McCaffrey eyeing 'long-term project'

New Dundalk FC manager Seán McCaffrey has eyed a “long-term project” at Oriel Park, after he was confirmed as Ian Foster’s successor on Friday afternoon.

The 52-year-old has signed a one-year contract with the Lilywhites, but he has spoken of his desire to develop a “sustainable model” for the club.

“I see it as a long-term project,” McCaffrey told dundalkfc.com. “Teams come and go and managers come and go. If you look at what Alex Ferguson did at Manchester United or Wenger at Arsenal – they built a club.

“They have a situation where they buy good players and they produce good players, so it’s a mixture of both, and the structure from scouting 12-year-olds right through to scouting top international players is in place in both those clubs.

“That’s the only type of a model that is sustainable. And League of Ireland football has always struggled because there hasn’t been an appropriate model that is sustainable for the finances around the league and for the long-term.

“That’s what we’re going to try to do. Money will build you a team and it could maybe build you a club, but you need to put the structures in place.

“Everything needs to be right, instead of this situation in League of Ireland football where the manager goes and the whole team goes, and the whole thing starts all over again.

“It’s just not sustainable and it’s not the sensible approach.

“I’m absolutely delighted to be here. It’s a club, when I was a teenager growing up, where we went to watch League of Ireland matches. We would go to watch European games, like against Liverpool and Celtic.

“I remember as a 14-year-old getting into the dressing room. There was a priest called John McElroy, a Celtic fan who lived in Glasgow, and he got us into the dressing room and we met Bobby Lennox and Kenny Dalglish and all those guys.

“I remember all the great Dundalk teams under Jim McLaughlin. It was a fantastic club. I remember all the top players – Tommy McConville, Paddy Dunning, Pop Flanagan obviously, a Monaghan man, Jimmy Dainty, Cathal Muckian – I could write a book on it.

“I’m delighted to get it. I think it’s a club with a fantastic fan base and huge potential. It’s a huge football town. The Dundalk Schoolboys’ League is on your doorstep, and I know a lot of people involved in it – Gerry Gover and Larry Gorham.

“There are a lot of very good clubs around Dundalk, so I know the potential there. I capped a few young Dundalk players through the years, and I’d know the history of it well.

“There’s a huge challenge with the job. There’s a fairly small budget but, having said that, Gerry Matthews has spent a fortune on the club and the Youth Development Centre is a fabulous facility.

“You can’t spend it at both ends so we have to put up with a small budget for a couple of seasons and manage it as best as we can.

“But, first and foremost, you have the club there and you have the fan base there, and since Gerry has come in, you have a great facility as well as the stadium itself.”