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O’Donovan — the million-euro man
By David Thorpe
The new Premiership season will be crucial to the careers of both of
Ireland’s top strikers but Robbie Keane and Kevin Doyle face important
seasons for very different reasons.
When Kevin Doyle departed Cork City to join Reading his name was hardly
known outside Eircom League circles and the fee of just £78,000
raised few eyebrows.
When Roy O’Donovan departs Cork City for Sunderland though he’ll
have to contend with an element of hype in the British media.
O’Donovan spurned the chance to move to Fulham opting instead
to join up with his fellow Cork man Roy Keane at the Stadium of Light.
The fee of approximately e1million makes the striker the most expensive
player in the history of the Eircom League.
There are many similarities between Doyle and O’Donovan.
Both players began as wingers before being converted to strikers, both
enhanced their reputations by scoring goals for the Irish uner-21 team
and both were linked with English clubs for many months before eventually
departing to try their luck across the Irish Sea.
The success Doyle has enjoyed in the Premiership with Reading has caused
English clubs to focus on the Eircom League much more and meant that the
transfer fees which clubs like Cork City can charge for their top players
has increased significantly.
While Doyle was able to make a relatively low profile entrance to English
football, O’Donovan will be under pressure to make an immediate
impact with Sunderland one of the best-supported and most high-profile
clubs in Britain.
O’Donovan actually has a better goalscoring record in the Eircom
League and at international level than Doyle did at the same stage of
his career.
Roy will face severe competition for a starting place at the stadium of
light with fellow Irish strikers David Connolly, Anthony Stokes and Daryl
Murphy as well as £5.5million man Michael Chopra all competing for
the starting places up front.
But having already broken one record Irish football fans will be hoping
that O’Donovan can continue to break records as he becomes the latest
Irishman to try his luck in the English top-flight. |
