Dundalk sign Sam Stanton from Phoenix Rising and, before that, seven seasons in the Scottish second tier (and was then released when his side got promoted).
While I think we have to acknowledge the Scottish second tier stronger overall than the LoI, but still, it's another signing where it's hard to see how it'll enable Dundalk to significantly kick on.
Not sure I'd agree Scottish Championship is higher standard than LOI overall, top 4 or 5 in our PD would easily compete with those clubs, and prob bottom 3 or 4 in SPL too. Stanton played over 75 games for Dundee Utd, who are a bigger club than probably any of ours, and Hibs before this, I think at 26 and being an attacking MF, its a good addition for Dundalk. He also turned down an offer from Ross County (SPL), so lets see what he's like.
#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).
Honestly I think that's slightly delusional. £500k prize money for the league winners alone dwarfs anything we get here, and the average attendance is 50% higher than here too, so there's way more money there. Maybe Rovers or Dundalk with Euro money would be competitive, but Bohs/Sligo/Waterford? No. Dave McMillan was a consistent LoI scorer for a number of seasons and yet didn't make an impact even in the third tier (injuries didn't help, but still).
(I'm aware that then wouldn't tie in with my view that it's not a stand-out signing for Dundalk - I guess I'm coloured in my view by the success of most of the previous foreign signings)
Last edited by pineapple stu; 27/01/2021 at 8:52 AM.
Well Gary Twigg came in from Brechin City and that was really underwhelming and he ended up a top signing. A bit of that and this will be god for Dundalk but it also could add to the hit or miss trend of signings too.
Yeah, that's fair.
He started with Bray U20s in 2008 & 2009, and then dropped to LSL (Crumlin, Newbridge) before his first Rovers stint. Then Longford, an abortive contract with Crusaders, Waterford and Rovers this time including European competitions on his CV. Some sources note a "career break" after he left Rovers, but he then signed with LSL side St Mochtas in 2018 and that was his last club before Glenavon.
Not a like for like comparison - Michael O’Neill came first to us ; he knew all about Twigg and persuaded the Rovers board to back his judgement and to raise money needed by selling Ger O’Brien to Derry for €20k..... one of the few decisions the Rovers board got right during the MON era
Gary Twigg was also not too long before turned down by Derry after a trial (I think by Stephen Kenny) that included one friendly appearance against Dunboyne, a 10-1 victory that included 5 Twigg goals.
I think plenty on this forum have long been delusional in their comparison of LOI to SPL (and by extension the Scottish Championship). The reality is over a proper period of competition it is likely we are way off and even the very best sides we have had would struggle significantly in the SPL.
No signing is going to be like for like. The point stands though - it could be a master stroke signing or consigned to the slapdash transfer policy of recent. Maybe Magilton has been tracking this lad!?
I've seen McCaffrey play several times, he is a confidence player, if he doesn't get the ball he always looks like a child without a sweet, but if he gets service he will be a very good signing, I always though he never got a fair go at Rovers, but i Never seen him in training so cant be 100%, I think the lad could be a hit, his movement is very good but at the time he was in a poor Rovers side, I think attitude might be a problem with him though, so if yer manager can mollycoddle him a bit, he could be a great signing
Its always an interesting discussion imo but an impossible one to conclude. A lot of it is to do with the potential to be able to hold our own at whatever level. Another angle is that IF we were in a situation where LoI sides were competing regularly against top and second tier Scottish sides then we'd be reaping the sort of financial rewards they get also. The 2016 Dundalk side I think could have surprised a few and playing at a particular level lets you rise to that level also. In general the ways teams are so organised at any level means there are not as many gimmes as there used to be for or against - The FA Cup intrigues for that very reason albeit genuine shocks are rare.
For what it's worth, Mark Russell of Finn Harps has over 100 league appearances in the Scottish Championship with Greenock Morton and Falkirk, and reckons Finn Harps are at a similar standard to that of Scottish Championship but that the football here is a little bit more technical than that of what he was used to and it took him time to adapt to it when he first came over.
https://kesslereffect.bandcamp.com/album/kepler - New music. It's not that bad.
Id imagine that players wouldnt broadcast that they were stepping down a level if thats what they were thinking but Russell wouldnt be on his own when making such an observation. There tends to be some surprise when players do move in from outside LoI. Adorjan said that he was really surprised by the technical ability of the players (I think he was mainly referring to Dundalk at that point) but that the pace at which the game was played was shock and that thats what he had to adapt to. He also said that it was a bit more physical and he found referring frustrating in it inconsistency. Conversely, how well Jamie McGrath is doing in Scotland, probably better than at Dundalk, would be somthing of an indication that if there is a difference it isnt massive. Of course we can cherry pick examples for and against. If Conor Salmon can be a reasonably prolific striker in Scotland and carve out a career there then for me that indicates that Scottish football is barely LSL!! and Trappatoni rated him and we know what he thought of Irish players ;p
I could see that technically, the LoI is slightly better alright.
But I think the failure of LoI clubs to make any impact in the Scottish Challenge Cup does tell a better story as it involves direct comparison. Bohs' 1-0 win over fourth tier Peterhead in 2018 is the only time an LoI side has beaten a senior team in the competition. In the same time, LoI sides have lost to Elgin City, Falkirk, Motherwell U21s, Airdrie and Stenhousemuir. It wouldn't make a great league record.
Yes, LoI sides don't always take the competition seriously, but it's still a fairly bad record.
Looking at European head to head wouldnt indicate a massive gulf over the years, even more so if excluding the Old Firm and even there, particularly Shels imploded in one of the more recent games (Pats scared Celtic that time too?). But even results outside the Glasgow too against any European side dont scream out as being massively better. Throw in Gretna for entertainment value! I think this comes up every preseason in the vacuum of little LoI news along with WORST LEAGUE STANDARD EVER!! I wonder if it werent for the finances generated by the Old Firm via tv deals in the main, how much overall infrastructure would have progressed as it did. The few Ibrox disasters would have had a hand in driving improvements on health and safety similar to the Taylor Report in England. If LoI had progressed even to the levels of IL on ground developments it would be nip and tuck between LoI and most Scottish football outside their top tier. Maybe a lot of that impression is due to better prep and professionalism on the playing side of things over the last decade or so. Prior to that teams did generally ok until the last half hour and collapsed - so not a lack of ability and more the old school methods of training, nutrition etc.
You would wonder what effect summer football has on our European performances. I think its impact is overstated, but it's still there. So you take St Johnstone being knocked out of Europe by Trakai in 2017/18 - but that was a month before their season started. Trakai then beat Derry last year (aet, and in a home leg only because of covid), but Derry were in mid-season and had had time for any new signings to settle.
It's a question that'll never really be answered of course - hence why it's so fun for forums like here!
Ethan Boyle released by Linfield. Return to Harps?
Sligo have signed Walter Figueira
I do think summer football has helped in Europe simply for fitness and match sharpness. When having to play preliminary rounds, when those games are the first competitive games of the season, it had to be a negative. We'll never know for sure unless we could get the exact same team playing the exact same opposition in both winter and summer formats and see how thing go but of course will never happen. Form/confidence comes in to it like Dundalk's performance v Qarabag compared to Linfield or hwo we Played against Celje compared to Molde (knocking out Celje), if we had put in like for like performances we may have gotten past Celje though that would have thrown a spanner in the luck of the draw to the EL groups. Ifs and buts throughout!
On the non playing side of summer football, while I enjoy the novelty of a game under the lights early and late season, I dont think my toes have ever thawed from January nights in Oriel Park. The occasional crisp night time game is grand but I far prefer the milder and sometimes balmy evening in July of the summer season!!
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