REYNOLDS REPLACES HIGGINS AT ORIEL
ALAN Reynolds has been appointed the new Dundalk FC assistant manager.
The Argus revealed at the start of the month that the 45-year-old was in line to replace Ruaidhrí Higgins after his departure to join Stephen Kenny’s Republic of Ireland backroom team.
Reynolds had been managing his home town club Waterford FC in recent seasons, guiding them to the First Division title in 2017, but stepped down from that position last week.
A former assistant at Derry City, St Patrick’s Athletic and Cork City, Reynolds will now work alongside manager Vinny Perth and first team coach John Gill having penned a short-term deal on Monday until the end of the current campaign.
Perth - who revealed he spoke to six people about the role, including three from outside Ireland - said he felt Reynolds was the perfect fit to help improve the champions.
“He has vast experience in the League of Ireland. He comes from the same sort of family tree as myself in the sense that he has won many trophies as an assistant.
“He has a lot of experience in Europe and I think the job he did at Waterford has been exceptional. They did technically qualify for Europe last year.
“I think he’s someone who is one of the most highly regarded coaches in Ireland. I think he’ll definitely improve us.
“He’s someone we’ll look forward to working with but for now it suits both parties to see how it goes and then we’ll assess it at the end of the season. We’ve agreed to work together now in the short-term and then we’ll see where it ends up.”
Perth said he did not know at this stage if Reynolds would also be involved with the Republic of Ireland U-21 squad under his former Shelbourne team-mate Jim Crawford.
“It is up for discussion,” said Vinny.
“They have got two matches and possibly a third match that they may want him involved in. It is part of what we’re discussing but none of those international windows clash with a European game so if it is the case he is away with them for a bit then we can live with it.”
Perth and Reynolds both briefly worked together in the past under Stephen Kenny at Derry City while goalkeeping coach Steve Williams also played alongside him at Shels.
“Yeah, I was the match analyst at Derry when he was there,” said Perth.
“It’s slightly different in that I wouldn’t have been as hands on but we were part of the same set-up under Stephen, who he was assistant for for a long time.”