New Season, New Start, Same Old Problems
Credit:
Sporting Fingal, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, PFAI Training Camp, Malta, Derry City. The last few
months have personally been the strangest and most stressful few months of my football career.
There have been some highs, most notably getting my first international cap for Libya against Niger in an international friendly back in November of last year. The professionally run PFAI training camp which was organised by Stephen McGuiness and Ollie Cahill, managed by Liam Kelly and trained by Trevor Crolly, was absolutely excellent and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I want to officially say thank you to all four for everything. Then, in January I put pen to paper and joined Derry City Football Club. I genuinely feel this will be the best move of my career and I haven’t felt as happy as I do now playing football since my days at Bray Wanderers.
Nevertheless, for every high I had, there have been at least two lows. I thought I had already had my fair share of experiences and was prepared for whatever was thrown my way, boy was I wrong. In the following weeks ahead, I will tell all!
So much has happened since the season ended, not just personally but also in the league as a whole. We had the ridiculous developments that happened at both Sporting Fingal and Bohemians and the embarrassing license situation that had Monaghan, Drogheda and Galway wondering what division they were going to be playing in this season. To be honest, it is hard to know where to start to analyse and discuss but I feel it is only right to begin with speaking of the farcical developments that occurred at my former and now non-existent team, Sporting Fingal.
It was about 10pm on Friday the 29th of October, 2010. Sporting had just beaten UCD at home and the players and coaching staff were in the dressing celebrating a decent season but most importantly, qualifying for Europe for the second successive season in a row. Fingal had just finished fourth losing out to Shamrock Rovers for the league title by only five points in what was the clubs first ever season in the Premier Division. The previous year we had achieved promotion and also won the FAI Cup. Not a bad achievement for a club that had only been in existence for such a short period.
However, the excitement was short-lived as a few days later in a meeting we were told that our main benefactor was no longer going to be involved with the future of the club and therefore sponsorship elsewhere was required. Alarm bells went off straight away and taking the economy into account and how much Fingal had relied on one man’s finances every season, I knew finding a financial replacement was going to be near impossible. I, myself, was out of contract anyway at Fingal and had my mind set on a move away but I still had friends at the club and some of the club’s staff were very good to me so I feared for their future. To be honest, especially after my experience at Drogheda, I thought the worst.
Out of nowhere, to my surprise, weeks later, I was reading of the news that Greg Bolger had been snapped up from UCD (for a fee, I believe) and both Gary O’Neill and Colin Hawkins were re- signing. I also knew Liam Buckley was chatting to basically every half decent player in the league about signing up for the forthcoming season. Ken Oman, the best defender in the league in my opinion, turned down a contract at Shamrock Rovers and signed up for Fingal. I believe future financial assurances were given to him at the time of signing aswell. Shaun Williams went on trial to Celtic and done very well. Fingal however, turned down subsequent bids for him from Celtic. Meanwhile, Fingal’s financial demands for Ronan Finn scared away at least one English team.
A very decent new sponsor must have been found. A new budget must have been in place and a financial guarantee from a sponsor/sponsors must be official, I thought. No way would Fingal be signing new players, re-signing old players, turning down bids from Celtic for Shaun Williams, making assurances to players about wages if they hadn’t. No way were Fingal messing with people’s lives; people who had families, mortgages to pay. No way were Fingal offering contracts to players unless they had a 100% written guarantee that the money were there and a budget was in place for 2011. No way could someone be that stupid, that ruthless and that ignorant to peoples livelihoods. Surely not!
However, the eventual outcome as we already know was the worst possible one. No more Sporting Fingal. Players and staff left unemployed, broken promises, and the supporters of Fingal left without a club. I wish clubs would just offer realistic contracts to players that they can afford and that they have budgeted properly for and fulfil these promises. Fans should demand this from their clubs.
The FAI should also have some of sort of financial competence test for people looking to take over football clubs here. Surely now is the time to take proper action and stop these financial idiots from ruining our league year after year.
The off season has provided so many talking points, most of which have been negative and extremely disappointing. However with only a couple days to go, the new season kicks off and I for one cannot wait. Derry City have given me fresh start, a new appetite to achieve success and I intend on repaying them in full this season for the faith they have shown in me. On Friday, we play host to Sligo Rovers in what will undoubtedly be a very good game. Shamrock Rovers also play host to Dundalk and there are other exciting games been played this weekend in the both the Premier and First Division. No doubt, it’s going to be a thrilling first weekend.
Until next time!
There have been some highs, most notably getting my first international cap for Libya against Niger in an international friendly back in November of last year. The professionally run PFAI training camp which was organised by Stephen McGuiness and Ollie Cahill, managed by Liam Kelly and trained by Trevor Crolly, was absolutely excellent and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I want to officially say thank you to all four for everything. Then, in January I put pen to paper and joined Derry City Football Club. I genuinely feel this will be the best move of my career and I haven’t felt as happy as I do now playing football since my days at Bray Wanderers.
Nevertheless, for every high I had, there have been at least two lows. I thought I had already had my fair share of experiences and was prepared for whatever was thrown my way, boy was I wrong. In the following weeks ahead, I will tell all!
So much has happened since the season ended, not just personally but also in the league as a whole. We had the ridiculous developments that happened at both Sporting Fingal and Bohemians and the embarrassing license situation that had Monaghan, Drogheda and Galway wondering what division they were going to be playing in this season. To be honest, it is hard to know where to start to analyse and discuss but I feel it is only right to begin with speaking of the farcical developments that occurred at my former and now non-existent team, Sporting Fingal.
It was about 10pm on Friday the 29th of October, 2010. Sporting had just beaten UCD at home and the players and coaching staff were in the dressing celebrating a decent season but most importantly, qualifying for Europe for the second successive season in a row. Fingal had just finished fourth losing out to Shamrock Rovers for the league title by only five points in what was the clubs first ever season in the Premier Division. The previous year we had achieved promotion and also won the FAI Cup. Not a bad achievement for a club that had only been in existence for such a short period.
However, the excitement was short-lived as a few days later in a meeting we were told that our main benefactor was no longer going to be involved with the future of the club and therefore sponsorship elsewhere was required. Alarm bells went off straight away and taking the economy into account and how much Fingal had relied on one man’s finances every season, I knew finding a financial replacement was going to be near impossible. I, myself, was out of contract anyway at Fingal and had my mind set on a move away but I still had friends at the club and some of the club’s staff were very good to me so I feared for their future. To be honest, especially after my experience at Drogheda, I thought the worst.
Out of nowhere, to my surprise, weeks later, I was reading of the news that Greg Bolger had been snapped up from UCD (for a fee, I believe) and both Gary O’Neill and Colin Hawkins were re- signing. I also knew Liam Buckley was chatting to basically every half decent player in the league about signing up for the forthcoming season. Ken Oman, the best defender in the league in my opinion, turned down a contract at Shamrock Rovers and signed up for Fingal. I believe future financial assurances were given to him at the time of signing aswell. Shaun Williams went on trial to Celtic and done very well. Fingal however, turned down subsequent bids for him from Celtic. Meanwhile, Fingal’s financial demands for Ronan Finn scared away at least one English team.
A very decent new sponsor must have been found. A new budget must have been in place and a financial guarantee from a sponsor/sponsors must be official, I thought. No way would Fingal be signing new players, re-signing old players, turning down bids from Celtic for Shaun Williams, making assurances to players about wages if they hadn’t. No way were Fingal messing with people’s lives; people who had families, mortgages to pay. No way were Fingal offering contracts to players unless they had a 100% written guarantee that the money were there and a budget was in place for 2011. No way could someone be that stupid, that ruthless and that ignorant to peoples livelihoods. Surely not!
However, the eventual outcome as we already know was the worst possible one. No more Sporting Fingal. Players and staff left unemployed, broken promises, and the supporters of Fingal left without a club. I wish clubs would just offer realistic contracts to players that they can afford and that they have budgeted properly for and fulfil these promises. Fans should demand this from their clubs.
The FAI should also have some of sort of financial competence test for people looking to take over football clubs here. Surely now is the time to take proper action and stop these financial idiots from ruining our league year after year.
The off season has provided so many talking points, most of which have been negative and extremely disappointing. However with only a couple days to go, the new season kicks off and I for one cannot wait. Derry City have given me fresh start, a new appetite to achieve success and I intend on repaying them in full this season for the faith they have shown in me. On Friday, we play host to Sligo Rovers in what will undoubtedly be a very good game. Shamrock Rovers also play host to Dundalk and there are other exciting games been played this weekend in the both the Premier and First Division. No doubt, it’s going to be a thrilling first weekend.
Until next time!
