Smith has Bohs written all over him.
If he's to stay in Ireland anyway.
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Smith has Bohs written all over him.
If he's to stay in Ireland anyway.
Was actually thinking similar myself. The league definitely seems to have gotten stronger overall, so an increase in teams might be a good thing. Only downside I can see with a 12 team league is the lop sided number of of games. Playing each other 3 times is not satisfactory at all, and 44 games (4 times each) just seems too many.
Would the majority of Premier Division clubs want an expansion to 12? More teams to divide out the UEFA solidarity payments.
Looking at Galway last year. Cork this year narrowly losing out to Derry. It's not beyond a top First Division club to win the FAI Cup, especially if they have a gap and aren't looking over their shoulder.
I fully expect Drogs to beat Bray tomorrow, but if the unlikely happens and it has a few seasons but not often, I wonder would that thought be revised?
Either way if Drogs win, this is going to be some fun next year as one club obv has to finish 10th, and its going to be one hell of a season to avoid it for any club that starts off bad or has a mid season wobble.
The bar has been raised and with few weak clubs now lurking about in the PD, its survival of the fittest more than ever.
A 12 club PD may work but that's back to the b/s 33 games, and you can have bad luck with likes of Shels / Rovers / Pats away twice with only one home game in return in any season, and you may not auto get it switched the following season, then what happens relegation, is it still 1 down, 1 play off, and finally will need two more clubs for the FD to make it up to 22.
Not sure that will work, plus if a club in say 8th or 9th is safe by Sept, are they really going to extend themselves to make that much of an effort v dog eat dog currently, when almost every game in a 10 club div counts.
My own preference would be a 16 club PD, 30 decent games, the classic home and away twice, then extend or re-launch actually the League Cup to make up for missing weekends, but again its the FD that needs tweaking, then we need at least 6 more clubs to take it to 26 teams, would that work? Not sure.
Matty is hard working technically decent but he suffers from inconsistency and a lack of end of product in the final third, I thought he would have got another season at Shels looks like those 2 goals he scored late in the season came too late I don't think that red card against Pats would have helped him either. I could see any of Bohs, Sligo, Waterford, Galway, Cork looking at signing him if he stays in LOI
Griffin is the one we have released I would miss the most, he has been quietly an assured dependable centre-back for Shels but with hitting 30 with durability question marks as he picks up injuries if he had an offer to go back to Cork it would be inevitable he would move on
Was putting two and two together and maybe getting five with Smith and Bohs, just feel like it's one that makes sense given Reynolds has worked with him at two different clubs already (I think) and they could do with a player like him anyway.
Alex Nolan has had a couple of bright spots with Pats but they've mostly been isolated moments in a great cameo in the cup final and a couple of big goals off the bench this season. Could be wrong but I've not seen enough from him yet that makes me think he could go to a Shels, Bohs etc as he's been linked to and make much more of a difference than he has for us.
Glenavon appointed Paddy McLaughlin as manager this evening,thought he might have been in with a shout of the Derry job but not this time…
Cobh Ramblers FC have announced the release of head coach Gary Hunt over the weekend.
Looks like it could be Tiernan Lynch (Larne FC)?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football...s/c9qld0jr1r9o
Yeah the Derry Journal have Sean Barrett narrowing it down to two - both of whom are currently in jobs (one being Lynch).
Thanks for that tip:
https://www.derryjournal.com/sport/f...reland-4871998
From the way TL is talking, it's looking like the job's his for the asking, though maybe just maybe he's dangling this bait in the hope of squeezing more money out of Kenny Bruce to stay at Larne? I know KB can't compete with Derry's owner financially, but Lynch is in a good spot with Larne, even if results this season have been poor.
If so, Derry would be wise in keeping the other candidate in reserve should they not get him - wonder who it might be?
P.S. Interesting mention of Ian Baraclough - he could do a good job for some other LOI club, or maybe even replace TL at Larne: his record at Sligo was v.good, he did ok with NI's U-21's and even if the Senior job didn't work out, the timing was at least as much to blame as the appointee (imo). While in his most recent job as Asst.Mgr to Darrell Clarke at Cheltenham, they damned nearly pulled off the Great Escape after things had seemed entirely hopeless. Good bloke personally, too.
The allure of LoI over IL remains, from Champions and Europe to also rans and no Europe. Just in case there is a missed opportunity to set EalingGreen and Eatyourgreens off!!