http://www.extratime.ie/newsdesk/articles/211/
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good statement. Well done John FallonQuote:
Originally Posted by Gaillimh Al
Gold star for you Lim til I die you were paying attention! I can understand him wanying to vet his anger but he didnt exactly cover himself in glory on MNS. No supporter would have put up with the style of football we were playing in the past season or so. Its consigned to the history books now.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lim till i die
Great article. It only confirms what we already knew, this is the right board to have at the helm of our football club. Well done JF you have the unanimous support of the supporters of Galway United.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gaillimh Al
Don't be so quick with the unanimous support bit.... has anyone heard from 'gufct (i back TC 100%)' lately??? :confused:Quote:
Originally Posted by Tir Oilean
Quote:
Originally Posted by galwayhoop
I'll let gufct post for himself. From knowing him over the years (and I've had many disagreements with him) I'd say I don't know anyone who is as loyal or as hardworking (in a voluntary capacity) for the club INCLUDING the Chairman.
Maybe he's not as eloquent for the learned football experts here as the Chairman has been in recent days. But a few more gufcts (who can back up forum posts with real action) would serve the club better IMHO.
From my knowledge of him he is consistent in his loyalty. So I'd expect him to be backing the new manager 100% while he is the manager, rather than constantly undermining him in his role.
People have argued that a board or a site like this has little influence over the direction a club takes. Don't be too sure. And to the vast, vast majority who are delirious with joy at the sacking of Tony Cousins, I'd say congratulations, you've got your wish. Now is there any chance of you helping the club to stop the rot and turn the corner for the remainder of the season? We have enough supporters of other clubs wetting themselves at our current plight. So can we please start now by getting behind Billy Clery and the playing staff and ensure that Paul Doolin & Co have something to think about on Friday night?
Think GUFCt is in States....according to his last post. On the budget TC forgot to mention the 60K extra made available to him in the transfer window. His financial recollections make him a prime candidate for Taoiseach:)Quote:
Originally Posted by galwayhoop
Was wondering about him as well, but believe he is abroad? Didn;t see him Saturday anywayQuote:
Don't be so quick with the unanimous support bit.... has anyone heard from 'gufct (i back TC 100%)' lately???
I agree with a lot of this post. I think it is stretching things a bit to say this forum has influenced the club, but I can't back that up so I am open to correction.Quote:
Originally Posted by MyTown
I do believe we will see a MASSIVE crowd in Terryland next Tuesday for the Longford cup match. Billy, G and Lal back at the club - you're going to see passion from the team, its up to us, the fans, to match it on the terraces
:confused:Quote:
Originally Posted by MyTown
Are you insinuating that perhaps posters who saw him for the spoofer he was sooner than others are causing the club lasting damage???? Can't agree with you there.
The problem I had with Cousins was the style of football (or lack of it), constant sh1te talk and bad results.
I expect that those 3 things should improve almost immediately (well two of them will straight away). Personally I don't think that Billy is the man for the job long term, perhaps he will prove himself to be, but he will get my immediate support.
Billy has proven himself a risk taker in his short managerial career and I hope this continues, he is not afraid to go 3 at the back in search of a result. It would be great for it to work out for him but either way I expect we will see a vast improvement over the next few games. It might be bad timing for him though as the next two league fixtures will be very tough.
And to the vast, vast majority who are delirious with joy at the sacking of Tony Cousins, I'd say congratulations, you've got your wish. Now is there any chance of you helping the club to stop the rot and turn the corner for the remainder of the season?
I agree with everything you say about GUFCT. I'm glad TC is gone as I don't believe he was getting the best from a team that he was largely responsible for buying / assembling. However you should be careful of generalisations such as that highlighted above. You have no idea of what I or others have done and continue to do for the club. It's because I want to see the club succeed that I am not sorry that TC has departed.
Indeed spouting it so much that you have got the figures wrong. The commonly reported budget for 2007 was €1.2 million which was the budget all told. It is reported to be around €1.5 million this year. And its very likely Tony Cousins is being economical with the truth. He has said after alot of matches that we didnt deserve to lose games when it was clear to everyone that we did.Quote:
Originally Posted by mediahack
I reckon it'll be game for die hards only especially as it clashes with Liverpool ArsenalQuote:
Originally Posted by WoodquayBoy
Depends on how many contracts he wants to sign!!!:DQuote:
Originally Posted by DmanDmythDledge
WHO?:DQuote:
Originally Posted by KBurke
There's no byline - but could the writer be Eamonn Sweeney?
from the Sindo:
Quote:
Independent.ie
Galway top fantasy table
Pity poor Tony Cousins, sacked last week after just four games by Galway United, Ireland's leading fantasy football club.
It's only a few months since Galway were named as one of the big eircom League clubs seeking to join an All-Ireland League. With no hint of shame or irony, United met with Cork City, St Pat's, Derry City, Bohemians and Drogheda United to discuss the possibility of jumping to a 32-county competition. And all this from a club who wouldn't even be in the Premier League had they not been promoted on the basis of off the field criteria after finishing behind Dundalk the previous season.
Galway's notion of themselves as members of a big six belies both the fact that there hasn't been a decent team at Terryland in a decade and a half (in fact Cousins' achievement in keeping them in the Premier last year was as good as anyone's managed with these serial underachievers) and the fact that Shamrock Rovers and Sligo Rovers, to name just two, are far more credible participants in any future cross border set-up. Even a small town club like Longford Town have contributed far more to the league in recent times than Galway.
Up to last week the Tribesmen's fantasising was a mere irritation. But that was before Cousins paid the price for a poor, but infinitely retrievable, start to the season.
Cousins then revealed that he'd been expected to produce big six football on the same kind of budget as First Division strugglers Athlone Town. Pat Dolan observed last week that even Sporting Fingal provide their manager with more money than was available to the former Shamrock Rovers striker.
The bottom line is that Cousins has paid the price for Galway's pretence of being a big club. By sacking the manager they can pretend that the club has ambitions to compete with the big boys, other evidence notwithstanding. It's the kind of cheap and shoddy behaviour which brings the league into disrepute.
Hopefully the genuine big guns of Irish soccer will see the Cousins sacking as a demonstration of what Galway United are really about. The disgust expressed by Pat Dolan and Pat Fenlon last week suggests this might just happen. About time too.
http://www.independent.ie/sport/socc...e-1339659.html
More sad journalistic skills from someone who probably hasnt seen 2 minutes of what GUFC supporters have had to suffer for not only 4 matches but over 12 months. They really havent a clue. Yes, united should have got rid of him at the end of last season, but they decided to give him a chance that united must start this season in the same fashion that they ended the last. Did they? NO! They were even worse than anyone could have even imagined.
As what is been reported in Galway, the players were getting sick after their first training session without cousins, they were so far away from being match fit ! The first question the players put to Clery was " Can we now play football ?". Says it all for me.
Very annoying that all these outsiders(including Dolan etc) think they know more about what GUFC is about than those who support and work for the Club.
Does the fact that 99.99% of GUFC fans didn't shed a tear for TC's departure hint that they may just be wrong in all their assumptions and accusations?
TC's regime in Terryland was incredibly soft and people with little or no idea about UTD should keep their worthless opinions to themselves.
What that spanner,who wrote the latest GUFC-bashing article,calls delusion we call ambition.
Also Cousins was made well aware what his budget would be when he took the job so his complaining about is nonsensical.He also chose to leave out the part where the Directors coughed up E60K for him in July.
GUFC have become resented in some quarters for taking the bull by the horns and doing everything we can to make it into Ireland's Top 6.
Good to hear that Galway have a core support of at least 10,000 fans - I only wish that Waterford could get as much a following in the city and county even when we were recently more successful...Quote:
Originally Posted by Conor H
it never ceases to amaze me how certain members of the Irish media only write about Irish soccer when there is an oppertunity to slag it off. When was the last time the Sunday Independent devoted as much space to a match report.
Here is an article worth reading from the Galway City TribuneQuote:
Originally Posted by Redie
TONY COUSINS UNCOVERED
Criticism over the timing of the sacking of Tony Cousins as Galway United
manager is somewhat justified, not because he got just four games this
season before being given the boot, but for the fact that he got four games
at all this season.Anyone who regularly watched United last season — I covered 31 of their 37 games — could see that the warning signs were there, but the manager was given the benefit of the doubt.
The danger now is, as Cousins was in place for preseason preparations and
the start of the league campaign, the new manager won’t be able to put his
own stamp on the club with regard to players until the transfer window opensin July.Cousins was the public face of United’s mediocrity and so he was sacrificed, but the players have a lot to answer for as well. A delegation from the board met them early this week, laid it on the line in regards what was expected of them, and offered to tear up the contract of any player who wanted ‘out’. Players were given an hour to think things through, and no one came back looking to leave the club, so presumably they will now knuckle down and do the job they are paid reasonably well tO do — the average player weekly wage at United is understood to be just over €700, with a number of players falling both sides of this figure.
While Cousins was the man in charge, the players also had a role in last
season’s campaign that saw a club-record 12 game run at home without a win; the worst home record in the league; more draws than anyone else; a joint low of seven wins from 33 games; and fewer goals scored than all bar one side (Waterford).
Those are the cold hard facts that no one can argue with. It does no good to
speak ill of the dead, nor of a man who has just lost his job, but Cousins
always had an answer — if it wasn’t injuries, it was suspensions; if it
wasn’t the weather, it was the pitch; if it wasn’t a bounce of the ball it
was the referee . . . too much spin, not enough responsibility.
Stray into the realm of opinion and there were many other nooses with which to hang the manager. It takes a particularly warped sense of humour to keep a straight face when claiming that Wes Charles could do a job at full-back — he is a good centre back, but isn’t exactly blessed with blistering pace with which to track a winger or get up the line in support as a full-back. Cousins stumbled upon Derek Glynn last season, and the Mayo man’s eight league goals were a major part in United avoiding relegation. He has Billy Whizz pace but is not blessed with great height, so you would think low balls played into space for him to run on to would be the tactic. Not the senseless hoofing of balls into the stratosphere that is meat and drink to big, strong centre backs. Alan Murphy may argue that midfield, and not centre forward, is his best position, but I’m sure he didn’t have the right wing in mind when he said that; and for that matter, what was John Russell, by far the club’s most creative player, doing wasted out on the flank or picking splinters on the bench?
While not having the time to return phone calls this week, Cousins did
manage to make the short trip from his home to the RTE studios to appear on the Monday Night Soccer programme, where he had a good moan about, amongst other things, the budget he had to work under.
I was at a launch of the club’s five year plan in the Radisson SAS Hotel
three years ago, at which they outlined budgets for the five years ahead, so
Cousins knew exactly how much money he would have to work with when he applied for, and was given, the job in 2006, and no one heard a peep out of him then.
Yes, he was coming from a situation in Drogheda where money was not an
issue, but while money may buy you short term success, it won’t make for
long-term stability — Shelbourne anyone? That is one thing the United board deserve the highest of praise for — they have business plans in place, and if the cash isn’t there, it won’t be spent. It is basic mathematics, but it is amazing the amount of clubs — particularly in the League of Ireland — which are in danger of getting in over their heads no the financial side of things. The club also has a house in the Athenry area, meaning players no longer have to commute, as was the case with Gary Rogers when he first joined the club, though why Cousins failed to make a similar move is a mystery. He does own a taxi plate which operates on the east coast, which someone else drives under for him, so maybe it was a need to keep an eye on that, and to be fair, Executive members I spoke to said they had no issue with the fact the manager commuted up and down from Kildare. Such leeway, however, is not expected to be granted to the new manager. There is always a bit of wriggle room — the success of the Sunderland friendly and associated Night At The Races last year meant there was some extra cash in the kitty for Cousins to spend; while the 10 members of the Executive board are also believed to have stumped up €60,000 from their own pockets to basically save United’s season when the transfer window opened in July last year.
To suggest everything he did was wrong would do him a gross injustice — he led the club to third in the First Division, brought them on a record
seven-game winning run; and he brought in some quality players as well.
Were it not for Cousins, United might not boast the talents of Rogers,
Glynn, John Fitzgerald, Regi Nooitmeer or Gary Deegan right now.
He had some absolute shockers in the transfer market as well — Dimitri
Brinias was such a poor ‘keeper, Alan Gough was forced out of retirement
last season; Greg O’Halloran asked for a transfer back to Cork for family
reasons . . . and instead has ended up 140 miles the other way on loan at
Shelbourne, with United paying a portion of his wages; while Shaun Fagan and Colm James are best left as footnotes on Cousins’ tenure.
There are plenty of fans of other League of Ireland clubs having a right
good laugh at United now — considering the manner in which United were
‘promoted’ there is nothing a lot of them would enjoy more than seeing
United relegated — and to avoid that, the people of Galway need to get
behind the club.
There are some intensely irritating voices banging on around the city over
the fact that there are no local players at the club and that it is full of
Dubs. For the record, there was just one Galway-born player who played for another club apart from United in the Premier Division last season — Stephen O’Donnell, at Bohs — so it is clear that the local talent just isn’t there. My late grandfather had a wonderful saying — “save your breath to cool your porridge” — and that is exactly what these moan merchant should do. Or even better, save it to cheer on their local side.
One of the most respected and admired players to have ever worn the United jersey — and a local boy to boot — will be in charge of the senior side in Terryland for the first time on Tuesday night, but rather than turning out in droves to show support, there are going to be an awful lot of arses on couches and barstools throughout the city and county because Arsenal and Liverpool will be on the telly.
There is nothing that can change that, it is the simple reality of League of
Ireland soccer. So many people opt to invest their time and emotions in
clubs from a foreign land rather than invest in their own local side. When
that is the case, they have no right to criticise the club, just as Cousins
had no right to complain about a board that left him in charge for four
games too many.
Rico very coy when asked about the job on MNS.
It certainly had an 'they'll have to make me one hell of an offer' vibe to it!
The Club are talking to an ex Bohs player from the 80's who has been coaching in Sweden since.Quote:
Originally Posted by BohsPartisan
That would be.. http://www.eleven-a-side.com/eircoml...ws.asp?n=31719
more info here: http://www.sefc.ie/walker.htm
Interesting interview with him here.
He would be a brilliant appointment for Galway.
AFAIK, the initial contact was Walker received a phonecall from someone within Galway United.Quote:
Originally Posted by Paddyfield
"Following on from their success in the Foyle Cup, South East FC again did the region proud, as they reached the final of the Galway Umbro Cup."Quote:
Originally Posted by Demoshield
Bahahaha
"Did the region proud"
Pathetic bloody club
So he's managing some shower in the ar$e-end of Bunclody, and puts his name in for the Ireland job. :D Makes assistant coach at Walsall seem positively glamorous.
Good to see he's refocused his sights on a club of similar standing to the one he's at now. Still, looking at that slick website, the disparity between ambitions and reality would make him seem well suited for "the professional club". :rolleyes:
Sorry, lads, couldn't resist it. I have the height of respect for guys who do all their badges and aim for the top. It's just that all the posturing about the "big five" inevitably inspires a bit of schadenfreude around the league when things go tits-up in Terryland.
Even better, he has the same credentials as bluffer Connor.Quote:
Originally Posted by GavinZac
The pathetic art of name dropping.
Quote:
Originally Posted by South East FC
I have to agree, the club are only asking for it when they publicly state lofty ambitions in the press. As for "schadenfreude", I think that is more to do with the way Irish people think in general. We take pleasure in the pain and failure of others by default.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fivesilver