2024 Season, Arrivals and Departures

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Originally Posted by sbgawa

If Clarke and farrugia can stay fit we will be very hard to beat for the league . When they played together last year we looked fantastic. Adding mceneff as well as seems to be flagged improves us. Only question mark really is are the replacements for Manus good enough.

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Agree totally on Clarke & Farrugia.

I have a feeling Kenny will improve. Retaining Poom was very important. Having a fully fit Jack Byrne back will be huge too.

I think Pohls will be OK. I expect some teething problems (like Pats at home last year) but he's very talented and made big saves in Derry, Dalymount and Cork. I had doubts but he proved he's worthy of his place imho.

McEneff would be amazing and I think Naj Razi could be a big player for us this year. I said the same about Ferijaz last year though :)

Razi scored both goals in the first pre season friendly against Lucan at the weekend in a 2 nil win.
Was a youthful enough side but a few seniors in it as well.
He will need to light it up pre season if he is going to take a place in midfield.
If we continue to play 5 at the back inc the 2 wb that means only 3 midfielders needed or 4 at a push.
leaving aside a couple of Academy kids in the squad our senior pros for the 3 or 4 places are.

JAck Byrne, Darragh Burns, Ritchie Towell, Poom, O Neill, Dylan Watts, Nugent...and possibly McEneff.
Very tough to break into that line up but i think he might just be good enough to force the issue.

I hope you're right. That's not what I'm hearing. They are absolutely critical to how we play. Not that a bad start would be the end of the world. The team is obviously good enough to come back from one after breaking that record last season.

Poom should kick on again. He was steadily improving as the season went on. A lot of competition in midfield as you say but we have a lot of competitions coming up. I'd worry a little bit about Nugent getting minutes as I thought he showed some real ability last season in his few cameos. Not at RWB but in the middle. Surprised we aren't looking at a loan move again there.

Dundalk have brought in full back Jamie Walker from Kelty Hearts in Scotland. What kind of standard is it in League one in Scotland ?

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Originally Posted by D24Saint

Dundalk have brought in full back Jamie Walker from Kelty Hearts in Scotland. What kind of standard is it in League one in Scotland ?

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Martin Rennie is still playing at that standard ;)

Scottish League One is mostly part-time I would say lower Premier Division/First Division standard is a fair enough comparison. AFAIK Falkirk, Hamilton, Queen of the South are the only full-time teams in that division and Falkirk and Hamilton are miles ahead of the other 8

Just because a player is signed from a part-time team doesn't mean they are not any good as we all know Gary Twigg was signed by Rovers from Brechin City when they were in that same division

Galway signed Jeannot Esua ,a Cameroonian defender last with Ekenäs IF who play in the Finnish First Division….

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Originally Posted by D24Saint

Dundalk have brought in full back Jamie Walker from Kelty Hearts in Scotland. What kind of standard is it in League one in Scotland ?

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Archie Davies was playing non league up to end of 2022 and ended up in the LOI team of the year.

I would also say a lot of teams in the division that Wrexham just came out are stronger than LOI PD.

No idea what this new guy will be like he'll play left full, but its worth a go moving for players like this looking to go to full time, as ever time will tell on his ability / performances though.

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Originally Posted by 2 Year Contract

Martin Rennie is still playing at that standard ;)

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Ah yes, fast acting Rennie ;). He even scored a goal recently I believe. Imagine !

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Originally Posted by total hoofball

Scottish League One is mostly part-time I would say lower Premier Division/First Division standard is a fair enough comparison. AFAIK Falkirk, Hamilton, Queen of the South are the only full-time teams in that division and Falkirk and Hamilton are miles ahead of the other 8

Just because a player is signed from a part-time team doesn't mean they are not any good as we all know Gary Twigg was signed by Rovers from Brechin City when they were in that same division

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Some players choose to play part-time because they can make more money with a job and part-time football. It has happened on several occasions that teams have gone into a slide after they go full-time, because they lose their best players.

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Originally Posted by Jolly Red Giant

Some players choose to play part-time because they can make more money with a job and part-time football. It has happened on several occasions that teams have gone into a slide after they go full-time, because they lose their best players.

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A warning for Drogheda! Once they go full time they enter the same market as Pats/Bohs/Rovers/Shels/Dundalk for players. Being part-time is the reason they’ve been able to hang onto the likes of Darragh Markey despite Bohs interest last year, as he wants to stay in his day job and the evening training with Drogheda allows him to do that

Bj Banda signed for Institute after leaving us….

How many times has he left Harps at this stage?!

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

How many times has he left Harps at this stage?!

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Second time he's left the club now. I'd say it'll be the last time too. He was brutal last year.

Hmm. Feels like he's had more spells with ye for some reason

Banda and Harps are like Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Married twice but it feels like more.

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Originally Posted by nigel-harps1954

Second time he's left the club now. I'd say it'll be the last time too. He was brutal last year.

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Very odd player,scored and played well enough to prompt Larne to sign him not too long ago but didn’t look interested last season at all,granted the environment was not very good but others with alot less experience played far better than him…..

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Originally Posted by oriel

Archie Davies was playing non league up to end of 2022 and ended up in the LOI team of the year.

I would also say a lot of teams in the division that Wrexham just came out are stronger than LOI PD.

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Leaving aside that he asked about League One in Scotland, having Caledonia Braves and Kelty Hearts as your CV is quite different to Crawley and Aldershot.

Good players can come from anywhere of course.

Yeah Archie Davies played nearly 70 league games in England before dropping into non-league. Not comparable at all really. You won't see many players with a similar CV coming here this off-season.

Darren Nwankwo and Robbie Lynch sign part time pro deals with Treaty.