I just hate this clause
Oh who is going to be coming in to replace your top scorer now. The anticipation is killing us
An emotional goodbye to a fantastic player. His spell was brief but certainly prolific.
Barnes is some talent! Well worth being the first paid for player under McDonald and I am sure he will go on to be an excellent player for you. A shame to see McAuley have to go as he was a constant goal threat, however, with a player in line to replace him, he has to go. A shame about the Champions League but you had no expectations what so ever. Another league title is excellent work and with the early signs of another great window, I guess we will be seeing another one this coming season!
€85k is an absolute steal for Barnes, and you've got a great deal buying the house too. Got keep those poker games on the backburner now that you have a mortgage 
Or maybe just ask the chairman for a new contract every 6 months. Disappointing to lose McAuley, the lad coming in for the big wages better have a better season than what he had!
Or maybe just ask the chairman for a new contract every 6 months. Disappointing to lose McAuley, the lad coming in for the big wages better have a better season than what he had!
With Cobh Ramblers basking in the 2023/24 UEFA Champions League money, the time has come for Conor McDonald to begin the spending at St. Colman’s Park as he racked up €3.3million worth of spending in the run-up to the new 2024 Irish Premier League season.
The focus on recruitment has been largely focused on youth players with McDonald summing it up in the Álvaro Martínez transfer announcement: “We’re looking to spend more now so we can spend less in the future.”
This comes with eleven Under-19 players arriving in the shadows of the new first-team signings made by the club.
Goalkeepers
The only arrival in the first-team goalkeeping department came in the form of Dundalk’s starting goalkeeper Tadhg Ryan for a fee of €300,000.
The 26-year-old broke the divisional record for clean sheets last season with Dundalk as he made sixteen clean sheets in 35 appearances in the Premier League.
He originally started his career at Limerick before a move to Huddersfield Town in 2014. After failing to make a league appearance for The Terriers, Ryan moved back to Ireland with a season at Galway United before Cork City made him their first-choice prior to his €170K move to then-title winners Dundalk.
Full-Backs
Spanish right-back Pol Valentín is likely to be Cobh’s new starting right-back after joining for a €200,000 fee from Spanish Third Division Group 9 outfit Club Deportivo Badajoz.
His face will be most familiar with Gimnástic de Tarragona fans after breaking through their youth teams to become a rotation player in the club’s La Liga 2 days.
Since then, Valentín signed for Badajoz in the summer of 2023 for a fee of €80,000. After 23 league appearances and five goals scored from right-back, he won the club’s Player of the Season award.
The man to be fighting a starting spot against Valentín is the English right-back Darnell Fisher who joined the club following his contract at Middlesbrough expired in 2023.
After a short spell coming through the ranks at Celtic in the Scottish Premiership, Fisher made his name in the EFL Championship with seven straight years playing in the English second tier with Rotherham United, Preston North End and Middlesbrough, becoming a starting player at all three clubs.
Conor McDonald went north to pick up his new starting left-back with Dungannon Swifts’ Alan Thompson joining the club for a fee of €150,000.
The player graduated from Dungannon’s academy in 2020, making four appearances in the 2020/21 season before going on to become a starting player every season from then despite his young age and made a total of 91 appearances over three years at Stangmore Park.
His form for his club in Northern Ireland then took him from the national Under-21s side to earn his first two senior caps for his country, making his debut against Bosnia & Herzegovina.
Centre-Backs
Kern Hernandez joins Cobh as possibly the most hotly-anticipated signing by the club and perhaps the most talented player to arrive this winter as Sheffield United agreed to cut his contract short by six months to join Conor McDonald for a fee of €105,000.
The 19-year-old made headlines in the Championship when he arrived at Bramall Lane for £3.5million from Coventry City in 2020.
The England Under-20 international failed to make any league appearances for Sheffield United during his three-and-a-half year spell at the club, making his senior debut in an FA Cup 4th Round match against Salisbury.
Coming in to possibly partner Kern Hernanez at the back is Brandon Cooper who arrives from Wigan Athletic for a fee of €150,000.
The 24-year-old centre-back started his career out at Swansea City and finally made his first league appearance for The Swans in 2021 after a successful loan spell in the National League with Yeovil Town.
Two more loan spells to Plymouth Argyle and Chesterfield followed before Cooper was finally sold for the good of his career to Wigan Athletic in a free transfer. Cooper made 20 appearances over one-and-a-half years at the DW Stadium.
Central Midfield
The arrival of Adrian Granger still stands as Cobh Ramblers record signing, joining for an initially agreed €1,200,000 (with €600,000 being paid over three years). He joins as one of Dundalk’s best and most promising players in a massive coup for the reigning Irish champions.
However, Adrian Granger has history already with Cobh having come through their youth academy in 2021, meaning that he is a homegrown player for Cobh’s Champions League registration.
Granger only just made an impact last season with seven goals and seven assists from 29 league games as well as four Man of the Match awards despite being played out of position on the wing.
Chris Savage came in as one of Conor McDonald’s earlier signings after he agreed a €50,000 fee for the 20-year-old attacking midfielder from the Evo-Stik Premier Division side Gateshead.
It only took one season for Savage to become a key part of Gateshead’s starting eleven every week in the Vanarama National League North but his performances have been phenomenal following Gateshead’s relegation in 2022, scoring 15 goals in 18 games just this season alone.
To really add competition to the number ten role, Conor McDonald added Manchester United’s Dylan Levitt to his ranks on a free transfer.
Levitt was never given the opportunity to play in the first-team at Old Trafford despite graduating from their academy. Instead, the two-time Welsh international spent seasons on loan in the Football League with both Southend United and AFC Wimbledon.
Coming in to fill the defensive midfield role is Spanish 30-year-old Eneko who joins Cobh for a fee of €160,000 from Burgos Club de Fútbol.
Eneko has spent most of his career as a consistent starter with teams in the Spanish Third Divisions, having made a total of 292 career league appearances during his time in Spain. He will likely replace Alan Power in the number four role in the weekly lineup.
Despite only being 17 years old, Rouven Allner could potentially stake his claim to a first-team spot in the 2024 season as he signs for Cobh in a €125,000 fee from Regionalliga Nordost side Madgeburg.
His history in Germany doesn’t necessarily call for him to be involved in the first-team but his current performances in preseason could see that change.
Wingers
After the marquee signing of Luke Garbutt to fill the left-midfield spot and with Will McGowan now released, Conor McDonald has snapped up Hearts’ Cian Kavanagh for a fee of €110,000.
The 21-year-old started his career out with Irish Premier League side St. Patrick’s Athletic before moving to Scotland in 2019. After spending two loan spells out at Queen of the South and St. Mirren, Kavanagh returned to Hearts as a rotation player, making 13 appearances over the past two seasons.
However, during his time at Hearts, he was able to force his way into the Republic of Ireland Under-21 national side.
Cobh Ramblers continued their raid on title-challengers Dundalk by signing their right midfielder Daniel Kelly on a free transfer upon the expiry of his contract.
Kelly has spent his entire career in Irish football and made his big break at Bray Wanderers in the Premier League before a midseason transfer to Bohemian in 2018.
Dundalk then made their move in 2019, signing him from Bohemian on a free transfer as he became an essential player with ten goals and five assists in 32 games in his first season.
Joining just days before Daniel Kelly’s deal was finalised, Tony Springett prematurely ended his contract with Norwich City as Cobh bought out the remaining six months in a €75,000 figure.
The Ireland Under-20 international made his senior debut in the Premier League for Norwich as a substitute back in 2021 but was shipped out on two consecutive loan deals to Salford City in the EFL League Two before a season-long deal to Hamilton Academical for the 2022/23 season.
Strikers
The only first-team striker arrival came in the form of Wolverhampton Wanderers’ 21-year-old Conor Carty for a fee of €200,000.
The Ireland Under-20 international started his career with Irish lower league side Saint Francis before earning a youth contract at Wolves during their promotion season from the EFL Championship.
He spent the 2022/23 campaign on loan to Scottish Premiership side Livingston where he scored four goals and assisted twice in 10 starts in the league.
Departures
There were only two transfers that earned Cobh Ramblers revenue this January with the €250,000 sale of Glen McAuley to Tranmere Rovers before Dylan Watts was sold for €140,000 to Shrewsbury Town.
As many as twelve former first-team players were released at the end of their contracts, however, with significant names such as Mark O’Brien, Jacob Hanson and Jordan O’Brien all filling up the released list
A lot of focus was placed on sending a lot of Cobh’s youth recruits out on loan with names such as Dario de Pellegrin, Pelayo Ventura and Lee McMahon all heading out on loan along with others from the Under-19s and a couple from the first-team.
Backroom Staff
It hasn’t just been the playing squad that has received a big change in direction as Cobh’s first-team coaching staff received a change.
Former Cwmbran Celtic midfielder Andy Richards became Conor McDonald’s new assistant manager with the young 19-year-old replacing the 42-year-old Barry O’Sullivan.
In terms of the coaching staff, Nicolas Locussol arrived from Qatari side Muaither, former Leeds United left-back Ben Parker joined from Eastleigh and Nicky Cosgrove joined from divisional rivals St. Patrick’s Athletic as Gary Manning and Ryan Devlin found their way out of the club.
Tango: Tell me about it...
tedbro20: Looks like it's big Conor Carty!
Scott: He did what was necessary in the time given to him
Seb: Very proud of securing Barnes, that's for sure! He's a quality player for his age. As for McAuley, sometimes manager's have to make sacrifices to even some of their best players.
James: €85K for Barnes, €280K for the house, not a bad transfer window
The amount of new contracts being offered to me is quite something, meaning they must be really keen not to let me go and also to not let me be dissuaded with a wage lower than my performance.Griffo: I guess it's becoming Conor's nature
What a brilliant window. Qualifying for the Champions League group stages has really benefited your finances and you have seemingly taken advantage of that money with some of these deals. Particularly excited for the Barnes and Hernandez partnership, it could easily be the best defensive duo Ireland has seen. Interesting you paid so much money for a former youth player, but he has the quality that's for sure!
An excellent transfer window which should see Cobh crowned champions again. Hopefully able to qua6for the group stages of the champions league again or even europa league
The new season began with Cobh Ramblers’ first competition win of the season as Conor McDonald’s lifted the President’s Cup (Play-Off between 2023 Premier League win and FAI Cup winners) as well as a good start in the league.
The month began with a friendly against Waterford which Cobh lost as one of their former players and one of their current players loaned out scored both goals with Khavarn Williams and Pelayo Ventura leading Waterford to a 2-1 win.
However, Cobh’s return to competitive football in the President’s Cup against Bohemian was greeted with a dominant performance, running out 5-1 winners as Chris Savage and Adrian Granger both scored debut goals.
The new Premier League season started against newly promoted Shamrock Rovers who returned to the top-flight immediately following their 2022 relegation. Cobh got off to a great start with a clean sheet and three points with Chris Savage and Layton Stewart scoring both goals.
Cobh’s last match of the month ended in a scoreless draw against Sligo Rovers.
Cobh finished the month in 4th place after playing two games, having games in hand on two teams already above them in the table.
All of March’s fixtures were played out in the Premier League to make up for Cobh’s lack of games in February, meaning their Senior Munster Cup entry was postponed until April.
Conor McDonald continued his team’s unbeaten start to the league with a 4-2 win over strugglers Limerick as Adrian Granger scored a brace and new arrivals Chris Savage and Conor Carty scored the other two for Cobh.
Then came Cobh’s first game against the then-league leaders Derry City who had also got off to a good start. However, when they came to St. Colman’s Park they were smashed 5-2 with a flurry of goals in the last five minutes of the game with Cobh scoring four goals in five minutes, with braces from Kern Hernandez and Conor Carty who secured all three points.
Cobh’s game against Dundalk was not met with as much fear as previous season, given their squad was weakened in the transfer window and they had got off to a bad start. The game was still a tight one, though, with centre-back Kern Hernandez scoring the only goal of the game.
Their next game against Bohemian was much more of a breeze with a 4-0 win at Dalymount Park with four different scorers for Cobh. Even the club’s assigned penalty taker - goalkeeper Tadhg Ryan - scored his first goal of his career in an entertaining moment for the travelling fans.
The easy wins continued against Waterford in a superb 3-0 win where Conor Carty, Chris Savage and Kern Hernandez all scored for The Rams.
Conor McDonald confirmed a 100% win record and March’s Manager of the Month award with another 3-0 win against fierce rivals Cork City at Turners Cross. The game was Cobh’s third consecutive clean sheet - a testament to their new defence. Tadhg Ryan scored his second goal for the club from the penalty spot in the 17th minute.
At the end of March, Cobh restored their lead at the top of the table, taking a three-point lead over 2nd placed Derry City, scoring 22 goals and conceding only 4 in eight games.
At the other end of the table, Limerick are really beginning to struggle as they have failed to pick up any points in any of the eight games they have played, becoming relegation favourites in the process.
Seb: It's fair to say that UEFA has paid for the oncoming domination of Ireland
tedbro20: The Champions League provides more income but the Europa League offers more opportunity for progression in Europe!
Tango: We've come a long way since 2019
Cobh are clearly proving themselves too big for Ireland. I'm eager to see this team flying higher in Europe
My immediate reaction when I saw the initial screenshot of your transfers [^]. Darnell Fisher looks like a great signing for the RB slot tbh, he'd be ahead of the Spaniard imo. Kern Hernandez looks like he could be a very good 'covering' CB in a back-3 [tin bit undersized], and I'm not too sure on Eneko as your starting DM tbh.
The rest of your signings: brilliant! You've been extremely busy in the off-season, and hopefully that means a more impressive showing in Europe this season. Europe will take a bit time, so gradual progress every season is all the Cobh fans should be expecting
There are some absolutely fantastic signings in the mass of incomings. The money is well and truly available and subsequently being spent. A good start to the season and silverware celebrated as seemlessly expected and going by previous results, another league title is all but secured.
All looking good at the top of the table already. Don't see the league being a problem for you when your buying up the best players in the league now
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