Music plays for Hoops dreams
For Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the tally is already past half a billion. For the members of Shamrock Rovers, it’s closer to five grand apiece and counting.
On Tuesday night in Tallaght, the Hoops were first to redeem the rewards. When a bean counter has tears in his eyes before a single cheque is signed or cashed, you know you’ve crashed a special evening.
That was Rovers’ financial director James Nolan.
“When that moment came, it was pretty emotional for a lot of people, people that have been with the club through thick and thin. It was a huge thing psychologically.”
It had been 24 years. James is too young to remember the glory nights when Rovers Byrned up the league before the Milltown betrayal and took for granted regular outings in Europe’s premier competition.
“You’re weaned on the stories of it; it’s almost a little mystical. But to be involved and actually touch it and experience it is fantastic.”
The hard road back to here, via the 400 Club and the fans’ takeover of the club, has been well-chronicled.
For both James and myself, Wynn’s Hotel on Dublin’s Lower Abbey Street holds special memories. I tend to recall the all-you-can-eat dessert trolley when the uncle picked me up at Heuston before an All-Ireland. James will never forget that incredible day in 2005 when Shamrock Rovers fans queued to commit their savings to save the club.
There were many queues for mad things during the Tiger, but you suspect the people in Wynn’s that day are happier now than if they’d opted for the flat outside Plovdiv.
Rovers needed €450,000 to get out of examinership and the supporters’ group had done a deal with Bank of Ireland to allow members commit €48 per month to five or ten-year loans that would give the club cash up front.
“I was absolutely stunned,” admits Nolan.
“When I got to the hotel, there were already 40 people waiting. It was one of those moments where you knew we were on to something here. It gave you a lot of strength.”
Anyone involved with Rovers in those days needed all the strength they could draw on, the days when anybody in Dublin with a decent garden drew the curtains every now and again to check if the Hoops were playing out there — then sharply pulled the blinds regardless.
Nolan remembers well the nadir. “If you were to pinpoint it, the worst moment was playing a home game in Cork. That showed the state the club was in.”
The first game in Tallaght was the big incentive, but nights like Tuesday are important milestones. Rovers just sneaked into the draw as the last seeded team, ensuring Flora Tallinn were kinder opposition than they might have faced.
Nolan recalls weeks glued to Livescore, keeping tabs on the Bosnian Premier League. Thankfully, a first title for FK Borac Banja Luka wouldn’t send them above Rovers in the coefficient rankings.
Papers talk about a European windfall but the reality doesn’t linger long on the credit side. “We got €330,000 for qualifying but we knew that was coming. That was in the budget so that’s gone.
“Cashflow is still a killer,” said James, but the club is on a surer footing now, even if it’s impossible to make brash predictions for anything to do with the domestic game. The money is gone from a league which never had money in the first place.
As Nolan admits: “There is talk of a 16-team league next season but there isn’t the quality at the moment for a six-team league.”
But then fan frustration — and Nolan is foremost a fan — is still football’s great leveller. On Thursday, I heard the saddest lament yet of the football year. A little fella, no more than eight — Fabregas 4 on his back, for now — filling in his pal on the Nasri situation. “We can’t afford his wages.”
They know more about that at Rovers, but you don’t see nearly as many Arsenal shirts — or United or Liverpool — around Tallaght these days. When a back turns, it’s Twigg, Sives or Sheppard. That’s what makes Nolan proudest.
“When you walk around the Square, the kids are all wearing Rovers jerseys. They don’t know much about the history, but they are excited as the rest of us. There is a real buzz around match days.”
On Tuesday, 500 fans will be in Estonia to see if Rovers can take another step. You hope the music doesn’t stop yet for them.
YOU’D have thought the woman two rows behind me at Páirc Uí Chaoimh last Sunday would have kept her prayers dry for an afternoon when they might be truly required.
“Oh Sacred Heart of Jesus, keep it out,” she squealed on each occasion Stapleton, Curran or Cahill — or, God forbid, Cummins — were threatened with involvement in the action.
To be fair to the Big Guy, he obliged every time, even if he could have been forgiven for moving onto more pressing matters once the Tipp lead had swelled beyond 20 points.
We wondered here last week what Davy’s approach might be in the Munster final; tactical or toe-to-toe. In the end, he went man for man, but got the match ups wrong until the horse was out the door and beyond the horizon.
But even before Déise banks burst in the late first-half goal glut, Davy cut a subdued, frustrated figure on the sideline. Seemingly at a loss to explain or defuse Tipperary’s dominance in every sector. A jack-in-the-box with broken springs.
When Jerome Maher trudged towards the line within half an hour, his manager barely spared him a glance. We don’t know what welcome the three boys removed at half-time got, but a cold shoulder was also Brian O’Sullivan’s reward when he wandered ashore.
Those are the kind of things you thought about when you heard Davy would have them in at 6am last Monday morning. He’ll need these boys with him over this rough fortnight. He’ll also need to line them out right the next day.
THE kid with Cesc on his back and Nasri’s payslip on his mind will have been mightily confused when he leafed through Forbes Magazine with his Coco Pops this week.
Manchester United are top of the table, naturally, of the world’s most valuable sports franchises but there are his beloved Arsenal, in seventh. Worth $1.19 billion (€840m).
But while the list should underline why Arsene might be more popular right now in the boardroom than the stands, there are warnings too in the rankings for impatient Gunners.
Above Arsenal in fourth lie the Washington Redskins, whose owner Daniel Snyder is famed for splashing heavily on big names and ignoring the potential in draft picks. It hasn’t prevented the Redskins enduring a trophy drought longer than Arsenal’s.
Of course there are wider lessons too in the domination of the rich list by NFL teams. The curious mix of socialism and capitalism favoured in American sports brings capped spending and an environment where almost every franchise is in profit.
No wonder the players are on strike.
The Hurling Development group.
Arranging the deck chairs on the sinking National Hurling League.
The group will put a new format for the league before Central Council in August. Favoured is a déjà vu return to six team Divisions 1A and 1B, except this time the strongest six will be in 1A.
It might keep the Offaly and Clare lads quiet for 10 minutes.
So you’re essentially relegating Wexford and Limerick this year to stop them complaining about being relegated next year?
Four teams from six qualifying for the league semi-finals? That sounds like a highly-competitive division where every game is vital. A real winner with supporters!
Guilty. Until the GAA bites the bullet, separates out the provincial championships and makes the league a genuine part of the All-Ireland series, all the cosmetics in the world won’t tart up this sow of a competition.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
