Dermot Keely, the manager of deceased eircom League club Dublin City, has hit out at the ongoing summer soccer season, insisting that the venture has been an unmitigated disaster for Irish soccer – and even predicting that other clubs will fall by the wayside before long. .
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What do people think ?
“Who is going to these summer soccer games on the hottest days of the year? What crowds are we getting? All of this has been done to help get some good results in Europe but does that have to come at the cost of losing a club?
“In any family, everybody gathers around the weakest child. In our league, we only seem to think about the strongest. I’m afraid to say it, but I can only see more dark days ahead.”
He also has a dig at the Euro-centric mentality on show on this forum...
I think he's had over 2 years of successful summer soccer....he bitches now because he's unemployed.
Old school mentality, move with the times or be left behind.
Yet another example of Summer soccer getting the blame for any club's ills.
Is Keeley seriously suggesting that Dublin City would magically have been a financial success under winter football ?? As that is the only conclusion you can draw from his comments. Muppet.....
Name me one decent league where this is the case. English Premiership ? SPL ? In fact - name me any league.....Originally Posted by Philly
Better to keep your mouth closed and be thought a fool, Keeley, than to open it and remove all doubt. Enjoy life on the dole - can't see many other teams taking you in......
I beg posters on here to stop taking this fool's rants seriously. The man is deluded and of the same ilk as Alan Matthews whose only interest would appear to be the destruction of Irish football. Negative disgustng tactics suit Winter football and that is why this mess supports it. Bye bye Keely!
"The Derry fans were fantastic in both matches. They sang their hearts out all the time and created an even better atmosphere than the Cup Final. They were brilliant. - David Graham, Gretna striker
Keely's a dinosaur, and a pretty dumb one at that. The reason why EL clubs are in such a state is because they refuse to run their affairs properly and haven't a clue how to market or develop the game.
So instead of going to games in pleasant weather, Keely thinks people would prefer to go out in the cold and rain?
That's village idiot stuff from the manager of a club that could no longer sustain its irrelevant existence.
Clearly nonsense. The problem is that they spent more than they could afford to. Winter football wouldn't have helped unless Keely thinks it would have added 1,000 to their gates.
We're not arrogant, we're just better.
Keely has been against summer soccer all along, it's not he is saying this now because of Dublin City.
Aside from the advantages in europe, name one good that summer soccer has done? Has the good weather brought fans to games? no chance, crowds are down due to clashes with holidays, good weather and gaa.
I don't think that my own club, kildare will ever thrive during the summer because there is simply too much competition. Of course, they probably wouldn't thrive in the winter either but they would definitely have more of chance
Clearly Summer football has nothing to do with CHF going under. However, there is a need for an objective look at whether it has been a success or failure across the whole league.
Even the European successes have done nothing with the credibility of the league in my experience - the naysayers simply say it's only because we've a fitness advantage not because of skill level of the league having improved.
If you attack me with stupidity, I'll be forced to defend myself with sarcasm.
Football is better in the summer. I've lost count at the number of games I've been to in the winter that were ruined by bad weather.
TO TELL THE TRUTH IS REVOLUTIONARY
The ONLY foot.ie user with a type of logic named after them!
All of this has happened before. All of it will happen again.
I've seen matches ruined in the summer because of crappy hard dry pitches because most clubs don't have a proper sprinkler systemFootball is better in the summer. I've lost count at the number of games I've been to in the winter that were ruined by bad weather.
I'll take that over a windy night in Bray thannks.
TO TELL THE TRUTH IS REVOLUTIONARY
The ONLY foot.ie user with a type of logic named after them!
All of this has happened before. All of it will happen again.
But that's no good with less people through the gate compared to the bad weather, which a high proportion of clubs are experiencing based on the anecdotal evidence. It should be evaluated - I wouldn't be in favour of a return just because I think it'll work (no point in repeating the move to summer football that was done with no real research and basically on the optimistic whim of the clubs).
If you attack me with stupidity, I'll be forced to defend myself with sarcasm.
Nothwithstading -it's a lot easier to get water onto a pitch than it is to get it off it.
There was a reason we switched to summer football - the weather is sh1tty, wet and cold in winter and punters weren't getting up from their tellys to go freeze to death for two hours when they could watch Sky.
It was scarcely about quality of football playable -it was about making the product more attractive and convenient to the consumer. No it hasn't led to a massive hike in gate receipts but it's improved things for many who go and in that respect it constitutes a step in the right direction and a confrontation of reality on the (hard, grassless as oppsed to frozen or waterlogged) ground.
" I wish to God that someone would be able to block out the voices in my head for five minutes, the voices that scream, over and over again: "Why do they come to me to die?"
I dont think changing the season in which our season takes place is the reason for the crowd drop off. there are more fundamental issue's like the timing of fixtures etc. who's to say that playing games during the english close season at say 3pm on a saturday wouldn't help to improve attendances. on friday nights we're competing with the pub/club culture in this country where not going to get Barstoolers out of the boozers on a friday night FACT !
yeah but the same naysayers wouldnt say that other teams beat irish clubs in europe cos they were fitter in times gone by.no no they had far more skill they'd say. to them type people everything other than what we have is better. if irish clubs do well in europe only becuase they are fitter then i'm all for it. better than getting beat 10-0 on aggregrate to some unknown team in the dark days of euro football.
I say that if we played a winter season Dublin City would have attracted 30-35,000 per game and would probably, somehow, have won the World Cup this summer.
Keely is right, it's all a conspiracy.
I would disagree with that Macy, the Eircom League has come a fair distance in the last 10 years IMO and that is due to professionalism and summer football.
Yes of course the fitness issue does make a difference but when clubs progress in Europe or equip themselves well then you pick up more experiance and thus in turn improve again. I've got work colleagues here who have mentioned to me whenever they've seen an Irish club get a decent European result that it must be a half decent set up these days.
Im sorry for DC fans and for Ronan Seery but that quote about family makes me realise how happy i am that kealy got burned on this one. his familial attitude is a remarkably new pill which anyone with one of the 'smaller' clubs is gonna find hard to swallow
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