The new king of Dalyer

Reynolds needs to prove he can be main man at Bohs

THE tummy has been rumbling at Dalymount Park for quite a while now.

Last season’s FAI Cup final defeat to St Pat’s left an ache. So when there is heartburn or indigestion, you know it is time to turn to a Rennie.

And that is exactly what Bohs have done.

Alan ‘Rennie’ Reynolds is now the new King of Dalymount.

And it is time for this incredible coach to prove he is also an incredible manager.

When you look at the impact he had when he first sat in the hotseat, at his beloved Waterford, 20 years ago, it showed his potential.

Getting The Blues to a Cup final was extraordinary. Waterford have only been to one Cup final since 1986. Reynolds achieved that feat. So isn’t it bizarre that he was not really the main man as a boss again until 2017.

Stolen

That was another colourful period for the League when Lee Power took over as Waterford owner.

All Blues fans feel they had a European spot stolen from them by the FAI in Rennie’s second spell — when again, he showed he had the potential to be a brilliant manager.

That is why it is peculiar to see him spend so much time as an assistant: with Shels, Dundalk, Cork City, St Pat’s, Derry (twice) and Waterford again. Together with Keith Long, the pair guided Waterford back to the Premier Division, via the play-offs, last season.

Wherever he has been as an assistant, players have loved him, because he is not just a decent coach but also a person who is able to connect to people with his lovable, roguish personality. However, it is peculiar that someone with so much knowledge and managerial potential has so often had short periods with so many clubs.

And he always seems to drift back to The Blues.

He is a legend in Waterford, where he is admired and respected as one of their own. In Waterford, irrespective of results, he will always be the main man.

Trophies

But at Dalymount, he will only be a main man when he starts winning trophies.

Again it is peculiar that in spite of what everyone at Dalymount perceives to be a difficult start to the season, their recent heroic victory over title contenders, Derry City, has put Bohs in a decent position in the table. They are even ahead of their biggest rivals, Shamrock Rovers.

The only Dublin team ahead of them in the table is Shelbourne. So the reason that Rennie is there is because the Bohs director of football, Pat Fenlon, knows and believes in him.

He first signed Reynolds when he (Fenlon) was manager at Shels.

Then they worked together when Fenlon was director of football at Waterford just after John Delaney convinced Power to take over the running of the club. Therefore on paper there could not be a better time to get this job.

Time

Expectations have decreased. Because, whilst their start to the season has not been everything they had hoped for, it has been far from disastrous.

And yet Rennie will be given time, support, and from what I am hearing, a massive budget, to go out and get the players that can finally start bringing trophies back to the home of Irish football. There is just something special about Bohs.

There is something special about Fenlon, about Reynolds, too.

People should not dismiss the success that Reynolds has had at Waterford because they are a massive club, too.

But the challenge for Rennie is getting used to being the outsider at Dalymount, when he was always the insider at the RSC.

I just think Rennie has got something.

Call it the X Factor.

Add in a cocktail of low expectations and a big budget and you have a reason to believe this can work.

No doubt he will be shown patience from the board.

Define

But the thing that will define this appointment will be how quickly he can change Bohs’ ambition from simply competing for trophies to actually winning them.

He couldn’t have asked for a better place to start than in Tallaght, home of Bohs’ biggest rivals, Rovers.

Fair play to Alan for leaving behind the Irish U21s and deciding the time is right to jump out of his comfort zone.

I really hope this will be a defining period in his career where he does not just prove that he is a great guy, and a great coach, but shows he is a great manager.

I would love to see him conquer this challenge and bring the trophies back to Dalymount. He deserves success. Now he is at a great club that needs

it.