The extraordinary number of foreign clubs visiting Ireland this month is both interesting and informative. July is pre-season time for these clubs and the quick trip over the Irish Sea, the better playing and training facilities now readily available and most importantly of all, the extra fitness levels of the Irish players, who are at the halfway point of their season, makes the LOI an attractive proposition for visiting managers.
Like most professional footballers I had a love-hate relationship with pre-season training. In my days as a player there was invariably a ten-week or so break between the seasons and it was the fashion back then not to do anything too exertive during the close season.
Indeed, most managers liked their players returning to work with a few extra pounds around the waist as the disappearance of the same demonstrated quite starkly the savagery of the pre-season programmes in operation at most professional clubs then.
To some managers and coaches this was the most enjoyable time of the year. Players’ throwing-up was a compliment to the manager’s methods and to the commitment of the players themselves.
I never remember a pre-season where the weather was anything other than hot. During my time at Gillingham we had to bear consistent heat in the lovely County of Kent - The Garden of England. We had howeve, the advantage of being able to head for the coast down by Dover, Margate or Hastings where we were usually assured of a cooling sea breeze. However, this advantage was quickly negated by the amazing number of hills in that part of the South East of England and I soon became something of an expert on the verticality of the overabundant elevations in those parts.
There was one particular hill just outside Dover, adjacent to the famous White Cliffs, which was absolute murder. We had a set time to reach the top of this alpine-like monstrosity and once the fitness levels improved, the criteria was that if any one individual failed to meet the time, we all had to start again. So sheer was this hill that you had to run with your head well forward, penguin like, otherwise you were in danger of falling-over backwards.
To sit at the summit of this huge monster after completing six mad scrambles up and peer, through the summer haze, across the channel at France while the breathing gradually returned to something akin to normal, was quite rewarding, if you were of that inclination, which I must admit, professional footballers are most definitely not.
The raisons d’etre behind that now thankfully antiquated madness, was to enable us to be able to run non-stop for ninety minutes, which was the requirement for all professional football teams in that era, and especially so in England.
Hence, the next step in the programme was the pre-season game. This was the more enjoyable part and while the dehydration and the bursting lungs sometimes gave you the impression you were about to die, there was also the immense satisfaction associated with the understanding that it was all coming together; that your body, and mind, were responding to the hard labour.
The friendly games taking place in the month of July across Ireland will also be of benefit to LOI players. It gives them an opportunity to prove their worth against some quality opposition. And with the financial uncertainty creating doubts about the future of full-time football here, it may also offer opportunity.
Moreover, some of the gate receipts will hopefully also assist the clubs to work their way through this difficult time and while every supporter will obviously want their team to gain some silverware, the truth is that mere survival may very well be the main success of this season for all of our clubs.
The late Ollie Byrne was the master of the pre-season friendly. During my time as manager of Shelbourne, Ollie, the Mad Mullah of Tolka Park, organised some brilliant fixtures against top class opposition that aided enormously the club’s progression into full-time football.
Unfortunately, this type of fixture lost its appeal somewhat in the intervening years but I really do believe that the facilities like those down at Carton House, which are absolutely first class, and the marketing skills of companies like Platinum One, are eminently capable of enticing some major European clubs into the country and in my opinion, the League of Ireland itself should observe closely what is occurring this month.
The European games also add their own special brand of magic this month and despite the disappointment of Sligo Rovers falling at the first hurdle, the greater European experience of our other three clubs should offer us hope of success. Again, the financial rewards are more important than ever but all the managers and players can do is prepare and play the best they possibly can. It is far more prudent and sensible to use pride as the essential factor of motivation rather than to allow the negativity of finance to be the driving force.
It promises to be an interesting few weeks headlined by the European fixtures and the visit of Real Madrid. It is good to see Shamrock Rovers back in the international arena and I think we all accept that this famous club still has an integral part to play in a successful League of Ireland scene.
D Richardson
