cork city in shoot mag

[ollie]

just flicking through a few magazines today and saw an article on city in shoot,just telling us of brian and pat and their aims etc and on the team itself.Fenn was quoted by saying he compared the standard in the eircom league to the third division in england
surely i would of thought of it as a little higher at least!???
i suppose any coverage is better than none

[southside bohs]

He said that in some other article aswell but he also said that the top players like crowe and hunt etc could play in division one.

i would agree with him that league of ireland is division three standards but the top players could play in division one.


Individual teams differ, do you think bristol rovers or yeovil town would beat bohs or cork

[dynamo kerry]

tis true

look at the mls

some of the teams would be good as good div one teams

look at dc united drawing easily with forrest but easil beating new england where avery john and richie baker play

consider that they could probably get into an avg div one side defo div 2 and thats about the best of EL at the mo

better than a few yrs ago certainly. remember when sev. of the best players were conidering the conference

[Bossman Scally]

Being originally "from across the water", I think the standard in the LOI has improved greatly over the last few years. When I first started watching City about four years ago, I would have said the LOI was probably around the standard of the Conference in England. Since the collapse of the ITV television deal in England a few years back, the quality of players in the LOI has improved greatly, with more England based players coming home, along with the odd English player here and there.

The conception in England is that LOI football is equivalent to the third division is mainly due to one person........Roddy Collins! The complete pigs ear he made of managing Carlisle Utd, a lower divison club with a catchment area of over 250,000 people, was truly unbelievable. He took a fair few Irish based players, I'm not too sure how many, and changed a team that should have been challenging for promotion to relegation certainties! Now, I'm originally from "Up North" in England and every time I go home and I start telling people how good the LOI is, I keep getting "But look at what Roddy Collins did to Carlisle!" reply!

Now, as I have stated above, I have watched football at all levels in England, and I can honestly say the LOI is probably equivalent to the second (now the first!) division in England. Of the current City squad, I'd say that O'Flynn and Doyler are probably Championship standard (as it is now called). If the LOI is going to prosper, it needs to acquire a lower English division teams mentality. LOI teams need to nurture there youth teams, sign players up to longer term contracts and then, if a player wants to go to England to further there careers, the LOI clubs need to get a fair price for the player. I am sick and tired of players going to England with the LOI teams receiving a pittance in return! If more LOI clubs adopt these policies, then I can see a bright future ahead for the LOI.

[Gandhi]

Agree with the above, haven't been to any Nationwide League (or whatever its called now) games personally but any time I've watched on TV I've always been impressed with the standard of play in what a long time ago used to be called the Third division (what is it now? the First? marketing has a lot to answer for ) I'd like to think City would be a match for most of the teams at that level. It's an interesting question, not that we'll ever get to see the answer. The great thing for us by comparison to them is of course playing in Europe. City, Shels (Boo! hiss!) etc are now a very attractive option for any Irish born or first generation Irish (e.g. Danny M, Dan M) footballer who wants a decent wage, a passionate fan base (well, not that you'd get that at Shels ) and the chance to play against European opposition. So many people have dismissed Pat Dolan's call for Irish footballers to be given a real chance to make their careers at home, but it is gradually coming about, where a lot of them are going to realise it's not an unrealistic option. I was talking to one of the players a few weeks ago and he was saying the wages at City are just as good as the second division in England. Have to say i think that's great and I don't mind paying an extra few euro for a match ticket as a consequence. i know sometimes people make unfavourable comparisons between GAA ticket prices (or even Nantes prices for awway fans!) and prices at the X but if we want quality players in the Eircom league we have to fork over the dosh