Future Cream of the Crop in LOI

**Boh_So_Good** · 01/08/2007, 5:44 PM

Just been thinking about the current situation of clubs in the league and were they are heading, what backing they enjoy and other drivers and it's clear that a cream of the crop is developing. Not that this is a good thing, but it's better than when all the clubs were all essentially fecked a few years back.

Bohs
Drogs
Dundalk
Cork City
Galway Utd
Saint Pats

That's my list of power clubs in the LOI in the future.

all the other clubs will be nipping at their toes for many years to come I suspect.

**LeixlipRed** · 01/08/2007, 5:47 PM

One of those clubs are still in the 1st Division and another one of them are in a relegation battle in the Premier

**micls** · 01/08/2007, 5:54 PM

Its definitely a biased list cos Rovers should definitely be on it

**Tis-smeee** · 01/08/2007, 6:07 PM

How did you get Galway and Dundalk in there?

Three years ago you could have put Shels and Longford in there, the league is boom and bust

**LeixlipRed** · 01/08/2007, 6:09 PM

Longford were never the "cream of the crop"

**Tis-smeee** · 01/08/2007, 6:11 PM

neither were drogs but on a trophy basis you would put them in at the mo and no Derry there either, btw what the point of this thread?

**LeixlipRed** · 01/08/2007, 6:17 PM

Oh it has no point

**Flawless** · 01/08/2007, 7:03 PM

I reckon that given a few years, like Boh_So_Good says, Dundalk will be a so-called "Power Club", everything is in place on, and off the field to challenge at the highest level,all we need is the promotion!!,i reckon we could do a Rovers next season providing we go up, and be challenging for a top 5 place.

I also reckon that Derry and should be inclufded,not sure about Rovers though due to thir continuing uncertainty. Interesting Thread though.

**superfrank** · 01/08/2007, 7:04 PM

Originally Posted by Tis-smeee

btw what the point of this thread?

So the Bohs fans can boast about all the money they have to spend.

**hoops1** · 01/08/2007, 8:41 PM

27k a week on wages and they are still 4th

**SligoBrewer** · 01/08/2007, 8:58 PM

Originally Posted by hoops1

27k a week on wages and they are still 4th

only 2 points ahead of us remember

**Boh_So_Good** · 01/08/2007, 9:31 PM

Originally Posted by Flawless

I reckon that given a few years, like Boh_So_Good says, Dundalk will be a so-called "Power Club", everything is in place on, and off the field to challenge at the highest level,all we need is the promotion!!,i reckon we could do a Rovers next season providing we go up, and be challenging for a top 5 place.

Dundalk are a sleeping giant IMHO.

Shamrock Rovers lost their moment of resurection and it has passed by them now for good. There are like the ghost of a dead sailor walking the decks of the Bismark at the bottom of the sea who doesn't know he is dead yet.

Originally Posted by Flawless

I also reckon that Derry and should be inclufded,not sure about Rovers though due to thir continuing uncertainty. Interesting Thread though.

Derry are still and old timey LOI club in terms of their business structure. They have good players and great support base, but they are still too much of a 'mom and pop' operation. I think that's a very deep rooted cultural thing at the Brandywell and will be unlikely to change. There is a lot I admire about Derry City FC, but they are a conservative club with little real ambition to grow. I suspect this was a major factor in Stephen Kenny going to Scotland.

**Boh_So_Good** · 01/08/2007, 9:41 PM

Originally Posted by Tis-smeee

neither were drogs but on a trophy basis you would put them in at the mo and no Derry there either, btw what the point of this thread?

History does not matter. Surely Shamrock Rovers proves that. You do not win leagues in the future by getting misty-eyed about the past. A glorious past is shag all use to a club - it looking ahead that matters.

I included Galway and Dundalk because they are hungry and understand what it takes to get there. No harm there. It's not entirely about money, it about thinking outside the box, bringing in a new culture and fresh faces.

That why I selected the clubs I did. They either have sugar daddies or they are hungry.

**harry crumb** · 01/08/2007, 9:41 PM

Oh yes they should get the Bohs business structure!

**Aaron** · 01/08/2007, 9:47 PM

Originally Posted by Boh_So_Good

Derry are still and old timey LOI club in terms of their business structure. They have good players and great support base, but they are still too much of a 'mom and pop' operation. I think that's a very deep rooted cultural thing at the Brandywell and will be unlikely to change. There is a lot I admire about Derry City FC, but they are a conservative club with little real ambition to grow. I suspect this was a major factor in Stephen Kenny going to Scotland.

Are you serious or what? Of course we want to grow as a club, we have lots of ambitions. We are currently in the process of getting an 8,000 all seater stadium built with a "Soccer Dome" which has 6 mini pitches in it and retail units in the Brandywell. This is a club that made great strides in Europe and has ambitions to go further.

Your a moron if you think any club never mind Derry City has no ambition to grow. One of the things Stephen Kenny said when he came was Derry City had the potential to be massive, and said the same thing when he left. He left because he had his own ambitions to manage at a higher level

**Boh_So_Good** · 01/08/2007, 9:48 PM

Originally Posted by harry crumb

Oh yes they should get the Bohs business structure!

Bohs are the Paris Hilton of the LOI - somebody else is always paying the bills. We just have to wake up in the morning and it's all going to be alright.

Sweet eh.

**Boh_So_Good** · 01/08/2007, 9:51 PM

Originally Posted by City till I Die

One of the things Stephen Kenny said when he came was Derry City had the potential to be massive, and said the same thing when he left.

and you called me a moron.

**Aaron** · 01/08/2007, 9:52 PM

Originally Posted by Boh_So_Good

and you called me a moron.

Whats your problem, thats what he said?

**Aaron** · 01/08/2007, 9:55 PM

Also were are Finn Harps and Shamrock Rovers? Harps have big plans for a new stadium in Stranorlar and WHEN Rovers get into Tallaght IMO they will become a force in Irish Football again with their own home.

**sonofstan** · 01/08/2007, 9:58 PM

Interesting idea - I think that, just maybe, despite the security blanket of negativity that the average EL fan wraps him or herself in, we might actually begin to see some potentially useful changes quite soon. New grounds for us and Drogheda, major improvements at Terryland and the X, and maybe a chance for Derry to get hold of the Brandywell. On top of that, some clubs are beginning to be run a bit properly - the old gamblers mentality of betting everything on results - or the run in Europe- is receding a little, and the FAI, (and this hurts to type) with the salary cap and the TV money may also be helping.

For a long time, the 'thinking' inside Irish football was just that kind of despairing last throw of the dice stuff - the Shels model in other words (actually I'm not having a go - we very nearly did the same). Maybe, a realisation is growing that small, cumulative steps might get us closer to a viable domestic game than the big glorious splash that has all the barstoolers slapping their foreheads and going 'why, Lorcan, there's football here too; why did nobody tell me?' and rushing off breathlessly to St. Colman's or Station Rd.

Some intelligent investment is going into the game finally - your man out in Inchicore, the lads up in Drogland (giving them the benefit of a large doubt), Cork, and Wallace in Wexford - a half- dozen, non- lossmaking clubs, playing in decent stadia, with attendances creeping up to the 4-5,000 mark and we won't know the place.