Barking at the moon
Credit:
BRIAN de SALVO thinks Dermot Keely’s criticism of Kenny Cunningham’s appointment
to the coaching staff for the Airtricity League’s representative side misses the point.
Although, on second thoughts…
I’m sure Dermot Keely’s bark is worse than his bite but I’m not going to pat him on the head. I once saw him spend an entire first half berating his unfortunate left back from the dugout in Drumcondra. A substitution at half time seemed certain but no, the player takes his place on the pitch for the second period. It’s Keely who’s missing from the dugout.
But I can still hear his unmistakable rasping tones. Where is he? On the other side of the pitch at Tolka, continuing his “must do better” oration into the ear of his defender, having pursued him across to the opposite touchline.
So when I say that Mr Keely’s criticism of the appointment of Kenny Cunningham misses the point I had better move swiftly on to make mine. Which is that it doesn’t really matter who assists Damien Richardson with the Airtricity League representative squad in the Dublin Super Cup at the end of the month. Opting to play a league selection against the club squads of Celtic, Inter Milan and Manchester City is something a kid on the terraces might think was a great idea but for professional administrators to think it makes sense is, saving Mr Keely’s presence, barking mad.
It’s not that we haven’t made this fundamental error before. It’s almost a year since Manchester United opened the Aviva stadium and humiliated an Airtricity League representative team 7-1, wiping out in a single evening the work that I, for one, had done over the past decade in promoting League of Ireland football as worth the patronage of the Irish fans who wouldn’t be seen dead at a domestic game. There were almost fifty thousand of them at the Aviva that evening and you couldn’t see many of the uncommitted coming back for the next Airtricity League match in their locality. It can’t have been much fun for the sponsors either.
It can take half a season for a club squad to bed down into a successful unit. Do the powers that be really think that a couple of sessions will serve to equip Damien Richardson’s lads to do battle with senior outfits like Celtic, Inter Milan and Manchester City? Do they think that a professional manager’s principal function is to bounce around the coaching area in front of the dugout on match days?
It would seem so, judging by the impossible fixture schedule demanded of domestic clubs. Too much time that should be spent on the training ground is lost to recovery, travel and treatment. For it is on the training ground that a collection of individuals is moulded, over time, into a coherent force for match days.
The Dublin Super Cup is a club competition and one of our domestic clubs should be competing. Of course none of our top clubs, still engaged in Europe, would be available just as their players will not be available to Mr Richardson. That’s just part of the craziness of a set up that sees Premier Division matches played with squads that should be developing in intermediate football whilst First Division clubs are signing senior pros. What we need are more clubs playing less matches and immediate action to bring the game in Ireland into line with the country’s financial status. What we get is committee bound procedures that show little realisation of the urgency of the crisis or understanding of its nature.
Of course our opponents in the Dublin Super Cup will be in pre-season. The competition will be seen as part of the preparation not as a trophy that must be won. There is no shortage of talent at Damien Richardson’s disposal. They may be out of their league but no doubt they will step up to the challenge. But even if this rag tag and bobtail assembly should win the Dublin Super Cup it won’t invalidate the argument I have raised.
As for Mr Cunningham, I have every respect for his playing career stats and potential as a coach. But his appointment reinforces the fact that this squad exists for one weekend only. It sends the wrong message about a professional approach. Who should we have instead? What’s that, Mr Keely? Roy of the Rovers? Yes, since we’re playing fantasy football, he’d fit the bill nicely. By the way, whatever became of that left back?
I’m sure Dermot Keely’s bark is worse than his bite but I’m not going to pat him on the head. I once saw him spend an entire first half berating his unfortunate left back from the dugout in Drumcondra. A substitution at half time seemed certain but no, the player takes his place on the pitch for the second period. It’s Keely who’s missing from the dugout.
But I can still hear his unmistakable rasping tones. Where is he? On the other side of the pitch at Tolka, continuing his “must do better” oration into the ear of his defender, having pursued him across to the opposite touchline.
So when I say that Mr Keely’s criticism of the appointment of Kenny Cunningham misses the point I had better move swiftly on to make mine. Which is that it doesn’t really matter who assists Damien Richardson with the Airtricity League representative squad in the Dublin Super Cup at the end of the month. Opting to play a league selection against the club squads of Celtic, Inter Milan and Manchester City is something a kid on the terraces might think was a great idea but for professional administrators to think it makes sense is, saving Mr Keely’s presence, barking mad.
It’s not that we haven’t made this fundamental error before. It’s almost a year since Manchester United opened the Aviva stadium and humiliated an Airtricity League representative team 7-1, wiping out in a single evening the work that I, for one, had done over the past decade in promoting League of Ireland football as worth the patronage of the Irish fans who wouldn’t be seen dead at a domestic game. There were almost fifty thousand of them at the Aviva that evening and you couldn’t see many of the uncommitted coming back for the next Airtricity League match in their locality. It can’t have been much fun for the sponsors either.
It can take half a season for a club squad to bed down into a successful unit. Do the powers that be really think that a couple of sessions will serve to equip Damien Richardson’s lads to do battle with senior outfits like Celtic, Inter Milan and Manchester City? Do they think that a professional manager’s principal function is to bounce around the coaching area in front of the dugout on match days?
It would seem so, judging by the impossible fixture schedule demanded of domestic clubs. Too much time that should be spent on the training ground is lost to recovery, travel and treatment. For it is on the training ground that a collection of individuals is moulded, over time, into a coherent force for match days.
The Dublin Super Cup is a club competition and one of our domestic clubs should be competing. Of course none of our top clubs, still engaged in Europe, would be available just as their players will not be available to Mr Richardson. That’s just part of the craziness of a set up that sees Premier Division matches played with squads that should be developing in intermediate football whilst First Division clubs are signing senior pros. What we need are more clubs playing less matches and immediate action to bring the game in Ireland into line with the country’s financial status. What we get is committee bound procedures that show little realisation of the urgency of the crisis or understanding of its nature.
Of course our opponents in the Dublin Super Cup will be in pre-season. The competition will be seen as part of the preparation not as a trophy that must be won. There is no shortage of talent at Damien Richardson’s disposal. They may be out of their league but no doubt they will step up to the challenge. But even if this rag tag and bobtail assembly should win the Dublin Super Cup it won’t invalidate the argument I have raised.
As for Mr Cunningham, I have every respect for his playing career stats and potential as a coach. But his appointment reinforces the fact that this squad exists for one weekend only. It sends the wrong message about a professional approach. Who should we have instead? What’s that, Mr Keely? Roy of the Rovers? Yes, since we’re playing fantasy football, he’d fit the bill nicely. By the way, whatever became of that left back?
