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It would be great to see Waterford get back to some sort of solid standing. I've enjoyed many trips down there, especially the play off in 2012 though the 2006 playoff victory still holds bittersweet memories for me due to our poor dvd production skills.
Pretty sure they wore either all white with blue trim or white shirts and shorts with blue socks.Quote:
Originally Posted by Martinho II
Open to correction but reasonably sure that was it
Blue shirts, blue shorts,blue socks without any hint of white, trim or otherwise hence the nickname "The Blues "Quote:
Originally Posted by Titan
http://youtu.be/DeOWBI5ykfgQuote:
Originally Posted by Martinho II
Fair enough. Thought they wore white at some stage. I stand corrected!
Bar extinction, nothing could be worse than the last four seasons, so I for one welcome our new Peckham overlords.
Lee Power has - or so I'm told by a couple of friends who live in Swindon - a very clear vision of what he wants his clubs to do: make money. In Swindon, this has taken the form of trying to develop players and sell them on at a profit. That's far from unique in football, and is not necessarily beneficial or detrimental to a club's success - it can take many forms.
What baffles me is how you make money from a LOI club. In his interview with local radio, Power accentuated the importance of the outstanding training facilities and the introduction of the national u15 league in his decision to become involved. It is, I suppose, possible that he envisions synergies between Waterford and Swindon in terms of player movement. Some may see this in a dim light, but personally, given the chaotic turnover in Waterford's playing staff over the last several years, I fail to see how this could be any worse, and in fact, could make things much better, and even offer greater stability. I suppose he could make money should Waterford ever get a Dundalk-esque run to the business end of a European competition, but this would frankly require a huge and risky investment on his part, or a sequence of unlikely events on a budget that would still be many, many multiples of what our income and turnover is likely to be.
I'm cautious about what happens next, but I don't see how it can be any worse than recent years.
As the proposed name change is to our original name anyway, it will cause no controversy here. A badge change will also cause no controversy. He'd only run into trouble on any such issues if he changed the club colours, which I find highly unlikely.
At least this season is unlikely to be boring, something that couldn't be said of the last few seasons.
Particularly Waterford (with all due respect)Quote:
Originally Posted by gormacha
Just a lot more work to be done there than at other clubs.
I presume obviously other clubs weren't available for takeover, but still, the First Division is the Graveyard for a reason.
This isn't a partisan response, I genuinely intend it as detached analysis - I think there is *less* work to be done at Waterford than most other clubs, relative to the amount of money he probably had to invest to take it over.Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
Our senior side has been awful for years. We all know that. The playing staff side of things has to be revamped completely. That's by far the biggest challenge. And it's a huge challenge. But, compared to almost all other LOI clubs, there's no significant work to be done on the ground (I say that full in the knowledge that I personally don't like the RSC because of the running track); they have access to a state of the art training facility in Carriganore; the u17 and u19 setups (including coaching) are exceptionally good; and whilst crowds have slowly dwindled over the last decade because of being in the graveyard, Waterford is a football stronghold - a good run of form and the crowds will come back. Nothing succeeds like success.
I don't think any of this is certain or pre-ordained. I'm too long in the tooth to believe it'll be straightforward. I've watched clubs in England where I was brought up, and in the LOI for the last thirty-five years I've been here rise and fall; succeed, fail, and then succeed again; burst into life and then go bankrupt and out of existence. God knows what will happen under Lee Power, but we were dying anyway.
Judging by old programmes I have. There was a period in the 80s when Waterford wore white with a (presumed) blue pin stripe. It could have bee an away kit but I definitely remember they wore it against (red-wearing) PatsQuote:
Originally Posted by Titan
They did seem to wear the white quite often in the '80s from what I remember, but it was always, at least nominally, an away strip, even though worn quite frequently, and for some big games. The 1980 Cup final, for example was all white, but the '86 one was back to all blue again.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dodge
Even up to very recently we've often been made change the blue shirt as it 'clashed' with red, or red and black stripes, but that hasn't happened for a while. Funnily enough we've not been refereed by Anthony Buttimer for a while either. Odd, that...
That pinstripe you recall Dodge sounds like the Hoffman's era kit - the pinnacle of sartorial elegance!
Just to go back a bit further, the full blue kit seems to have come in more in the '60s. Before that there looks to have been quite a bit of white - the shorts, sometimes the socks (blue and white hoops), and on the shirts the collars mainly, and blue body/white sleeves around the late '40s / early '50s.
Yeah Hoffmans is definitely the one I'm thinking about.
It's really only since the mid 90s that teams here seem to have settled on their current "norm". Pats wore white with red sleeves for a year. We've had red with flecks, pin stripes, plain etc. Bohs had red with black sleeves for a couple of years in the late 90s. Cork had every conceivable format of kit. Only Derry and rovers have consistently had the same style of kit. Others like Dundalk would have been close enough but the level of black would have schanged from time to time
That's all fair enough alright, particularly regarding the ground, which is decent for a ground with a running track.Quote:
Originally Posted by gormacha
But still, let's say the investment could revive Waterford to the levels Galway are at - I think they'd be a comparable club in some ways (decent ground, football history, in the doldrums). I still don't see that you'll be making money.
But sure I guess we'll see what happens.
Me neither.Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
And that's not a criticism of Waterford btw.Quote:
Originally Posted by gormacha
Just a criticism of the LoI in general. And in particular the First Division.
No, I got that.Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
I don't see how anyone currently makes proper money, outside of once in a generation European runs.
Dundalk's home kit has been all over the shop, with black sleeves, black shoulders, thick black stripes down one side, an absolutely fabulous half and half Blackburn style in the 90s, a giant black chevron, black pinstripes. White as predominant colour has been the only bit of consistency.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dodge
So I wasn't seeing things? Phew! Suppose I was only judging Waterford colours based on what I had seen which would have been 80's mainly and usually away to Pats, Bohs and Rovers. But yeah that White Hoffmans Kit with the blue pinstripes was spiffing
'Memory man' Jimmy McGee used the line 'And here come Real Madrid in their Waterford Utd white strip' commentating on one of the European Cup finals yonks ago.Quote:
Originally Posted by Titan
There were a few occasions this season where we wore an array of colours at home because of clashes that the away team couldn't or didn't sort out (looking at you Drogheda!), but even as recently as 2013 I think, we wore "all blue" kits with a significant amount of white in it.
The 2016 white away is one of the most beautiful kits in recent LOI history. Even has a bled out transparent badge that makes it appear "white on white". And whilst teh lack of a main short sponsor probably gave the Board sleepless nights, it made for an aesthetically pleasing kit.
As for the '80s, I only seem to remember blue kits with minimal white trim, but I was very young and this is probably affected by memory and the fact I rarely if ever travelled to away games back then.
Any investment in a club should be welcomed, the concern that Swindon will pick up the best players can only be good, lets face it what chance has a young lad at premiership clubs or even many championship clubs? Players that start in the lower tiers if good enough will progress up the divisions - Waterford will benefit from this and it will surely make them sustainable going forward and bring another competitive team to Irish football - It's not like Bray Wanderers fiasco (over last few seasons it could have been a soap opera) Bray have property developers investing and it appears their intentions are becoming more public! Powell on the other hand is a football man (history laid out by nr673 earlier) it gives better possibilities for a club when football people take control!