CRISIS TIME AT ORIEL PARK AFTER DEFEAT
FILIPPO Giovagnoli was ready to walk away from Dundalk FC following the side’s third defeat on the spin against Bohemians on Friday night before having a change of heart over the course of the weekend.
After taking just one point from the opening four league matches, sources within Oriel Park told The Argus that the Italian coach was ready to walk away from the job after another disappointing display against Keith Long’s men.
However, it is understood Giovagnoli was persuaded to stick with the project and he - along with the rest of the management team of Shane Keegan and Giuseppe Rossi - will now remain at the helm for Saturday night’s home match against high-flying St Patrick’s Athletic (kick-off 6pm, live on WATCHLOI) despite many supporters calling for them to go.
After recording the joint-worst start to a top flight campaign in the club’s history, team manager Keegan told the media on Friday night that the next game against St Pat’s was an absolute ‘must win’.
Speculation emerged that the management team may not be around to see that game over the weekend after players were called in for a team meeting and training on Sunday morning for what was supposed to be a day off.
Many players expected - and in some cases hoped for - a change of management but instead it became a rallying call after Giovagnoli’s U-turn.
The 50-year-old did not immediately go to the dressing room in the wake of Friday’s defeat to a 12th minute Georgie Kelly penalty, with a senior member of the squad having to leave the dressing room to ask him to come and speak to the team.
A clear the air meeting then took place on Sunday with a training session taking place afterwards as the club work towards recording a much-needed win over St Pat’s this Saturday.
Speaking to the LOI Arena podcast after the team meeting, injured defender Brian Gartland confirmed that news of a managerial change was premature.
‘There’s no news coming out of it,’ he said.
‘The League of Ireland is no stranger to rumours flying about for people’s entertainment but it was literally a re-grouping. It’s a meeting that was needed. Things were addressed and the manager literally just laid down where we are and what has to be done.’
Asked by podcast host Con Murphy who the manager was, Gartland said: ‘The club has been clear on their stance on that and what the set up is so I think we all know that but ultimately it is all of us together.
‘It’s not just the manager saying this or the coach saying this or the sporting director saying this, the club - all of us - have to do better.
‘There has to better continuity, there has to be a better drive and togetherness about us and really every one of us just have to dig in our heels here.
‘I know people will say I’m not on the pitch and I won’t be for the best part of the season now but I’m thinking to myself what can I do and how can I better myself whether that’s in terms of positivity or driving one or two players on and helping them.
‘Ultimately, it comes down to players on the pitch. We’ve got enough quality, enough experience, enough big names that it hasn’t been good enough and as players we know that. A corner has to be turned now.’
While Dundalk have already suffered as many or more defeats as they did in four of the five seasons Gartland lifted the league title at Oriel Park, he backed the side to turn things around.
‘We’re no stranger to this,’ he said.
‘Everyone looks back on the past with rose-tinted glasses. I remember going into 2017 and we ended up 21 points behind Cork half way through a season so we’re no strangers to times like this.
‘We were 13 points behind Shamrock Rovers in 2019 and we won the league. These things happen in football. You look across the pond at Liverpool and all of a sudden you see their form dip and see them struggle. I was watching them yesterday and they’re just not the same. You don’t use your quality overnight and you don’t lose your ability. The only change is in your head. It’s a mental thing, it’s mentality, it’s confidence and people have to get that back.
‘You’re only as good as the players around you as well. You can’t play a game on your own. If the team is performing well you’re going to look better and be a better player so I suppose the basics just need to come back.
‘The belief and the confidence needs to be seeping through everyone and we need to be performing as a unit together but no one knows that more than ourselves in that dressing room.
‘Obviously we have a lot of new players in and usually you get time to bed players in because it takes time to adjust yourself and find your feet but people don’t have that time now so experienced players need to step up but you also the players that were signed don’t have bedding in time. They need to hit the ground running and we need to turn a corner but we’ll do that together.
‘You either win together or lose together. You can talk forever and I could spin you a load of crap but that’s ultimately where it is and that’s football. The biggest thing now is the mentality and how you respond in your head.’
Gartland said it would be difficult coming up against an inform St Pat’s at the weekend but insisted the opponent didn’t really matter at the moment given Dundalk’s position of needing a win at all costs.
‘There’s no easy games in the league. I know that’s a cliché but you look at Finn Harps who would be considered a bottom half team and they’re flying and they’re so hard to play against.
‘Pat’s have started off great and I can see the traits of what I know a Stevie O’Donnell team would be and the players that he has there so it’s going to be a tough, tough game for us but like I say there are no easy games and the situation we’re in there’s always pressure on you,’ he said.
Dundalk will be hopeful of welcoming Daniel Kelly back for the first time this season for the game while Sonni Nattestad will be available after suspension, but quarantine issues mean that impending signing Wilfried Zahibo won’t make it.