New owners at dundalk

[Martinho II]

When Peak 6 first took over did a lot of Dundalk fans boycott the club until new ownership take over?

[oriel]

This really signals the end of Dundalk as a force here, doesn't it?

Even if Peak6 covered the losses from this year (which would be substantial, given they barely broke even last year with EL group stage qualification), you're still looking at a 2022 with (almost certainly) no Euro income and no Euro reserves. That's going to slash a couple of mill off the playing budget surely?

It seems possibly the only good thing Peak6 did for the club was to give out one-year contracts at the start of this season. Maybe they had a feeling this was the last throw of the dice?

Would hardly think so, P6 purely wasted money, for starters around 15k a week on 4 rubbish players in Abibi, Sonni, Han and Zahibo, that alone could be spent on 5 quality replacements, plus interesting to look back since Perth finally saw sense, the only p6 era signings he was picking were Stanton and Jurkovskis.

Monies remaining will be 250k left from P6 and 850k due from 2021 Euro season, then whatever budget Statsports / Andy C have.

However no euro income earned from 2022 will of course be a significant loss in income, actually come to think of it the first season since 2014 with no european football, a run of 8 consecutive summers and two group stages, damn right that will make a dent.

There is talk already of replacing the pitch and back to grass, how I would love that, would be a start, then gradually do up the kip of a ground after, if that took a few seasons of mid table, so be it, would be more beneficial in the longer term.

[pineapple stu]

Well I think the point is that 15k probably won't be available to spend on anyone next season. That'll be a big issue, especially when it comes to replacing the three guys gone to Derry

Time will tell I guess

[ToberonaTornado]

Its hard to say tbh, the club is off the back of a very different cycle. There are similarities when coming in as new owners, with issues to sort on players and staff. But it feels more positive this time when before it was a bit of an unknown. Keeping expectations in check certainly short term and probably longer but tapping in to and keeping that positivity - there could be one of the bigger crowds in seen in oriel for a couple of years *cough* v Derry as a show of support and solidarity with the owners, season tickets sales will bounce back and probably grow a bit. I dont think anyone will seriously be expecting a repeat of recent years of being dominant but if there is obvious progress on and off the field (not too hard that bit) then being an also ran for a while wont cut too deep. Find another astute manager who can build a team if they cant buy one and who knows. Not surprisingly the managerial rumour mill is in full flow though I think are more wishlist. Nah not bleak, relief! It could be worse and tbh it has been in the past - this at face value was a fairly easy transfer of ownership.

It should be easier to build local sponsorship this time for example but do we lose a main sponsor, was say a 3 year deal paid up front and were stuck for now - stuff that we dont know and maybe cant know as fans either. Volunteerism will improve and some very key people in previous success may return. All will be a lot more experienced in the nuts and bolts of running a competitive senior club than in 2012/13. An active supporters club is now there and was a huge miss, if we can keep complacency like that at bay then were already ahead.

Excellent post Nesta.

So delighted to see this deal with StatSports and the Connollys is finally over the line and P6 are totally gone from the scene here in Dundalk.

There's a LOT of "stuff" that needs fixing now at the club and hopefully that can be achieved in the coming weeks and months.(maybe even years )

To every Dundalk fan on this forum and to everybody else who supported us during the P6 SHI* show times - i thank yous all and i love yous forever xxxxxx

The club is back in the right hands now.

[ToberonaTornado]

Would hardly think so, P6 purely wasted money, for starters around 15k a week on 4 rubbish players in Abibi, Sonni, Han and Zahibo, that alone could be spent on 5 quality replacements, plus interesting to look back since Perth finally saw sense, the only p6 era signings he was picking were Stanton and Jurkovskis.

Monies remaining will be 250k left from P6 and 850k due from 2021 Euro season, then whatever budget Statsports / Andy C have.

However no euro income earned from 2022 will of course be a significant loss in income, actually come to think of it the first season since 2014 with no european football, a run of 8 consecutive summers and two group stages, damn right that will make a dent.

There is talk already of replacing the pitch and back to grass, how I would love that, would be a start, then gradually do up the kip of a ground after, if that took a few seasons of mid table, so be it, would be more beneficial in the longer term.

Although i'm no fan on the artificial pitch it does have many advantages. Any decision to replace it for grass should be mulled over for a while. The pitch we have was very,very poorly maintained this last 12/18 months.

[ToberonaTornado]

Former DFC COO,Martin Connolly and former Dundalk coach and legend John Gill audio interviews on local radio below article.Decent interviews.

https://www.lmfm.ie/news/sport/new-e...ssume-control/

[DCSIL]

Now would be fine to introduce stricter FFP controls on LoI, connected to financial performance of the club with restrictions on owners covering losses!!!

If anything the FAI should be looking into how clubs budgets are formed, maybe those connected to one club covert funding another club in the league and giving an unfair advantage. Can't think who that would involve though..

Going to be an interesting Winter, at the moment you've got maybe 2 i would say challenging again for the League the rest we'll see.

[oriel]

Well I think the point is that 15k probably won't be available to spend on anyone next season. That'll be a big issue, especially when it comes to replacing the three guys gone to Derry

Time will tell I guess

Thats a fair point, but so is the absolute wasting of money by P6, for example the wages spent on Zahibo could have funded Richie Towell if he has chosen to come back, but who in their right mind would have joined mid season such was the circus on show, but just making a comparison in player for player.

There is no doubt a re-build will be required, but as long as the club get much better value for money, that reported 15k wasted on the 4 players mentioned won't be missed.

[oriel]

Although i'm no fan on the artificial pitch it does have many advantages. Any decision to replace it for grass should be mulled over for a while. The pitch we have was very,very poorly maintained this last 12/18 months.

Most players will prefer to play on grass, its just a pity there is no other section of the ground to re-install it, its far too expensive also to replace every few years.

A lot forget a cool 1 million from the EL monies went on a new pitch in 2017 and paying off the planning fees to the LCC for the YDC, which is an asset, but just shows how quickly the money can do, prob add in another 500k for upgrading the YDC, that's more of it gone. Then came the madness of P6 and wages on unheard of players.

I still think they should look at going back to grass.

[pineapple stu]

Thats a fair point, but so is the absolute wasting of money by P6, for example the wages spent on Zahibo could have funded Richie Towell if he has chosen to come back, but who in their right mind would have joined mid season such was the circus on show, but just making a comparison in player for player.

There is no doubt a re-build will be required, but as long as the club get much better value for money, that reported 15k wasted on the 4 players mentioned won't be missed.

Oh P6 wasted money spectacularly alright. Did any of their foreign signings amount to much? It does seem like literally every single one was actively crap. Blind luck would do better than that, you'd have thought.

But if you take all them and the three guys gone to Derry off the wage bill and replace them with local amateurs (as in, literally amateurs with no pay), surely the team is weaker? I don't know how much of a money pot the new guys have, but I doubt it's EL group stage sized.

[Kiki Balboa]

Oh P6 wasted money spectacularly alright. Did any of their foreign signings amount to much?

Ravis and Stanton are good players, Ben Amar can be something too.

The money dished out was awful (Zahibo in particular was never going to work), but you cant also expect every transfer to be a hit. The bigger problem for me was the organization around the team. Bringing in half fit players, who have been out of contract for a while and not giving them any pre-season (plus bringing foreign lads to Dundalk during Covid isnt a lot of peoples dreams). Then expect them to be hits straight away, and replace veterans? Of course it would fail. It was crazy and a testament to how the club was run. Big contracts on possibly (big question) talented players and giving them no real way of making a success out of it.

An example is Ben Amar, who is young, and hasnt played for a few months before coming to Dundalk. He looked heavy, had no preseason and then thrown in half-way during the season against lads that were playing at the peak of their seasons. Not even signing him for next year. He has had no chance at Dundalk. What is worse is Dundalk wouldnt even know if there is player there or not.

[ToberonaTornado]

]Most players will prefer to play on grass[/U], its just a pity there is no other section of the ground to re-install it, its far too expensive also to replace every few years.

A lot forget a cool 1 million from the EL monies went on a new pitch in 2017 and paying off the planning fees to the LCC for the YDC, which is an asset, but just shows how quickly the money can do, prob add in another 500k for upgrading the YDC, that's more of it gone. Then came the madness of P6 and wages on unheard of players.

I still think they should look at going back to grass.

.

There's very few decent grass pitches in the league anyway.The lads that are taking over know that.I think ripping-up the pitch at op will be symbolic only and could be an expensive mistake from the club.

[pineapple stu]

The bigger problem for me was the organization around the team. Bringing in half fit players, who have been out of contract for a while and not giving them any pre-season (plus bringing foreign lads to Dundalk during Covid isnt a lot of peoples dreams). Then expect them to be hits straight away, and replace veterans? Of course it would fail. It was crazy and a testament to how the club was run. Big contracts on possibly (big question) talented players and giving them no real way of making a success out of it.

An example is Ben Amar, who is young, and hasnt played for a few months before coming to Dundalk. He looked heavy, had no preseason and then thrown in half-way during the season against lads that were playing at the peak of their seasons. Not even signing him for next year. He has had no chance at Dundalk. What is worse is Dundalk wouldnt even know if there is player there or not.

That's an interesting analysis. Dundalk are one of the few LoI clubs with a Director of Football afaik (at least, a full-time one) and one of the main roles of that job is to vet the proposed signings. Otherwise, you have a manager saying to the Board (who might be business people rather than football experts) that they want to spend x on this player and to offer him a contract of y per week, and the Board have no real way of seeing if that's reasonable.

I know some of those signings were agreed before Magilton came on board, and I'm not sure if Magilton is entirely happy at Dundalk, but something's gone badly wrong there it seems.

Though that something is almost certainly linked with Peak6, so if they're gone, that should help.

[ToberonaTornado]

Oh P6 wasted money spectacularly alright. Did any of their foreign signings amount to much? It does seem like literally every single one was actively crap. Blind luck would do better than that, you'd have thought.

But if you take all them and the three guys gone to Derry off the wage bill and replace them with local amateurs (as in, literally amateurs with no pay), surely the team is weaker? I don't know how much of a money pot the new guys have, but I doubt it's EL group stage sized.

Never look past the 2 USA guys that we signed and who were sent to Athlone "on loan". Athlone swiftly sent them back to Dundalk they were so bad. That was the ineptitude we were dealing with here.

[Kiki Balboa]

That's an interesting analysis. Dundalk are one of the few LoI clubs with a Director of Football afaik (at least, a full-time one) and one of the main roles of that job is to vet the proposed signings. Otherwise, you have a manager saying to the Board (who might be business people rather than football experts) that they want to spend x on this player and to offer him a contract of y per week, and the Board have no real way of seeing if that's reasonable.

I know some of those signings were agreed before Magilton came on board, and I'm not sure if Magilton is entirely happy at Dundalk, but something's gone badly wrong there it seems.

Though that something is almost certainly linked with Peak6, so if they're gone, that should help.

Peak6 had no clue about football, never mind LOI football. Bluffers and agents took advantage of them. Magilton is one of those bluffers, a total spoofer, and was there to bleed rich people dry. (...there was other issues, but on the football side, this was a huge problem).

It is summed up by wanting Dave Rogers to take the job in front of Perth, but was over ruled. Thank God Peak6 overruled him or we would have been relegated. Im not a big Perth fan, but with the names mentioned at the time, it was the right choice.

I might be a little angry when typing this, but I swear Magilton should have been fired on the spot for that suggestion. No joke. In the list of errors of Peak6, Magilton is close to the top.

[ToberonaTornado]

KIKI Balboa is almost crying and now i'm in tears myself.

https://www.dundalkfc.com/colm-returns-to-oriel/

Colm Murphy has returned to the club.

Anybody who knows anything about Dundalk and LOI will understand how big this is. this is HUGE!!

[Mr A]

As a league we are quick to beat ourselves up and to consider everyone everywhere to be better at stuff than we are.

But running an LOI club is hellishly difficult and it's hard to beat safe hands who have done it before with success.

[DCWA]

That'll be a big issue, especially when it comes to replacing the three guys gone to Derry

Five. Don’t forget Sloggett and Cleary.

[EatYerGreens]

There is talk already of replacing the pitch and back to grass, how I would love that, would be a start, then gradually do up the kip of a ground after, if that took a few seasons of mid table, so be it, would be more beneficial in the longer term.

I would say this is the most sensible approach for Dundalk to take over the next five or so years.

Derry's owner said earlier this year that he wants to win the league within the next 3 seasons (i.e. by 2023/4). Presumably he also intends for them to dominate, and not just win it once off. It would be madness for any club to think they can enter into an arms race for the top players with a billionaire. It makes more sense instead to focus on improving things off the pitch and then come back into play much stronger when the steam goes out of Derry again. All empires eventually fall, and Derry would be no different.

[ToberonaTornado]

LOL

When the steam goes out of Derry?
You're smoking stuff i wish i was smoking. Talking BS eyg