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The 19s just played Red Star Belgrade home and away, ran them close enough though considering they’ve got one of the best academies in Europe at that level. Abankwah didn’t feature in either game though as he was with the first team at the timeQuote:
Originally Posted by ontheotherhand
Ah I thought there was a bit of a run before that game.
Wonder how he ended up on Udinese's radar?
They have had a good reputation over the years of identifying young players from abroad that they think they can sell on in future so they probably have quite a few scouts throughout Europe. Bruno Fernandes and Alexis Sanchez would be two high profile ones that spring to mind but there are plenty more no doubt.
The winners of the tie was to play Empoli. Id be surprised if there is any connection as he wasn't involved in the games. We did ok in the home leg against Red Star and should have got a better result. I wasn't that hopeful for the away leg.
Any idea Wot age did James Abankwah move to Dublin as he started with longford schoolboy side Melview FC?I never heard of him before until he showed up with St Pats!Quote:
Originally Posted by 2 Year Contract
Dont know what age he moved to Dublin but he joined Pats from Cherry Orchard at age 14 going on 15 in January 2019, not sure how long he’d been at Orchard prior to thatQuote:
Originally Posted by Martinho II
Anyone care to remember what Roy O Donovan went to Sunderland for. Thought it was in the region of 625K?Quote:
Originally Posted by Olé Olé
I checked and the article I read said it was 500k he went for.Quote:
Originally Posted by pateen
drogs signed 2 lads on loan from lincoln, roughan should be a v good signing. think they'll be ok , bit of a gap there now between themselves and harps/ucd
Doherty has done amazingly well in rebuilding the squad - I really do think we are stronger than last season, given the spend of other clubs a good result for us this year is 7th, anything else will be a bonus.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jd2793
Going to be interesting at the bottom alright. I think Whelan is the only player we're likely to lose in mid-season. Seems everyone else is still around. That's a rarity for us lately, and given that we did reasonably well against the Premier sides in the Cup (including Shels), that has to give us a chance at staying up.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jd2793
Does anyone know what is going on with Athlone? I can only make out 4 players re-signed and they have recently lost Adam Wixted, Dylan Hand, Dan McKenna and Ray O'Sullivan who all signed for the struggling Warrenpoint Town
And on that related point Warrenpoint basically look like the 20th LOI club going by my count at least 15 ex-LOI players from Dublin they have in their squad. Do they train in Dublin and are they paying crazy expenses?
ya id expect there to be interest in himself and kerrigan throughout the season tbh 2 cracking talents. big job on but ye will have always have a chance when whelan is involved. great experience for some of the younger ones in the squad too for the inevitable rebuild that'll be needed when ye get raidedQuote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
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Originally Posted by total hoofball
https://www.westmeathindependent.ie/...rts-in-trials/
Russell mentioning trialists from the UK in that article and others training but it dosent seem to be optimal having very few players signed at this stage of pre-season.....
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Originally Posted by Bucket
He's Ghanaian born according to RTE, moved here young, doesn't say what age.Quote:
Originally Posted by kksaints
"Born in Ireland with Ghanaian roots" according to Dan McDonnell's piece yesterday.Quote:
Originally Posted by CraftyToePoke
€400k up front fee approx according to Paul O'Hehir in the Mirror - https://www.irishmirror.ie/sport/soc...wsApp_AppShare
And the scope to double it with add ons.
Its really shows you how small we are as a league (all of us inc Rovers) when a transfer of this size is game changing in terms of budget for a LOI team.
Its the kind of money that would almost be classed as a free transfer in the UK.
Anyway long may it last , we need the likes of McGrath, Scales etc to do well and build confidence in the LOI over there as well as further afield.
Is that another way of saying they better damn well be a success so that Roadstone is a success and so DD will feck off quietly?Quote:
Originally Posted by sbgawa
Saw a picture on twitter that the management agency of Cork City's Cathal Heffernan posted with him having just played for Bayer Leverkusen (presumably a trial game for a youth side), with a 'Soon ->' emoji so looks like he could be on his way to them. Good to see so many of the young expat Irish lads playing in Spain/France/Italy/Germany etc these days as opposed to just solely the UK in the past.
Yeah definitely. Once they adapt to the different cultures it should be of great benefit to them in their careers. If clubs are paying proper fees for them too then they'll be more likely to think about the long term as opposed to them just being one of a dozen 16 year olds taken on for minimal compensation if any at a UK club in the past.
Ollie is surely taking the **** at this stage?
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Originally Posted by RTÉ
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Originally Posted by pineapple stu
Ollie for Ireland job ;)
Ollie under the radar assembling an interesting squad!
If they can understand each other.
That's what Dundalk said this time last year!Quote:
Originally Posted by Finlay Harp
There was nothing under the radar about Dundalk - I'd say there was a degree of smugness about their raft of can't-miss-megastars in some quarters. I remember some very confident proclamations about the keeper.Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
No doubting we're bringing a fair few unknown quantities, but the fact there's not a hell of a lot of quality left to sign in Ireland forces the hand somewhat.
Could be another masterstroke by Ollie or it could all end horribly.
He's actually played for 2 clubs since playing in Cambodia, one in Italy and another in Croatia. Not that RTE seem to be bothered to take 2 seconds to google it before writing that article and headline.Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
Nothing to do with your point however because even with those clubs it still doesn’t take away from how random it is that a school teacher from Letterkenny has somehow found him! :D
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Originally Posted by 2 Year Contract
Agents offer players to clubs all the time and I’m sure this is what happened here,he was on trial for 2/3 weeks and they obviously liked what they seen,I don’t think Ollie has scouts running around Croatia looking at players for him!
You are mistaking smug for saying we'll wait and see and hoping for the best! Sure what could possibly have gone wrong with a former Albanian/ Italian underage international with 300 clubs. Nattestad seemed ok on paper but turned out to be a really lazy waster among other things. Han tried at least and Jurkovskis was a good signing but probably more expensive than just keeping as good a tried and trusted fullback. The whole 1 year contract, no preseason games stuff etc had us baffled never mind signings in. Has Zahibo managed to get another club anywhere...Quote:
Originally Posted by sadloserkid
Maybe another exotic super agency has gotten some claw in to Harps, football is a universal language so no worries there and 'mucky pitch is good' is all the universal translator needs!
Ollie is already able to say "f***in work!" in numerous languages.
You may have advised caution yourself Nesta but some of your peers seemed aghast at any suggestion that Abibi wasn't a shrewd, clever bit of business from the outset. We've all been there (POS era Limerick FC were fond of an exotic flag too), just not with as internationally diverse a pool as Dundalk mustered last season.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nesta99
Looks like Georgie Kelly to Rotherham is a done deal. Not a bad move to be joining a club 1 point off top of league 1 considering where he was at as a player 12 months ago
3.5 year contract apparently. Good deal for him.
Fair play to him,waited and got a good long term deal where he might be playing in the Championship next season......Quote:
Originally Posted by 2 Year Contract
Yeah it was a brave but good call to back himself and wait it out. Once he got 2 clubs with proper interest (Plymouth were very close to signing him this week apparently), he no doubt got himself a better wage and longer contractQuote:
Originally Posted by joey B
got to hand it to him thats an amazing deal. i dont think hes good enough for the championship but thats neither here nor there, fantastic deal that nobody could turn down
Stephen Ireland's agency he's with. Mark O'Mahony and Luke O'Brien are with him and were both over in Germany recently too.Quote:
Originally Posted by 2 Year Contract
The Stephen Ireland has an agency? What kind of eejit would take advice from a guy who tanked his international and club careers while ruining his reputation with the public with stupid lies to the media?Quote:
Originally Posted by JR89