The promotion could yet emerge to have done you a great disservice. The very hard off the field work that got you promoted could take a hit due to an on the field situation you're just not prepared for.
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The promotion could yet emerge to have done you a great disservice. The very hard off the field work that got you promoted could take a hit due to an on the field situation you're just not prepared for.
How long is Tony C's contract?Quote:
Originally Posted by gufct
it is up until the end of next season.Quote:
Originally Posted by Paddyfield
How? most of us had a target of tenth for our first season back in the premier and we are only one place off it !Quote:
Originally Posted by Poor Student
we are playing good football, just havent got lady luck on our side. We couldnt buy a win as things stand but I feel it isnt far away now. When do we play the students? It will be interesting to see how we get on against ye.
EDIT: May 18 Home 7.45pm UCD
Point, I think, is that if you've come up too soon this year and go down, you'll be in the First Division next year. Had you stayed down, you'd have been able to improve again, probably win the First Division (obviously Dundalk wouldn't be in it) and come up for 2008 with a stronger squad than this year.Quote:
Originally Posted by Terry
I possibly disagree with Poor Student though, ironically because you aren't the only First Division team in the division, which gives you a better chance of staying up.
Well if you look at Dundalk, they'll now have two years of a feel good factor behind them and large crowds and that'll stand them in good stead when they go up. Galway were begining to go well but a year of struggle in the Premier can dent positive feeling and big crowds. Tenth is a pragmatic and realistic target but achieving just that or even struggling to do so won't draw in crowds in the long run.Quote:
Originally Posted by Terry
I haven't seen you and I'm not making any judgements but a long winless streak no matter how unlucky causes heads to drop and crowds to slowly dry up. We'll see how it works out in the long run. Hopefully I can make it to Galway for that one.;)Quote:
we are playing good football, just havent got lady luck on our side. We couldnt buy a win as things stand but I feel it isnt far away now. When do we play the students? It will be interesting to see how we get on against ye.
EDIT: May 18 Home 7.45pm UCD
Quote:
Originally Posted by Poor Student
Ooh a lecture on crowds from a UCD fan how valuable is that!!!!:D :D :D
My God! I see what you did there - you took the fact that we have low crowds and turned it into a joke about one of our fans saying your crowds might decrease! That's quite remarkable! Did you see that? How he made the joke about the crowds? Brilliant.
Jackass.
[Before anyone whines about personal abuse, that's a Family Guy parody...]
i have to say i agree with ye about the fact that if results dont improve then attendances will suffer but i think our results will improve soon. i cant see this run going on for much longer but then again i said that a few weeks ago as well. apart from longford which was a winable game we've played some tough teams and i didnt really expect to win any of them(maybe rovers as well).
im being optimistic but the fact that we are going to dublin and not getting hit for 3-0 scorelines regularly is a vast improvement on our last experience at the top division. Cork,Drogs,Pats and Bohs have got tough games against us and with shligo in freefall I think we will bypass waterford,shligo and maybe Bray by seasons end. We do need a dupuy though and urgently
Dupuy, now there is a player that would make a difference
Hey Stu. You are the ultimate defender of UCD's inability to attract a crowd but you'd need to polish up on your humour. It wasn't even far enough below the belt to label it sarcasm.Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
PS What's Family Guy? It must be a TV show or a book?
Galway United's promotion was achieved by off-the-field activities similar to UCD's off-the-field activities helped prevent relegation.Quote:
Originally Posted by Poor Student
Both club's ranked very highly in that department.
We live in a glass house; let's not throw stones.
Are you comparing our thoroughly merited - and earned - survival with your highly shady - and unearned - promotion?
WUM.
Shady, you say. In fact, highly shady? UNEARNED? Did you not read the criteria? UCDAFC signed up for it too.Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
Be careful with what you say around here because the media could be reading this and you could contribute to the off-the-field relegation of GUFC before the season even ends. At least give us a chance to get relegated on the pitch good and proper.
People in glasshouses and all that.
Thanks for signing your post with "WUM"; I see where you are coming from now.
:D You do realise that we finished sixth last year.Quote:
Originally Posted by Paddyfield
IMO we are better off up this year than if we remained in division 1 - provided we stay up. when teams like us are promoted (by whatever means!) we always find it difficult to attract the players we really want. most of them want to stay close to dublin or maybe go to a derry or cork at a push and have a real fear that we will go straight back down again.Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
if we do stay up, and i think we will, we will have 'consolidated' our position. players of the calibre we want should be more interested in joining us, still not beating our door down mind you but definately more interested.
had we remained in division 1 we would be back to square one at the beginning of next season. and with 3 teams getting relegated next season it would be very very difficult for a team like us to attract any players, never mind the ones we would want, with the fear of immediate relegation looming.
so hopefully we finish 10th - worst case scenario and possibly 7th or 8th this season and boost our squad in the close season for the much tougher challenge** of the 2008 season.
** note: i'm not saying that this season won't be hard but the following one will be much tougher if we retain our premier status!!
The inability of a couple of posters in here to debate my very simple point is disappointing. I'm simply posing the question as to whether promotion that came too early on the field will be of detriment to a good off the field set up. Languishing near the bottom with a winless streak will damage crowds and confidence about the club. Disagree with me by all means but don't go throwing insults at my club due to an inability to debate the point at hand. I'm not WUMing and I am not seeking to deabate the validity/invalidity of your promotion but simply the effects of an exceptional circumstance. In regards to this debate it serves no relevance to point out that UCD stayed up by the same process as we would have stayed up more than comfortably in a normal season.
Huh?:confused:Quote:
Originally Posted by Paddyfield
Paddyfield his signature is Jackass, see above.Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
Stu the least you could do is wait until you see us play till you decide to pass judgement or try to debate the issue of our fully merited invitation to join the new FAI Premier Division.
If you stay up, you'll definitely be in a better situation. I don't think anyone can argue that.Quote:
Originally Posted by galwayhoop
I actually think this is a good year for you to have come up as Waterford and Longford* in particular look to be poor sides so you have as good a chance of staying up as you could hope for. Realistically, you can't expect much better than 9th or 10th after coming up and this seems like a season when that's very achievable.
*They'll probably beat us on Friday now after I say that!
Poor Stu, I re-read your original post minus my wind-up specs and see where you are coming from but I was by no means insulting UCD.Quote:
Originally Posted by Poor Student
'Tis a long road without a turn...
Fair enough, Paddy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tir Oilean
That has absolutely nothing to do with the passage you quoted?
Galway don't deserve to be in the Premier; that's fact, accept it. It doesn't matter that the clubs were bullied into voting the system in; that doesn't make it in any way deserving that Galway skipped the queue. However, I think you could actually suffer in the long run for it. That's your starting point for any debate. Anything else is best left in the past.
This has nothing to do with the discussion in hand. You can't go around calling WUM at others and then post stuf like this.Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
If (when?) Galway get relegated it'll be because of the ****ness of their senior team, not because of the strength of the rest of their club.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
Galway United don't deserve to be in the Premier Division is like saying that Shelbourne don't deserve to be in the First Division. Then again...
However Stu, I am interested in debating your belief that GUFC could suffer in the long run because the club skipped the queue (or as we say in the west, was deemed good enough to be promoted :D )
Hear me out...
In last season's First Division, the only team to completely outclass GUFC was Dundalk. They deservedly finished above GUFC on the league table and qualified for a play-off, which they won fair and square.
The team that Dundalk beat over two legs, Waterford United, were relegated and un-relegated/promoted by default because the on-the-field Premier Division Champions (Shelbourne) were relegated for their off-the-field sh1tehawking.
The team that won the First Division, Shamrock Rovers, went from one crisis to another, both on and off the field, and spent 20 years moving around Dublin (and Cork!) renting grounds and are still homeless but were still promoted because their on-the-field and off-the-field activities were all deemed hunky dory.. and I don't dispute the findings.
Meanwhile, Galway United, who missed out on reaching the Play-Off by one point (because Dundalk beat us at the end of the season). Incidently, Limerick FC were the early pace setters in the Division and had they kept it up and won the Divsion, they would have still been been effectively made defunct and ultimately replaced by Limerick 37.
And my point is this: All Clubs signed up to a Set of Standards in 2004. To qualify for inclusion the the new League, all clubs were to be rated (yes, I'm going to use those cliches again) on-the-field and off-the-field. Galway United realised that even if the club won the Euro Lotto and bought 20 international class players, won the Premier Division and the Champion League, the FAI Licencing Group could still dump GUFC into the First Division because the record over the previous ten (?) seasons wouldn't account for enough points. Thus, to be in with a chance for inclusion in the new super dooper league, GUFC had to get maximum points for all the other stuff.
And that's pretty much what happened. We didn't skip the queue though. We were just at the top of the queue already.
Stu get over it will you. Were in the Premier whether you like it our not. When you say anything else is best left in the past I presume your talking about our invition to the new league so can you listen to your own advice and drop the antics on deserving to be in Premier or not its getting a bit boring and bordering on Wumming at this stage to be honest. Not saying any more on this subject.Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
I'd say some people on here don't remember the last time we were in the Premier Division... I remember going up to Monaghan for the third game of the season and the players were happy to get a 0-0 draw for our first point of the season - at the time I thought if we're only drawing 0-0 with Monaghan without having any chances we're in trouble.
The next week we were hammered 5-1 by Bohs in Terryland, the goal was the first we'd scored all season and it was an OG by Dave Hill!!!
Sure enough we finished with 19 points, Dundalk who finished in 10th had 39 points! Monaghan only picked up 11 more points after drawing with us.
This season we've been playing well and been unlucky, the players were disappointed with only drawing in Dalymount. Of the teams we have left to play in the first series of games only one of them is in the top half of the table.