I believe the family lived in Donegal before living in Longford where he played locally with Melview. They moved to Dublin after that where they’re based now which is how the move to Pats came about (via Cherry Orchard) and how Longford's underage side missed out on him
Paaatrick's Agletic
Still close enough if there's reflected glory to be had.
Upwards to the vanguard where the pressure is too high.
One of the reasons I believe why transfer payments are so low for LOI players is that we are only selling to one market (Britain), as compared to other leagues who have the whole of Europe to sell to. Our players, who are just as good as some of these, go for multiples less, as there will be more competition for the player.
(For example, Dinamo Tibilsi, who came second in their league and last year lost to a Faroe Island team 6-1, just sold a player for nearly 1 million).
If Abankwah in anyway gets a good career, it might just be the most important transfer in the leagues development (opening greater competition for our players).
I wonder how long that Tbilisi player was contracted for?
If we keep to one-year contracts, we won't be making any money.
And of course there's been a lot of flops who've made little impact in England. It's hard to say that Georgie Kelly (say) is worth €1m when you see Hoban, McMillan, Towell* and Burke struggle to make any impact in England before returning home.
If the LoI produces more players like McGrath, Scales, Bazunu, etc, though, the price will start to go up - and I think we're starting to see that. The same thing happened in the 00s when players like McClean, Hoolahan, Coleman, etc, were coming from the LoI - fees went up as the league's reputation went up.
(Not to say that solely selling to England/Scotland isn't a factor too - I'm sure it's a mix of a fair few things)
* - maybe a bit harsh putting Towell in with the others, but he certainly wasn't a million pound transfer.
What other countries is he eligible to play with, if it comes to it?
The Abankwah fee will reportedly be a record uprfront fee for a League of Ireland player
https://www.thesun.ie/sport/football...pats-transfer/
Also eligible to play for Ghana
Paaatrick's Agletic
Fair balls to him if he gets a move to Udinese and a nice tidy sum for Pats.
Do we have any idea how much the sum is- surely the Trevor Francis moment is not far away in the LOI.
According to Neil O'Riordan it's set to be the largest up front figure paid for a LOI player.
I never believe a word from that Rag the Sun.
Hopefully though there is a shred of truth in it for the Leagues sake.
We can wait for a reputable source paper
roddy collins you're a flanker you're a flanker!
Have to say, imagine the difference it'd make to the league if, say, every club had one of these deals every other year?
The 42 are reporting the Abankwah fee will exceed the up front €500k for Bazunu paid by Man City. He is slightly older but I don't think he is as well regarded as Bazunu was. Not directly comparable but it is interesting to see Abankwah move to Italy for more than Bazunu did to England.
Really encouraging from a league perspective. The Bazunu and Scales transfers felt like the start of something (you're all welcome). I remember Bradley talking on a podcast about how they were able to show Man City all the work that had gone into Bazunu to help bolster the case for his up front valuation and clauses etc. Him having played a European game probably helped as well. As the average age in the league goes down, contracts get longer and the academy set ups improve we should see more and more transfers like this. Pats 19s going so well in Europe last year probably hasn't hurt at all either. Wasn't Abankwah in that team? Did they play any Italian clubs on their run?
He looked really impressive the few times I saw him. Good luck to him.
Bazunu will be close to €2m when all add-ons are included, €1m paid already. Scales to Celtic was €600k so assumption is that Abankwah fee will be higher than that. He's a smashing player from what I've seen and great to see LOI players going to Serie A, Kevin Zefi is doing very well at Inter according to all reports.
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