First two players out of contract from last season have put pen to paper on new deals.
- Paul Martin
- Shane Griffin
Great news to retain these two lads. Martin showed a lot of promise when he debuted for Brian Murphy last year. Griffin has played a bug role for the first team in recent. Really happy with the news, both came from the 19s too. We’re starting to build a strong core. Things finally starting to take shape.
That may be so but playing 23s football wouldn’t be the ideal way of closing that gap for him. Pretty much all of the players that come to the LOI from England talk about the LOI being a big step up from 23s football in England. Yes each academy has 2 or 3 good players that will break into the first team as well as the odd injured pro regaining fitness but on the whole, a lot of the players at that level will drop down to divisions far below the standard of LOI. A move to League One would’ve been a better fit for Brown IMO as there’s always a huge amount of midweek games in that division, coupled with players missing through covid etc he would’ve been a lot more likely to succeed in EnglandOriginally Posted by Jd2793
Paaatrick's Agletic
Junior Quitirna and Phoenix Patterson are 2 huge re-signings for Waterford. Cian Kavanagh up front could be a very good striker in the first divisions too and he’s still only 18. Keeping the likes of Griffin and a few of there other better players from last year's squad should help make them one of the favourites for promotion this year
Paaatrick's Agletic
he'll have been promised first team squad involvement regardless IMO. hes not going there to play u23s for 6 mths. Im not sure hes even at that level tbh but we'll soon find out. Top of the CH is really heavy on quality.
If they thought he was a decent prospect for the first team they wouldn't ask him to go on trial first as they'd know all about him. Blackburn are flying they could go up this year and if they do they won't be using players like Brown.
Went up to Saratoga, where my horse naturally won.
hes 23 , hes about 4 years too old to be a prospect. ultimately its a deal that will have suited him to best in his view so good luck to him. hope hes making good money at least.
Pretty much every player that comes to every league talks up the place where they're playing. I wouldn't read too much into that as proof of anything other than surprising levels of common sense in footballers. It's probably fairly true in this case but I wouldn't begrudge any player here a Championship contract of any description either. He's backing himself and best of luck to him. If it doesn't work out there he can always try dropping down a tier or two there or come back.
From what I read through glancing through Twitter, Blackburn are also in the market for a starting right back, which doesn't say much for any first team promises Brown may have gotten. Just seems an odd move given his age but all the best to him, he's a good player and will probably carve out a good career for himself whether it's at Blackburn or not.
One perk to signing at any level for Blackburn is getting on the football league merry go round. There are plenty of big clubs in league 1 & 2 that will look at signing someone from Blackburn as a coo.
Potentially the two best players in the division attacking wise. If Kavanagh’s in the right frame of mind he has bags of potential for his age too. Junior and Patterson were part of 8 players whom ended last season under contract for this year. Had we signed them on short term deals in the summer I’d say there would of had no hope of retaining either. We’ve a good core squad albeit small so far. Things seems to be looking good
With the exception of Duffy and mceleney (of whom mcl who played very few games) is cleary dumigan the only two that would be classed as losses, Benson etc signings look positive. On their day Dfc were the second best team in the division last year, they have enough now to challenge imo. Rovers won last year taking 28 points from losing or drawing positions. We need to improve, if jack is fit I think we can if not I can't see us getting so many late winners again ( dogs that chase cars etc). Derry when you ass mcclean as expected look really strong but I think the league looks really competitive next year.
wouldnt fancy relying on benson to get through a season without injuries especially when he'll be playing on that pitch every 2 weeks. Duffy is still one of the top players in the league, they wont get near the same production from John martin. Byrne is a game changer for Rovers, id have expected a tighter race if he didnt re-sign. He's so good its hard to see anyone getting near them. ye probably need to look at getting in a wing back and a gk though. Cotter was good but hes normally a right sided player isnt he? The left sided players ye have are hammered from injuries seem hard to rely on but if they can stay fit ye'll be ok. Thought Mannus dropped off a good bit last season, time catches up on them all.
Not sure you can really say Dundalk were the second best team in the league on their day last season - they finished sixth for a reason and never launched any sort of European challenge. They took points off Rovers, true, but upping your game in one-off matches won't hack it in the league.
Patching and Stanton look like losses too.
I think their continuing habit of resigning old players (Benson, Mountney, Ward in this case) isn't a great idea. The squad is just getting older. They've no keeper (though neither do Pat's I think?) and a fairly thin squad I think (assuming all the foreigners are gone). They've a ways to go yet to get a decent squad, albeit there's still time.
Byrne is a huge signing for Rovers and they're a competent forward (Whelan?) away from taking the **** this year. Derry have consolidated well though I'll believe McClean when I see it. I think there's a big gap then. I wonder is it too early to deem it the weakest league ever?
Sonni Nattestad Signed and released by Norwegian club FK Jerv within a couple of hours today,apparently failed to turn up as a key witness in a rape trial in Norway,wild recruitment from Dundalk last season…..
https://mobile.twitter.com/FKJerv/st...61797696409615
Irish by birth ,Harps by the grace of god.
Dundalk have signed Peter Cherrie back (thankfully) who in my opinion was probably the second worst keeper in the league last season out of the ones that played more than a couple of games, Abibi being the worst.
Pats only keeper on the books at the moment is Josh Keeley who’s come through the 19s and made his debut against Harps in November. He’s a good prospect and I’d imagine could potentially be promoted from third choice keeper to second choice this year, depending on the experience of the first choice keeper as it’s obviously a risk having a young keeper let alone 2 of them. It looks like Pats first choice keeper will come in from the UK again, fingers crossed he'll be even half as good as Jaros was last year who will reportedly be loaned out again by Liverpool to a club in Germany, Holland or England this time.
As you say there’s still a lot of signings due in to a lot of clubs
Paaatrick's Agletic
Well I wasn't counting Cherrie for exactly the reason you gave alright. I'm presuming both clubs have backup keepers now, but no first choice.
(Cherrie is another example of Dundalk's strange habit of signing former players actually)
https://www.dublinlive.ie/sport/socc...ptain-22629799
New contract for Brian Gartland at Dundalk.
Barry Coffey returns to Cork City on loan until summer. Hes out of contract with Celtic when the loan ends so would assume we would look to sign him permanently at that point.
Good signing. His 5 goals in 12 games is very impressive for a midfielder
Paaatrick's Agletic
Gary Cronin has appointed James Keddy as his no 2 with us. He follows him from Bray Wanderers.
https://ltfc.ie/2022/01/first-team-staff-appointments/
I know all about JK as a player but what is he like as a coach more importantly?
Gary Cronin is he the right man to manage Longford Town?
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