Rumours that Collie O'neill has left UCD ?
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Rumours that Collie O'neill has left UCD ?
Could he be coming down here? Our application window closed just over a week ago
Unlikely unless it's a very very good offer since he's relatively high up in Microsoft, think he's a team manager there too which would be well paid.Quote:
Originally Posted by patrickccfc
Sacked, not quit according to twitter
I feel sorry for him a little bit. He has achieved a lot with limited resources and can be proud of that, every LOI club should be thankful that UCD keeps producing players for us all. But hes not working in a real football environment, and the expectations there aren't normal.
You can't field a team of kids and have them play the way you would if you had all your first choice 11. Thats how you end up losing 10-1. You don't have to play the style of football John Caulfield prefers to realise pragmatism has value.
There has to be a point in a game where you tell your defenders just to sit back and soak up the pressure, certainly when you are already 4 or 5 goals down early on.
This decision sounds very strange unless theres something we don't know about.
It seems pretty bizarre, looking from the outside. Any of the UCD fans have any insight or opinion?
While I agree with you overall.. Collie was well able to show pragmatism at certain times. For example, there was a game last year when they kicked us out of it in the first half- every attack stopped by cynical little foul after cynical little foul. And their saintly reputation meant there wasn't a card in sight! And you don't win the first division without a bit of steel.Quote:
Originally Posted by El-Pietro
By and large his teams did play an expansive attractive game of football but were no slouches at time wasting etc when the need arose. Obviously the high turnover of players (especially mid season exodus) made the job almost impossible, can only presume the decision is to get someone in that can get them above Finn Harps (doubt anything above that is realistic) as otherwise they might as well have let him finish out the season.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr A
While it obviously didn't help I doubt the game on Friday is the sole (or even the main) reason for the decision, to be fair UCD have not been prone to knee jerk reactions.
Don't forget we held on for 45 minutes out in Dudelange with ten men while they threw the kitchen sink at us. Again, wouldn't have happened if we kept playing out from the back. I don't think inflexibility, or club orders, are an issue here. The Bohs game was a freak result brought about by having an entire team missing through either injuries or departures, and you can't throw that many new kids into a team in the Premier.Quote:
Originally Posted by El-Pietro
It's a strange one. I thought he might walk away after Friday - partly because Martin Moran did walk away after a 6-0 defeat in Dalyer back in 2001 - but the press release doesn't read like that's what happened. Hope it wasn't acrimonious whatever happened, because for four years in the First Division, he achieved a hell of a lot. Winning a round in Europe, promotion pushes every year, a title, a Cup semi-final, Manager of the Year last year. Would be a shame for it to end in a row just a few months later.
There are a couple of posts on boards that suggest it wasn't about Friday:
On boards:
https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/show...postcount=1164 "There was obviously friction between him and the board when the board went over his head and gave Kearns their own one game suspension."
https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/show...postcount=1169 "Yeah. Kearns was banned by the FAI for the Rovers game but the additional games didn't start until after the Waterford game but the board at UCD decided to ban him for it themselves despite Collies wishes and they lost 1-2 and you have to think that their first choice keeper that's a mile ahead of their backups could have won them that game. When I found out about it I said to my mate if I were Collie I'd have walked at that and I hope that's what's happened now and not that he got sacked."
No idea whether that's credible or not.
That was mentioned on extratime at the time -
Another unusual one.Quote:
Both players were eligible for their weekend fixtures against Waterford and Sligo Rovers as the bans don't kick in until Monday but, while Pender played, Kearns has been suspended separately by his club.
O’Neill and Fereguia gone to Shamrock Rovers (2nd in league) mid-season; Davis to Derry (4th); Scales on verge of going to Bristol Rovers; Kearns linked with move to Rovers/Dundalk. All played up to July 1st - UCD lost 16 out of 20. Nothing to do with playing kids. Limited squad rotation, used 14 odd players first 20 games, less than any other Prem team, seeming contempt for the other 6-9 squad members...as if Bohs are packed full of LOI veterans...give us a break
Can help morale when play a guy who hasn’t been involved for a month once transfer falls through
Has a UCD manager ever been given the heave-go mid-season before?
Funnily enough I was actually talking to an ex player, not ucd just loi in general, about that recently, he was saying there's lots of merit when the team is so young in continuing to play the same way because if you suddenly go from free flowing attacking football to park the bus just because a few players leave some of the remaining players when they're that young might take it as the coach effectively saying that they're not good enough and whether they are or not if they're your best option you don't want them thinking that. Also made the point of if you're trying to build a culture of playing a certain way all the way through the club then what's the point if the players see that as soon as the going gets tough you throw the tactics out the window.Quote:
Originally Posted by El-Pietro
I'm not suggesting they play defensivley in every game, but when you are 5-0 down with 40 minutes left to play I would suggest that sitting back o the remaining time is a reasonable approach. I didn't see the Bohs/UCD game in full but watching the highlights I was surprised that I wasn't seeing really poor defensive errors for the most part, I saw good finishing from Bohs and good passing opening up UCD. I saw three penalties, including two given away by the keeper which implies to me he was under a lot of pressure. I didn't see tonnes of UCD bodies trying to stop Bohs at any cost which is what should have been happening.Quote:
Originally Posted by RathfarnhamHoop
You're talking about 18-20 year olds here, once the go 3 or so down the heads just go completely, all the tactics in the world can't stop that happening, it's just a case of trying to score before that happens. Momentum is huge at that age group when there's nobody with experience in the team.Quote:
Originally Posted by El-Pietro
So UCD suspended Kearns for 'having bottles thrown at him' ;) interesting.Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
Don't think so.Quote:
Originally Posted by Onapointoforder
Aaron Callaghan I think didn't have his contract renewed after relegation in 2014. Martin Russell said he was off to Cork or somewhere, and then tried to claim he hadn't quit when looking for his job back about six weeks later (by which time Aaron had been appointed). Pete Mahon resigned at the end of 2008 after relegation. Doolin left with about 10 games to go to join Drogheda (heard a funny story that Drogheda contacted the club to discuss compensation, and the club posted a tenner to Drogheda and asked would that do. :) ) Martin Moran resigned three games into the 2001/02 season citing work reasons. I think Dermot Keely sold himself to Rovers in 83. And other than that, it was the Doc and Theo Dunne taking it in turns.
Is there any indication about who will be taking over?
None as yet, but the last three times we needed a manager, the assistant was promoted (Martin Russell was Pete's assistant, Aaron was Martin's assistant, and Collie was Aaron's assistant).
That'd be Ian Ryan I think, but that's not a guarantee at all of course.
In a move which I think will surprise many, UCD have decided to put a tamagochi in charge for the rest of the season. I hope they remember to feed him.
https://www.thesun.ie/sport/football...collie-oneill/
Edit: I may have misread this initially.
Harsh if UCD sacked O'Neill considering all the upheaval in the playing squad. That said Maciej seems to be a good coach from his couple of spells at Bray when they were in disarray. Wouldnt mind having Collie O'Neill on the coaching staff at Dundalk especially as part of a youth development project!
considering hes out of the loop considerably would Paul Doolin swallow his pride and go back to his first love managerial wise?
Would UCD take him back ?Quote:
Originally Posted by Martinho II
Given we paid to get rid of him the last time? :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Martinho II
That didn’t take long. UCD have a new manager.
Absolutely fascinating chat with Collie on loi weekly. UCD board sound like an awful bunch to work for. Collie was being diplomatic too.
The board seeming to think they had a right to have an opinion on the formation and style of play is real Saturday league stuff....
Who was the player he was talking about that he dropped?
Well, if we look at the four players dropped for the Waterford match, and then rule out those whose father isn't on the club board....
Seems like a bit of stroke by UCD on UCD FC. They pay 100K a year and get their name out their and the prestige of having a senior side in the doemstic league etc. It comes across as a sort of advertising or does the college offer additional support in terms of logistics, expertise , facilities ?
Well they supply all the training pitches gyms and the stadium (such as it is).
If all the players are on scholarships thats 20 places not available to sell to other applicants, foreign students etc
Maintenance and repairs to the stadium (ground-staff etc) must be a fairly serious cost.
Is the managers salary out of that 100k or is he employed by UCD?
The football club board come across in the interview as being eejits but id say the college are making a decent contribution to be fair to them.
i'd say the actual college board are'nt enjoying this spat, the football board would want to settle down
The club get the Bowl and training pitches. Players have access to the UCD gym, at least some definitely have access to the high performance gym which is top class but I don't know if that's a deal with the football club or a scholarship thing or even if all players have access to the high performance gym and not just the standard. That's about it as far as I'm aware. It's a lot but nothing overly generous.Quote:
Originally Posted by D24Saint
While I'm sure the UCD football club board mean well their treatment of collie is reminiscent of a schoolboy club and they seem a bit commercially naive.
The player was the no.2 keeper. O’Neill got an easy ride on the podcast. He’s treated some players like &@&@ and no board member resigned!!
The scholarships, manager, etc. are all out of the club's budget. And UCD are hardly the only club in the league who have a ground supplied to them. At least it means we can't sell it to the council, or the FAI, or two different builders at the same time...Quote:
Originally Posted by sbgawa
The likelihood is that there's two sides to the story, and the truth lies somewhere in between.Quote:
Originally Posted by Onapointoforder
I don't know what happened exactly, and as I know the three apparently key players (Collie, the board member and the player), I'm not going to speculate, but I will say it's a real pity that 9 years has ended in what seems to be an acrimonious fashion.
I think it's also worth noting the podcast comments that a Premier Division club should have x number of non-amateurs. This is a daft suggestion which I'm surprised at Ward and, particularly, McDonnell making.
Obviously a UCD side getting hammered isn't great for the league. But UCD being so poor - and yet better than all the First Division teams kind of by definition - isn't the problem to be addressed. It's just a symptom of the real issue, which is how utterly mismanaged and undersupported the league is.
If the FAI put money into the league rather than skim off its top, then you'd find either (a) other teams would improve and we'd stay down or (b) UCD would retain players beyond graduation and have a decent squad, like in the 00s when you had Alan Mahon, Alan McNally, Tony McDonnell, Mick O'Donnell, etc, staying with us for 10 years and more.
To be fair, they were reiterating a point made by PFAI guy Stephen McGuiness not too long ago.Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
The PFAI are trying to implement minimum standards such as being paid for pre-season.
Everything O'Neill said on the podcast was consistent with what I was hearing about his sacking. He was under pressure to play a goalkeeper who is the son of a long-term UCD committee member who had been dropped in favour of an another inexperienced back-up keeper who also struggled and the situation blew up with the 10-1 defeatQuote:
Originally Posted by Onapointoforder
Of course sometimes there are two sides to every story and sometimes there is only one. I'd be surprised if O'Neill had been treating players like &@&@ all of sudden into a long LOI career as coach and manager.
True, but that's no reason not to have a rational analysis of it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shearer
Being paid for pre-season - or having a certain number of non-amateurs - is all very well, but where's the money going to come from? I get that the PFAI's role is to get more money for its members, but they live in a fairy world at times.
Until we grasp the nettle of the FAI leeching money from the league rather than trying to generate money for it, then you're going to have a club like UCD losing players regularly, or the goings-on in Athlone or Limerick.