Messages

Mcfadden, lacy, murphy, kavanagh, cassidy.  Not sure how well the mcgees were known prior to donegal taking off to be fair but you can't argue these werent top players prior to them getting success.

It's well known they had that bad culture that he rightly corrected, got them well conditioned and setup a system that naturalised better teams. 

The culture may not need corrected this time, all teams are expected to operate at a high standard of fitness and there is little separating them in that regard, so in my view it wil boil down to the quality of players at his disposal.

I'm stumped to think how he could setup the team to play any different than most county teams are playing also, so I don't think he will get an edge on teams there like he did last time

He had top quality players last time also, who knew they were close and that regime was what was needed to get over the line.

I don't believe the players are there this time around and surely he put doubt in the panels heads on their own abilities asking Murphy to come out of retirement.

Another ETH issue I would have would be his reluctance to go for the established Premier league players such as Kane/Rice, instead, opting for Hojlund, untested and too young to carry a team.  A question Scholes and ferdinand brought up last night. 

Perhaps squad wage budgets wouldn't have allowed for Kane to join, but the question certainly needs asked

This is the only saving grace that they are out of Europe completely.

Another two injuries last night, squad going to be massively stretched but no Thursday night games going forward gives them the opportunity to get some rest time.

Why is being out of the Europa league a good thing? Are we not trying to win trophies? What good is struggling into top 4 so we can have another calamitous champions league next year. If that's the height if it then we should just give up. That tool Ole was the king of picking crap sides in semi finals to rest players for the league and what in hell did that achieve?

Ten Hag I'm afraid is another spoofer. Played the hard man and got rid of Ronaldo but then failed to get rid of any of the other shite and worse then brought a whole load more rubbish in.

Ronaldo openly defied him and that  needed addressed, any self respecting manager would have done the same.  His business in the transfer window has left him wide open to criticism so I fully agree question marks arise over that.

Regarding the other muck lingering about, we'll paid long term contracts have hampered him in getting them flogged off, as they won't leave as they won't get lucrative deals elsewhere, so that issue was not of his making. 

Thursday night football is a balls of a thing, the travelling and lack of recovery, chances of picking up injuries etc.  I agreee any competition is worth playing, and given they are not competing for the league, they should have made dame sure they had something else to play for.

EtH will need 3-4 more windows to revamp this team.

These need moved on ASAP

AWB - get rid
Varane - get rid
Lindelof - get rid
Maguire - keep
Dalot -
Malacia -
Evans - sell, too old, otherwise would have kept on
Regulon -

Casemiro - get rid
Eriksen - keep, experienced
McTominay - keep, good squad player
DVB - get rid
Amrabat - get rid

Martial - pay to get rid
Rashford - keep, would be great if he had great players around him. 
Antony - get rid
Sancho - get rid

These have huge question marks over them
Onana - end of season to see if he can sort himself out
Mount - squad player, end of season to see what can be made of him
Fernandes - keep, would be more effective in a good team

Players who you'd want to keep
Martinez
Garnacho
Hojlund

Squad is an absolute f**king mess.

A big thing I think is that the overall squad is piss, and the better players are suffering for it.  We will never get the best of Rashford, Fernandes or Hojlund in an attacking sense, because the overall squad are lacking. 

That's not to say they haven't been underperforming.  For Fernandes and Rashford, they should be willing the team on in every game, but they seem to bend when it gets tough. 

Hojlund should find his feet, but the premier league is unforgiving, so he would need to do it fast.  Again, suffers from the lack of quality around him. 

Whoever at united signed off on mounts contract needs shot. Staggering amount for a squad player, that's all he was ever going to be

[To stop all this you need to cut the head of the snake]

Been a Lurgan man all my life, it has its downsides surely but has some great positives too. It's no different to any other town, it has it's fights and it's anti-social behaviour but the drugs thing is a real problem. this drug thing is not just for Lurgan, the whole country is awash with Cocaine and other substances. I had a conversation last night with one of the top trainers in the GAA circles and he told me you'd be astonished by the people who take Cocaine, County players, club players, professionals, basically all walks of life and he said it's not just weekends either. I have heard all the stories about it and maybe i'm a wee bit green when it comes to things like that. The thing that goes on now is not sectarian as these drug dealers are from both communities and religion would very rarely come into it, it's all about the drugs and money and I've no doubt the source is all coming from Dublin. To stop all this you need to cut the head of the snake and we all know who the snake is...This is the only aspect i miss the Ra for, these Dublin cartels may well have been eliminated many years ago before they got to the "untouchable" stage.

I think the issue now is that you are in the minority if you are not taking drugs unfortunately.  There is a casualness to it that is unfathomable to me.  You cut the head off the snake and another will fill the gap, supply and demand and all that. 

I agree in part to your Ra statement.  These cartels have grown to a level that is above policing, a slap on the wrist or a few years in jail is not deterrent to them. 


On Lurgan, I have been many times and it's no rougher than any other big town.  Areas you wouldn't venture into etc. 

I have worked with Lurgan people professionally and within the GAA and I find them very respectful and good natured to be honest.

where would you not venture into in Lurgan other than hardcore loyalist areas if you're Catholic?
I was born here and brought up here. I lived in England for 14 years, mostly in Manchester. As much as I loved Manchester, not London though, I always missed Lurgan. Can it be rough at times? Sure can but no more or less than any other town in the North

I suppose I am making generalizations on where and where you wouldn't go, every big town has areas where trouble is more rife than others, religion not being a factor.

[To stop all this you need to cut the head of the snake]

Been a Lurgan man all my life, it has its downsides surely but has some great positives too. It's no different to any other town, it has it's fights and it's anti-social behaviour but the drugs thing is a real problem. this drug thing is not just for Lurgan, the whole country is awash with Cocaine and other substances. I had a conversation last night with one of the top trainers in the GAA circles and he told me you'd be astonished by the people who take Cocaine, County players, club players, professionals, basically all walks of life and he said it's not just weekends either. I have heard all the stories about it and maybe i'm a wee bit green when it comes to things like that. The thing that goes on now is not sectarian as these drug dealers are from both communities and religion would very rarely come into it, it's all about the drugs and money and I've no doubt the source is all coming from Dublin. To stop all this you need to cut the head of the snake and we all know who the snake is...This is the only aspect i miss the Ra for, these Dublin cartels may well have been eliminated many years ago before they got to the "untouchable" stage.

I think the issue now is that you are in the minority if you are not taking drugs unfortunately.  There is a casualness to it that is unfathomable to me.  You cut the head off the snake and another will fill the gap, supply and demand and all that. 

I agree in part to your Ra statement.  These cartels have grown to a level that is above policing, a slap on the wrist or a few years in jail is not deterrent to them. 


On Lurgan, I have been many times and it's no rougher than any other big town.  Areas you wouldn't venture into etc. 

I have worked with Lurgan people professionally and within the GAA and I find them very respectful and good natured to be honest.

I understand what is being said about Avra, and the league and championship being separate, it just seems a bit abstract that a senior league team is playing the lowest championship tier.  Intermediate wouldn't be as big a shock. 

Regarding Cullyhanna, they had been slowly regressing for a while this past 10 years and wouldn't have been competing consistently for senior honors.  A bad year last year doomed them to intermediate, but it was always a threat of happening. 

I think they will fair grand back in the senior league, but don't be fooled into thinking they are going to be swinging at the top 3/4 teams next year either. 

Watched the highlights there, Jesus the mentality is not there to win at all.  Dalot literally moves out of the way of the ball for the final goal ffs.  Shows how much he wants to win when he is afraid of getting hit by a football. 

Rashford decision harsh also, technically a foul, but not intentional, there was no malice in that, merely trying to shield the ball from his opponent. 

Glad to see Maguire have a run of good form also.  Ironically a player ETH didn't want and made his feelings clear on that over the summer, Maguire is one of the few at the moment keeping ETH afloat. 

Big few weeks ahead for ETH. 

[They won 2 from 12 without county men and finished bottom of the table. Then ambushed a relegation playoff.]

Championship should absolutely be linked to leagues. if you're div 1 league you're playing against better teams and therefore your team are used to playing at a higher standard than those playing in the divisions below, I honestly cant understand how anyone can say a div 1 team are a Junior club

But equally can't see how playing in a League that is set to run without county players etc. means a team who managed to reach Division 1 and barely held on means they'll be good enough for Senior. Especially when their Championship results over last 8 years show they deserved to be a Junior team.

Is it hard to understand that a diluted League with no County men might not be the best judge of a team?

They stayed in Div 1 mainly wihtout their county men so surely they are stronger with them?

They won 2 from 12 without county men and finished bottom of the table. Then ambushed a relegation playoff.

Make no mistake, they are not a Senior level team. I cannot understand how people can think a team that got relegated to Junior in 21 and lost a Junior final in 22 are suddenly fit to be a Senior team. Their Championship results show that. An odd League set-up which is played without county players is not representative of all the teams. Is this really hard to understand?

I really struggle to see your argument. 
I mean, a team that is capable of winning 2 games against other senior teams, and then manage to defeat another senior team to stay in the top division, cannot be that bad that they compete in junior?

No disrespect to any junior teams in Armagh, but if they were playing in the top division in the league, they would be getting tanked every week, there would be no wins for them, no draws,  no close results. 
Senior teams are senior for a reason, and junior are junior for a reason and compete at that level come championship, because the playing field is truly level. 

The other junior teams in Cavan that play junior league, whats their stance on teams plying their trade all year in the senior team playing junior champo, surley they cannot be happy with that?

Hand on heart hard to see Donegal match the top teams.  McGuniness will take them on and get them in the best place they can be expected to get for sure, but I don't think they have the quality or depth to compete. 

Derry with Harte could go either way in my head. It could be the extra experience needed to push on, or his own style of play may not suite that group of players. 

Galway know they have a good team and, luck with injuries and a bit of form, will safely be the third best team able to complete with the top 2. 

Tyrone and Armagh, as I mentioned last year, to much Jekyll and Hyde.  On a good day they can compete, on a bad day they look inept.  Form is everything for these two teams.  Hit a bit of form, and they can cause any team headaches. 

Looks like Trillick will be the Tyrone team in Ulster


Hold that!

Finished it out. Here's hoping they party like fcuk for a few weeks!

They'll be spent seeing as it's the toughest championship in the northern hemisphere

  ive been looking forward to this conversation coming up

My own club is in a similar scenario.  Only into intermediate a few years and they have hired in an outside manager. 

This guy comes with a host of coaches, all are being paid, the team is getting buses to matches and all new gear and that.  Big money for a club that isn't coming down with it.   

The team is struggling to beat teams they really should be beating, their style of play has little to no flair and they are setup to defend 1 point leads. 

My immediate thinking when watching them all year, is that this clown is being paid to get these fellas fit to run, and not play football. 

Countless times in their last match, with 14 players behind the ball, when they were breaking out, they were getting to the 40yard line and turning back.  On one occasion our star player was 1v1 in the full forward line, the team had broke, and instead of kicking the ball in, they played it safe and turned back to maintain possession.  (I would say there was less than 20 kickpasses the entire game, I doubt the players would trust themselves to kick anymore)

The manager himself is essentially being paid £20k to make the players worse, has kept the team playing well below their level and will walk away doing short term financial damage to the club, and long term development damage to the players. 

Its a serious issue

[Scouting units can collect a million stats on passes completed, assists, sprints, XGs and all that. It's the other intangibles that can dictate how much a player can achieve.]

I suspect that back in Ferguson's day he would have sniffed out and swerved past players who had talent but didn't have the required dedication.

Pogba, Martial, Sancho are soccer's version of the GAA townie in white boots.
Look flash in the good times, but don't roll up their sleeves for any dirty work.

Scouting units can collect a million stats on passes completed, assists, sprints, XGs and all that. It's the other intangibles that can dictate how much a player can achieve.
Certain players kick back and relax once they've gotten the cars and the super models.

Ferguson once said that when Utd were pursuing Stan Collymore, his tendency to be a lad off the pitch put him off.
Collymore ended up at Liverpool where it was white booted, (or white suited) townie central, Redknapp, McManaman, Fowler etc.
All guys who had ability but not the mentality.
Utd are now the ones with the spice boy problem.

That in a nutshell is the issue with recent signings.  On paper their stats are insane, mentality wise, they are not willing to do what champions do. 

Ten Hag to his credit has done it his way from day 1.  Ronaldo and now Sancho, he is demanding his rules are obeyed by at all costs. He seems to have taken heed of Roy Keanes warning from years ago whereby the players are going to cost the manager his job and is not allowing recent history to repeat itself.