Drogheda not able to pay their players

[dcfcsteve]

this is the line that has been coming out of the Brandywell for the past three months.

No it isn't.

It's the line that's been coming out of a small numebr of people's arses outside of Derry - mostly, it seems, on Foot.ie...

[Dodge]

Seems you're the one with the hard on for complaining....

Apologies steve, its seems you aren't quite the côck I thought you were

[dcfcsteve]

Apologies steve, its seems you aren't quite the côck I thought you were

I'd love to be able to say the same in-return, amigo...

[mr.untitled]

Care to explain how/why ?

Or does your arguement solely consist of a stream of a 'how very dare you' hyperbole...?

I'm not quite sure what your on about Steve, Alot of drogheda united fans are hurting at the moment and you are wondering why a statement like 'your town is devoid of football history and culture' is insulting......

[dcfcsteve]

Steve said that one of the reasons for Drogheda being unsuccessful throughout much of our history was because we were a small town, yeah? My point was that teams from smaller towns had won more than Drogheda. So what coffee you're on about I don't know!

Selective quoting there Windmill.

I sited two reasons for Drogheda going 42 years without much success :

1) It being a relatively small urban area (though admittedly it has expanded rapidly in recent years), and
2) It not being a traditional soccer town (unlike smaller, but moire successful, footballing towns like Sligo, Athlone and Dundalk).

Small population and no tradition of football equal rubbish crowds in Irish football. Rubbish crowds equal very limited revenues, which equals lack of success.

It was only when a sugar daddy and a property-development play came into being that Drogheda actually became 'succesful'. Which just proves my point. Drogheda were playing at a level that they otherwise wouldn't and couldn't have survived at. Sooner or later, the status quo has to be returned to.

P.S. Anyone who claims Drogheda's four 1st Division titles as some indicator of success needs shooting. Drogheda is the most relegated club in Ireland - fact. Sent down 5 times - including an absurd period across the 90's when the club went up and then straight back down again for 8 years in succession (1993/4 - 2000/1). They only won the First Division 4 times because they weren't good enough to keep out of the bloody place !

[Drogman.]

Small population and no tradition of football equal rubbish crowds in Irish football. Rubbish crowds equal very limited revenues, which equals lack of success.

What's with the no tradition of football? GAA in Louth is terrible and for the smallest county in Ireland to have 2 League of Ireland teams is remarkable considering other places that you would expect to have one.

What constitutes a football tradition? There has been football in Drogheda since 1919, and the town has produced Irish internationals like Gary Kelly, Ian Harte, Nicky Colgan and to a lesser extent footballer Sean Thornton. Other players like Gary Tallon who was with Blackburn the year after they won the Premier League would have made it but only for a serious injury. That's more players playing for Ireland or whoever there than some other areas put together!

Get over yourself Steve, for a Derry City fan you really are full of more sh*t than I originally thought.

[mr.untitled]

sher newcastle united have hardly ever won anything, hmmmm.... id say its probably because that city is devoid of football culture and history....yea, that must be it.

[Dodge]

Steve, Derry fans are in no position to speak about other clubs' successes.

As your own chairman says

People keep telling me Derry City are a 'big club' and should be winning trophies on a regular basis but what is this based on? We have won 3 league titles in 80 years of trying.

[Celdrog]

They only won the First Division 4 times because they weren't good enough to keep out of the bloody place !

All perfectly true.
The diametric opposite is also true. The club at that time were too good to stay in the graveyard division so we kept on being promoted.

[Drogman.]

Vision is putting long term structures in place to sustain and develop a football club. Not one eircom league club has ever demonstrated anything other then a boom/bust type plan.

Drogheda's plan was a 3-4 year plan. If it didnt work there was no other option but to go back to how it was.

That's what they were trying to do! Admittedly it was a risky way of doing it, but all business plans are like that.

At the moment the directors cannot finance the club for another 4 years due to being let down in the stadium project. The plan C now is to start at the bottom of the ladder again and hopefully get back to full-time status with new stadium in the next 5 years or so.

We can't stay in Utd Park if we want to play Premier Division football, End of. So the club had no alternative to try and get this stadium to develop and put down structures for the future. Because of some stupid planning decisions this hasn't happened so the club has no alternative now to cut costs and start from the bottom of the ladder again.

[WindmillWarrior]

Selective quoting there Windmill.

!

Yes, because I wanted to correct that, as its fact.
Didn't bother with the rest of what you said because its just your opinion and its mostly bullsh*t imo.

[dcfcsteve]

What's with the no tradition of football? GAA in Louth is terrible and for the smallest county in Ireland to have 2 League of Ireland teams is remarkable considering other places that you would expect to have one.

What constitutes a football tradition? There has been football in Drogheda since 1919, and the town has produced Irish internationals like Gary Kelly, Ian Harte, Nicky Colgan and to a lesser extent footballer Sean Thornton. Other players like Gary Tallon who was with Blackburn the year after they won the Premier League would have made it but only for a serious injury. That's more players playing for Ireland or whoever there than some other areas put together!

Get over yourself Steve, for a Derry City fan you really are full of more sh*t than I originally thought.

I'm not giving opinion here - the results speak for themselves.

There are towns and cities in Ireland where football has been pretty much the major sport for years : Athlone, Dundalk, Sligo, Waterford, Belfast, Derry (ironically, mostly garrison towns). Those are towns with a tradition of football - where the game has ben bigger than rugby or GAA since pretty much Day 1. Unsurprisingly, teams from those areas have had periods of success in Irish football over the years, and they've been able to attract big crowds when they are doing well.

Other clubs in the league have been from areas where football is not the main sport - which combines with a small population to make the appeal of those clubs relatively limited. Those clubs rarely get big crowds - even during periods when they are doing well. Think Monaghan, Kilkenny, Kildare, Thurles, Newcastle West etc. There are obviously exceptions to this : Longford had a degree of success, but with hindsight that blip was primarily due to good management. Drogs have just finished a relative period of success, but that blip was due to being financed beyond their income.

The only team I can think of from a small town without a footballing tradition who have had much success in the LOI is Finn Harps. And that success amounted to one FAI Cup and three runners up slots in the league.

The long-term results clubs have in football tend to reflect the potential size of support those clubs have. Two things are key in this : the size of their catchment population, and the appeal of football within that catchment. As with everything in life, there are always exceptions (e.g. Newcastle United in England, who have serial board-room incompetence to blame for their lack of success). But this is a general rule of thumb throughout world football.

To bring this all back to Drogheda - they were competing at a level that nothing bar their artifically inflated bank statements could justify. Hence they were always going to have to return to the relative lack of success they faced for the previous 42 years at some point.

If you don't agree with the above analysis - fine. But give sensible, results-based reasons as to why you believe it is incorrect re Irish football. Telling me to "get over myself.." doesn't alter the history of our league...

[dcfcsteve]

All perfectly true.
The diametric opposite is also true. The club at that time were too good to stay in the graveyard division so we kept on being promoted.

Very true.

Which medium-to-long term trend suggests that Drogs natural level in the pecking order - pre-artifical cash injection - was somewhere between the 2 leagues. Not at the top of the top one.

[brianw82]

I don't think it was wrong for Hoey to have a plan. It was a decent plan to make the club self-sufficient.

What was wrong, however, was to gamble on an uncertain outcome, and to pay ridiculous wages, forcing everyone else to up the ante.

[Longfordian]

There are obviously exceptions to this : Longford had a degree of success, but with hindsight that blip was primarily due to good management.

That and overspending. Still it was fun while it lasted.

[WindmillWarrior]

I'm not giving opinion here - the results speak for themselves.

There are towns and cities in Ireland where football has been pretty much the major sport for years : Athlone, Dundalk, Sligo, Waterford, Belfast, Derry (ironically, mostly garrison towns). Those are towns with a tradition of football - where the game has ben bigger than rugby or GAA since pretty much Day 1. Unsurprisingly, teams from those areas have had periods of success in Irish football over the years, and they've been able to attract big crowds when they are doing well.

Other clubs in the league have been from areas where football is not the main sport - which combines with a small population to make the appeal of those clubs relatively limited. Those clubs rarely get big crowds - even during periods when they are doing well. Think Monaghan, Kilkenny, Kildare, Thurles, Newcastle West etc. There are obviously exceptions to this : Longford had a degree of success, but with hindsight that blip was primarily due to good management. Drogs have just finished a relative period of success, but that blip was due to being financed beyond their income.

The only team I can think of from a small town without a footballing tradition who have had much success in the LOI is Finn Harps. And that success amounted to one FAI Cup and three runners up slots in the league.

The long-term results clubs have in football tend to reflect the potential size of support those clubs have. Two things are key in this : the size of their catchment population, and the appeal of football within that catchment. As with everything in life, there are always exceptions (e.g. Newcastle United in England, who have serial board-room incompetence to blame for their lack of success). But this is a general rule of thumb throughout world football.

To bring this all back to Drogheda - they were competing at a level that nothing bar their artifically inflated bank statements could justify. Hence they were always going to have to return to the relative lack of success they faced for the previous 42 years at some point.

If you don't agree with the above analysis - fine. But give sensible, results-based reasons as to why you believe it is incorrect re Irish football. Telling me to "get over myself.." doesn't alter the history of our league...

Jaysus Steve, obviously we were punching above our weight. No one is doubting that. We know where our level is, we're not stupid. For us to have a mid table team that has a go at a cup compo every now and again would be magic! Obviously we got too big too quick.
But to say Drogheda is not a footballing town is ridiculous. Its been recognised as being so in Ireland for many years now. Throughout our miserable history Drogheda Utd always had a decent support. As i've already said I think we've had awful awful luck for a long time, luck that maybe might have even allowed us into the prestigious Athlone/Sligo club! Theres f*ck all GAA clubs in Drogheda, a lot less than D*ndalk - the north of the county being the stronghold for GAA in the county.

Anyway, rush post, I'm off to the pub

[passerrby]

At the moment the directors cannot finance the club for another 4 years due to being let down in the stadium project. The plan C now is to start at the bottom of the ladder again and hopefully get back to full-time status with new stadium in the next 5 years or so.
We can't stay in Utd Park if we want to play Premier Division football, End of. So the club had no alternative to try and get this stadium to develop and put down structures for the future. Because of some stupid planning decisions this hasn't happened so the club has no alternative now to cut costs and start from the bottom of the ladder again.

bloody hell are you really proposing to make the same mistakes all over again

[Drogman.]

bloody hell are you really proposing to make the same mistakes all over again

The plan is to get a new stadium to make the club self sufficient. The full time status I would imagine would come along after that however I think it is a necessity for fulltime football as you cannot and will not develop or attract a decent quality of player without that structure in place.

[mr.untitled]

[QUOTE=dcfcsteve;1037315]I'm not giving opinion here - the results speak for themselves.

There are towns and cities in Ireland where football has been pretty much the major sport for years : Athlone, Dundalk, Sligo, Waterford, Belfast, Derry (ironically, mostly garrison towns). Those are towns with a tradition of football - where the game has ben bigger than rugby or GAA since pretty much Day 1. Unsurprisingly, teams from those areas have had periods of success in Irish football over the years, and they've been able to attract big crowds when they are doing well.





I see you are using the word 'irony' in the alanis morrisett sense!
ah yes Rugby and GAA have beed dwarfing football round these parts for years now. the mighty Boyne RFC and then there was that time sam maguire came to town back in 1957. If your so in with DCFC maybee you know some one who has still got C.brennans contact details, give him a bell and ask him to tell you about football culture in drogheda, or maybee ask to speak to his brother about playing for drogheda town in the fai cup. Football has been the number one sport in this (garrison) town for close to a century now.

[jinxy lilywhite]

- the north of the county being the stronghold for GAA in the county.

Anyway, rush post, I'm off to the pub

Yeah there born with an O'Neills ball in the Cooley peninsula. Mattock won the senior championship against the blues didn't they and the dreadnots won the intermediate and the Nicks won the juniors. Are they not roughly all drogheda teams.