Comparison of Irish clubs in Europe versus Scottish clubs in Europe

**BonnieShels** · 20/08/2011, 9:59 PM

That's very true but the main thing that we should be concentrating on is the Barstoolers. Listening to today FM today and every Saturday should show you that.

**mypost** · 20/08/2011, 10:25 PM

No it isn't. We should be concentrating on running clubs properly, building good facilities for fans, playing games at proper times, and getting better tv coverage. There will always be barstoolers. There's no point trying to deal with most of them.

**legendz** · 20/08/2011, 10:40 PM

For all the Scottish clubs to be knocked out and Rovers to go through, we are looking at something like the following odds:

3/1 Rangers draw
6/4 Celtic loss
1/5 Spurs win (not that it matters as they are virtually through)
25/1 Shamrock Rovers to draw 2-2 ( The result I think it'll be if they get through)

Acc. Odds: 312/1

Odds by Ladbrokes as PP don't have Rovers correct score odds yet.

**Charlie Darwin** · 21/08/2011, 1:44 AM

Originally Posted by TiocfaidhArmani

They would give them a test but Hearts are a better team. Gary Twigg might be the star there but he wouldn't get a game for Kilmarnock.

Well Conor Sammon couldn't get a game for Derry City but did OK at Kilmarnock.

**bullit** · 21/08/2011, 2:05 AM

Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin

Well Conor Sammon couldn't get a game for Derry City but did OK at Kilmarnock.

Now ! Now ! Chucky is blinded by his love for the all conquering Celtic Utd,.leave him and his mates alone to discuss their failure to score @ home V the MIGHTY Sion on Thursday.I enjoy his tales about their exploits around Europe and their involvment in a pish-poor leauge

**Eminence Grise** · 21/08/2011, 9:25 AM

Originally Posted by mypost

No it isn't. We should be concentrating on running clubs properly, building good facilities for fans, playing games at proper times, and getting better tv coverage. There will always be barstoolers. There's no point trying to deal with most of them.

That's it in a nutshell.

**born2bwild** · 21/08/2011, 1:19 PM

Originally Posted by mypost

No it isn't. We should be concentrating on running clubs properly, building good facilities for fans, playing games at proper times, and getting better tv coverage. There will always be barstoolers. There's no point trying to deal with most of them.

The better the TV coverage becomes the more likely it is that the scales will fall from the eyes of the lads in the pub following 'their' 'local' team in Britain.
Who else but barstoolers are likely to start following their local (no inverted commas) team in Ireland?
Possibly Rugby followers, far less likely to be GAA fans (although you never know).

**mypost** · 21/08/2011, 5:54 PM

British teams will always attract people to the pub. What we have to do is run our affairs properly, so less things go wrong and we become less of a laughing stock.

We're not the only league to have small attendances in Europe. There's several around us. What we don't have is a well-run league, proper facilities in stadiums, and players in the international team.

**nigel-harps1954** · 21/08/2011, 10:02 PM

Originally Posted by legendz

For all the Scottish clubs to be knocked out and Rovers to go through, we are looking at something like the following odds:

3/1 Rangers draw
6/4 Celtic loss
1/5 Spurs win (not that it matters as they are virtually through)
25/1 Shamrock Rovers to draw 2-2 ( The result I think it'll be if they get through)

Acc. Odds: 312/1

Odds by Ladbrokes as PP don't have Rovers correct score odds yet.

I'd almost stick a fiver on this for the craic.

**TiocfaidhArmani** · 22/08/2011, 7:23 AM

Originally Posted by mypost

Is SuperGretna back here?

When we lose in Europe, we lose narrowly, and usually after putting up a very good fight. We don't do 5-goal losses at home. Gretna in fairness to them, only do 4-goal losses.

For all it's alleged superiority, the SPL may have as many teams in Europe after this round, as the LOI.

Comparing a team who qualified through a cup run while in the second tier to yourselves. Okay then....

**TiocfaidhArmani** · 22/08/2011, 7:25 AM

Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin

Well Conor Sammon couldn't get a game for Derry City but did OK at Kilmarnock.

Look at his record for them before one good HALF season. He was awful, he had a good six months.

**mypost** · 22/08/2011, 7:27 AM

Originally Posted by TiocfaidhArmani

Comparing a team who qualified through a cup run while in the second tier to yourselves. Okay then....

You're the one telling us Scottish clubs are Barcelona in disguise. Not us.

**TiocfaidhArmani** · 22/08/2011, 7:30 AM

Originally Posted by bullit

Now ! Now ! Chucky is blinded by his love for the all conquering Celtic Utd,.leave him and his mates alone to discuss their failure to score @ home V the MIGHTY Sion on Thursday.I enjoy his tales about their exploits around Europe and their involvment in a pish-poor leauge

I like to keep things in perspective. You won't see me screaming about a bad home game in Europe. As always, I keep things in perspective and see we've one of the best records in Europe for home games and have had the place as a fortress in Europe the last decade. A lean patch is coming but sure that run was never gonna last forever.

I've seen us beat Barcelona, AC Milan, Juventus and Man United in the not too distant past. I have many tales of exploits, including winning at Anfield and attending a major European final with 80,000 others using planes, trains and automobiles to get there. I could write a book of my European journeys with Celtic. You couldn't write a sidenote

**TiocfaidhArmani** · 22/08/2011, 7:34 AM

Originally Posted by mypost

You're the one telling us Scottish clubs are Barcelona in disguise. Not us.

No, what I'm saying is for such a small country they've punched above their weight when you put it in perspective.

On this thread you go on about needing better facilities etc to attract fans. You need money for this. We can't all go into administration and rip off our creditors and have a new stadium built for us by the state to get what we need. You can't just have those things from scratch. You need fans to invest in you before you can invest in yourselves. Just like the shambles of a situation where Rovers went to build a stadium they couldn't afford and it just lay there as a building site for years before the state bailed you out.

The blame for the state of the LOI and all it incorporates is the shambolic attitude of Irish people to their own league - period. Clubs have made an effort to improve their teams with quality and nearly bankrupted themselves while doing it.

**born2bwild** · 22/08/2011, 7:38 AM

How do you suggest changing the situation, TA?

I'm assuming you'd like to see an improvement, so, what, apart from waxing monotonously about Celtic, do you have to say?

**mypost** · 22/08/2011, 8:38 AM

Originally Posted by TiocfaidhArmani

On this thread you go on about needing better facilities etc to attract fans. You need money for this. We can't all go into administration and rip off our creditors and have a new stadium built for us by the state to get what we need. You can't just have those things from scratch. You need fans to invest in you before you can invest in yourselves. Just like the shambles of a situation where Rovers went to build a stadium they couldn't afford and it just lay there as a building site for years before the state bailed you out.

The blame for the state of the LOI and all it incorporates is the shambolic attitude of Irish people to their own league - period. Clubs have made an effort to improve their teams with quality and nearly bankrupted themselves while doing it.

As is the case with most clubs everywhere, Celtic and Rangers included. If you want squad quality you have to pay for it. If you want to run a league well, you need the determination to change the status quo. If you want good facilities, you have to have drive and ambition to build them. That's what we had, and without it, Tallaght Stadium would remain a field.

**mrtndvn** · 22/08/2011, 8:41 AM

Whats all the Celtic bashing about, they are one of the better Irish teams I've seen play in Europe recently.

**TiocfaidhArmani** · 22/08/2011, 8:48 AM

Originally Posted by mypost

As is the case with most clubs everywhere, Celtic and Rangers included. If you want squad quality you have to pay for it. If you want to run a league well, you need the determination to change the status quo. If you want good facilities, you have to have drive and ambition to build them. That's what we had, and without it, Tallaght Stadium would remain a field.

The state bailed them out and built it for them. Tallaght was a shambles until SDCC bailed them out and built it for them. I don't get the point about them.

How do you suggest changing the situation, TA?

I'm assuming you'd like to see an improvement, so, what, apart from waxing monotonously about Celtic, do you have to say?

Check the title of the thread and see why I'm talking about Celtic.

I'm not sure is the honest answer. How do you change attitudes that have been there for decades now. It's so engrained it's not even funny. I would say we need state help or some form of marketing campaign from the FAI to encourage folk to support their local team. The LOI clubs can't do it on their own. You can talk about 'drive' and 'ambition' but you need money and outside help, like the kind you got to help you get out of the shambles you were in. On your own you were the joke of the LOI. Look what you have now with some outside assistance.

**placid casual** · 22/08/2011, 9:08 AM

What is your major malfunction pal.
Are you bitter cos your a shels fan,or cos the sellthick dream you bought into isnt shared by the hoi polloi here?

**mypost** · 22/08/2011, 9:17 AM

Originally Posted by TiocfaidhArmani

I'm not sure is the honest answer. How do you change attitudes that have been there for decades now. It's so engrained it's not even funny. I would say we need state help or some form of marketing campaign from the FAI to encourage folk to support their local team. The LOI clubs can't do it on their own. You can talk about 'drive' and 'ambition' but you need money and outside help, like the kind you got to help you get out of the shambles you were in. On your own you were the joke of the LOI. Look what you have now with some outside assistance.

You are replying to the wrong poster of course, and fwiw, Fingal closed the shop up 6 months ago.

The clubs can do it, but few have the determination to change things. Most insist on playing on weeknights, and defend their "right" to play then stoutly. If Celtic played at home on Friday nights, they wouldn't half fill the stadium, so what chance have clubs here got? The ko must also be 7.45pm. Not 7.10-20-30-40-50-8pm, it must be 7.45pm, because that's how it always was and will be. Doesn't matter if nobody turns up. People have 15 minutes more to get to our ground, and we have the highest attendances in the league.

If RTE cover league games, they must be on Friday nights when other fans are at their own games, and the ko must be 7.35pm, except the final night of the season when they give a whopping extra 10 minutes for you to get to the venue. Sky and ESPN don't allow such shambolic organisation in the SPL. You play at their times so everyone else can see them.

About squad quality, you have two choices. Spend big and risk oblivion, or spend wisely and risk mediocrity. Spending wisely, as we do, ultimately earns you prizes, but that's not possible if you want success tomorrow.

It took us 13 years to move to Tallaght and 16 years to win a league title. We had to work very hard for what we have now, nothing was easy for us, but we painstakingly stuck at it and we have the rewards for doing so. Other clubs should have gone down the same road. Instead some of them went out of business and more may follow. That's football.