I resent that commentOriginally Posted by placid casual
Not massively fussed on missing out on Hery, obviously would have rathered we kept him but we desperately need a starting goalkeeper so I'd rather than got priority in the budget than someone to compete with Benson and Forrester in midfield.
I wouldn’t mind it, if being the second most successful club in the league in the last decade is a graveyard of ambition it doesn’t say much for rovers who won less trophies in that timeI resent that comment
Agree with Jack on Hery. Would’ve been a nice player to have but there’s other more important signings we still need to get done
", Bohs to their credit are a hard working team which doesn't accommodate a luxury player which is how i see Heary."
We accommodated Mandriou for a season where he won YPOTY, and you can't really get more luxurious than that. Also, a team that often had Grant and Twardek as out and out wingers and also gave plenty of game time to Ward, Devoy and Tierney, can hardly be considered just workmanlike..
Will be very interested to see how Mandriou gels with McEneff and Burke, who'll both consider themselves the main man now Byrne has gone. Personally I feel a combination of Jack Byrnes class, Dundalks lack of form/effort and a ridiculously short season, covered up a lot of cracks with Rovers, particularly not having a decent striker and having Joey O'Brien at the back. Think it will be a much more interesting season this year.
Karl Sheppard retires due to Arthritis. He's only 29 seems like he's been around for ages.
https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2021...to-retirement/
It sure does , sad to see a young man suffer from that affliction. Best of luck to him for the future.
Sorry to hear that about Shephard. Its rare that someone has to retire from Artritis.
Gary Cronin is he the right man to manage Longford Town?
I think the thing with Pats is when they broke their cup hoodoo against us, and won the league cup to add to the league in the same few years, the drive and the desire seemed to go out the club, were the trophies just going to continue. Now they just seem happy to finish top half and maybe a crack at Europe.I wouldn’t mind it, if being the second most successful club in the league in the last decade is a graveyard of ambition it doesn’t say much for rovers who won less trophies in that time
Unfortunately bucko went stale and we have made two ****e appointments since. I think the Harry Kenny episode was hard one to predict. He had a decent pedigree and was a disaster. The SOD appointment was a punt and it’s outcome is still in the balance. I have my doubts but I’ll the give the man a chance. I think expectations are reasonable amongst the fan base , we are suffering from a lack of facilities and can’t attract the crowds needed to compete for trophies every year.
Last edited by D24Saint; 17/01/2021 at 6:25 PM.
Whats the views from Pats fans on Mountney? I was sorry to see him leave, but he never could nail down that starter spot, and the same right side always seemed to be a short term fix at Dundalk.
Mountney to be fair usually got stronger as each season progressed and incredibly came back as first choice for a lot of euro games. I hope he does a good job at Pats, always came across as a more than decent guy.
#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).
Good signing so excited to see how he gets on. When a player is part of a winning set up for years it’s a no brainer to sign him if you can. It will be interesting how SOD uses him next season , we have Benson who has been a tad hit and miss, a revitalised Chris Forester who had his best season since returning and Jamie Lennon. What do Dundalk fans reckon is his best position ?
Probably a bit of UCD bias here, but neither Benson nor Kelly seem to have done much at Pat's (and the same with Forrester). Is there an element that O'Donnell is the problem in terms of not being able to get the best out of the players?
Perhaps but unfortunately he is learning on the job. He doesn’t come across as an abrasive character but apparently his strict manner has ruffled certain feathers. I do think Forester has improved under his tenure, some players will excel or hate that set up.
I think half the problem with Forrester since he came back has been that he just isn't the same type of player he was when he left but until particularly in his first season back under Kenny there was a lot of trying to force him to still be. He excelled playing in the heart of midfield at a higher level than this and it was only really in the last run of games this season where he started to play that role with any consistency.
Think Benson struggled with the stop start nature of the season, he had a few top performances but couldn't build up a head of steam.
Interesting to see where Mountney fits in. Presume he'll be first choice right winger but I think we'll have a smaller squad this season that will see versatile players like Moutney and Bone move around when necessary.
The desire of the club is still there IMO in that they’ve still backed each manager in the off season to build a squad that first of all can get the club back to Europe consistently following a couple of terrible seasons at the end of Buckley's time at the club.
Being happy to finish in the top half is certainly not the case at the start of each season. I think maybe halfway through this season that became the opinion of a good lot of Pats fans as we sat lowly down the table without a goal in 12 hours. The ambition every year though is to get Europe and I think the budget reflects that even if performances don’t (although Pats did go into the final game of the season in 2019 & 2020 still with a chance of getting Europe, albeit a long shot)
Once an LOI European regular again and a squad has been built over those years, a title challenge can be looked at. The issue is, the signings haven’t worked out and performances on the pitch have suffered. As a fanbase obviously we’d all love to be challenging for the league title but that has to be built off of being European regulars in the same way Cork and Rovers
have done, while a title challenge now looks the next step for Bohs.
The likelihood of winning the title out of nowhere is very very low. Drogheda finished 2nd in 2012 in these circumstances which was incredible to be fair but the gap between the top 4/5 LOI clubs and the rest since then has gotten even bigger and even more recently you can even reduce that down to top 2/3 clubs. With the LOI being the LOI though, those clubs will change. It’s up to other clubs to get themselves in there and stay there for as long as possible in the same way that Rovers & Bohs have replaced Pats & Cork in Europe over the past few years
Last edited by 2 Year Contract; 17/01/2021 at 9:34 PM.
Happy enough with the signing given his versatility and the lack of options available this off season. It'll be an interesting one to see how he’s used alright. He never really stood out over the years but you must be doing something right to play over 300 games for one of the best sides the league's ever seen. His goal record is poor enough for a winger, would you say that’s an effect of being in a squad with so many goalscorers or was he poor in front of goal or was it that he was played as more of a hug-the-line style winger to free up space in the middle for Towell/McEleney/whoever?
Good summary of the state of play imo. The owner loves the club despite what conspiracy theorists online think. We are a realistic bunch of supporters I’d love to be competing for trophies every year but it’s not going to happen in our current guise. If we got the Richmond Arena approved then the sky was the limit but the council are a pack of morons who just wants to stick a load of high density housing into a area where that was a disaster in the past.
Hery has emense talent, but he has been sitting on our bench more often than not. He isn't hard working enough and pretty much a passanger in the game most of the time. But when he is on it, he is fantastic. It's a shame, because when he played in Europe for us last season even against Qarabag he stood out but never reached those levels on a consistant basis.
The Hallion Battalion Molests football.:D
Interesting summary on Hery from a Linfield fan, I heard about his performances v Quarabag ok, however in the games v Dundalk, end of 2019, albeit a much stronger Dundalk MF v now, he didn't stand out, then again no one did as Dundalk ran out 6-0 winners. I stil think he can do a job with Bohs, but seems he needs to up his work rate?
On Mountney, for Pats fans, he seemed to have created a position that wasn't really there, he was neither a right winger nor was he more inside right area of MF, but he played between the two. I think he benefited from being in MF's with better players over his career with DFC like the best one we ever had in my view, for one season only (2015) with O'Donnell / Finn / Towel. Plus he would have learnt from likes of Shields, McEleneny, and before with McGrath and Benson, he was just not considered a first pick for long spells. He probably needs to be get off to a big start, as that was his problem in the past, took him far too long to force himself into the team, but as I mentioned before, this was a welcome sight, as he managed that for Europe quite a lot.
On something different, there was a mention on earlier posts about 'the second most sucesfull team of the decade' (2010's) - would this not have been Cork City, 1 league, 2 cups, 4 runners up in the league / 2 times beaten finalist in the cup?
Last edited by oriel; 18/01/2021 at 11:11 AM.
#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).
I posted it in jest more than anything but I was going by number of trophies won (8 for Pats) as opposed to runners up etc
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