundalk this season but a selection of hat stands for the run in.

Cummins, Carr, Greene, Burke pushed up top, Rovers now have a few hatstands to choose from. Bohs connections aside i'd have thought Stokes would have slotted in well at Rovers - pace, mobile, eye for goal, young enough, with the service the midfield could provide!?

[Charlie Darwin]

Said the same elsewhere. Great business model!
This was the plan all along. You didn't think Roadstone was just a load of pitches, did you? It's a sophisticated psy-ops centre designed to programme players to get big contracts in England then get sent back to us at a massive discount.

[Charlie Darwin]

Cummins, Carr, Greene, Burke pushed up top, Rovers now have a few hatstands to choose from. Bohs connections aside i'd have thought Stokes would have slotted in well at Rovers - pace, mobile, eye for goal, young enough, with the service the midfield could provide!?
Stokes played in a friendly for Rovers the week before he signed for Bohs. Might be remembering wrong here but he was either offered a deal with Rovers or was going to be when he opted to go to them and the management weren't happy. To be fair, he'd have had a tough job getting ahead of Burke and he was in and out of the Bohs team then so might not have worked out anyway.

[sbgawa]

Cummins, Carr, Greene, Burke pushed up top, Rovers now have a few hatstands to choose from. Bohs connections aside i'd have thought Stokes would have slotted in well at Rovers - pace, mobile, eye for goal, young enough, with the service the midfield could provide!?

I thought that too , Stokes would have been an easy fit, he did have a trial but was left hanging around while Rovers looked elsewhere for options and then signed for Bohs which you couldn't blame him i suppose. I think his stock has fallen since then due to lack of games/goals but i could see him doing well in Cork, he seems to have all the parts that should make him a decent striker (attitude/application ? ).
Plenty of options now up front and maybe Burke can be the hatstand we have been searching for if he is played further forward, he was well on track for 20+ goals in a season when he was sold last July.

[redobit]

Burke back to Shams may be good for the club but I don't get the players take on this at all. How is this progressing for him personally (no offence to Shams or the LOI). Fair enough plenty of players go on loan and can drop down in leagues to get experience, but surely there was better options for the player than running home at the first opportunity to where he is in his comfort zone both on and off the pitch.

[RathfarnhamHoop]

Pats sign Ronan Hale from Crusaders. Good player when he was at Derry. Doesn't look like Pats fans are going to be seeing wingers any time soon

[RathfarnhamHoop]

Burke back to Shams may be good for the club but I don't get the players take on this at all. How is this progressing for him personally (no offence to Shams or the LOI). Fair enough plenty of players go on loan and can drop down in leagues to get experience, but surely there was better options for the player than running home at the first opportunity to where he is in his comfort zone both on and off the pitch.

There's a lot to be said for just being happy playing football. I watched highlights of some of Gillinghams games last season and it looked soul destroying for him. No desire in the rest of the team to play any sort of ball on the ground, rest of the league wasn't any better so why not come back to LOI play actual football and be happy while Preston continue to pay most of your wages.

[PartySaint]

Pats sign Ronan Hale from Crusaders. Good player when he was at Derry. Doesn't look like Pats fans are going to be seeing wingers any time soon

Or a new manager :(

[D24Saint]

Pats sign Ronan Hale from Crusaders. Good player when he was at Derry. Doesn't look like Pats fans are going to be seeing wingers any time soon

Wingers are an outdated concept in the game according to Harry , but he also thinks scoring goals and entertaining are aswell.

[Jack B]

Our problem isn't our strikers, more than we can't fashion a chance for any of them at any point in a game. Not sure what adding more will do to aid that, or why we're even allowing Kenny to conduct more of his madness, but here we are anyway.

[marinobohs]

Stokes played in a friendly for Rovers the week before he signed for Bohs. Might be remembering wrong here but he was either offered a deal with Rovers or was going to be when he opted to go to them and the management weren't happy. To be fair, he'd have had a tough job getting ahead of Burke and he was in and out of the Bohs team then so might not have worked out anyway.
Yep, he played a friendly for shams then signed a week later for Bohs (on his return from Leeds). Not a line leading striker, prefers the “number 10” playmaker role. Showed some class touches st Bohs but overall a major disappointment. Vaguely recall something about him modeling which might explain his reluctance to get stuck in !
Has the talent but application has, so far, eluded him.

[redobit]

There's a lot to be said for just being happy playing football. I watched highlights of some of Gillinghams games last season and it looked soul destroying for him. No desire in the rest of the team to play any sort of ball on the ground, rest of the league wasn't any better so why not come back to LOI play actual football and be happy while Preston continue to pay most of your wages.

Because that is taking the easy way out. Not the progressive path.

[RathfarnhamHoop]

Because that is taking the easy way out. Not the progressive path.

What's the progressive path then? Go to league 1 and watch the ball go over his head and back again for another 9 months? Or come back, have fun and play football the way that got him an international cap at a club he likes with all the comforts of home. In this world football has become people seem to be quickly forgetting why most people start playing football, for enjoyment, making a living from it is a bonus.
And you never know if he plays well at Rovers maybe a European club that like to actually play football will come in for him.
As for easy way out. The easy way would be to go on loan to some poor lower league club, collect your paycheck and do **** all or to sit on the bench every week. Coming back to Rovers to compete for a place isn't the easy way.

[sbgawa]

To be fair to him the manager said when he was being loaned out that he wasn't going to get game time at Preston and if all that was on offer was league 1 you couldn't blame him coming home.
Guys that want to play football arent suited to lower league english football.

[5yardpass]

Graham Coughlan the Bristol Rovers manager is blaming the "Irish Media" for using "other clubs against us (Bristol Rovers)" in relation to Liam Scales's proposed move from UCD. which he says they have stepped back from. he is obviously sore because they have been asked for a decent transfer fee rather than the usual pittance offered by most UK clubs for LOI players, https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/murky-waters-bristol-rovers-taken-3161703 (oh and this is my first post.... hello. )

[dfx-]

There's a lot to be said for just being happy playing football. I watched highlights of some of Gillinghams games last season and it looked soul destroying for him. No desire in the rest of the team to play any sort of ball on the ground, rest of the league wasn't any better so why not come back to LOI play actual football and be happy while Preston continue to pay most of your wages.

I watched his debut for Gillingham and he was busy trying to play ball through and work with an absolute desert of a midfield creatively and a big lump upfront in Tom Eaves. It says it all about the league that he got 20 goals.

[pineapple stu]

Are you saying he's a better striker than the fella who scored 20 goals in a season?

[buzzkill]

Have to question the players mentality, definitely not the right move. Safe to say his Preston career is over and his ireland career in serious doubt after this. Preston will surely see a league 1 team as a higher standard than what rovers are playing and the players choice to go home says it all about his mental strength

[pineapple stu]

Bit of jumping to conclusions there. Maybe there was simply no other offers.

Either way, it's another blow for the league that another top player has gone to England and failed to make any real impact. And each time it happens, the next transfer fee is going to be that little bit lower, you'd imagine.

[RathfarnhamHoop]

Have to question the players mentality, definitely not the right move. Safe to say his Preston career is over and his ireland career in serious doubt after this. Preston will surely see a league 1 team as a higher standard than what rovers are playing and the players choice to go home says it all about his mental strength

Eh no you don't... It says **** all about his mental strength. He had a choice between going league one and playing hoof ball which doesn't suit him at all or going to a club he knows plays good ball and showing exactly what he can do and hope that impresses Preston or someone who will keep the ball on the ground. More players should come back to Ireland rather than drop down the league if they're a technical footballer.


Are you saying he's a better striker than the fella who scored 20 goals in a season?

At playing football yes. At scoring goals it's debatable. Tom Eaves is a 6'5 centre forward and I'll let you fill in the rest never really scored anywhere other than Gillingham.

[pineapple stu]

At playing football yes. At scoring goals it's debatable. Tom Eaves is a 6'5 centre forward and I'll let you fill in the rest never really scored anywhere other than Gillingham.
But Burke has never scored anywhere other than Rovers, in a mostly part-time league.

I don't understand this argument that Burke failed because the league wasn't good enough. It doesn't make any sense.

[dfx-]

Are you saying he's a better striker than the fella who scored 20 goals in a season?

No, that they were two different players playing two very different games.

[RathfarnhamHoop]

But Burke has never scored anywhere other than Rovers, in a mostly part-time league.

I don't understand this argument that Burke failed because the league wasn't good enough. It doesn't make any sense.

Burke didn't, and won't thrive in a league where the ball spends as much time in the air as on the ground. He's a player that wants the ball into feet with other players that want the same around him. That's his style of play, he's not a target man, a pacy winger or a ball winning midfielder and that's what you need in the positions he can play in league 1&2 the way most teams play.

League one and two are still very much hit it long to the big man to knock down for the small pacy man or get it wide to cross into the big man and for technical players they're never going to thrive in that environment.

[pineapple stu]

Burke didn't, and won't thrive in a league where the ball spends as much time in the air as on the ground. He's a player that wants the ball into feet with other players that want the same around him. That's his style of play, he's not a target man, a pacy winger or a ball winning midfielder and that's what you need in the positions he can play in league 1&2 the way most teams play.

League one and two are still very much hit it long to the big man to knock down for the small pacy man or get it wide to cross into the big man and for technical players they're never going to thrive in that environment.
But if he can't actually make it in that league, then clearly you can play the ball on the ground as much as you like, but it's a less effective style of play than the more physical way, and so it must stand to reason that Burke isn't as a good a player as Eaves, who scored 22 goals in the same team?

He can be better technically than Eaves, but it's worth **** all if he can't put the ball in the back of the net like.

[RathfarnhamHoop]

But if he can't actually make it in that league, then clearly you can play the ball on the ground as much as you like, but it's a less effective style of play than the more physical way, and so it must stand to reason that Burke isn't as a good a player as Eaves, who scored 22 goals in the same team?

He can be better technically than Eaves, but it's worth **** all if he can't put the ball in the back of the net like.

It's not more effective, it's just the classic lower league problem of they don't have enough players to do it, start the season trying to play football anyway, lose a few games and revert to hoof ball.
Jack Byrne explained it pretty well on LOI weekly a while back.

[dfx-]

But if he can't actually make it in that league, then clearly you can play the ball on the ground as much as you like, but it's a less effective style of play than the more physical way, and so it must stand to reason that Burke isn't as a good a player as Eaves, who scored 22 goals in the same team?

He can be better technically than Eaves, but it's worth **** all if he can't put the ball in the back of the net like.

If you're a much better player technically, why would you want to play with teams like that. He'd have a great assists tally if he hoofed corners and free kicks to him. He could then move to Wycombe and do the same to Akinfenwa.

It would be an incredible waste of talent.

[marinobohs]

Or maybe he just wasn’t good enough ? Short term success at Shams hardly makes him a world beaters. Maybe he just realized his level.

[ToberonaTornado]

If Preston sign you,your career maybe about to hit the skids!!
S'pose when they're getting players from here for next to nothing and so risk free but jaysus they'll suck any confidence you ever had right out off you.

[Shearer]

Have to question the players mentality, definitely not the right move. Safe to say his Preston career is over and his ireland career in serious doubt after this.
I agree and would apply this to Kevin O'Connor too who apparently hasn't been up to much with City.

[pineapple stu]

If you're a much better player technically, why would you want to play with teams like that. He'd have a great assists tally if he hoofed corners and free kicks to him. He could then move to Wycombe and do the same to Akinfenwa.

It would be an incredible waste of talent.
Well he can play here and play nice technical stuff against part-time teams. Or he can move up to the next level.

No skin off my nose either way of course; best of luck to the guy whichever he chooses

[RathfarnhamHoop]

Well he can play here and play nice technical stuff against part-time teams. Or he can move up to the next level.

No skin off my nose either way of course; best of luck to the guy whichever he chooses

You're not getting the point. First off It's league one it's not the next level. And secondly it's not about being able to do it against the quality of opposition, its about getting the opportunity to do it. Gillingham truly play an awful style of football (I've family from an area in England with a league 1 team so watch it a lot) passing the ball less than 20 yards just isn't a concept they've heard of. I don't know what your job is but imagine being hired for a job because of some degree you have let's use computer science for an example and you have experience as a software engineer, then every day just getting asked to install all the pre installed software on new laptops, that's not the skill set you were hired based on so of course you're not going to do that job again if given the option.

[pineapple stu]

Hold on - League One in England is a better level than the LoI in every way. Facilities, supporter base, TV exposure, budgets, strength in depth - everything. Every League One club had a bigger average attendance last season than Rovers, just to give one little example of that. And we can guarantee that every one of them gets more TV money seeing as the LoI gets bugger all in that regard.

So it makes no sense to argue that despite all these really evident advantages, that League One is somehow not a better league than the LoI.

The bottom line is that for all Burke's lovely technical ability, he scored once and the other guy scored 22. In the end of the day, the job he's being hired to do is score goals to help his team win - and he's clearly not up to it. Style of play is nowhere in his job description. If everything went on playing lovely football, UCD would be in the European spots each year and Pats would be relegated. But that's not how it works out in reality.

[RathfarnhamHoop]

Hold on - League One in England is a better level than the LoI in every way. Facilities, supporter base, TV exposure, budgets, strength in depth - everything. Every League One club had a bigger average attendance last season than Rovers, just to give one little example of that. And we can guarantee that every one of them gets more TV money seeing as the LoI gets bugger all in that regard.

So it makes no sense to argue that despite all these really evident advantages, that League One is somehow not a better league than the LoI.

The bottom line is that for all Burke's lovely technical ability, he scored once and the other guy scored 22. In the end of the day, the job he's being hired to do is score goals to help his team win - and he's clearly not up to it. Style of play is nowhere in his job description. If everything went on playing lovely football, UCD would be in the European spots each year and Pats would be relegated. But that's not how it works out in reality.

You really just don't want to get it do you? No point trying to explain it any more.

[pineapple stu]

Good point well made there.

Bottom line is Burke - like Hoban and Towell and Boyle - has returned to the league because he wasn't good enough to make it in England. And not for the first time either.

[mcgonigle]

You really just don't want to get it do you? No point trying to explain it any more.

I've read the back and forth here and I don't get what you're trying to say either. What I'm getting from it is that Burke is technically too good for League 1 and 2 and teams in these leagues do not play to his strengths because it's all hoof-ball? Which for me is a massive generalisation.

But I think it's fair to say that he is not good enough for the Championship, otherwise another club would have identified his technical ability and made a move, no?

[sbgawa]

Why don't some of the Irish players try Holland /Portugal/Belgium ?
The obsession with England is understandable but as the money in England gets bigger and bigger the chances of Irish players making it are getting smaller and smaller.
The premier league is now effectively a world league drawing players from all over the world and the Championship is increasingly hard to crack as well