by Declan Jordan
The SSE Airticity League of Ireland kicks off today after a long 19 week wait for its dedicated followers. There is of course unbridled optimism for each club's set of fans that this year will be their year. And those fans, like fans worldwide, will look for any evidence to back up their optimism. Several will look to the calibre of their strikers (perhaps newly signed) to bolster their arguments that they can come out of top. Cork City will hope new signings Anthony Elding and Michael Rafter will provide the needed goals. Champions St Pats will look to Mark Quigley again and new signing Daryl Kavanagh (I had originally thought Anto Flood could do it but a St Pat's fan deep in the Irish government told me Flood has gone to Australia). Sligo will pin hopes on Danny North and Eric Odhiambo.
But while each club will be hoping their strikers do well, they shouldn't be hoping that they do too well. St Pats will probably be happy to see their rivals strikers (Rory Patterson of Derry, North and Odhiambo) at the top of the bookies' predictions for the season's top goalscoring award. This is because it is rarely the case that the club that wins the league also provides the season's top goalscorer.
Only three times in the last 10 seasons has the top goalscorer also won a league medal. It happened in 2004 and 2006 when Jason Byrne won with Shelbourne and again in 2010 when Gary Twigg won with Shamrock Rovers (this means it has happened once in the last 7 years).
Ireland is not unusual in this however. Looking at the three major European leagues over the last 10 seasons, Serie A has only twice seen the top club provide the top goalscorer (Ibrahimovic for Inter in 2009 and Shevchenko for Milan in 2004) and in Spain where titles have mostly been shared between Barca and Real Madrid it has happened in 4 seasons - mostly interchanging between Messi and Ronaldo.
The English Premier League has the highest incidence. In that case 5 out of 10 seasons has seen the top goalscorer fire his club to the title and these have mostly come in recent seasons (2013, 2011, 2010 included).
Perhaps it is the case that Champions need goals from a greater range of players or else are more stingy in defence and need fewer goals to win. Either way, it is something else for supporters to add to the stack of "evidence" in searching for reasons to be hopeful.
But while each club will be hoping their strikers do well, they shouldn't be hoping that they do too well. St Pats will probably be happy to see their rivals strikers (Rory Patterson of Derry, North and Odhiambo) at the top of the bookies' predictions for the season's top goalscoring award. This is because it is rarely the case that the club that wins the league also provides the season's top goalscorer.
Only three times in the last 10 seasons has the top goalscorer also won a league medal. It happened in 2004 and 2006 when Jason Byrne won with Shelbourne and again in 2010 when Gary Twigg won with Shamrock Rovers (this means it has happened once in the last 7 years).
Ireland is not unusual in this however. Looking at the three major European leagues over the last 10 seasons, Serie A has only twice seen the top club provide the top goalscorer (Ibrahimovic for Inter in 2009 and Shevchenko for Milan in 2004) and in Spain where titles have mostly been shared between Barca and Real Madrid it has happened in 4 seasons - mostly interchanging between Messi and Ronaldo.
The English Premier League has the highest incidence. In that case 5 out of 10 seasons has seen the top goalscorer fire his club to the title and these have mostly come in recent seasons (2013, 2011, 2010 included).
Perhaps it is the case that Champions need goals from a greater range of players or else are more stingy in defence and need fewer goals to win. Either way, it is something else for supporters to add to the stack of "evidence" in searching for reasons to be hopeful.
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