Back where we started in Europe?

With the demise of Shels has the standard of football slipped backwards so that we are once again struggling to get past the first rounds of European competitions?
The fact that a not very good side Pats side are vying for the Championship (and fair play to them for punching above their weight) suggests so. Did Shels bring out the best in Cork and Derry?
Is the only way for Irish clubs to compete in Europe to have the wealth of the League concentrated in one or two clubs, a la Rosenborg, Rangers and Celtic etc?
Is it better to have an exciting, open League and forget Europe, than have a one or two horse title race and maybe European advancement?
Just some thoughts...

This has just been a bad year for Irish teams in Europe.
Pats got the toughest draw possible and I would say they have a very good team.
Pat fenlon made a mess of Derry and had they appointed John Robertson from the start of the season they would have at least gone past the 1st round.
Drogheda are still going and have a good chance of progresing further.
The league is only getting better not worse.

thats funny coming from a shels fan, no were not, due to circumstances beyond anyones control it didn't work out, id say its true if robertson was at derry form the start they would be doin a lot better, the'er getting better now, the start of the season killed them, pats got a really though draw and drogs were expected to progress and they did, derry i thought were strong enough to progress but as said they would be better if they had there manager from the start.

the man has a point though

what we really need is to find a club with no real connection to their surrounding area, spend a lot of money (from the sale of land we dont ownand cant actually pass on the 60 odd years of lease remaining on it until a rezoning is secured) on illegal signing on fees, then dont pay the over the odds wages we promised these money grabbing mecenaries then push on and win through 2 qualifying rounds before selling out and moving a game agaisnt quality opposition to a rugby ground losing our only real advantage which is a tight and intimidating (when full, ahahahahahahaha) Tolka only to be roundly beaten as even our superpaid full time "professionals" haven't the legs for 90 minutes away in Spain. Of course having never had the financial wherewithal to follow this thru we'll end up lucky not to be wound up by the tax man, the courts and the FAI within a couple of years.

good plan

oh and **** europe and this pathetic idea that its how we judge ourselves, enjoy the hols, the beer and seeing your team play while getting some sun/food poisoning (delete as appropriate) but we're better off with a competitive and exciting low grade european league than being Scotland

well, like, it is nice to see teams do good in europe, just to prove the barstooler is an idiot and doesnt know what hes on about, i got a friend of mine who only today hes a massive man u fan who keeps saying how **** my team is and i laid out the fact we wernt beaten in 21 games and it shut him up fairley lively:D, so for a team to get, say, into EUFA group stage will shut a lot of these dicks up, and i would like that a lot,:D
i enjoy the food poisoning as much as the next person after all it not our league without it