My money would be on Heary to go before either of the above
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"Our ex manager's the worst!"
"No, ours is worse!"
"Nuh-aa! Ours was awfuler"
Got to love football. :)
Except when you've got a bloody centre-half up front for 40 minutes to chase a game while a forward sits on the bench.
Agree with everything you said pineapple stu but this was a young nervous team and with that comes silly simple mistakes. If you look at our team that played last night I believe only 2 players were over 25 years of age with half of the remainder of the team under 21. Manning our #8 is still only 17 and he got the man of the match.
Financially we can bring in players but they will have to agree to the clubs structures, something a lot of experienced LOI players won't like.
Appreciate it was a big occasion for what was in effect a new team (if not a new club), and that while it was 0-0, the size of the crowd was maybe more daunting than encouraging. So yeah, I can understand nerves. But trust me - if ye were nervous playing a team in freefall riven by internal fights who had a centre half up front, there will be streams of what looks like, but isn't, water coming down players' legs when ye travel to Drogheda. And someone like Keith Fahey will cause your players to have heart attacks with nerves simply by emerging from the tunnel alongside them.
And that's not really conducive to staying up. :)
But that's not the same pressures as last night where nearly 3000 people are expecting you to win, that's a chance to prove yourself with no great expectations.
Nonsense.
He's a relatively new manager learning the ropes in many ways but he's far from a spoofer. He's taken 2 teams in the first division and gotten them promoted playing some lovely football.
He's not yet at the level for a club that wants to be top half of the premier, but trying to claim he's a spoofer is ridiculous. His record speaks for itself. He's a decent manager at league of Ireland level.
There's definite areas he had to improve, choice of signings was a big one with us, keeping the dressing room happy when things were going badly was another. But I think with time and experience hell improve in those areas.
He did exactly what we asked of him when we hired him, and it's a shame it ended negatively when he wasn't ready to bring us to the next level we were asking for, but city history will remember Tommy Dunne fondly, and that run in the year we won the first division was some of the best memories most city fans have
Delighted he's doing well again with Galway, and fully confident he can keep them in the premier next year. The question will be what their expectations are.
He took Cork out of the First Division at the second attempt. Well done him.
Then got sacked half way through the next season I think?
Was Doolin's right hand man at ucd.
None of that is really great tbh.
Bit early to judge him at Galway yet. But beating a shambolic ucd team isn't a huge achievement.
Next season will tell a lot I'm sure. Maybe he's improved. I'm happy to remain unconvinced for now.
finished 6th in his first season with us in the premier, which was acceptable, but he wasn't able to kick on and some of his signings were very poor in 2013
Wouldn't be a Dunne fan either but he honestly did have galway playing the best football in the division this season (or for large parts of it anyway) although some would argue the Mervue influence in the squad had a lot to do with it as they played a great passing style last season. If Dunne signs well in the off season you'd have to imagine Galway will stay up, big pressure tho.
His team can only beat the muck that's in front of him, not his fault UCD are rubbish. His side also beat a decent Shels side, won 9 of last 11 games and drew the other 2. We're not claiming to be world beaters or to have the best manager, but right now he got us promoted and so is the best manager for us
Not arguing with any of that alright
In answer to Stu interesting points on last night's game
The refs in the first division were better this season than those in the premier, and it was a surprise to me to see one of our "top refs" given the game.
I was far from sure when Dunne got the job, and while we (myself included) rarely do in life, everyone should be given a chance. From the start the team has played a nice style of soccer. Last night was the most long ball they have played this season, along with 1st half of game in Belfield.
This might be due to lack of ability when they come up against better players, but I see room for improvement in a lot of them.
I believe you would have made the same judgement on Gary Rodgers, Bisto Flood, Séamus Connneely when they first played at Terryland. Even Séamus Coleman had a few faults when he was at Sligo. Hoban and Rory Gaffney did not look top LoI strikers when the played here in Galway either.
UCD players, fair play to them, always looks more polished than other weak teams. A good example would be Ronan Finn, but despite all the predictions he still waiting on the move to a big english club. I hope he gets as I like watching him play. Himself and S Williams were part of a Sporting Fingal team that played some of the nicest stuff I have seen played in the LoI Game in Terryland on a fine summers evening, Zayed also played that night.
There is 5/6 of last nights Galway team who can progress, but I agree that a few new players need to be signed as well. Players improve also when they step up a level.
You've gone from saying his history at cork proved he was a spoofer, despite getting that history wrong, to saying his achievements were not great. Maybe we have different definitions of spoofer but for me there's a huge gap between those two...
He got us promoted in the first season he was in any position to do so, mourinho couldn't have gotten us promoted that first year. He then had us finish a respectable 6th our first year back in the Premier with a limited budget. Again meeting the expectations at the time. What he couldn't do for us was push on into top half and challenging for Europe, he's not that level of manager yet. That's why he was sacked. That doesn't in any way make him a spoofer. He's an inexperienced manager capable of a certain level for now, and he's proved with Galway that he's good at that level. I expect his second time round in the Premier with a team hell do a bit better overall than he did with us, and I wish him the best of luck.
Dunne was in no way a spoofer for us, he did exactly what we asked of him until we got to a level he wasnt ready for yet. There's no shame in that.
In fairness to Dunne he had Cork playing some really nice football at times and just looked to be a few players short of really challenging higher up the table, then Caulfield came in and looks like he got more of a financial backing than Dunne did, so he might feel a little hard done by.
JCs budget is definitely not bigger than Dunnes. We made a significant loss last year, with Dunne, and have been trying to make up for it this year. The bigger crowds have helped but budget would have been smaller to start. Caulfield very charismatic and I think is better at attracting players to come to us. Dunne struggled with who he signed and signing players in the right positions. We also brought through a lot of unknown locals and youth players this year, and one thing Caulfield does incredibly well is get the best out of someone willing to work hard for him. Mark o Sullivan, Rob lehane, Brian Lenihan, Kavanagh, Josh o shea were all brought through, none of which would have been on decent wages at the start. I think JC did particularly well in integrating our 'big money' players with the guys he was giving a chance to.
I don't think there's any doubt Caulfield is the better manager for us. His history with the club, his passion and focus have rallied the Cork public around us for the first time in a long time. People want to listen to what he says, he makes people want to be a part of it. That's an incredibly valuable off the pitch skill for a manager which has hugely benefitted the club
not very often that two first cousins win the first div title and the playoffs! delighted for Galway. when was the last time a first div side won the playoffs? What is goin to be the story with Callaghan for next season -judgin from his spell with us I dont rate him as a manager but as a first class no 2! hes too tempramental for starters!
Monaghan United in 2011 were the last First Division side to win the play-off.
Out of the 21 play-off series' since they were introduced in 1992/1993, First Division sides have only been victorious on 9 occasions- Monaghan Utd (1993, 2011), Home Farm Everton (1996), Kilkenny City (2000), Dublin City (2005), Dundalk (2006), Finn Harps (2007), Sporting Fingal (2009), Galway FC (2014).
The billionaire sponsors of Galway, who have already committed €300,000 to the club, intend to increase their investment.... according to their own website
http://www.thecomergroup.com/news/co...p-of-galway-fc
That article is months old - refers to renaming of the stand 'this week', which certainly wasn't this week!
What he is highlighting is that the comer brothers will be investing in the club long term rather than just the 3 years.
And feckin' hell, four of those nine were against us!
I do think the relegation part of the play-off should have been dispensed with by now - promotion play-offs by all means, but relegation should be automatic. An imbalance that the second-last-placed side might have weeks (or half the season :p) to effectively abandon a busted flush of a premier division campaign and concentrate on the one game that will keep them up, while the promotion-seeking side knock the sh!te out of themselves to make that same game.
Must add my +1 to the Galway congrats though, best footballing side in the Division this year by some way.
Incisive. Play-offs are different in different jurisdictions, and have been known to change. The football league in England did away with the relegation aspect of their play-off system within a couple of seasons IIRC. Serie A never had it, I think. Of course all clubs know what the rules are before each season, doesn't alter the view that it's far from the best system.
You'd be surprised how quickly quite a lot of Blues fans got over that play-off, by the way (and the ill-advised and regrettable course of action taken afterwards), and any residual memory would have been fairly comprehensively wiped out by the season just endured, so jokey reference notwithstanding, no.
Nice to see it's still forefront in some people's minds though.
Should we simply accept the status quo though? I think the idea of 2 up and 2 down is much more appealing straight out than a relegation play off, and that's not just because Harps are in the First Division. When we were last relegated, there was a shift in numbers in the Premier and three teams went straight down, meaning much more competition right through to the last day of the season towards the bottom end of the table.
Would certainly be in favour of two down, one up automatically with second/third promotion play-off as is the case in most European leagues.
I maybe wrong but as far I know 2006 had no promotion or relegation that season and positions were determined over some criteria that I forget. Also the game between Dundalk and Waterford in the playoff was not sanctioned and as I remember Des Casey at the time was on the restructuring panel and critised the game taking place.
Dundalk didn't make the cut that year and neither did Waterford but shelbournes collapse relegated them and Waterford took their place.
I would prefer the same because the league is the league and the placings should be defacto. In our league though with 12 team division v and 8 team there should be only 2nd v 2nd from bottom if there is a playoff.
Isn't there UEFA rule that if there is a change in league promotion/relegation then 2 years notice has to be given