2024 Season, Arrivals and Departures

[Shearer]

Sligo Rovers first-team budget for next season set to drop by 35-40 percent ,seems a pretty major deal,will be in the relegation picture for sure…..
Source? Was it the BORST Podcast with the treasurer, been meaning to listen.

[joey B]

Source? Was it the BORST Podcast with the treasurer, been meaning to listen.

Yip on that podcast,well worth a listen….

[joey B]

Billy Dennehy won’t be in charge of Kerry FC next season….

[Shearer]

Billy Dennehy won’t be in charge of Kerry FC next season….
Few past and present players won't be too sorry to see him go..

[Shearer]

James Doona gone to Glenavon. Must have some agent.

[ontheotherhand]

James Doona gone to Glenavon. Must have some agent.

same as Michael O'Connor?

[Nah Nah Nah Nah]

Source? Was it the BORST Podcast with the treasurer, been meaning to listen.

Yup. Mainly cause we ploughed a load of money into last years squad. Who were awful

[sulywaterfordfc]

Waterford exodus started with Kilian Cantwell being let go,you’d imagine there will be more….

Not sure why you said it in a negativity way.

If we’re being honest the squads needs vast improvement if they’re serious about staying up next season. I wouldn’t find it unusual by any means to see several squad players moved on especially for a promoted team that didn’t even challenge first. The reality is, if you’re struggling for game time in the FD then the chances are you’re not going to cut it at PD level. Unfortunately some players level is the top end of the first division. I wouldn’t be surprised to see near half the squad be replaced with new signings and some up and comers from the academy. It’d be silly imo to be loyal to every single player of the squad regardless of their ability. Unfortunately it’s a tough industry.

Cantwell is a player Cork should be going for. A cool calm and consistent defender with a lot of experience. There’s not many of them around at that level.

[Another Bohemia]

Not sure why you said it in a negativity way.

If we’re being honest the squads needs vast improvement if they’re serious about staying up next season. I wouldn’t find it unusual by any means to see several squad players moved on especially for a promoted team that didn’t even challenge first. The reality is, if you’re struggling for game time in the FD then the chances are you’re not going to cut it at PD level. Unfortunately some players level is the top end of the first division. I wouldn’t be surprised to see near half the squad be replaced with new signings and some up and comers from the academy. It’d be silly imo to be loyal to every single player of the squad regardless of their ability. Unfortunately it’s a tough industry.

Cantwell is a player Cork should be going for. A cool calm and consistent defender with a lot of experience. There’s not many of them around at that level.

I'll give you a gentle warning regarding Long so. One of his biggest weaknesses was being overly loyal to underperforming players. So if he is in charge of re-signing players expect there to be fewer changes than you might expect. Player motivation for games where you aren't the underdog was also a big issue for us pretty much throughout his stint but that might not be much of a concern for yourselves next year but if you had some baffling performances last year against teams you should beat I'd chalk it up to that.

[Jd2793]

derry going with the bold strategy of rebuilding dundalks 2018/9 team.... i will remain a higgins sceptic.

[Guitd]

So Leo Gaxha signing for a premier Loi club had a good season with Kerry interesting to see will he make the step up

[nr637]

Daniel Kelly exit confirmed by Dundalk …

For me, he has not reached his real potential. Great prospect when with Bohs and looked to move on through his Dundalk time.
A good player and descent for the Premier level, but has never shown his true potential, I believe. :confused:
Good signing all the same by Derry.

[culloty82]

So Leo Gaxha signing for a premier Loi club had a good season with Kerry interesting to see will he make the step up

Kerryman also reporting interest in Kevin Williams, which might be expected, but the biggest surprise is that clubs apparently want Lee Axworthy - settled down eventually, but hardly came across as a stand-out player!

https://www.independent.ie/regionals/kerry/sport/soccer/kerry-fc-manager-billy-dennehy-to-step-down-from-the-position-to-focus-on-sporting-director-role/a43438166.html

[Yossarian]

Daniel Kelly to Derry is interesting. He will score some goals but Derry fans should be prepared for endless frustration. I don’t think he’s a player to help them to the next level. Also, I’m not sure Derry’s strategy of signing injury prone Dundalk players is all it’s cracked up to be.
I certainly don’t blame Kelly for moving to Derry though, hard to turn down the offer he received from them.

[Jd2793]

sickened if relegation means city lose out on gaxha. obvious premier level player playing in the first division. pity we didnt look at him during the season. think he easily makes the grade

[Another Bohemia]

Daniel Kelly to Derry is interesting. He will score some goals but Derry fans should be prepared for endless frustration. I don’t think he’s a player to help them to the next level. Also, I’m not sure Derry’s strategy of signing injury prone Dundalk players is all it’s cracked up to be.
I certainly don’t blame Kelly for moving to Derry though, hard to turn down the offer he received from them.

So you're saying relying on injury prone players is a bad thing? But what if you sign all of them? I'm hearing Clarke and Farrugia to Derry...

[Jack B]

Wanted Pats to sign Kelly so he'd stop scoring against us. Good player but agree that for what Derry want to do it's not exactly a game-changer. You'd imagine Duffy and McMullan would still be starting wingers though, which is tough to better in this league anyway, so in that sense Kelly's great depth.

[culloty82]

sickened if relegation means city lose out on gaxha. obvious premier level player playing in the first division. pity we didnt look at him during the season. think he easily makes the grade

Interesting, hadn't heard that Cork were also having a look, all the rumours up to now seem to have been about Galway.

[joey B]

Brandon Kavanagh heading to Pats from Derry for a fee…..

[Jd2793]

Interesting, hadn't heard that Cork were also having a look, all the rumours up to now seem to have been about Galway.

oh we arent afaik. would like to think we are though as i rate him.

[Jd2793]

Brandon Kavanagh heading to Pats from Derry for a fee…..

higgins transfer dealings get worse by the day...

[placid casual]

Brandon's a very capable,tidy signing.
And Higgins gets in a crocked, flakey dundalk player instead. Derry appear to be going backwards, although when is young Colm Whelan scheduled to return,he could potentially make a big difference.

[sulywaterfordfc]

I'll give you a gentle warning regarding Long so. One of his biggest weaknesses was being overly loyal to underperforming players. So if he is in charge of re-signing players expect there to be fewer changes than you might expect. Player motivation for games where you aren't the underdog was also a big issue for us pretty much throughout his stint but that might not be much of a concern for yourselves next year but if you had some baffling performances last year against teams you should beat I'd chalk it up to that.

Only a handful of the squad was signed by Long though. If he was being loyal to players Cantwell is one that would have been kept on in that case. Not to mention Long is potentially going to be forced to replace our two best players. Our highest rated youngster signed a long term deal, but is attracting a lot of interest from across the pond. There’s an expectation he’ll go for a big fee in the summer unless an European club comes calling in the winter window.

I think right now there’s 10 players under contract.

[Jd2793]

Brandon's a very capable,tidy signing.
And Higgins gets in a crocked, flakey dundalk player instead. Derry appear to be going backwards, although when is young Colm Whelan scheduled to return,he could potentially make a big difference.

yeah spot on. im surprised derry didnt try MK Dons for Darragh Burns. probably too young for what higgins wants mind you. would love to see him back in the league

[joey B]

6 figure bid from a Championship club for Afolabi per Dan McDonnell…

[Jack B]

I think Derry will probably make some more statement signing(s) that make it make more sense that they'd let Kavanagh go, though I do agree that for their money and ambition they do make some terribly underwhelming signings overall.

Happy with Pats signing him if it happens. We've got some talented players but think it's fair to say not enough that are able to look after the ball and keep things tidy when necessary, which he'll help with. Makes me question how nailed-on Coote actually is considering they're relatively similar players.

Good money coming Bohs' way by the looks of things. Seemed quite apparent that Afolabi wants out so will be interesting to see how much they can get if a bidding war occurs. Would be surprised if he hit it off at that level myself.

[pineapple stu]

Big boots for Bohs to fill, given their form in the last two-thirds of the season or so

[ger121]

6 figure bid from a Championship club for Afolabi per Dan McDonnell…

Bid of €250000. Says not rejected yet but waiting for counter bids. It’s probably when not if he goes, so the only upside is to maximise any transfer fee.

[Martinho II]

Ex Cobh GK Lee Steacy has joined Shamrock Rovers. Very interesting move..

[MU1889]

James Doona gone to Glenavon. Must have some agent.

Seems to have had a somewhat promising start to his career with Shamrock Rovers and St Pat's, but has dropped off significantly in recent years. Any particular reason behind this - injury, bad attitude or just an overall loss of form?

Stephen McDonnell took over the reigns at Glenavon in September, which has seen a marked change in style of play and slight improvement in results, but we're woefully short upfront and not too hot defensively, so we'll need to be active in the January transfer market. I expect Doona be the first of many recruitments from the League of Ireland; the recent influx of investment at other Irish League clubs has greatly inflated wages, relative to the quality of player available.

[2 Year Contract]

Seems to have had a somewhat promising start to his career with Shamrock Rovers and St Pat's, but has dropped off significantly in recent years. Any particular reason behind this - injury, bad attitude or just an overall loss of form?

Stephen McDonnell took over the reigns at Glenavon in September, which has seen a marked change in style of play and slight improvement in results, but we're woefully short upfront and not too hot defensively, so we'll need to be active in the January transfer market. I expect Doona be the first of many recruitments from the League of Ireland; the recent influx of investment at other Irish League clubs has greatly inflated wages, relative to the quality of player available.

He was a great young talent at Rovers and was on trial with Tranmere and expected to sign for them so when Pats got him it seemed a bit of a coup at the time. 3 seasons with Pats later and you could probably count on one hand the number of good games he had for the club. He’s spent the last 3 seasons in the second tier with Athlone, Cork and Longford and hasn’t pulled up any trees at any of his 3 clubs. Based on his time at Pats, it seemed he wasn’t a great professional or putting his 100% dedication into his career. Stuff like uploading instagram stories of his massive takeaways as his dinner the night before a game spring to mind

[total hoofball]

Seems to have had a somewhat promising start to his career with Shamrock Rovers and St Pat's, but has dropped off significantly in recent years. Any particular reason behind this - injury, bad attitude or just an overall loss of form?

Doona struggled at Pats but there is a Rovers U19s to First Team curse. Not one player in the past decade out of Rovers u19s have established themselves beyond short term in their first team, there is an evident pattern of young players at Rovers who are not destined for England that Rovers try to push through get hyped up and then struggle to establish themselves at Rovers and then don't reach their potential with other LOI clubs or elsewhere

There was lots of hype about Doona, Aaron Bolger, Aaron Dobbs, Sean Boyd (though he has had a recent resurgence with Shels), Dean Williams (could go either way at Bohs) and a number of others, you can see why Sam Curtis bailed out early from Rovers as the likes of Pats/Bohs have had more better success establishing players from u19s into LOI first teams and potentially later onto England

[Burnsie]

how did Sam Curtis come to leave Rovers anyway? on the podcast during the week Dan McD mentioned in passing "there's a story there"

[culloty82]

On Dennehy's departure, the League have tweeted that at 25, Conor McCarthy's the youngest manager in LOI history.

[Martinho II]

That beats by 1 year the time Stephen Kenny took over Longford Town in 1998.

[legendz]

On Dennehy's departure, the League have tweeted that at 25, Conor McCarthy's the youngest manager in LOI history.
A very underwhelming announcement of the new Head Coach as well. The statement must have been written by Billy! It was all about Billy focussing on sporting director and then a bit of a paragraph at the end on McCarthy taking up the role of Head Coach.

[ontheotherhand]

Seems to have had a somewhat promising start to his career with Shamrock Rovers and St Pat's, but has dropped off significantly in recent years. Any particular reason behind this - injury, bad attitude or just an overall loss of form?

Stephen McDonnell took over the reigns at Glenavon in September, which has seen a marked change in style of play and slight improvement in results, but we're woefully short upfront and not too hot defensively, so we'll need to be active in the January transfer market. I expect Doona be the first of many recruitments from the League of Ireland; the recent influx of investment at other Irish League clubs has greatly inflated wages, relative to the quality of player available.


Doona ain't the brightest even for a footballer. Famously so. Seems to lack the bit of cop on needed to buckle down as well. But he was young at Rovers, maybe he's matured a bit.

[ontheotherhand]

Doona struggled at Pats but there is a Rovers U19s to First Team curse. Not one player in the past decade out of Rovers u19s have established themselves beyond short term in their first team, there is an evident pattern of young players at Rovers who are not destined for England that Rovers try to push through get hyped up and then struggle to establish themselves at Rovers and then don't reach their potential with other LOI clubs or elsewhere

There was lots of hype about Doona, Aaron Bolger, Aaron Dobbs, Sean Boyd (though he has had a recent resurgence with Shels), Dean Williams (could go either way at Bohs) and a number of others, you can see why Sam Curtis bailed out early from Rovers as the likes of Pats/Bohs have had more better success establishing players from u19s into LOI first teams and potentially later onto England

It's because we are winning leagues. Pat's can blood young players because they aren't expected to. It's working well at the moment but realistically the players they bring in who have them somewhat competitive will go before they have a chance to win the league unless the standard drops dramatically. So we are both cursed! Yahoo.

We really need a better solution for the u21 age group.

[Shearer]

A very underwhelming announcement of the new Head Coach as well. The statement must have been written by Billy! It was all about Billy focussing on sporting director and then a bit of a paragraph at the end on McCarthy taking up the role of Head Coach.
I did have to read it a second time to see if they'd appointed a replacement and even then I wasn't sure.

I assume this Shane Guthrie's quiet retirement also.

[SwanVsDalton]

Brandon's a very capable,tidy signing.
And Higgins gets in a crocked, flakey dundalk player instead. Derry appear to be going backwards, although when is young Colm Whelan scheduled to return,he could potentially make a big difference.

I like Kavanagh a lot and would have played him much more than Higgins did - but he's not going to displace McMullan or Duffy (never mind Kelly) and Derry are coming down with mercurial ballplayers of his type when what they really need is pace, physicality and goals.

Would have been tough to keep him after two years of mostly coming off the bench. Good luck to him though, good player.

[Olander]

I like Kavanagh a lot and would have played him much more than Higgins did - but he's not going to displace McMullan or Duffy (never mind Kelly) and Derry are coming down with mercurial ballplayers of his type when what they really need is pace, physicality and goals.

Would have been tough to keep him after two years of mostly coming off the bench. Good luck to him though, good player.
McMullan, Duffy and Kelly are wingers.

Kavanagh is a centre mid or a 10.

[Another Bohemia]

It's because we are winning leagues. Pat's can blood young players because they aren't expected to. It's working well at the moment but realistically the players they bring in who have them somewhat competitive will go before they have a chance to win the league unless the standard drops dramatically. So we are both cursed! Yahoo.

We really need a better solution for the u21 age group.

That's a really bad excuse. You can win leagues and blood young players. Man United did it for years under Ferguson. Liverpool and City are doing it now. Barcelona basically dominated Spain by doing it correctly (having Messi certainly helped of course). I'd wager it's probably a slightly easier situation for a young player to go into than a club that's languishing at the foot of the table. You go into a dressing room where everyone knows their role, knows what is expected of them and can give you guidance in what you need to do and what level you need to be at to win. You can make frequent cameo appearances in the beginning rather than being thrust into the limelight and basically forced to sink or swim.

There does need to be an u21 league to help bridge the gap. But league expectations are not an excuse to not play young players

[Stuttgart88]

Ah stu, we've "known" each long enough that I thought I'd have a bit of credit in the bank!

It could be true that no Rovers player played above themselves but I'm happy enough with that. It doesn't mean we didn't see very high levels of performance. Grace and Gaffney in particular were exceptionally good but everyone played very well outside of the European debacle.

But look we know what these lists are. The players who stood out the most at their clubs and played above and beyond those around them usually get the votes. Would I put Keating in a team over Gaffney? Not a chance in hell. But Keating stood out for a fairly poor Cork side and deserves the praise. He almost saved them on his own.

If it was just a vote for the best players it would be very boring altogether. I'd fancy a full strength Rovers 11 to beat that team of the season though.

Also shocked not to see Duff on the shortlist. Thought it would be Bradley, Duff and Doherty but it's hard to argue with Daly's inclusion. Some turnaround in form and a cup win to boot...he might even be favourite! I don't think Bradley will get it but how weird is that? The only man to ever win four in a row and he probably won't be the manager of the year. If you listen to his interview with Richie Sadlier you might even vote for him yourself. Heartbreaking stuff. No idea how he has kept the focus through the last few seasons.

I think Clarke & Farrugia would walk into Team of the Season but both were injured for a very long time. Lopes was below his best this year. Grace was incredibly reliable. Cleary was generally good but showed poor judgment and temprament at times. Mannus missed about 15 games. None of our centre mids was particularly outstanding, solid yes, but it took me ten games to wonder if Poom had anything about him at all. Burke might have been close. No other forward played consistently, and when he did play Kenny was poor a lot of the time. Towell had me scratching my head at times. Sometimes I think we're better off having him just so somebody else doesn't.

[Jack B]

Yeah, can understand why Rovers fans would be bemused by the lack of players in the TOTS, but I feel like the strength of their squad was the story of the season rather than stand-out individuals, whereas the opposite is the case for most other sides in the league. Grace was great and Gaffney for me is the best in the league, but a lot of the other top players either lacked minutes relative to others (Farrugia for instance played about 10 games worth of minutes fewer than Ben Doherty and Sam Curtis. Byrne injured, Burke limited minutes etc), or those that played the majority of minutes are non-sexy names like O'Neill that do a great, functional job but don't necessarily get the big moments other midfielders have that got picked. Ultimately it doesn't really matter, I think the majority of clubs in the league probably have had fans moaning about omissions so there's no real winning here.

[WeAreRovers]

Funnily enough Pats fan Dodge get's it right IMO - Gaffney far and away best player in the League again, GON the stand out holding midfielder year after year and Lee Grace the best of our 3 excellent centre-halves.

https://www.balls.ie/football/dodges-2023-league-of-ireland-end-of-season-awards-578910

[ontheotherhand]

That's a really bad excuse. You can win leagues and blood young players. Man United did it for years under Ferguson. Liverpool and City are doing it now. Barcelona basically dominated Spain by doing it correctly (having Messi certainly helped of course). I'd wager it's probably a slightly easier situation for a young player to go into than a club that's languishing at the foot of the table. You go into a dressing room where everyone knows their role, knows what is expected of them and can give you guidance in what you need to do and what level you need to be at to win. You can make frequent cameo appearances in the beginning rather than being thrust into the limelight and basically forced to sink or swim.

There does need to be an u21 league to help bridge the gap. But league expectations are not an excuse to not play young players

The biggest clubs in the world with established academies that have attracted the best talent available can do it? Grand so. How many academy players are starting for Man City by the way? I can only think of Foden off hand. Are there others? They've gone out and bought the best players in the world and broken the rules to do it. Liverpool maybe have more but....they aren't winning the league are they?

Who of the Pats players who have played regularly would have displaced any of our strongest 11 for you? Not a single one for me and they are the best in the league imop. Murphy, Leavy and Curtis would make the squad and they'd be getting cameos just like Nugent, Razi, Noonan and Cruise got this season. But we would not have won the league with them playing every week. Curtis is the shining light but he isn't better than Dan Cleary or Neil Farrugia at either position. He'd be a backup like Finn and I'm not sure I'd play him over Finn either tbh. Now if Pats can hold on to Murphy and Leavy and add a few more they may win a league if/when we fade. But I'd wager that team is broken up by player sales too soon for it.

Of course I do like your idea of academy players playing more. It's exciting. There will be seasons when academy players are good enough to play more and we can still win the league hopefully but it wasn't this season. Maybe next. I'd play Razi over the likes of Power. But I'd expect Razi to be snapped up before he gets a chance to win a league again.

[ontheotherhand]

I think Clarke & Farrugia would walk into Team of the Season but both were injured for a very long time. Lopes was below his best this year. Grace was incredibly reliable. Cleary was generally good but showed poor judgment and temprament at times. Mannus missed about 15 games. None of our centre mids was particularly outstanding, solid yes, but it took me ten games to wonder if Poom had anything about him at all. Burke might have been close. No other forward played consistently, and when he did play Kenny was poor a lot of the time. Towell had me scratching my head at times. Sometimes I think we're better off having him just so somebody else doesn't.

Yeah as I said I'm not bothered by it. All the picks make sense. How could you leave out the lio s of Keating and Afolabi really? Stellar seasons at their clubs. It's just funny they blanked the four in a row champs so much and even got the one pick wrong! Grace was the best defender in the league this season. Pico wasn't at his best after each international break but other than that he was brilliant. Mad that we have such a weak league but he's playing in the AFCON and can't even make the best 11 here.....

Poom is a funny one. Took me a while as well but I think that was just him adjusting to the speed of the press. He got caught out a few times. He mentioned that in a recent interview. He was excellent after the first series of games.

[Another Bohemia]

The biggest clubs in the world with established academies that have attracted the best talent available can do it? Grand so. How many academy players are starting for Man City by the way? I can only think of Foden off hand. Are there others? They've gone out and bought the best players in the world and broken the rules to do it. Liverpool maybe have more but....they aren't winning the league are they?

Who of the Pats players who have played regularly would have displaced any of our strongest 11 for you? Not a single one for me and they are the best in the league imop. Murphy, Leavy and Curtis would make the squad and they'd be getting cameos just like Nugent, Razi, Noonan and Cruise got this season. But we would not have won the league with them playing every week. Curtis is the shining light but he isn't better than Dan Cleary or Neil Farrugia at either position. He'd be a backup like Finn and I'm not sure I'd play him over Finn either tbh. Now if Pats can hold on to Murphy and Leavy and add a few more they may win a league if/when we fade. But I'd wager that team is broken up by player sales too soon for it.

Of course I do like your idea of academy players playing more. It's exciting. There will be seasons when academy players are good enough to play more and we can still win the league hopefully but it wasn't this season. Maybe next. I'd play Razi over the likes of Power. But I'd expect Razi to be snapped up before he gets a chance to win a league again.

So Farrugia had significant injury layoff or layoffs this year and Rovers wouldn't have given Curtis
a run in the team? Towell has significant game time and other Rovers fans seem to think that he is signed so no one else has him so the likes of Murphy from Pat's or Clarke from Bohs (who is a former Rovers academy player) wouldn't be better options than a player who is signed so other teams don't have him? Right.

Yes the club's I mentioned have world class academies but Rovers have the best academy facilities in the league. Some of the best academy coaches and a head coach who at least to some degree was involved in how the academy functions even if it was at the beginning of his tenure. This should all lead to at least some more cohesion between the academy and first team and probably more academy products having very regular starts for the first team.

[WeAreRovers]

Some of our best academy products are playing in the Championship rather than the LOI - Bazunu, Emakhu, Armstrong - that's a sign of success. Those 3 all played for the first team but, as outlined above, it's very difficult to break into a league-winning side from the academy. Sam Curtis even had to leave Rovers for game time.

With the lack of a third tier/B League/U21 League, the Rovers B team playing in the First Division was the ideal solution but of course was shot down by other clubs. I suspect the likes of Pats and Bohs will change their tune on that sooner rather than later. We badly need a way to bridge between U19 and first team for academy players.

[2 Year Contract]

With the lack of a third tier/B League/U21 League, the Rovers B team playing in the First Division was the ideal solution but of course was shot down by other clubs. I suspect the likes of Pats and Bohs will change their tune on that sooner rather than later. We badly need a way to bridge between U19 and first team for academy players.

Pats & I believe Dundalk backed the idea at the time and expressed interest with the FAI to putting their own B teams into the First Division. Other clubs, mostly the FD clubs, were the ones unhappy with it. I can see the point of view of both sides of the debate on it, but one thing is for sure, there definitely needs to be a better bridge between 19s and Premier Division. As good as Pats have been at integrating the best young players in the academy into the first team, they’ve lost Brian Maher and Tommy Lonergan (got him back though as Bohs fans will tell you ;)) due to other players being ahead of them at the time and both being too good to remain playing at 19s level. If there was a better bridge you’d see clubs holding onto the players that fall into that bracket