I'm a bit tired of this debate to be honest. It's one that's always guaranteed to go round in circles and get nowhere. But, what the hell, it's a miserable wet Friday lunchtime, so I'll throw my thoughts in. There is no point in trying to compare the quality of the English Premier league(or any other top European league) to the League of Ireland. With the resources those teams have they're ENTITLED to be much better than our teams. There would be something seriously wrong with them if they weren't. However, when did quality of play have anything to do with support ? I support Pats because they are MY team. Not because I think they're better than Man Who, (or even Spurs). Are the people who "support" top English teams and cite quality as the reason saying that their support is dependent on that quality. If Man Who or Liverpool slip down the table(come to think of it, Liverpool) would these supporters jump ship ? (What, Arsenal, only 4th this seson, bugger that, I'm with Man U next year!). Of course not. Perversely, you'll probably get the opposite. I can just imagine United fans of a certain vintage expressing their pride that they continued to follow them when they were relegated in the 70's. So what about the quality argument there ? Or, take International football. Why support Ireland, when Brazil and Argentina, Italy, France and Germany(to name but a few) are so much better ? Massive contradiction ? Of course. Will it ever change ? Who the hell knows.