Has Danny Drew been a good thing for Limerick FC?

**LFC in Exile** · 10/08/2005, 8:44 AM

These last three posts are all fair enough comments on DD's strengths and weaknesses. He obviously cares about the club - which is shown not least in his reaction to refereeing decisions - he is more vocal than some fans on those. Hopefully he won't go as far as Ollie Byrne.

I really hope DD stays on at the club because it is moving in the right direction in terms of being a viable eL club - which is the only thing a chairman should be concerned with. In fact all good chairmen p1ss off the fans. They have different agendas and objectives. If the chairman and fans love each other its time to get worried. Peter Ridsdale anyone?

**jebus** · 10/08/2005, 1:14 PM

Originally Posted by Westside

Ok but then how do we have between 400-600 supporters at home games now as opposed to 150-250 in 2003.

Three words, location, location, location

He must be doing something right.

Well whatever he did right in the start (buses to the games, articles/ads in the local papers) he is undoing right now, as is plainly evident from the falling attendences at the games, and this at a time when we are going for promotion. You can put that down to the brand of football we are playing or the disenchantment with Danny Drew/Noe O'Connor on a football level, but at the end of the day the buck stops with the chairman who hired the current manager and refuses to hear any criticism of him, or indeed his own policies.

As I said in my first post, the level of disinterest in this clubs results is pretty shocking, people still care about the club, but not about the backroom staff, so there is a conflict there. Until that is resolved I don't see attendence levels rising, and since Noel is apparantly signed on for five years then I do see the attendences dropping back to Pike standards within those five years. The old fans feel left out in the cold by Drew, and the new fans won't stick around for long watching the ball being kicked from one end of the pitch to the other. I know a few football fans in Limerick that generally think the Eircom League is a joke, but went along to a Limerick game to check it out, needless to say they won't be back. Why would someone coming to Rathbane for the first time want to watch a throw back to 80s style football?

I said it in the last post, and I'll say it again here, in the long run I will be proven right that Danny won't be a good thing for this club. The only way this won't happen is if Danny reads this at home, throws down his Transformer toys, starts banging his fists on the ground and vows to prove me wrong.

**Nempton** · 10/08/2005, 2:18 PM

I'll vote yes but with a large pinch of salt so until that other option appears rather than just a simple yes, I'll hold back with my vote. There has been a lot of good done in regards off the field and it is good to see the clubs future secure for now, which deserves to be applauded. But I think that Danny has gone backwards in the way he manages the club and really has missed a wonderful opportunity in the long term. I think he would be better to stay in the background rather than turn to the darkside like Ollie Byrne.

Originally by Westside
What ever DDrew has done with regard to McCarthy, and all the others that have left, I sure it has been done with the best interests of the club in mind

Well you would like to think so but alas no...in Derek's case towards the end it was more of a personal thing with NOC. It was great to hear NOC lie on radio about the fact that Derek was the only player who wanted to leave, just like how he left poor Bernie O'Neill out to dry over his programme notes.
But in regards to the others it is clear that Danny was driven by more personal interests instead of the clubs. One point being his paranoia and insecurity and as a result I think Danny missed his calling in history, he really would have loved the 1930's with all the Fascism that emerged and you know Limerick FC do wear the colour blue (something for ye Irish history buffs) so you never know yet. Another apsect to what Danny considers to be in our best interests is making money but I don't believe that offering our best players to other first division clubs is a sign of ambition. If I mentioned whom then there would be a greater uproar than when Derek left. I don't see the point of selling our best player for cash and replacing him with medicore players. Aside from NOC's poor tactics Limerick will never get promoted that way.

Originally by Jebus
the covering up of why CP took a sabatical because he's a friend and the whole O'Connor management disaster makes me think he hasn't been a good thing.

Is that when he missed a drug test and they discovered that CP really wasn't as white as white except for that bit on his nose...sniff
I always said that he would be the stick that NOC gets beaten with and who here said "hanging", thats just too quick. Seriously though to say CP took a sabbatical makes it sound as if he's gone on a religious pilgrim to South America...hopefully not Columbia though.

I better get the umbrella out I can hear the s**t-storm brewing now

**Lim till i die** · 10/08/2005, 2:28 PM

Originally Posted by Nempton

One point being his paranoia and insecurity and as a result I think Danny missed his calling in history, he really would have loved the 1930's with all the Fascism that emerged and you know Limerick FC do wear the colour blue (something for ye Irish history buffs) so you never know yet.

"The Blueshirts On Tour" Anyone?

(Technically, They weren't a Facist organisation Nempton but I'll leave you off with it

)

As for the Best Player Rumour:

**declan hide** · 10/08/2005, 2:29 PM

amazing info there...the plot thickens eh?....the o'brien one...i wanna hear more...can you do the programme notes next home match?

and to think people got annoyed when i made a throwaway comment of the stolen merchandise. (see the way i didnt put stolen in inverted commas!

)

this club is unreal. boring at football we are everything else we are not.

**Lim till i die** · 10/08/2005, 2:34 PM

Originally Posted by declan hide

this club is unreal. boring at football we are everything else we are not.

Complete Soap Opera, you know it's interesting to note our increase in Attendances came in conjunction with switching to Friday nights and Eastenders becoming absolute crap. Coincidence..... I think not

**gael353** · 10/08/2005, 2:42 PM

Originally Posted by Lim till i die

Complete Soap Opera, you know it's interesting to note our increase in Attendances came in conjunction with switching to Friday nights and Eastenders becoming absolute crap. Coincidence..... I think not

guys dont watch eastenders, do they?

i was always a emmerdale man myself for Katie, Chaz and others.

**Lim till i die** · 10/08/2005, 2:45 PM

Originally Posted by gael353

guys dont watch eastenders, do they?

i was always a emmerdale man myself for Chaz

**Nempton** · 10/08/2005, 2:45 PM

I think the only success we will have this year, when you think of everything that has gone on is if we produce on broadway 'Butchered - A season with Limerick FC'
Ours truly is a tragic tale something which even Shakespeare couldn't dream up if he was still alive today. Now who could play the part of NOC?

**thelimerick** · 10/08/2005, 2:48 PM

When I heard the blues were being taken over by some buisnessman with big ambitions I have to say I was delighted. Finally the club was getting the backing it desperately needed. There is huge potential in the club what with Limericks sporting reputation. If the club was run professionally alongside significant investment then in time LimerickFC would indeed be climbing the Premier table with the crowds turning out in force to back them. Remember the playoffs with UCD in Hogan Park??? Any sniff of positive movement has always been backed by supporters.
However I think everyone would agree that positive steps forward have been taken alongside negative steps backward almost hand in hand. We get in proper coaches only to let them go without replacing them. We build the numbers of the squad only to trim them later. We get in decent players only to let our top-scorer go for nothing. We plead for more support only to then berate supporters.
In my opinion though, Danny Drew HAS been a good thing for this club yet he like all of us has made mistakes. These mistakes have overshadowed the good work that has been done at the club. Importantly though its how he reacts to these mistakes that will leave the biggest impression. Again in my opinion he has made a mistake in appointing NOC. This can be rectified in time. Also he needs to remember that he is the chairman of this club and as such should act accordingly, calling fans scumbags is completely out of order by any standards. His PR problems have been something of a nightmare. I've said before that if he decided to meet the fans and get all of this out in the open, deal with it and move on, we'd be in a much better position. I think the fans would approach this like adults and air their reasonable grievances politely IF Danny Drew approached it in the same way. So Id say YES he's been good for the club but like others Id have slight reservations...

**shelbourne1904** · 24/08/2005, 11:44 AM

Originally Posted by jebus

Assuming he wrote them of course, which he apparantly didn't according to what I heard last Friday. I voted no, for the simple reason that I would prefer to properly support a underachieving side that are hanging on financially by a thread very single season than support the kind of side that I'm watching presently. Seriously there's no passion amongst the supporters at games anymore and I put that down to the dislike of many supporters to Danny Drew and Noel O'Connor. A lot of fans I know wouldn;'t exactly mind the team imploding this season just so the pressure would be on the Drew/O'Connor partnership, myself included, which I think everyone can agree on isn't a great state of affairs to have at any club.

Is this Limericks famous St Muncheons curse raising its ugly head again.?????
Irish football needs Limerick in the Premier.How that happens justifies the means.Think of playing Shels ,Bohs ,Pats ,Cork, Derry, instead of the current visiting stuff with a stand and a big crowd,Come on the Blues

**jebus** · 27/08/2005, 12:57 PM

Originally Posted by shelbourne1904

How that happens justifies the means

So if the complete squads of Shels, Bohs, Cork, Derry and Waterford were all killed in a plane crash and finacially were unable to continue and Limerick were chosen to be one of the five replacement teams in the Premier it would be justified? Just using an extreme version of your logic is all

**LFC in Exile** · 29/08/2005, 8:48 AM

Originally Posted by jebus

So if the complete squads of Shels, Bohs, Cork, Derry and Waterford were all killed in a plane crash and finacially were unable to continue and Limerick were chosen to be one of the five replacement teams in the Premier it would be justified? Just using an extreme version of your logic is all

Jaysus, don't be giving them ideas!