Athlone Town are keen to become a feeder club for a team in the Premier League or even the Championship, and Bray Wanderers would also embrace any such opportunity.
Their cause, however, was not enhanced by envents on Tuesday night.
Ireland Premier Division champions Bohemians' crashed out of the Champions League with a 4-0 second leg defeat to Welsh champions The New Saints.
It was a display that led to Bohs' boss Pat Fenlon being verbally abused by furious supporters with one fan hurling a club-crested flag in his direction.
Victory would have set up a tie with Anderlecht but, more tellingly given the financial crisis engulfing Irish football, failure to progress has cost the Dalymount club a 500,000 Euros windfall.
There are now major concerns for the future of Bohemians, with Fenlon stating that the club will not be able to go forward, and the players have to realise that.
It would be a welcome development if a more wealthy English club offered to form a link, similar to that which Manchester United have previously held with Royal Antwerp in Belgium and that which has seen Home Farm, a non-league Irish club, pushing young players to Portsmouth in recent years.
The last five years have seen the financial collapse of a number of league winning clubs in Ireland due to overspending and mismanagement.
Shelbourne suffered demotion after winning the First Division title in 2006 with millions of euros debt.
Cork City, who Sunderland and Hartlepool have acquired players from in recent times, had to bounce back from falling out of existence earlier this year.
While Drogheda entered into receivership with a deficit of 732,000 euros in 2008 before Derry City were thrown out of the league at the end of 2009 for producing false documents regarding player contracts.
Such situations led to the Football Association of Ireland becoming the first governing body to introduce a salary cap.
So far that has not worked and all clubs, including Athlone and Bray, would be keen to develop players on behalf of the likes of Boro, strengthening their financial state which currently prevents them from turning things around at the wrong end of their respective divisions.
TUESDAY night offered the chance to sample the delights on offer in the small town of Maynooth, which is around 40-minute drive from Dublin.
Maynooth might have a population of just over 10,000, but at either end of the main street there is the beautiful Maynooth Castle and the Carton House, including the hotel lies which has been hosting the Middlesbrough squad.
Maynooth's most important historical building, mind, is the St Patrick's College. It was founded in 1795 by King George III to educate Ireland's catholics and it has ordained more than 11,000 priests.
It is a quaint little town, which only came to life on Tuesday night when a van hired by Middlesbrough football club drove round in circles looking for a decent takeaway, with a list as long as my arm for the orders of Boro's playing squad. The joys of a modern day footballer.
Source: Northern Echo
Source: Northern Echo