The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was merge to History of Derry City F.C.. This article's subject is found to lack the notability required for a stand-alone article. — Coffee // have a cup // beans // 03:43, 12 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The Wilderness Years (Derry City F.C.)[edit]

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When History of Derry City F.C. exists, it's perverse to have a stubby, poorly-referenced article about the few years in which Derry weren't playing senior football. In any case, the article is redundant as it duplicates the main history article - most of it as taken up with describing events leading up to Derry leaving the Irish League or alluding to later events after they joined the League of Ireland, rather than actually describing anything about the "wilderness" period. Jellyman (talk) 17:32, 4 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Delete Anything that could be said here could easily be included in History of Derry City F.C. so there is no need for a separate article. Dunarc (talk) 19:29, 4 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Delete Unnecessary content fork. Number 5 7 13:45, 5 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Football-related deletion discussions. Coolabahapple (talk) 01:32, 6 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Northern Ireland-related deletion discussions. Coolabahapple (talk) 01:32, 6 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Delete - totally unnecessary fork. Fenix down (talk) 13:19, 6 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Comment - the article section History of Derry City F.C.#Security concerns during the 'Troubles' (Late 1960s–1985) refers to Main article: The Wilderness Years (Derry City F.C.). As such, isn't this a simple Merge to History of Derry City F.C.? Though it is odd that section is about 3 times the length of this article. Not sure if there is material that should be copied or not. Still, after a decade of this article existing, I'd think that there'd be a redirect. Nfitz (talk) 05:29, 7 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I'd disagree with the redirect on two grounds. Firstly I am not sure that it is in any way an official term, even the article itself fails to provide evidence of its widespread use in reliable sources. Secondly, even if it is a widely used term, it is a term referring to the city of Derry not this club itself so I'm not sure to where it should be redirected. I'm not adverse to any properly sourced content being merged with the history article though without leaving a redirect. Fenix down (talk) 07:49, 7 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I don't entirely disagree with you - but the article does note that "the wilderness years was a period of time between 1972 and 1985 when the city of Derry, Northern Ireland was without a senior footballing side participating in a senior national league." - so that's referring to the club, not the city. Whether this be accurate or not I don't know, and it should be sourced. And I'm very surprised to easily find a good relatively recent source for that phrase, gosh and another that's almost as good. Didn't expect that. Might meet WP:GNG - certainly seems enough to leave a redirect. Nfitz (talk) 14:22, 7 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The thing is, the phrase "wilderness years" is just a phrase meaning a period of exile, it's not specific to this club and is widely used in the English language (see here for example, it's generic to the point of cliché, so for one club to claim it as an official named period in their history doesn't make sense to me - if you could show the club uses this phrase I could see the need for a redirect but I can't find it used officially anywhere).

This is underlined by your first source which uses the words in the title but does not refer to this phrase at all in the article itself. The second source does, but the fact that it first uses the term "wilderness" in an entirely generic manner in the first instance does not support your argument and the fact that the second usage states this is a term used to describe this period in the club's history only on a local level and in inverted commas, again suggests the exact opposite of notability. The fact that this source is just a blog also weakens your argument.

I don't see anything approaching GNG here, nor do I see the need for a redirect unless the phrase can be seen to be used in anything other than a generic manner. Fenix down (talk) 15:21, 7 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure what I'm arguing - I never expected to find what I found. No, the second one isn't a great source. More research needed I think. Nfitz (talk) 17:07, 7 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with Fenix down; the term is generic in the extreme and I don't particularly see the value of a redirect. However, there's little harm in having one if someone thinks it's a good idea... Jellyman (talk) 17:53, 7 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This discussion has been included in WikiProject Football's list of association football-related deletions. ChrisTheDude (talk) 23:08, 8 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Mergeto History of Derry City F.C. - no reason for a separate article -- ChrisTheDude (talk) 23:09, 8 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Merge and delete - as above, no need for a content fork. Giant Snowman 08:03, 9 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Merge per above. Seems more productive to mesh the content with the parent article rather than keep as a separate article. While the content is useful and relevant, it would be better if it were to be merged in my opinion. Inter&anthro (talk) 00:50, 10 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.