The Derry City thread - Derry sign first four players

[dortie]

Open your eyes - you're starting to sound like a global warming denier.

I am not denying anything, simply stating all this speculation is worthless, the truth will come out eventually. Do you not think that alot is going on behind the scenes at present ? Obviously doing their best to resolve the situation ? Personally making all the details public immediately was not going to change anything if you ask me.

To be fair i am not of the same opinion of Sammy Wilson but i am sure he would assume Steve is always right anyway !!

[EalingGreen]

EG - I haven't bene on here since last week, but I couldn't let your above response slip.

You're usually a fairly sensible poster, but the wooshing sensation you felt above your head when reading that last post wasn't because you'd just opened a window.

I used the likes of Glens and Ports purely as examples. It could just as easily have said 'club x' and 'club y'.

If not the Glens or Ports, who amongst the present IL teams are likely to open an "arms race", in your opinion? The fact is, even Linfield, beneficiaries of an annual 6 figure sum from the IFA, are managing to keep within their budget.
Indeed, since the demise of Omagh Town (reputedly for more nefarious reasons than over-ambition) and Coleraine's close shave, IL clubs look to have been "cutting their cloth accordingly" for the past few seasons.
Good examples were Bangor voluntarily deciding to withdraw from the IPL (before they got into too much financial difficulty); the Ports being able to survive unexpectedly failing to get their IPL Licence; Cliftonville and Donegal Celtic doing up their grounds without incurring too much debt; or Crusaders looking to put in a credible challenge to the Big Two, without "gambling the farm".

My point was that your whole City/Irish League debate was based on conjecture. So I responded to it with further conjecture. Only for you to miss the point and take it literally

No, yours was not conjecture, it was hypothesis; there is a difference. (And btw, it was very weak and ill-informed hypothesis at that)

Thankfully you've dropped the whole 'City back in Irish League' fixation anyway

No "fixation" at all. It's just as a fan of an IL club, naturally the aspect of DCFC's current plight which most interests me is the possibility that it could conceivably lead to their returning to the IL (i.e. if the only alternative were the 'A' League).

But as I was ever careful to note, I've always thought that to be "odds against". And following very recent developments, I'd say the odds have lengthened even further, though not because their future in the LOI is looking surer.

Rather it's because the debt may be so bad that when/if the crash should come, whatever emerges from the wreckage is liable to be so badly damaged that it might not even qualify for a licence from the IL.

Anyhow, whatever happens, I wouldn't like to see the club disappear completely.

[Steve Bruce]

Derry City chairman Pat McDaid says the club will survive despite debts approaching half a million pounds.


The club’s board met with shareholders, local businessmen, politicians, creditors, former directors and sponsors in Londonderry’s City Hotel last night to try to find a way out of the crisis.

Following the meeting Derry chairman Pat McDaid says the club will be able to make an announcement about the future by the early part of next week .

“Derry City has a proud 81-year history, so the football club will survive,” Mr McDaid said.

“At this moment in time I and the board want to rectify this problem once and for all.

“Obviously we want to be playing premier division football next season, but our main priority is that we have a football club and what division they'll be playing in next season is secondary.”

If Derry fail to met the December 21 deadline to pay all their creditors in time to secure their UEFA licence, they face the prospect of relegation.

But they are also facing the twin threat of a winding-up order launched against them by Dungannon Swifts for non-payment of £30,000 due on Niall McGinn’s transfer to Celtic.

“As a club we are trying to address everything. There would be no point in us trying to sort out one thing and then move on and try to sort another thing. Myself and the board now want to try and sort everything and also ensure that we aren’t in this terrible position in the future,” said Mr McDaid.

It’s thought the club’s current debts could be well in the region of £450,000, with around half of that debt owed to players and staff members.

Employees are currently owed eight weeks wages.






As I said, I can't see Derry City not existing

[OneRedArmy]

Of course we'll survive.

We just won't be in the Premier Division of the LoI.

I'm not entirely sure how the Chairman can spin that as a positive....

[pineapple stu]

I am not denying anything, simply stating all this speculation is worthless

For the third time, do you not think that a winding up order is fact and not speculation?

You're sounding very much like the Shels and Drogheda fans at the time of their implosions - we can't do anything without facts, I'm sure there's work going on behind the scenes, nothing to see here, let's move along and see how it turns out. I would have thought the league had learnt something in the last few years, but evidently not.

[pineapple stu]

Absolutely don't want to see Derry die, which is why I don't like seeing the "Sure let's wait see what happens" attitude. The notion that a poster can come on and criticise MariborKev's pessimism and nosiness is bizarre, when it's in fact exactly what's needed.

But sure you believe/make up whatever you choose.

[MariborKev]

Stu,

It's been the default attitude on the Derry site for the last few years, I don't take any heed of it.

[pineapple stu]

And I see Redie's presumably come around, given he's deleted his post?

Apology accepted, I suppose.

[LeixlipRed]

It so disappointing to see some Derry fans have a heads in the sand attitude when some of the same people were so critical when certain Shels fans adopted a similar approach 3 years ago.

[Sam_Heggy]

So what plans have Derry come up with apart from a bucket collection in order to raise some cash? I know they met with Sponsors, etc but they will hardly want to lump in money for something that might go out of existence. In the Drogheda situation, the fans really got behind the club, imo that's what's needed at Derry, either that or fold and reform under a new identity like MKev is saying all along, save the heart ache and unrest.

Are the board going to come clean and tell Derry fans exactly what to expect and what is needed to save the club, I know McDaid mentions it in his press release but will he really tell all?

It's all a bit too sparce on information, sweeping under the carpet is becoming an art form in this league.

[OneRedArmy]

It so disappointing to see some Derry fans have a heads in the sand attitude when some of the same people were so critical when certain Shels fans adopted a similar approach 3 years ago.

Gutted for you.

[marinobohs]

It so disappointing to see some Derry fans have a heads in the sand attitude when some of the same people were so critical when certain Shels fans adopted a similar approach 3 years ago.

Please LeixlipRed, no "i told you so" or they laughed at us so.... Whats happening at Derry, Cork etc is bad for the League (as it was with Shels). Hope that Derry can sort the mess out and stay in the prem as similar to Cork the league would be worse off without them.

[galwayjames]

Please LeixlipRed, no "i told you so" or they laughed at us so.... Whats happening at Derry, Cork etc is bad for the League (as it was with Shels).

Are the finances at Bohs under control? It was looking very dodgy there for ages but it seems what I'm hearing from the club is that things have been sorted?

[marinobohs]

Are the finances at Bohs under control? It was looking very dodgy there for ages but it seems what I'm hearing from the club is that things have been sorted?

As far as I know we expect to "make" the 65% rule for this season (our most immediate concern). we will again suffer a trading loss on the season which will add to our historic liabilities and we will have to come up with a plan to start addressing these (and initially to at least stop adding to them).
Our budgeting for next year will have to be more restrained (we cannot budget on winning the League, Champs Lge or the eurovision (even with Johnny Logan on board). I understand the wages budget already agreed/commited will reflect that.
As previously mentioned we may have "tenants" in Dalymount next season (and behond) which will add to income and there may be further developments in the near future.
I would not go as far to say as things have been sorted but it appears the board are facing up to the problems and starting to seriously address them.
As I am not a memebr of the Board/ employee of the club the above could be wrong but it is my understanding of the current state of play at Dalymount.

[Ezeikial]

Totally agree, anyone who knows me well enough will inform you i have no loyalty to any Board member/Player or Manager, present or past. I will also not jump on bandwagons in regards to financial rightousness until i know the exact facts.

Dortie - I did not say or imply that you were addicted to following "the party line", or had a misplaced sense of loyalaty to board members or players.

But your apparent insistence on knowing all the facts before forming a view might be theoretical laudable, but hardly practical. The full and complete "facts" of the Shelbourne, Cork, or Drogheda debacles will probably never be completely known. But by the time that the "fact" of examinership was established for Cork and Drogheda it was irreversible.

Commenting from a position of historical fact might be a little irrelevant at some point in the not-too-distant future for Derry City.

Rasing concerns and expressing opposition to what one observes happening to your football club currently is much more then a right of Derry City fans - some might suggest it is a duty

[John83]

Why would you take on the debt and go to the A League? Why not just start afresh with a new company?

Cobh had their ground to lose, so they couldn't just declare bankruptcy.

Derry on the other hand...

[brendy_éire]

Are the board going to come clean and tell Derry fans exactly what to expect and what is needed to save the club, I know McDaid mentions it in his press release but will he really tell all?

£400,000 was the figure beating about at the meeting on Monday.

Apparently, we're getting an EGM soon.

[Roo69]

It's quite clear that Derry City FC are in serious trouble and at present it doesn't look like there is a way out of it for them.

Dungannon chairman Jarlath Faloon said: “We have agreed to commence winding-up proceedings against Derry City. Numerous deadlines have been missed, empty promises have been made and our board has had enough.

How can some City fans not see how serious this is ? The head in the sand attitude is scary. It is real and Derry are on the brink of going out of business as we currently know them.

[OneRedArmy]

How can some City fans not see how serious this is ? The head in the sand attitude is scary. It is real and Derry are on the brink of going out of business as we currently know them.

I think nearly all the fans on here are well aware how serious the situation are and have been aware for ages.

Some people don't like washing their dirty linen in public and others, principly on our own forum, are so brainwashed by the views of the current board that its too late for them to change opinion and save face.

As with every club that has hit the wall, there's always a group that will deny until the bitter end.

I'm not sure its particularly newsworthy or merits discussion.

Where the money went and what the current financial situation is, is much more interesting and relevant IMO.

[SwanVsDalton]

So what plans have Derry come up with apart from a bucket collection in order to raise some cash? I know they met with Sponsors, etc but they will hardly want to lump in money for something that might go out of existence. In the Drogheda situation, the fans really got behind the club, imo that's what's needed at Derry, either that or fold and reform under a new identity like MKev is saying all along, save the heart ache and unrest.

Derry have been down this road so many times before that there is no appetite to rally round the club. Especially when the board have treated fan concern with such disdain. Why should anyone put in the graft for them and the club as it is now? Fold up and get it over with. Then we can restart Derry as a club everyone can all get behind.