Chesterfield - The LOI Connection

Brian Carey started his football career with Greenwood FC in Togher. He later signed for Cork City 

Two cracking goals by O'Shea

That Paul Cook is a smart operator. He brought in a Northern Irish lad, Caolan Lavery, on loan from Sheff Wed and he`s already taken up where Doyler left off. Lavery seems to be scoring in every game and got the winner last night at MK Dons.

Even if Cook doesnt get them up this season, I`d say there`ll be a few bigger clubs looking for his signature. He`s working off morsels at Chesterfield and doing a great job.

One of the lads at work was saying that as well "Green Devil". Assombalonga is big and strong, pacey and direct, and mad hungry for goals. He`s also got youth on his side as I think he`s only around 21 or 22. So that would`ve had a major bearing on his valuation in the transfer market.

Doyler is 26 and I suppose the conventional thinking in the boardrooms asked the same question: why hasnt he proven himself before this? To which I`d reply, what`s wrong with a late developer? The same could be said of another ex-LOI player, Paddy Madden, whose goals for Yeovil in the 2012-2013 season got them up to the Championship.

And yet there was no big scramble for Madden`s signature while he ended up at S****horpe, after being top scorer in League 1. Talk about ageism! It seems that players who are making a mark in Leagues 1 and 2, unless they`re under 23, are being completely overlooked by the bigger clubs. I hope Doyler can prove this conventional thinking wrong while at Cardiff.   

    

Agreed "pre Madonna". I often shake my head in disbelief at valuations in the transfer market. You saw Assombalonga play for Posh, I didnt. He must`ve been fairly awesome if Forest gave £5 million for him. And here`s what puzzles me: in the previous 2012/2013 season, the ex-Bohs player Madden was top scorer in League 1 with Yeovil, yet there was no big scramble to sign him and I dont think he even featured in Yeovil`s squad in the Championship.

Chesterfield are clearly under the financial cosh but could they not have hung in there for another few months till May? At the rate Doyler was scoring, who`s to say that his goal tally wouldnt break a League 1 record and his valuation would soar? After all, WBA, Sheff Utd and Preston were all tracking him and Chesterfield could even have made back-to-back promotions. If the Spireites didnt get promoted at the end of this season, at least Doyler could be sold on for a lot more than the 850K his club got from Cardiff.

I hope it works out for him. He was in a comfort zone with Chesterfield, a fans favourite, surrounded by fellow Irish players like Ryan and O`Shea and his gaffer Paul Cook and Romauld Boco from his LOI days at Sligo. He`s going into a completely different environment at Cardiff and at least, at 26, he`ll be better equipped to handle the pressure.  

Tbh I was disappointed with the move and thought it was bad business on the part of Chesterfield. I know they have debt issues and the chairman said tonight that a chunk of the transfer fee would go towards paying off some of that debt.

But if Doyler had stayed till May his goal tally would`ve been huge, at the rate he`s scoring. Assombalonga was the top scorer in League 1 last season with Peterboro and he was signed by Forest for £5 million. Cardiff are getting Doyler for around £1.5 million.

Also, Cardiff are struggling lately with (I think) 6 defeats in their last 8 league games. Chesterfield are on the rise and with Doyler`s goals, they might have ended up in the Championship next season with Cardiff.

But hey I wish him well and he`ll treble his wages for starters, along with the signing-on fee. I hope Russell Slade starts him at Cardiff and has the same influence and belief in him as Paul Cook.

http://www.chesterfield-fc.co.uk/news/article/doyle-deal-agreed-2243569.aspx

Great to see the 3 Irish lads on the scoresheet this week. Doyler got 2 and O`Shea got the other on Tues night. Today it was Doyler and Jimmy Ryan and it shows the spirit in the Chesterfield team as they were 2-0 down. I notice the ex-Sligo player Boco wasnt in the squad, unless he was let go during the Jan window?

Chesterfield are in a play-off position and fair dues to Paul Cook and the Sligo Academy of Managers:) But that`s one very tight league, with 4 points seperating 5th to 14th. Goes to show that you can never write off how good a player can become and Doyler is like the poster boy for late developers. He`s now on 21 league goals and 24 in all competitions, and we`re only at the end of Jan!  

First 2 seasons with us and although he played I don't remember him scoring many goals (the opener in the 2009 cup final against Fingal does stand out tho). AS NNNN said he scored a lot in his third season but by then I think he was starting up-front every game. Before that he played in a few positions. I remember him even playing at RB a couple of times.

I have to say Im surprised he has done as well as he has, I always thought that his biggest downfall as a striker would be his 'goals to chances ratio'. He always seemed to need 3 or 4 chances for every goal he got.

Best of luck to him, talked to him before and he seemed a sound lad.