I havent been able to have a look at this weeks round of matches because the internet in my house has decided to stop working. I have had a few antepost bets on though.
In the Premier Division there are 5 teams who look like they have a chance of winning it.
Cork have brought back alot of the players who won them the league in 2005. They had a strange season last season with there two main signings of the summer not allowed to play at the start of the season because of fifas three club rule. They also were taken over bizarrely taken over by a private equity firm(they dont own their ground and the eircom league is the best way to lose money known to man) and the situation was abit like what you have at Liverpool this year.They have a new manager after the PE crowd shafted Damien Richardson in the summer. They managed to win the cup and there is optimism surrounding the team again this year. I think they should be challenging and I have backed them as a saver @4/1 to my antepost selection for this year St.Patrick's Athletic@13/2.
St Pats have benefited from a wealthy backer coming on board last season when they managed to finish second. They led the league for the first 10 or 15 games and looked like they could push on and win it. They had a terrible mid season though before going on a fairly strong run towards the end of the season again. I think they have signed well with Gary Dempsey coming from Yeovil and Joe O'Cearuil coming from Barnet. If they had signed a decent striker in the summer i would be all over them but I think with Brian Kerr(former Ireland manager) working in the background and the money man garrett kellegher if they are in the shake up mid season they will get someone. They are my bet for the league as I said above,13/2@Stanjames.
Bohemians are another challenger who have plenty of money. They are selling their ground two miles from the centre of Dublin for something like 40 million euro and they are getting a new ground built 4 or 5 miles away(it will be a few years before they move) thrown into the bargain so by eircom league standards they are absolutely rolling in it. They have signed Jason Byrne after he had a pish year at Cardiff. He was el top scorer for 4 years before that. He will be partnered up front by Glenn Crowe but they were both together at Shelbourne a few years ago and it didnt work that well and I dont expect it work now that they are 30 and Crowe is getting fatter. They finished the league strongly last year but I just think they have what it takes to win it.
Drogheda are the champions and are a best price 2/1 and its far from value imo. Teams in the league find it hard to gain dominance over a long period and it is usually teams that pump in money who challenge for the league. Im not that impressed with their signings either. Dont get me wrong they will be challenging but 2/1 is horrible value.
Derry have Stephen Kenny back from Scotland. Before he went he had Derry challenging on all fronts before all his good work was undone in about 2 months by Pat Fenlon(new manager of Bohemians, former manager of Shelbourne where he won titles with a chequebook). It remains to be seen how they will do but i would expect them to be better than last season when they didnt look interested their season and when on an awful run towards the end.
As for Galway United who I support i think we will finish around 7th behind the 5 already mentioned but we should be able to avoid getting dragged into the relegation scrap. 3 teams are getting relegated this season so that the league can be reduced to 10 teams next year.
by Ceirtlis
