If that’s the case surely ye should be asking questions about the board?Originally Posted by micls
Why?
We have some 2 year signings who haven't worked out, Aaron Barry being the perfect example. Looking to move him on would be sensible Business. I wouldn't be suprised to see Benno retire either, even though he has another year.
In fairness Cork have a huge squad and possibly will be able to cut the vast majority of the 300k a year without much of an effect. There was a lot of complaints during the year of having 3 right backs and no room for some players. Obviously that won't make up the full 300k but it will ease the difficulty of having to cut 300k in the first place.
The real problem will be Dundalk increasing their budget while Cork stagnate/cut back theirs. For the sake of competition I hope Waterford, even Rovers are somewhat competitive next year, but I also hope we take 10 points off the latter next year too.
We re-signed Leahy and also have Supple and Corcoran already signed up. A real sign of intent from us. Perhaps outsiders for a european spot. If you take the second half of the season we'd be right up there. I know every club had to deal with it but that early fixture congestion really affected us as the part time team. Hopefully that's fixed next year and maybe the league can end two weeks later and ease the congestion.
I think Bohs should be rightly pleased with their season. They did great work in the community connecting or reconnecting with fans and their avg gate at well over 2k is impressive for a team that will probably finish 6th in a ten team league.
Getting key players signed up already is smart, and obviously keeps away certain clubs sniffing around !
Last edited by oriel; 20/10/2018 at 9:08 PM.
#DundalkFC - First Irish club to win an away game in Europe (1963), first Irish club to win points in a group stage in Europe (2016).
What percentage of the budget does that €300k represent? If the overall player budget was €1.3m that is heading for a 25% cut before management team costs are considered
I am not so sure that it is as straight forward as you appear to suggest.
The list of players retained for 2019 also shows up quite a few under-performers or those possibly past their sell-by date:
Alan Bennett
Damien Delaney
Mark McNulty
Danny Kane
Aaron Barry
Graham Cummins
Colm Horgan
are all players whose 2018 contribution was poor to indifferent and who will eat into the 2019 budget
I agree that for the benefit of the league as a whole, and also from Dundalk's own perspective, real competition is vital. It may be that it is more likely to come from Shamrock Rovers than from Cork
Last edited by Ezeikial; 20/10/2018 at 10:30 PM.
A lot of talk last night on this also, and who is likely to be best placed to challenge Dundalk, a lot suggested this could be Rovers.
I would still expect Cork to be competitive though, budget decreasing will have an effect, but they should be well capable of a top 3 finish with points to spare. I'm not fully convinced myself that Rovers can move up a spot to second though, as ever with all clubs, players in / out will determine how they are likely to fare.
I think next season should be a decent league, would be good for all clubs to aspire to perform better in Europe also, Dundalk included.
#DundalkFC - First Irish club to win an away game in Europe (1963), first Irish club to win points in a group stage in Europe (2016).
Cork are obviously going to be good but the main question, as someone else said, is how much better will Dundalk be? If they avoid the slow start from last season it could be a big gap again.
Haven't seen anything for Rovers this season to suggest they've bridged the gap. Good patches but not consistent enough overall. They've done well since the gk situation was sorted but still lost the cup game and the Bohs game. Still some mental fragility there I think. Be interesting to see how they start next season. A top striker would be what would make me reconsider that.
Dundalk will continue to get stronger and it's an uphill battle for everyone chasing them.
As for us, I'm not overly concerned. Caulfield has done it before and I'm confident he can rebuild again. I think he and the team do better as underdogs, they didn't cope with the pressure of being champions well at all. Hard to say how we'll do, but hopefully another good start to the season like the last 2. Recruitment is everything so we'll need a good year in that sense.
If that is the case, Caulfields recent recruitment record would hardly inspire confidence. He has signed plenty of duds since he struck gold with Maguire.
For Rovers to "bridge the gap" to Cork, they may not need to make any improvements.
I think Rovers will push on and so will Waterford. Rovers only 8 points behind Cork in the table. That suggests to me they have closed the gap to an extent. I also think Cork are in decline as a team. Manager hasn’t pushed on, lot of players not performing. Add to that a reduced budget and the likelihood the aforementioned clubs will spend more, should close the gap even further. If I was doing my Predictions League today. I’d have Cork 3rd possibly even 4th.
3 Dalyer sellouts too. Rule of thumb is the first and last game sells out, the two versus Rovers and the cup semi sold out (The cup quarters was away to Derry so that might have too). So all going well we'd sellout about 5 times a year. Which is great and all that but highlights the need to get the Dalyer redevelopment done. Capacity is an issue at the minute and won't be in the new one and will have state of the art facilities. I genuinely think in a few years, providing it's built, we'll be back challenging too
It had nothing to do with the pressure of being champions, such cliched bull, it had to do mainly with losing Maguire's goals and not replacing those.
Unlucky not to be signed by your lot? Get over yourselves!
Leahy is lucky that he was given his break by Keith Long.
He is a decent player but unlucky that none of the bigger full time teams need a left full (including us). Most young kids want a crack at full time. That's not anti bohs just reality.
It had nothing to do with the pressure? Being right with you until we drew with Pats and lost to Sligo, two bottom half teams, had nothing to do with pressure? Utter nonsense.
We won every home game in the first half of the season. Without Seanis goals.
People act as if the poor results from the second half of last season carried into this season without change. It didn't, that's revisionist nonsense. We had an excellent first half of the season. We were on track for our highest points per game record ever, we were winning games comfortably at home, and knocking results away even when not playing particularly well.
The wheels came off from/aftwer Europe. The pressure clearly had an impact and to claim otherwise is nonsense. It wasn't the only factor by any means, but it was a significant one. Dundalk were excellent, and I would say significantly stronger than last season. So, yes there was an evident gap by the end.
As to whether caulfield has the recruitment in him to rebuild? I think he does. He's had good years and bad years. This seasons recruitment obviously didn't work out, but there wasn't too many complaints as the players were being signed. The striker was the main concern and while Cummins hasn't lit the world alight, his goal return is higher than I would have imagined. There was some discussion around recruitment last year, the number of right backs in particular! But by the end the majority were very happy with our signings. Many didn't work out, for whatever reason. It happens.
As to the rovers discussion, who knows. I don't think the 8 points at the end of the season is particularly reflective, given the league was over early and teams were playing a variety of strength teams etc. We haven't started our strongest 11 in the league probably since the dundalk game. Rovers didn't challenge at any point, any more than last season.
They undoubtedly have the potential to challenge us, if not dundalk, but it will depend on the recruitment. If both squads and managers stayed as is (they won't), id be confident of finishing ahead of them next season. If they have a better off season of recruitment, they'd certainly be fancying their chances next season. I don't think they'll come near dundalk though.
Big question is can we challenge dundalk in the league next season? Personally, I doubt it. I don't think we'll catch up to their squad quality in the off season, and without a significant slip up from them in terms of a bad start to the year or some internal squad issues, I can't see anyone challenging them next season.
Plenty of people predicted we'd be third this season, and last season (yourself included) and the 2 seasons before that.
And yet Caulfield has every year had us finish in the top 2 and in the cup final. I feel like that gets written off a bit too quickly. We're basically going back to the budget before this season, we're not exactly dropping to amateur status.
Everyone will look significantly different come 4 months time, but as a manager Caulfield has consistently produced top 2 in league and Cup. I've seen nothing yet from Bradley or Reynolds to make me assume they'll beat him to it next season. Anything can happen of course, and a 20 goal a season striker for any of the 3 teams would be a game changer. But if I were putting money on it now, it'd be on the person who's consistently done it.
The demise of Cork has been greatly exaggerated.
A small squad unified around an agreed game plan is the platform upon which their success was built.
I am looking no further than Cork being our number one challengers next season.
Whoever finishes above Cork will be champions.
What do you mean? Are you saying that by the end of the season the majority of Cork fans were happy about the players recruited for 2018?
What caused them to change their mind?
Does the jeering and booing of John Caulfield by some fans and the significant drop in attendances at Turners Cross not indicate a dissatisfaction with the manager and/or the players?
I said it before, not a fan of the way Caulfield plays, but he does deserve a lot of credit from where he took Cork from (mid table) to runners up 3 times (edit....4 times runner ups) and a league title in between, He also came from non league mgt himself, so albeit its a personal view on his style of football, he's no mug.
Dundalk will start as odds on next season, its up to the rest to catch up, we wont have it easy, but it will still take a lot of hard work to retain it. I'd imagine the club will be looking to add 3 more players though, so it will obviously leave the squad even stronger.
I think Dundalk will be focusing on europe even more so next season as their target to show they can advance more, the Larnaca disaster away was a reminder how much you need to be switched on for different type of challenges, and that defeat had nothing to do with the heat, they were just beaten comprehensively by a much better side. I think the owners accepted this was a wake up call on what you need to do to get better at that level.
Last edited by oriel; 21/10/2018 at 8:50 PM.
#DundalkFC - First Irish club to win an away game in Europe (1963), first Irish club to win points in a group stage in Europe (2016).
Apparently turned down a full time contract offer from shams (according to several shams).Currently doing an apprenticeship and happy enough to give it another season at Bohs.Technically good left full but needs to work on physical side to fulfill his potential. has the ability to move back to England, very neat and tidy and improved dramatically as the season went on. Thought Dundalk would have been a god fit, and it was rumoured they were interested, but would be more likely to get first team opportunities at Bohs than Oriel.
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