CAULFIELD’S DRIVE AND PASSION IS ROOTED IN A CHILDHOOD OBSESSION
‘My fascination with going (to boarding school) was purely based on soccer’
BORN in The Bronx, raised in Roscommon, schooled in Sligo but created by Cork; John Caulfield has lived a life dedicated to football.
It is a love which has not waned, a passion that cannot be extinguished. The Cork City boss is 53 years old and, while he is steeped in the history of the Munster club as both a player and now their manager, he traces the beginning of his ‘fascination’ with the game back to visits to Athlone Town’s St Mel’s Park.
Sligo’s Showgrounds also made an indomitable mark, so too Caulfield’s many lone trips as a teenager across the Irish Sea to watch Arsenal at Highbury, under the supervision of an uncle who lived in London.
Yet it was a journey much closer to home which captivated him before all else and it came in 1975, AC Milan were held to a scoreless draw by Athlone in the UEFA Cup — although John Minnock’s missed penalty could have made it an even greater occasion at St Mel’s.
‘It only seems like yesterday but it’s over 40 years ago,’ Caulfield said with a rueful smile. ‘There were people everywhere, there was mud everywhere.’
A spark was lit, and his commitment has been steadfast ever since. The game is now his job and a single-mindedness in his vision of what is right was clear as a child when, prior to starting secondary school in the late 70s, he convinced his parents to let him leave the family home so he could attend boarding school at Summerhill College in Sligo.
‘It’s daft how it triggers, there used to be a programme on RTÉ on Fridays, it used to show all the different schools. Boarding is non-existent now, bar the elite, but at that time it was different,’ Caulfield explained.
‘People would think going there, “were you a delinquent?” But I loved it. My fascination with going there was purely based on the fact it was a fanatical soccer college. I was from the heart of Roscommon which was GAA country. I just had something in my system from the age of seven, eight years old that was I fascinated with soccer.
‘I had a brother who didn’t go with me because my parents didn’t want us to go but I was adamant, and I kept pushing them to let me go. It was a very relaxed in the sense you could come home every weekend if you wished,’ Caulfield added, although it was an opportunity rarely taken up, as football in Sligo, not to mention north London, kept him occupied.
‘I played in the local leagues every Saturday instead and Sligo Rovers would be playing at home in the Showgrounds every second Sunday too so I’d come home once a month maybe.
‘And with Arsenal, my mother was going nuts,’ Caulfield laughs. ‘Easter break, October, Christmas holidays, I was always going over to watch. One of my uncles lived 10 minutes from Highbury, we got the tube there. There was [Liam] Brady, [David] O’Leary, [Frank] Stapleton. I loved it, I could probably still tell you their results over a period from the mid-70s to the 90s, but nowadays I’m not clung to it.’ CAULFIELD’S mother and father emigrated to New York from Cork and Mayo, respectively, in the late 1950s and met in the Bronx, but a couple of years after their first son was born — the other, Darren, represented Ireland in Athletics at Indoor and Outdoor World Championships — they returned to Roscommon to run a pub.
This proved crucial in paving the way for the love affair which shaped Caulfield’s life. Yet it was the opportunity of a job in sales which led the business studies student from playing B Team football with Athlone Town to becoming Cork City’s joint record scorer (129) during a record 455 appearances, one of which included the famous 1-1 draw with Bayern Munich in the UEFA Cup in 1992.
There was also the league title the following season as well as the FAI Cup in 1998 and when his playing career as a battle-hardened, clinical centre forward finished, Caulfield continued his job as a sales rep for Diageo.
He only wears suits now, in his fifth season as Cork’s full-time manager, on Friday nights, as he continues to shape the club for a prosperous future.
They are the reigning league champions, with the Irish Daily Mail FAI Cup to boot, and have set the benchmark along with Dundalk since 2014.
When he took charge the year before, Caulfield was the only fulltime member of staff, now he has former Ireland international Colin Healy running the burgeoning academy.
‘If young players don’t have the proper attitude they have no chance,’ he said. ‘Agents come in and everyone is selling the fantasy story. It’s very difficult because people want to believe the fantasy. We tell the honest story and sometimes they don’t want to listen to it.
‘That’s the challenge. What we have to show is a pathway and a system of “this is what we can offer, this is what we see for you”. But we can only show the opportunity, we can’t guarantee any more than that.
‘You have to be good enough to take it and have the attitude to take it. Unfortunately, it is very difficult because there are a lot of parents now and they’re thinking of zeros in their heads, the whole thing is nuts.
‘The facts and the stats show us that it is nuts for a kid to be going to England at 15, 16. In no other industry would it happen, but the clubs here; we need to get better.’
He includes Cork in that. Caulfield expects the planned move from their current rustic training base at Bishopstown (next door to the dog track and UCC facilities) to the multi-million euro Munster Centre of Excellence at Glanmire, backed by the FAI, to happen in the next two years. CORK are on the up, they will play at least one qualifying round of the Champions League against Legia Warsaw next month and are in line to earn a minimum €800,000 for their exploits in Europe.
Others, near neighbours Limerick for one, have endured financial hardship this season yet Caulfield remains optimistic, especially with the planned formation of a new joint entity between clubs and the FAI to run the league from 2020 onwards.
‘That’s what’s needed as soon as possible, but it needs to be with open minds that we’re bringing the league to another level which hasn’t been here before. That’s the way I see it. It’s so clear to me, I’m so enthusiastic about it and the opportunity is there, but at the same time I’m sure somebody said that 20 years ago, 30 years ago, and maybe in 10 years’ time we could be sitting here and nothing has changed.
‘We have politics in Irish football, we have people who have got phenomenal results as League of Ireland managers, international managers, and they’re nowhere in our game.
‘I want people to stand up for the league, particularly people in clubs who are in a position to do that. They need to stand up and speak for the league, what we can do bet-
ter. In 40 years, we haven’t progressed really.
‘You have to set your standards from the top,’ he adds. ‘Cork were liquidated [in 2010], they could have died away but FORAS came and started again. Derry the same, Shelbourne similar, Rovers for 20 years were out of Milltown. A f ***** g incredible club, 20 years with no ground and they survived. That’s fantastic. I admire those clubs.
‘The problem is,’ Caulfield added, ‘You can’t have licensing and say “we want this but will turn a blind eye to that”. You can’t. In the top division every club must meet certain requirements. If they don’t have it, they just can’t get it in. It’s that simple. The clubs ultimately decide then whether they’re going to go for it or not, that drives ambition and drives clubs to be focused because the clubs that will be there are the ones who want to do it right.’
Caulfield’s tough love could be the way forward.