LIVERPOOL TEENAGER Bobby Duncan has completed his €2 million transfer to Fiorentina.
The 18-year-old has signed a three-year deal with the Serie A outfit, after Liverpool accepted an improved offer on Monday.
Fiorentina had seen two loan offers for Duncan rejected by the Reds, who felt that a loan move without an obligation to buy — and with no penalty clauses should the player not feature for the first team — served no purpose.
Duncan had expressed his desire to leave Liverpool last month, and matters came to a head in an incendiary statement released on Twitter by Saif Rubie, his representative, last week.
In it, Rubie accused Liverpool of “mentally bullying” and “destroying the life” of Duncan, and singled out sporting director Michael Edwards and Academy director Alex Inglethorpe for criticism. Duncan, he said, had been unable to leave his house due to stress, and would not be returning to the club in any circumstance.
Liverpool issued a statement rebutting the claims, and said they would endeavour to find an acceptable resolution. That resolution came over the weekend as Fiorentina came back to the table with a permanent offer, with Liverpool insisting upon a 20% sell-on clause in the deal.
The deal represents a significant profit for Liverpool, who paid just £200,000 to sign Duncan from Manchester City last July. The boyhood Red, whose cousin is Kop legend Steven Gerrard, enjoyed a prolific campaign with the U18s, scoring 33 goals and helping Barry Lewtas’ side to FA Youth Cup glory — beating City in the final in April.
Duncan had already featured for Neil Critchley’s U23 side, and spent pre-season with Jurgen Klopp’s senior squad. He scored in their opening friendly of the summer, a 6-0 win at Tranmere in July, describing it as “a dream come true” and featured on the club’s three-game tour of the USA later that month.
Relations, though, have been strained, with Duncan dismayed by the rejection of the loan offers from Fiorentina, as well as one from Danish outfit FC Nordsjaelland. Finally though, on the last day of the summer window, he has got his transfer.
Murray Kinsella joins Gavan Casey, Ryan Bailey and Sean Farrell with their immediate reaction to Ireland’s 31-man squad for the Rugby World Cup in Japan.
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Stupid idea to move minors to u17. Far too much of a gap between 17and 21 year olds. Would end up losing more players to other sports at the critical 18-20 age bracket. Minor championship is fantastic the way it is please don’t touch it.
RE plan for minor to be u17 whats happens to u16. Does this also mean that u21 is only open to those above 19.
I agree with nearly all their ideas.
Why not have the League Finals on St. Patrick’s Day?
Their reasoning for moving the Minor grade is sound. I would imagine they’ll move to an under 20 grade too, this would probably mean less clashes with senior games.
Why not play the Inter-Provincials around the time of the All-Ireland quarter finals or semi finals? With only a few counties still in the All-Ireland and club championships notoriously slow to get going there will be many inter county standard footballers willing to play top class competition.
Players just missing the cut in their home county should definitely be placed in a draft from which the weaker counties can pick. 4 players for Division 4 counties, 3 for Division 3 counties. After two seasons the players should be allowed reapply for their native county or else extend their draft period by another year.
A draft system similar to that in American sports is the obvious way to bolster the weaker counties. Keep the draft players within their native province to cut down travel times, I can’t see an issue with a couple of Dubs playing with Carlow for two years, Mayomen with Leitrim or Corkmen with Waterford. The players involved get to play in high quality competition and bring that experience back to their native counties, everybody’s a winner.
I’ll outline how the FRC could fix the Football Championships below. Eugene McGee could drop me a line and we’ll hammer out the finer details together!
The optimum system for the All-Ireland Football Championship should be:
A) Get rid of the January/February tournaments, move the League forward with the top 2 playing a League final in March.
B) The All-Ireland C’ship should be played like the World Cup. 33 teams in 7 groups of 4 and 1 group of 5. Seed the teams according to their finishing positions in the League, thereby linking the League and C’ship. Play the 3(4) round robin stage matches of the All-Ireland at neutral venues (except for New York and London who should play their matches at home) in April and May.
C) The 4 Provincial C’ships should be straight knock-out. They should be played in May/June, it may be necessary for the preliminary rounds of the Ulster and Leinster C’ships to overlap with the round robin stage of the All-Ireland. These titles remain a valid chance for meaningful silverware for all counties.
D) With the Provincial titles decided the All-Ireland C’ship Round of 16 takes place in late June, group winners getting the choice of home venue. Two weeks later the 1/4 Finals are held at neutral venues. Two weeks later the Semi Finals are held at Croke Park.
E) In mid August play the All-Ireland Football Final in glorious sunshine in Croke Park. All counties would have had at least 4 c’ship matches spread throughout the country. All counties would have had two shots at meaningful silverware. London and New York have a few home matches each year to spread the gospel of GAA. There are no dead rubbers.