And football is their national sport
Printable View
Thats a fair point. Though years of living in England starkly show the difference between the Irish and English football fan (aside from the bigger numbers in England that think a good fight is part of the day out). Across all sports in Ireland there are large numbers of bandwagoners. For all its failings LoI at least has a consistent hardcore of support no matter how a club is doing. The English have commented on how harsh Irish people seem to be on LoI, comments like if I go see Arsenal in the Champions League on Wednesday I dont expect to see the same quality of game or facility when I go back to watching Southend on Saturday. It is a bugbear of mine where more than once I have heard comments from 1st timers at LoI saying 'Its not Old Trafford' etc. as they are politely reminded of the cost of getting in to an EPL game.
For clubs that have fallen out of the football league it is hell trying to get back. Notts County are a very good example of a club that spent nearly 70 seasons in the top two divisions but now roughing it in non-league with 4-5k at games. There are a few other former decent Football League clubs (the numbers have grown a lot more recently so money doesnt flow down through the pyramid as claimed) that have decent attendances but when you get to a Boreham Wood or Kings Lynn that have no pedigree above the conference its pretty bleak and LoI would be luxury for those players. Vanarama North and South have a lot of basketcase clubs where they are seen as embarrassments to the area, Chemlsford City tops that list considering the size of the place and neignbouring Colchester and Southend at their worst never plumb those depths. City pay their players quite well which is a mystery to me unless they have the same player agency as Dundalk had last season - one game a player stepped off the pitch for a smoke and it was considered ok........
Matty Smith now confirmed by Derry, that's some side they will have for next season, should run Rovers very close. Interesting thing too about their signings, most are on at least 2 year deals.
Very good signing for Derry. Disappointed but at least it’s an area that pats are very well stocked in already
Someone in The Sun got their wires crossed. He was never expected to stay until that article the other day. Their LOI journalists are normally better informed.
Yeah said at the time I'd have obviously loved him to stay but I don't understand why we'd have made the signings we have if he was. Would have left us with 9 players for 3 positions which is ridiculous depth given we don't have anything near that in other areas of the pitch.
I think he's definitely better off the left wing so it's a shame for him that Duffy will have that spot nailed down from the start. He's a great, hard-working player though so he'll prove to be a big signing for Derry whatever position he plays in.
Never heard of him would have preferred Aubameyang talk to be true to be honest but can’t win them all hopefully he isn’t bad.
Any team that can beat us 6-1 in a friendly is a fearsome outfit indeed.
Jordan Flores heading to Bohs,solid signing ….
Not that Dundalk are any different with 3 of the best players leaving last year, Duffy, McEleney and Patching, but we had a terrible season, however that's 5 of the Pats cup final winning best winning players now left in Jaros, Desmond, Lewis, Benson and Smith.
They have signed well, but still quality moving out, Derry are the big winners this season in recruitment, by far look to have added the best quality.
Flores left on a high note but has played 14 games since 2020 for Northampton and Hull scoring zero goals. You'd wonder how he ends up back in the loi .
Burke or Hooooban would be examples of guys who look great here but struggled abroad , the difference being they are here because they are coming home...Flores coming back to loi is harder to understand, you'd think he would have had options
Maybe, having experienced both, he's decided he's as well off being a relatively big fish in the LOI pond as he is slogging away in the slums of the professional game over there? Footballers are as prone to occasionally baffling decisions as the rest of us. :)
Maybe he has a mrs who's Irish or in Ireland. Maybe he doesn't have many lucrative options. It's not that strange really since he knows the league.
LOI football suits him, he's a technical player with not a huge amount of pace or physicality.