Imagine if we had facilities

applehunter · 21/06/2004, 12:45 AM

The result on Saturday(Cork City 3-1 Malmo) was in all likely-hood a one off. But it shows what can be done if a team takes a professional approach into the game. Pat Dolan is always talking about the lack of faciltities and structures at Cork City and in League of ireland soccer. The league will always get a few freak results in europe as a one off. But not until the facilities and professionalism are in place from the FAI down to the clubs can the league make any real progress. Continuelly the best yourg players are leaving our shores at very young ages and are lost to the League. The best thing that could happen is for our young players to achive top coaching and education here in ireland and if they are good enough the best will always go to the big clubs.

Europe should not be the barometer at the moment. We should strive to achive a more ;professional approach, TV coverage etc. and until that happens there will not be the consistency in Europe.

**tippman** · 21/06/2004, 11:06 AM

The result on Saturday(Cork City 3-1 Malmo) was in all likely-hood a one off.

Thats so negative, I suppose rovers winning in the intertoto cup last year and pats the year before that and going out on away goals in the second round was a once off result...(dont forget bohs winning last year and shels,bohs,longford and cork all winning this year)

**max power** · 21/06/2004, 11:20 AM

if we do win and the away leg is second, they better have the air ambulance on stand by to bring a few of us home !!!!

**pete** · 21/06/2004, 11:29 AM

What ever happened to the FAI regional training centres plan? I thought that would have been good & cou;ld have been used by all ages but seems to have gone nwhere as usual.

IMO the top half of the Premier has ok grounds now but coaching facilties should be the priority.

**Longfordian** · 21/06/2004, 11:41 AM

I think theyre announcing some class of a technical development plan on Wednesday, there might be something said about regional centres then. I know we were in the running for one at one stage but I dont know if thats still the case..

**liamon** · 21/06/2004, 1:05 PM

Hardly a freak result. The standard of play in the Eircom league has improved significantly over the last few years. CCFC in particular have changed significantly. A team that was based around hoofing the ball has been replaced with quality players (including numerous U-21 internationals) who can play ball. Expect more of these results over the coming years.

I do agree about the loss of young players though. It's crippled the game here. In fact, Cork's recent result is due largely to the fact that the lower English leagues ran out of money and a lot of our young players came back home, while youngsters like Doyle didn't get picked up. If we can hang on to these types of players, we can expect to see lots more "one off" results.

**jofyisgod** · 22/06/2004, 8:33 PM

Originally Posted by liamon

the lower English leagues ran out of money and a lot of our young players came back home, while youngsters like Doyle didn't get picked up.

True, liamon. Problem is, those leagues are not going to be low on cash forever. We need to create an attractive enough product and infrastructure so that yougsters would prefer to stay at home, rather than join some 3rd division nobodys.

**A face** · 22/06/2004, 11:35 PM

Originally Posted by jofyisgod

True, liamon. Problem is, those leagues are not going to be low on cash forever.

They will have UEFA licencing aswell though so while those clubs were getting anyway with murder before, they wont be now.

To be honest .... it is up to the FAI and clubs to ensure their is a proper system in place to prevent the needless journeys of some of the youth in this country. I think we should adopt something like the system the Scandinavian countries have in place.

Also .... did i hear something about the U-19's being done away with in England. Dont know the full story here but if something like that does happen, the players in those leagues have to go somewhere. In short ... there'll be less room for Irish players on benches all over England.

Can someone fill us in on this if they know anymore ??

**pete** · 23/06/2004, 9:29 AM

Originally Posted by A face

Also .... did i hear something about the U-19's being done away with in England. Dont know the full story here but if something like that does happen, the players in those leagues have to go somewhere. In short ... there'll be less room for Irish players on benches all over England.

Can someone fill us in on this if they know anymore ??

Dunno about that but was reading about that Dean Delaney youth keepoer & he had to go out on loan from his Nationwide club cos they had to reserves. All 'n all i think you'll see lower division clubs having much smaller squads as time continues...

**jofyisgod** · 24/06/2004, 5:45 PM

Cash is embarrassingly low in the lower echelons of English football-the unseen leagues. No glitz, glamour of hype there. Just small crowds, older journeymen has-been 'stars' (like Barry Hales signed today for a 'LEAGUE ONE'

side) blocking young talent coming through.

Still, we're benefiting from it at the moment and i hadn't even considered the UEFA lisence-good point. We've seen the cost it had for City, loads spent on it and we're healthy enough in the finance department. It'll be hard for the likes of Peterborough and Port Vale, etc. Slightly off-topic, but why John O'Flynn would want to head back to Engalnd is beyond me. He must have seen what's happened to Joe Gamble(now been saved by City) and BBM.
He's obviusy still brainwashed by the papers into believing that English football is moving up. Not so. The eL is moving forward, maybe at a slow pace, but it is going forward. The Football League is going backwards. Just look at their desperate attempts to attract sponsors-'League One and The championship' my hole.

**super kev** · 27/06/2004, 10:56 PM

Do you still think citys result against malmo last week was a one off cause we just won again

**liamon** · 28/06/2004, 12:23 PM

Freak result? One off?

**TonyD** · 28/06/2004, 9:24 PM

Congratulations to Cork, great result. I'm open to correction on this, but does that make Pat Dolan the first manager to take two different Irish clubs through a round in Europe ? Best of luck for the weekend. By the way, does anyone know if the Inter toto counts towards the UEFA c0-efficient ? I seem to remember hearing that it was only the Champions league and UEFA cup. What the league needs is to steadily keep getting these results in Europe, so the seeding keeps improving. All it takes is one breakthrough - just look at the international team pre 1988.