More EL players wanted from a club overseas

[Cosmo]

Taken from the drogs forum - drogs basically seem to have told Falkirk to f**k off. Seem to be creeping in since Doyles success that EL players can be got for next to nothing. Would be a bad move by either player imo:

'i have copied word for word a full page from todays scottish daily sun !!! half page HAS DOOLINS PIC!!!
falkirk are on collision course with irish outfit drogheda over graham gartland andstuart gray.drogheda united boss paul doolin has told bairns gaffer john hughes to stop tryin to nick his stars,
he wanted the centre halves on loan before making his mind up but drogheda gaffer doolin has told him to cough up or for get it.
he blasted"i havent heard anything from falkirk and i wouldnt encourage it either,if they want them on trial theycan forget about that,what would it say about us if we allowed that?we are a full time club,we arent going to be letting players go for 30.000 they can forget about that,i dont want to lose either player and i dont think either of tham would want to go., from my point of view i think leaving drogheda for falkirk would be a stupid move.we are in europe next season and are progressing.i woundnt want 2 leave. '

[De Town]

The 2 of them would be massive losses for ye....Garto was my MOTM in the Cup Final. He's pure class.

[hamish]

Yeah, Falkirk will probably be back in the second tier of Scottish football next season anyway so a move to them would be a step downwards unless someone like Celtic might spot him at Falkirk and sign him.

In the heel of the hunt I reckon he'd lose more than he'd gain.

Anyway, what kind of crowds do Falkirk get usually - 4 to 5 thousand tops. Nor much atmosphere there I'd say.

[dcfcsteve]

Yeah, Falkirk will probably be back in the second tier of Scottish football next season anyway so a move to them would be a step downwards unless someone like Celtic might spot him at Falkirk and sign him.

In the heel of the hunt I reckon he'd lose more than he'd gain.

Anyway, what kind of crowds do Falkirk get usually - 4 to 5 thousand tops. Nor much atmosphere there I'd say.

4-5,000 at a push - more around the 3-3,500 mark really.

They're not looking likely to go down this season though - there's a couple of teams really struggling at the bottom of the SPL (e.g. Dunfermline in particular).

Fairplay to Doolin for telling them to feck-off anyway. Right thing to do.

[hamish]

4-5,000 at a push - more around the 3-3,500 mark really.

They're not looking likely to go down this season though - there's a couple of teams really struggling at the bottom of the SPL (e.g. Dunfermline in particular).

Fairplay to Doolin for telling them to feck-off anyway. Right thing to do.

Yeah, Steve, reckon it'll be next season as I guessed. The attendances was more of a guess on my part from some memory of a crowd they had a while back. Makes my point even kore - why bother with Falkirk when they get sh@g all more than Drogheda.

This is sad, but ever Saturday night I check all the attendances for every game on BBC text. Reason is, I'm checking to see if clubs like, oh, say, Cambridge Utd, or Yeovil or Gretna etc etc etc are holding their core support and so on. Others to see if they are much down (or up eg Wigan) from, say, 10 years ago.

Another thing I like to suss out is the support the likes of Aberdeen and the Dundee clubs. Remember when they were much stronger, was it 10 to 15 years ago? - when the North Sea oil kinda filtered through to the local economies in those towns and probably benefitted the clubs too. It's interesting to see if a club benefits/suffers from a boom/bust in the local economy.

Maybe I need to get out more often.

Dead right about Doolin. I remember when Sunderland played Athlone in a pre-season friendly in the 90s. They made an offer for Stephen Grant (who scored against them on his debut I think) and then broke their word when it came to paying up. I hate the way UK (and other) clubs fcuk around with the EL (and Junior clubs) on this island.

[Ash]

I remember when Sunderland played Athlone in a pre-season
friendly in the 90s. They made an offer for Stephen Grant (who scored against
them on his debut I think) and then broke their word when it came to paying up.

The story I heard about that was Grant wasnt on a contract with us at the
time as he was just up from the Youths and when Sunderland asked the price
the Club said some to the effect of "give us whatever you think he's worth".
Sunderland said "sound job, we dont think he's worth anything so we'll take him
for free"

There was rumours of Sunderland playing a friendly over here a few years ago
for free as a kind of thank you but nothing came of it.

[Cosmo]

Reading are now after gray too according to someone in the pub lastnight!!

Ireland under 21 match in united park in february (hope the drogs players arent around that day )

[hamish]

The story I heard about that was Grant wasnt on a contract with us at the
time as he was just up from the Youths and when Sunderland asked the price
the Club said some to the effect of "give us whatever you think he's worth".
Sunderland said "sound job, we dont think he's worth anything so we'll take him
for free"

There was rumours of Sunderland playing a friendly over here a few years ago
for free as a kind of thank you but nothing came of it.

I was just easing out of the club at the time Ash so my memory mightn't be 100% correct. I think, though, that a £10,000 (punts) was agreed as Grant was, technically anyway, a senior player since he had played with the first team against Sunderland (TBH I'm not sure he had signed anything at that stage). Then his dad became involved when Sunderland started to cool to the idea of paying anything. Let's just say that various legal options were put forward should Sunderland pull out of the deal over the money.

Still left us with a bad taste in the mouth.

[A face]

Clubs simply cannot rely on the League or the FAI here.

They have to sort out contracts with players and use the system to their advantage.