THE FOOTBALL SHOW: LOI PD Preview with Vinny Perth | Who can pip Rovers to the title? | Are Dundalk the real deal? | OFF THE BALL

53.491 - 58.721 Eoin Sheahan

How close did he get to getting removed from the scrap heap?

58.801 - 85.318 Vinny Perth

I don't know. What's the word? A veteran? Anyway, I'm done. I think coaches now, this is the difference. Pre-season is grand. There's no real pressure. And then all of a sudden you've got to be ready for Friday night and results come and you lose sleep if you win and you sleep well if you, or do the way around, you lose sleep if you lose and you sleep well if you win.

85.358 - 103.174 Vinny Perth

So there'll be a lot of people excited for tomorrow and nervous at the same time. Getting off to a good start for a lot of clubs is really important. You think of the teams at the so-called bottom half of the table going into it, they'll feel a little bit of pressure, certain managers will.

103.154 - 119.728 Vinny Perth

it is a relentless league in the sense of very competitive and teams are very evenly matched outside maybe the top and the bottom but all the way in the middle and we've seen that over the last couple of years a lot of teams will beat each other so there's a bit of pressure comes with that you know sure

119.708 - 130.559 Eoin Sheahan

Tomorrow night, we're hoping anyway that it's going to be Shamrock Rovers versus Dundalk. Hopefully the rain will have subsided by then, the tal is all good and the surface isn't holding as much water as maybe it's done in the past.

223.861 - 248.798 Eoin Sheahan

biggest question mark around them is probably have they improved enough I'm not so sure they have but has anyone else got enough about them to sort of steal the title back off them not sure We'll come to the contenders in just a moment but in terms of Shamrock Rovers a couple of additions on the pitch which we'll get to in a moment but in terms of the reshuffle at boarding level with Ronan Finn coming in replacing Stephen McPhail how significant is this?

249.98 - 273.103 Vinny Perth

Em We will find out. It feels like there's always been a bit of noise around Sean McRover's in the background. I think Ronan will probably cross the divide in many sense. He would have good relationship. My understanding is good relationship with the two sort of fractions within the club that there is. So I think from that point of view, it should be... you know, a positive.

273.363 - 295.589 Vinny Perth

He's, him and Stephen Bradley seem to have a very, very good relationship from back in their playing days. He was his captain, et cetera. So, and as I said, Ronan has, you know, a lot of good contacts throughout the club. So, That's a wait and see a little bit. I think at times that character needs to be a strong character. Is Ronan strong enough to take on Stephen Bradley at times?

296.13 - 309.893 Vinny Perth

We'll find out. And other times he needs to be the manager's best mate. Ronan's a very, very experienced guy and he's done a lot of work. I felt it was inevitable he was going to get this job over the last two or three years. It's sort of...

309.873 - 333.028 Eoin Sheahan

he probably had that one pinned on his notice board at home and ultimately he's got it so best of luck to him you know The thing about the noise at Shamrock Rovers over the past couple of seasons is that it's never really affected them on the pitch too much like Bradley's such an open book sometimes with the media where he'll come out and say listen I'm not happy with such and such a person or what the hierarchy has done in such and such a way

660.164 - 689.58 Vinny Perth

in the first division because it's more high profile and second of all they will probably well obviously they lose a lot more games this year than they did last year so it's going to be a lot more questions and noise and it's a difficult difficult club to be involved with but it's also one of the great clubs the shed has its flaws in many ways but when when you go to Oriel Park under the lights it is a really hostile but it's a great ground to play in so

689.56 - 713.239 Vinny Perth

The local community and the club have seemed to do a lot of good things. The floodlights have been repaired. The new pitch has been laid. So there's been a lot of positives. They've had different initiatives with fans getting involved, cleaning the place and making it as best they can. So it feels like, as I spoke about the recruitment, Conor Cairns, Cornwall, Buckley, Mullin,

713.219 - 742.821 Vinny Perth

a lot of good players with League of Ireland experience and we look at the success Sligo have had in terms of staying up and staying up comfortably they've done that with a lot of League of Ireland type players and Dundalk have done the same thing so if I was predicting now I don't see them being the bottom team come the end of the season and that's all they need to do for a year or two is just survive and build slowly so it seems to be a lot of positive noise coming out of Aurea Park Who is the bottom team then?

742.801 - 765.433 Vinny Perth

I think at the moment it feels like probably Galway are going to be the one there's a lot of turnover there a lot of unknowns a lot of uncertainty now saying that it's hard to say that because John Caulfield is a master and he's a master of you know getting the very very best out of teams he's very very experienced but it probably feels at the moment that

765.413 - 794.087 Eoin Sheahan

Galway are from a recruitment point of view probably in the worst situation than any other team at the moment or haven't strengthened certainly with the know-how that other teams have A reminder as well that we're going to have that game live tomorrow evening between Shamrock Rovers and Dundalk live here on Newstalk with Vinnie alongside Stephen Doyle and as always LOI Late Night is going to be on social media from 10pm it's going to be Shane Keegan and Vinnie Perth make sure to follow us

1262.905 - 1281.673 Eoin Sheahan

you know the influence of McLean are we about to enter into an era where James McLean gets the sort of Damien Duff treatment I suppose he doesn't have to come out and do media after every game like a manager would so there is that wrinkle it's funny you're conflicted on a little bit aren't you because getting called

1282.109 - 1309.062 Vinny Perth

Getting called a banker with a W is not the biggest insult and it's fine to have that. I'm okay with that. But there is a line, to be fair. And James has his own lines and we all have our own line. Whatever it is, one of the highlights of my career was standing in front of the new stand in Tala Stadium and 1,400 people saying Vinnie Peart is a banker with a W. I loved every minute of it, right?

1309.042 - 1328.459 Vinny Perth

But the stuff about being an orange bee is not good enough. But that is, James is going to have to deal with that. And I think sometimes he could deal with just being a little bit quieter. But he's entitled to his own opinion. He's had it difficult at different stages. I love him. I love him as a person. I love what he stands for.

1330.02 - 1339.048 Vinny Perth

I would consider him, not to get too sort of republic about it, but I would consider him as a sort of,

1339.028 - 1368.175 Vinny Perth

how would I say this as a brother an Irish brother I'm comfortable with what he has to fight for and what he feels he needs to do there and anybody is critical of him I don't like that I think there's a line you don't cross and we all have our own line so if somebody last week crossed the line with him he's right to let people know that but he just needs to be careful that it doesn't become about him too much and I think he will be conscious of that a little bit and it becomes about the team and the team is the most important part and