PFAI Squad, FIFPRO Tournament, Norway

**Town Legend** · 11/01/2013, 7:50 PM

Walsh will hardly go will he? Didn't he leave Italy cos he was homesick?? Could be wrong but thats what I thought was the reason.

**Charlie Darwin** · 11/01/2013, 9:24 PM

Originally Posted by Mr A

Clubs need to prepare players for life after football - McGuinness

The PFAI. A great bunch of lads.

I'd have thought that was the PFAI's job more than the clubs. Apart from encouraging them to take out insurance and to keep up their education, clubs can't do an awful lot. I wonder if the PFAI has actually approached clubs about setting up some concrete plans to cooperate on such issues.

**Acornvilla** · 11/01/2013, 9:35 PM

Originally Posted by Town Legend

Walsh will hardly go will he? Didn't he leave Italy cos he was homesick?? Could be wrong but thats what I thought was the reason.

was over his missus being in dublin or something equally gay

**Charlie Darwin** · 11/01/2013, 9:42 PM

Originally Posted by Acornvilla

was over his missus being in dublin or something equally gay

**bluewhitearmy** · 11/01/2013, 10:02 PM

Originally Posted by nigel-harps1954

Isn't Ristila the FC Haka manager?

Originally Posted by Martinho II

correct

Nope Harri Kampman is. Ristila is manager of that 2nd tier team mentioned that are taking Maher and Walsh.

**bullit** · 12/01/2013, 12:25 AM

Do people think this is a worthwhile exercise? It may keep those on the list fit and match ready to a certain extent but nobody has realy signed following these matches.
I duunno? Is maybe 3 players signed in 3 years justification for the PFAI taking these guys over to this touramement/showcase?

**Mr A** · 12/01/2013, 12:50 AM

It cost 10k apparently. Is that justified compared to just playing a few extra matches here or even in the North? Seems a lot of money to spend on a relatively small group of players.

**Dodge** · 12/01/2013, 5:12 PM

Originally Posted by Mr A

It cost 10k apparently. Is that justified compared to just playing a few extra matches here or even in the North? Seems a lot of money to spend on a relatively small group of players.

Well the solicitor and all the journalists going have to be looked after too. (They definitely were too, seeing as papers couldn't find budget ast year to send journalists away to any of the LOI games in Europe (bar 1/2))

In fairness to McGuinness, it's meant the PFAI have got great press this week. For 3/4 days they were in most papers. Is that money well spent? Up to the players to say and they seem happy

**Longfordian** · 12/01/2013, 5:23 PM

Yeah the players pay their subs so it's their call. I'm curious as to how the squad is put together though, is it just whoever's available turns up to the training sessions? What happens if a load of players turn up, do they have to whittle it down?

**Cabs88** · 13/01/2013, 3:56 PM

Originally Posted by Town Legend

Walsh will hardly go will he? Didn't he leave Italy cos he was homesick?? Could be wrong but thats what I thought was the reason.

was something along those lines alright, but in fairness he was very young at the time.. He has potential to do well but is prone to injuries

**Acornvilla** · 13/01/2013, 7:04 PM

Its hard to know sometimes, maybe the 1st division is just prone to injuring players.

**wonder88** · 13/01/2013, 8:48 PM

The 10k cost of the trip away may come from players subs to their union, but the players are still paid by the fans and money raised by sponsorship usually by club volunteers. When I think of the amount of money taken out of the LoI over the years, some of the high profile court cases for example, this trip was not the worst way to spend the league's resources. Do folks on here know/think if sponsorship for new season for their teams is holding up compared to last year, or even improving ?