4th Tier England better for young Irish players?

Scandalous!!

I can't wait for someone to sue these guys for not exercising a duty of care.

I know that MC, wasn't having a dig at you at all, I just didn't find the tone of the article helpful to the situation and was written with that chip.

I agree with a lot of the rest of what you have said but if anything you can be better off starting down the ranks in England than further up. A young Irish lad will have much more chance of getting a regular game at Stevenage than a Championship club and if he is good enough will make it. There is also the fact that more and more players in the English lower leagues are getting help with courses and education.

If it was a young fella I knew I would be telling him finish the leaving and see what happens but you can't blame them for being attracted.

In regards to your two points, there is no doubt that the schoolboy cartel has been the biggest hindrance to football development in this country, that has to change and, secondly, I do think that clubs are trying to see the light and even the FAI are, to an extent, but that will take time.

The reason I am so critical of the 'chip on the shoulder' mentality is that if we don't lose that we will always be losing players to English clubs. That is a problem right the way through the league and has been for years, we need to accept our faults before we put them right.

The whole system is clearly rotten in Ireland, all these schoolboy clubs are putting their own profit in front of these lads welfare and that needs to change.

On the other hand it is perfectly understandable why the lads themselves would want to go over to England, even if it is only to Stevenage. I would agree that they would be better off getting their leaving behind them but, in the majority of cases and from a footballing point of view, they would be better off in League 2.

There is a chip on the shoulder within the LOI that sees people look down on everything that isn't EPL and it is bizarre, it certainly comes across in that article too and it helps nobody. The journalist, for example, mocks the attendance figures of Stevenage who have averaged above Shamrock for the last 4/5 years. Fleetwood are from a small fishing town, in reality they are a tinpot club with millionaire's money anyway. We need to accept our faults in Ireland if we are going to fix them. LOI fans give out when the FAI jump on the bandwagon of Dundalk or whoever's success in Europe and then we turn around and look down at fully professional clubs that are often central to the local community because of such a run.

I understand that some clubs are doing more now, City and Shamrock Rovers in particular, but more has to be done to make the lads have a reason to stay.
 

Fact.

 

It's nearly a full-time job running a club that size.

 

I spend at elast 20 hours a week at my club for 5 free pints at Christmas.

 

Also why are ex-LOI players taking up coaching jobs at these clubs ?

They're not doing it for free.

 

I was offered 10k (expenses ) a year to run an Academy (part-time) only last month.

 

I would hate to see them get access to the underage National leagues as they will still have no loyalty to the league (less important) and no shame at sending kids to England knowing that many of them will end up on the scrap heap of life with no qualifications and no future.

 

How is this going to play out lads? I know efforts are being made to incorporate schoolboy clubs into the LOI set up. (Crumlin and Belvo have linked up with Pats, Joeys with Bray etc.) Can power be wrested away from the big schoolboy clubs or are the likes of SKB's going to continue to be obstructive with impunity?

 

Is another answer to allow certain schoolboy clubs access to the underage LOI league set up or is that just creating another version of the DDSL prem?

This.