2021 season General thread

[Peak11]

Might as well start the thread with the news that the season is not expected to start until at least 19th March:

https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2021/01 ... ty-sought/

That's five weeks later than last season. They're saying it will be extended to the end of November, but another shortened season already seems likely. No League Cup or Leinster Senior Cup either you would think.

We've been talking signings a lot, but quite a few clubs haven't signed anyone.

[colymull]

Gary Roger's tweeting this morning about the lack of certainty regarding the season kicking off.

https://twitter.com/1garyrogers/status/ ... 01632?s=19

Personally, as a fan I cant see us being in Oriel before late summer. Will I buy a season ticket for, at most, half a season? Probably not.
We could be still in lockdown in February if the projected number of cases of that time ring true, which may push the league starting out again. I feel for players who haven't got a wage since November and might not get another one till March/April.
Unpopular opinion here but are the board at DFC being prudent with contracts due to all this uncertainty? We might be looking back this time next year and saying they were right not to hand out long term contracts.

[Louth4sam]

https://twitter.com/1garyrogers/status/ ... 01632?s=19
Unpopular opinion here but are the board at DFC being prudent with contracts due to all this uncertainty? We might be looking back this time next year and saying they were right not to hand out long term contracts.

Rovers players took a 25% pay cut last season. Would be absolutely hilarious if the same thing happens in 2021 and Ganno and Hoare are 25% down on what they would be getting here

[Wexford White]

Might as well start the thread with the news that the season is not expected to start until at least 19th March:

https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2021/01 ... ty-sought/

That's five weeks later than last season. They're saying it will be extended to the end of November, but another shortened season already seems likely. No League Cup or Leinster Senior Cup either you would think.

We've been talking signings a lot, but quite a few clubs haven't signed anyone.

I see Athlone have made a few signings - Kurtis Byrne included.
I really wish them well, I hate to see any LOI club in such dire straits.

[Martin Lawlor80]

Gary Roger's tweeting this morning about the lack of certainty regarding the season kicking off.

https://twitter.com/1garyrogers/status/ ... 01632?s=19

Personally, as a fan I cant see us being in Oriel before late summer. Will I buy a season ticket for, at most, half a season? Probably not.
We could be still in lockdown in February if the projected number of cases of that time ring true, which may push the league starting out again. I feel for players who haven't got a wage since November and might not get another one till March/April.
Unpopular opinion here but are the board at DFC being prudent with contracts due to all this uncertainty? We might be looking back this time next year and saying they were right not to hand out long term contracts.

Doesn’t have to be an unpopular opinion !

DFC players were the only ones fully taken care of during Covid.

I’d say we are still offering the best wage per season in the league.

Maybe offering 3 years deals to 29/30 olds isn’t such a good idea! One of the ideas behind it was to make sure we got a transfer fee if uk club came in, how did that work out over that last few years??

Board could be saying to players, we’ll probably have no fans in most of the season so here you are, a 1 yr contract at top dollar, do well and we’ll renew it again in 2022??


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[Peak11]

Maybe offering 3 years deals to 29/30 olds isn’t such a good idea! One of the ideas behind it was to make sure we got a transfer fee if a uk club came in, how did that work out over that last few years??

We still won the League twice, the FAI Cup twice, the League Cup once and reached the group stage of the Europa League. Those are the things that mattered. Time will tell if the new policies are as successful as the ones we've spent the last six months ripping up.

[colymull]

Maybe offering 3 years deals to 29/30 olds isn’t such a good idea! One of the ideas behind it was to make sure we got a transfer fee if a uk club came in, how did that work out over that last few years??

We still won the League twice, the FAI Cup twice, the League Cup once and reached the group stage of the Europa League. Those are the things that mattered. Time will tell if the new policies are as successful as the ones we've spent the last six months ripping up.

I think his point was that we offered long term deals so that if a UK team came in for our players we wouldnt lose them for nothing as per Towell, Horgan etc.

[Peak11]

Maybe offering 3 years deals to 29/30 olds isn’t such a good idea! One of the ideas behind it was to make sure we got a transfer fee if a uk club came in, how did that work out over that last few years??

We still won the League twice, the FAI Cup twice, the League Cup once and reached the group stage of the Europa League. Those are the things that mattered. Time will tell if the new policies are as successful as the ones we've spent the last six months ripping up.

I think his point was that we offered long term deals so that if a UK team came in for our players we wouldnt lose them for nothing as per Towell, Horgan etc.

And we didn't lose anyone for nothing while we were offering longer contracts. We didn't sign players on longer contracts in order to sell them, we did it to keep them. That policy was a success. The "at least we won't lose them for nothing" thing was secondary - but it was made out there to be a failure of some sort.

[Peak11]

Dave Donnelly tweeting that Airtricity are expected to extend for a year and Watch LOI supposed to be returning.

For all the talk, some clubs actually seem to have made money out of the pandemic when all the supports are totted up. Sligo went from basket case to signing players for the restart! Pretty likely it's those clubs again that will hang tough to see what they can squeeze out.

[Martin Lawlor80]

Maybe offering 3 years deals to 29/30 olds isn’t such a good idea! One of the ideas behind it was to make sure we got a transfer fee if a uk club came in, how did that work out over that last few years??

We still won the League twice, the FAI Cup twice, the League Cup once and reached the group stage of the Europa League. Those are the things that mattered. Time will tell if the new policies are as successful as the ones we've spent the last six months ripping up.

I think his point was that we offered long term deals so that if a UK team came in for our players we wouldnt lose them for nothing as per Towell, Horgan etc.

Exactly. Doubtful somebody will pay a fee for Ganno.
As I said, if we are offering one year deals ( and we don’t know if that’s the case for EVERY player) it could be the case that we’re offering good money hence McMillan, Murray etc re signing.

How are pats, Sligo etc signing players when they claimed they were broke 6 months ago??


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[Peak11]

Exactly. Doubtful somebody will pay a fee for Ganno.

Do you think Rovers signed Gannon and gave him a longer term contract because they think he makes their team better and want to keep him or because they think they can sell him? Bit of rewriting history going on here.

[Peak11]

How are pats, Sligo etc signing players when they claimed they were broke 6 months ago??

Because the government supports were pretty generous in the end. On top of the money granted through the FAI, every member of a club's staff would have had the first €300 per week subsidised, which is probably more than their gate receipts covered.

Sligo raised 85 grand on top of that.

The other clubs will probably hold tough for a guarantee that the wage subsidies will be maintained while fans are out of the grounds.

[Shoco]

Gary Roger's tweeting this morning about the lack of certainty regarding the season kicking off.

https://twitter.com/1garyrogers/status/ ... 01632?s=19

Personally, as a fan I cant see us being in Oriel before late summer. Will I buy a season ticket for, at most, half a season? Probably not.
We could be still in lockdown in February if the projected number of cases of that time ring true, which may push the league starting out again. I feel for players who haven't got a wage since November and might not get another one till March/April.
Unpopular opinion here but are the board at DFC being prudent with contracts due to all this uncertainty? We might be looking back this time next year and saying they were right not to hand out long term contracts.

Doesn’t have to be an unpopular opinion !

DFC players were the only ones fully taken care of during Covid.

I’d say we are still offering the best wage per season in the league.

Maybe offering 3 years deals to 29/30 olds isn’t such a good idea! One of the ideas behind it was to make sure we got a transfer fee if uk club came in, how did that work out over that last few years??

Board could be saying to players, we’ll probably have no fans in most of the season so here you are, a 1 yr contract at top dollar, do well and we’ll renew it again in 2022??


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That is simply not true, Derry, Bohs and I think shels players were paid in full

[Martin Lawlor80]

Gary Roger's tweeting this morning about the lack of certainty regarding the season kicking off.

https://twitter.com/1garyrogers/status/ ... 01632?s=19

Personally, as a fan I cant see us being in Oriel before late summer. Will I buy a season ticket for, at most, half a season? Probably not.
We could be still in lockdown in February if the projected number of cases of that time ring true, which may push the league starting out again. I feel for players who haven't got a wage since November and might not get another one till March/April.
Unpopular opinion here but are the board at DFC being prudent with contracts due to all this uncertainty? We might be looking back this time next year and saying they were right not to hand out long term contracts.

Doesn’t have to be an unpopular opinion !

DFC players were the only ones fully taken care of during Covid.

I’d say we are still offering the best wage per season in the league.

Maybe offering 3 years deals to 29/30 olds isn’t such a good idea! One of the ideas behind it was to make sure we got a transfer fee if uk club came in, how did that work out over that last few years??

Board could be saying to players, we’ll probably have no fans in most of the season so here you are, a 1 yr contract at top dollar, do well and we’ll renew it again in 2022??


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That is simply not true, Derry, Bohs and I think shels players were paid in full

Yes fair enough , although no doubt we had the biggest wage bill in the league


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[Peak11]

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer ... -1.4449326

Confirmation that each Premier Division club got a total of €191,000 in support grants to restart the season, on top of the wage subsidy scheme they would have been entitled to avail of.

€191,000 wouldn't be too far off a normal season's worth of gate receipts for most PD clubs, especially if you take into account that stewards and Gardaí didn't have to be paid and also presuming the clubs went back to their insurers for refunds given third party liability would be a big cost. On the flipside is other matchday revenue and sponsorship lost.

Still, if a club has e.g. 25 employees earning between €400 and €1462 per week between April and end November, that's another €289,000 odd. So €480,000 total. No wonder clubs started signing players again!