It's Christmas Day for many Irish football fans. Tonight, the League of Ireland returns from it's winter break with a full weekend of fixtures in the Premier Division and First Division.
The highlight of the weekend is of course the clash of league champions Dundalk and Shamrock Rovers in Oriel Park on television. There's a couple of interesting ties in the rest though.
Runaway First Division champions Limerick host Sligo Rovers at Market's Field at 7:45. The Blues have added well to that squad and are being tipped as dark horses to make the top three. They've brought in players from abroad (like a lot of clubs) while tying down the spine of the title winning team to contracts.
During the week however, they made an absolute pig's ear of a transfer.
On Tuesday afternoon, they announced the loan signing of Tommy Robson from Sunderland and the permanent signing of Thibaut Molinatti from Swedish First Division side Enskede IK. The papers picked up on it and everything seemed fine. It was another strong addition.
Or so it seemed.
Limerick had forgotten about the transfer window closing on Tuesday night, and not all of the paperwork was correct. By the time the officials had noticed, it was gone past midnight.
Molinatti took to his social media accounts yesterday morning to explain the situation
Good luck Limerick ⚽?? pic.twitter.com/xriQVhcPcz
— Thibaut Molinatti (@ThibautMoli) February 23, 2017
While not the greatest disaster to hit a League of Ireland club, it's left the Shannonsiders with a little big of egg on their face. The strength of their squad is impressive with or without Molinatti.
Perhaps a versatile French/Swede would've helped them over that line and into the top four. Alas, we will never know. At least not until July when the window opens again.
We've a small suggestion for the Limerick management - use pencil next time.
