U-21 Team And Youth Team

[B1977]

A FEW SEASONS BACK LIMERICK FC HAD A YOUTH TEAM PLAYING IN THE LIMERICK LEAGUE. WOULD IT BE POSSIBLE FOR THE CLUB TO ENTER ANOTHER YOUTH TEAM FOR NEXT SEASON. LIMERICK FC NEED TO HAVE SOME SORT OF STRUCTURE IN PLACE REGARDING PLAYERS COMING THROUGH.ASWELL THEY SHOULD SEE IF THEY COULD ENTER A TEAM IN THE JUNIOR LEAGUE AND HAVE IT MADE UP OF UNDER 21 PLAYERS.THIS TEAM WOULD HAVE TO BE ENTERED IN A LOW DIVISION IE 4B,BUT THIS IS ONLY A SUGGESTION. PLEASE ADD SUGGESTIONS. THE FUTURE HOPE FOR ENTERING A TEAM IN 4B IS THAT THE TEAM WOULD RISE THROUGH THE DIVISIONS AND YOU LL HAVE BASICALLY A UNDER 21 TEAM PLAYING PREMIER JUNIOR FOOTBALL IN LIMERICK.THESE PLAYERS WOULD BE ALLOWED PLAY FOR LIMERICK FC BUT IF THEY PLAYED SAY A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF GAMES COULDNT PLAY JUNIOR FOR THE REMAINDER OF THAT SEASON

[Edgey]

I'm not sure of the facts on this but I'll give it a sot from memory and understanding.

Firstly when the Eircom league U21 league began a few seasons ago it insisted that the primary underage be the under 21's team. This meant that Limerick got rid of the youth team and concentrated on 21's. May even have not been allowed enter a minor team. I'm not sure of the exact circumstances but I'm sure someone here does.

Secondly the junior idea is not a runner considering the LDMC's 18 month rule (in loads of other threads so I won't explain). Plus, I believe junior football especially lower division would do more harm than good to young prospective LOI players....they'd pick up bad habits, play ugly football and run the risk of being cleaved by slowing 30 somethings every week.

Just on a small point a new junior team does not hae to enter 4B. the LDMC will decide given the level of potential in the squad where the team goes (or often base it on what division needs a team. For instance Regional came in to 2A a few years back.

But in essence you're right, the only way the club will go forward is to implement a decent underage set up. Sadly, the present crisis shows some immediate problems need solving first.

[joeSoap]

This is an area where Mike should be more pro-active. He should have insisted on an under 21 team being entered for the simple reason that he could call on them when his squad is down to the bare bones. I remember the likes of Joe Normoyle, Anthony Ryan, Shane O'Connor and a few others being used by Noel O Connor on a few occassions and even though they weren't up to the standard at the time, they more than filled the gap.
Its bad management not to have a 21's squad, plain and simple. And before anyone whinges about money.... the eircom league grant would have covered the costs..

[limman]

I agree with Joe, Noel O'Connor's squad was never reduced to 12 players because he had the U/21 team to call upon. Regardless of the standard of the players, they were there to fill the bench and the experience of first team action would only bring them on as players.
You can't blame mike for this situation he has enough problems trying to fill a first team squad not to mind another 16 players for an u/21 squad.

[LFC in Exile]

Its bad management not to have a 21's squad, plain and simple. And before anyone whinges about money.... the eircom league grant would have covered the costs..

At the risk of being called a whinger I don't think you are right there Joe. There was a post about this some time ago and the figures didn't add up. I thought the grant was something like 2,000 and the cost for the season was 3,000. That's just going on memory.

I think you are again being unfair to Kerley on this one (not for the first time -do you have an agenda here Joe). This has to be laid again at the door of the committee. Kerley is team manager - he is not responsible for the structure of the club. He could resign in disgust or frustration - but I hope he doesn't. He can do more for Limerick in the job than he could by martyring himself.

I think as regards U-21 the general thrust of this thread is right. Something should have been done about that. It is mad that Aisling hook up with UL to enter an U-21 team and we are left out of the loop.

By the way I was at the Cork game yesterday. Great day out - raised all the gloomy ideas about why Limerick cannot do it but anyway. I noticed in the programme that Cashmans are offering 50,000 to 1 on Limerick for the First Division. Monaghan were something like 20,000. Ladbrokes are offering Limerick at 250 to 1.

[sadloserkid]

According to John Purcell's financial projections it costs 3,500euro to run an U-21 team for a season. The FAI grant was 3,000euro. It is absolutely laughable and a damning indictment of those making the decisions about this club that the U-21 team (that had a place in the eircom U-21 League Munster Section) was scrapped for the sake of 500euro. All the reasons for keeping an U-21 side have already been covered here so there's no need to go back over them again. When Michael O'Sullivan was being questioned by the higher authorities over the fact that we had eleven players in Bray I hope he looked them straight in the eye and told them, "We saved 500euro!"

[LFC in Exile]

According to John Purcell's financial projections it costs 3,500euro to run an U-21 team for a season. The FAI grant was 3,000euro. It is absolutely laughable and a damning indictment of those making the decisions about this club that the U-21 team (that had a place in the eircom U-21 League Munster Section) was scrapped for the sake of 500euro. All the reasons for keeping an U-21 side have already been covered here so there's no need to go back over them again. When Michael O'Sullivan was being questioned by the higher authorities over the fact that we had eleven players in Bray I hope he looked them straight in the eye and told them, "We saved 500euro!"

Fair enough. Can't argue with that. Except that maybe Mr. O'Sullivan realised that based on past performance, Mr. Purcell's projections need to be scaled up by a factor of 5.

[annacotty]

I think as regards U-21 the general thrust of this thread is right. Something should have been done about that. It is mad that Aisling hook up with UL to enter an U-21 team and we are left out of the loop.

Aisling joined up with UL at the request of UL. The venture offered National League U18 soccer for Aislings schoolboy structure - but the FAI have failed to deliver on this. As you probably know Aisling schoolboys is one of the best feeder clubs in Limerick. The U18 venture would allow the clubs better home grown talent to remain with the club and play at a higher level than that offered by the LDMC minor leagues. With regard to Limerick being left out of the loop, in our first season at U21s several of UL/AAs better players were enticed away to Limerick U21s / senior teams.
As an ex-committee member of UL/AA, I know that the club believes that Limerick needs a senior soccer team and should Limerick City need the support of a progressive club like UL/AA then they should contact the chairman of the club.

[LFC in Exile]

Aisling joined up with UL at the request of UL. The venture offered National League U18 soccer for Aislings schoolboy structure - but the FAI have failed to deliver on this. As you probably know Aisling schoolboys is one of the best feeder clubs in Limerick. The U18 venture would allow the clubs better home grown talent to remain with the club and play at a higher level than that offered by the LDMC minor leagues. With regard to Limerick being left out of the loop, in our first season at U21s several of UL/AAs better players were enticed away to Limerick U21s / senior teams.
As an ex-committee member of UL/AA, I know that the club believes that Limerick needs a senior soccer team and should Limerick City need the support of a progressive club like UL/AA then they should contact the chairman of the club.

Let me clarify just in case - I was not at all criticising UL or AA. Fair play to them. I wish our own club had as much go. I put it incorrectly by saying that Limerick were left out of the loop - I meant they should have started their own loop, and tried to encourage clubs like UL and AA. Maybe its not too late and I think the last sentence of your post is one of the most positive statements I've heard froma football in Limerick in many years.

[joeSoap]

.
I think you are again being unfair to Kerley on this one (not for the first time -do you have an agenda here Joe). This has to be laid again at the door of the committee. Kerley is team manager - he is not responsible for the structure of the club. He could resign in disgust or frustration - but I hope he doesn't. He can do more for Limerick in the job than he could by martyring himself.

I don't have an agenda here, but I think that theres more to being a manager of this club than assembling players on match day. The sad fact is that because of the three goons, I feel there is more responsibility on the manager to ensure that he is satisfied things are to his liking. In my opinion, Mike was thrown in blind to this position without any support. If the pope was assistant manager at the start of last season, he would have been given the job too. Mike inherited an excellent squad and did really well, but since then, I believe, his inexperience and people skills have been sadly lacking.The majority of the squad were allowed to move on without any attempt to keep them. He should have tried at least.And if he decided to venture farther than the Kerry League to sign players, who knows who he might have found. I know Gareth Cooney was interested in coming back, and the travelling nor money were not major issues for him. Mikes opinion that Gareth wasn't good enough as a central midfielder was what made him sign for Kilkenny.And he told me that himself!!
Not having a 21's squad is laughable, and I do believe his fault. Managers should know how much it costs to run squads, and he should have insisted upon it, plain and simple. There is no excuse. I believe he tried too hard to mould things differently, and into his own shape and under normal circumstances you wouldn't blame him. But theres nothing normal about this club, and at the time we had a squad good enough for promotion this season, which in my book, he allowed to break up without a fight.
If you think thats an agenda, so be it....I would have the same opinion about any manager who did the same things..

[gael353]

Has some good looking cousins ease off! To be fair Joe, Cooney was too light for central midfield, yes a fine player but not a central mid field. hes gone to kilkenny now and best of luck to him as his weight has balooned! He didnt inherit a fine squad he inherited a fine team. Nothing he could have done could have kept players like o'flynn, heffernan, in fact all of them again this goes back to the committee and their non activity in the licencing issue,,,, like will we be playing football or not? it would be like me going round telling everyone fibs about brasil in the pike to all my mates, when i fact its jsut Cobh, same Mike "come join us sign up and ye'll get ye're wages every week!" when in fact its paid in front of everyone in the car park, "one for you, one for you, one for you...hoi come back here you little 12 year old casey!"
Limerick Leader exclusive the next day...Wages robbed shocker! club in dire straits by John O'Wafflassy.....five masked and heavily armed men held up the chairman of Limerick FC Football club after the game yesterday where the home team played some attractive football...in other news Man U beat some under 14 team from norn ireland...and heres a picture of my neice with the team captain, Roger Keane...

[LFC in Exile]

Joe, I don't know what you mean by "without a fight". All I can judge it on is the situation at the time. Look at the players. Stevo and Sweeney chance to move back to Cork and play premier. Paddy Purcell waited until the very last minute ebfore deciding to move - again to a premier outfit. Derek McCarthy and Brendan Hughes probably looked at the Galway set-up and realsied that wages were more than likely to get paid. Eoin Keating had to pick one or other sport and exciting things are happening in the county in Gaelic football terms. The point is how could Kerley convince them to stay? Until two weeks before the start of the season we had no licence. I remember talk of the FAI issuing a fixture list without Limerick because it got so close to the start of the season. Suppose all of those players decided to stick with us - and then the FAI decide not to grant the licence i.e. they take a chance on it. They then have no bargaining strength with other eL clubs and many would end up back in junior football (except not in Limerick due to the 18 month rule). Kerley would want to be the most persuasive man in Ireland to convince most of them to stay. I am not saying that money is everything but these are ambitious players and I am sure they saw the lack of ambition at the top of the club.

I don't agree with Kerley on everything. I think he is an awful situation - I would not like to be in it myself. But lets be fair to him. A manager of a club is just that - a manager. It is up to him to express how he would like things structured or done but he can't be blamed for things that are the responsibility of the administration.

And Gael, what the fu ck are you on about.

[gael353]

a joke maybe only a few of us would get! but on the other hand we've gone over the Kerley thing loads of times before, and hes not the problem...for now...its the boys! Joe whats the rumour you had a bout a take over?

[joeSoap]

its only a rumour, but I got it from a good source. Someone that was involved in the club over the past decade is looking at buying the markets field with a developer, not the rugby one, and would be interested in getting Limerick back up ther if he gets FAI assistance, and the three amigos are gone. Only a rumour but.......