League of Ireland European campaign 2015

billyoung wrote: look at twiggs scoring record in our league and then how he was never at the races in any of their games,

Twigg was excellent for us in Europe some of his best ever performances in the hoops.

Tony Cousins wrote: Twigg was excellent for us in Europe some of his best ever performances in the hoops.

The oracle has spoken. He was a 'part time' player. I wonder what that makes Bohs considering he scored for fun against them back when they were good.

FREEWHEELER wrote: FFS, Mannus is the best keeper we had since Jody Byrne.

Dundalk fans have been criticising Rogers as their weak link. To me Mannus and Brian Murphy are the best two keepers the league has seen in 20 years. Bananas is the word.

To be fair, this line that Kenny has assembled the best side ever seen in Ireland isn't coming from within Dundalk.

roverstillidie wrote: Xpro wrote: I couldn`t agree less "RTID" about the Rovers "class of 2011" and the current Dundalk team. Whatever about the players further up the pitch, the keeper and back 4 of the current Dundalk defence is a hell of a lot better than ours was back then.Who was our Brian Gartland, to get forward in the box for corners and set pieces and to bullet home a header? Mannus was ok in nets but he was no Gary Rogers.   Sives and Murray. On what planet is Rogers a better keeper than Manus? Stevens beats Meenan hands down. Sives and Murray were a far better paring than Boyle and Gartland. Sullivan was a better player than Gannon. Which is why Gannon was released as his understudy. This is a very good Dundalk team, but lets nix any nonsense that they were better than Rovers 2011, which was the best LoI side for a long time, as proven by Europe which is the only objective baromoter.

That's a fair point, comparing players now and then is an entirely subjective way to waste a Friday afternoon, but having seen a fair bit of them both, Sullivan gets my nod. When he was on the pitch of course.

planning wrote: Like I said, Maribor have got through those three rounds in the past, Astana have done it, Nicosia have done it, Zilina have done it. Now if they can manage it, the LOI representative can as well, if the ambition is there to do it. Unfortunately it usually isn't, and they don't. All the LOI champions have to do now is win their first European tie, then they have two chances to make a group phase. For the best side in the country at the time, with the best players fully fit with ambition, belief, and summer football, that's not an insurmountable challenge. Instead of relishing it, the club focuses on why it can't be done, then don't. Rovers showed how to do it, and the club didn't need to spend 200k to keep raising the bar, the platform for further progress was already in place, just needed to find the right people with the ambition and desire to keep raising it. Instead the board became ever more conservative and the club have taken up long term residence in 3rd, 4th, even 5th ever since, so the board's call was a complete disaster. Now the club are playing catch up, and not doing a great job tbh. Swimming in mediocrity won't get you anywhere. But that's what happens when you get decisions wrong. The league is not reformable. Sure you can ask questions as long as you want, but the question from the clubs always boils down to one thing, "what's in it for us?", and the answer is usually "not enough". You get it even on this forum. Some of them are members of fan run clubs, with the power to vote for change and reform. But they keep stressing why reform can't/shouldn't happen, so it doesn't happen. You now tell us that Irish clubs can't compete in Europe, when even sides from Cyprus and Kazachstan can do it. Faroe Islands and Andorra are the only unfortunate nations to get less coefficient points this year than Ireland. 50 others have done better or will do, and many of their clubs are not exactly the next Manchester City. But that is why clubs here fail. No desire or ambition to move up another level. Lack of cash is their answer to everything.

I just wish you'd have read my comment on Astana but I don't think you have. Comparing Astana to Dundalk or Cork is apples and oranges stuff. Astana as I've already said are the kazakh governments playtoy. They've plowed hundreds of millions into them in the 6years the club has been in existence. Namely a 185million dollar stadium plus a wage bill that is as high as the big Russian clubs. It's a real case of the Kazakhs sticking the 2 fingers up to the old Soviet masters as they regularly raid the Russian league.
Both Nicosia clubs are backed to the last by Russian oligarchs holidaying in Cyprus looking for someway to off load all their cash.
Making out that these are plucky little clubs that built themselves up from a LOI level and are some sort of annie type story is rubbish. They had sugar daddies and I'm certain if one of our clubs had access to the same bottomless pockets they could emulate them. But you can't just nitpick the snall/medium club aspect of their stories and ignore the very wealthy people bankrolling them.
As for bringing players from Brazil or Africa instead of nurturing our own talent is an Irish solution to an Irish problem of I ever heard it. Nicosia and the eastern European clubs pay handsomely to bring top talent out of top south American leagues and have scouting networks over there.

Edited by Bitored - 28 Aug 2015 at 3:02pm

Shoco wrote: ] Meenan had 31 assists last seasom

And Dennehy scored 16 goals in the 2011 season.