Caulfield eyes next group of winners
THEY were standing just yards apart in the Aviva Stadium tunnel but the distance between John Caulfield and Stephen Kenny could not have been greater as they pored over the remnants of another draining Irish Daily Mail FAI Cup final.
Triumph, ecstasy and a place in the history books for the league and cup-winning Cork City manager, despair for the vanquished Dundalk boss who missed out on two of the biggest prizes in League of Ireland football for the first time since 2013.
Caulfield insisted he would leave the heavy celebrations to his players. ‘I want the lads to let themselves go because they’ve been phenomenal,’ he said, pointing out his own hangover cannot linger for too long.
‘We’ll have a quiet drink and we’ll be planning the next couple of weeks because there is a lot of work to be done to replace the boys who are leaving.’
There is no time to rest. The emotions of the weekend and the season have been vastly different for the top two managers in the country, but now they start again with the same problems.
‘I think there will be a lot of changes,’ Caulfield admitted. ‘Some of the lads with me have been phenomenal and are very close with me, they have indicated they want to move closer to home. I’ve known that for a while because I’ve a very good relationship with the players.
‘I treat them like me, if anyone gets a job, they can move. There is no point being in Cork if you are unhappy, lads have families away from Cork and the rule here is you have to live here. Some will have to move back up and I envisage there will be changes. I’ll have to bring in hungry players so there will be changes, but I’ll be disappointed if we’re not up there challenging again.
‘We’ll all have to see where we are in four months,’ he continued. ‘We’ve identified guys because we’ll be changing things up. We have to make sure we bring in players with quality and the will to win and the determination to succeed.’
One of Caulfield’s biggest achievements this year came without a ball being kicked when he succeeded in getting the Cork board to introduce 52-week contracts for players. It is a positive step but it won’t be enough to prevent the departure of two key figures this season. Dubliner Karl Sheppard is Dundalk-bound in order to be closer to his family, while Stephen Dooley is also understood to favour a move for similar reasons.
‘John will have no problem getting players in. They just have to buy into our attitude and if they have that we’ll have no problem again next year,’ midfielder Garry Buckley insisted.
‘We knocked Dundalk off their perch and now they’ll want to do that to us. Any player in the country, if you asked them, why wouldn’t they want to play for Cork?’
‘We’re double champions, unbelievable support again on Sunday and in Turner’s Cross every week. Why wouldn’t you want to play for Cork? John doesn’t need to sell the club so from that point of view we’ll have no problem if players leave.’
Kenny also has his own work to do keeping the bulk of his starting XI together. Right back Sean Gannon has yet to commit his future and has attracted interest from Shamrock Rovers. Midfielder Robbie Benson and striker David McMillan are both targets for St Johnstone, whose manager Tommy Wright was at the Aviva Stadium on Sunday, while playmaker Patrick McEleney admitted his future is ‘50-50’.
Centre back Niclas Vemmelund is definitely on the way out and his extra-time goal was a final goodbye as he looks to return to his native Denmark. ‘I think the league here is moving forward. Cork did well this season. And we proved ourselves to be a good team, too. We played well in the Champions League,’ Vemmelund explained.
‘The clubs just need to invest a little bit more. That is not only Dundalk, that is every team. Another problem is that the best players probably go after a season or two. And if you want to keep them you probably have to put them on longer contracts. ‘I enjoyed it here. I feel I am at a good age now so hopefully I can improve more.’
The issue is that he won’t be at Dundalk, and it’s a problem Caulfield must also now contend with if he is to keep Cork at the top, having worked tirelessly to get them there.