Manager is defiant despite Finn blow
DUNDALK manager Stephen Kenny insists no one should write off his side for 2017 despite the blow of losing yet another key player from his squad this week.
News broke on Monday night that Ronan Finn was set to return to Shamrock Rovers, meaning the Lilywhites will be without three of their best players ahead of their bid for a record-equaling fourth title in-a-row next season.
Since the club’s Europa League journey ended on December 8th, former St Patrick’s Athletic defender Sean Hoare is the only new arrival at Oriel Park while Andy Boyle, Daryl Horgan and Darren Meenan have all departed.
Finn can now be added to that list after returning to Tallaght on Tuesday to rejoin the club whom he left to join the Lilywhites in December 2014. While the midfielder, who turns 29 on Wednesday, won two league titles and an FAI Cup during his time at Oriel, it is understood he was enticed to join Stephen Bradley’s side by an offer that included a car and a chance to forge a career outside of football.
Several more first-team players are still to be tied down for the new campaign with speculation now mounting over the futures of captain Stephen O’Donnell, last season’s leading scorer David McMillan and full back Sean Gannon, who has been linked with a cross-channel move to Ipswich Town.
The club’s joint longest servant John Mountney is also understood to be weighing up alternative offers from America and Sligo Rovers while it is believed that mid-season recruits Alan Keane and Dean Shiels are unlikely to return to the club.
Despite the blow of losing some of his big hitters, Kenny is hopeful of adding more names to the 11 he has already signed up for next season in the coming weeks but admitted some more players could move on as Dundalk continue to operate a few weeks behind their major rivals as a result of their European journey.
Despite the club’s current position, Kenny – who will spend the Christmas period in America with his family – insists that he is confident of getting the players in that he needs to ensure Dundalk are challenging for their fourth title in-a-row next season.
‘Preparations are well underway for 2017,’ he told The Argus.
‘We’re just trying to sort things out with everyone at the moment but we hope to have that all sorted in the next couple of weeks.
‘There’s still a lot of work to be done on that front. Anything is possible and further players could leave the club. It’s hard to put a number of how many new additions we’ll need until we know who is staying and who is going.
‘Success can change people too and that’s something we need to take into account.
‘For us to be successful in the future we must realise the humility and high work ethic that it took to get there in the first place. If we forget that then we’re finished.’
Kenny reiterated that wingers are his primary target but suggested his search would most likely be taking place abroad now after one of his chief targets, Dylan Connolly, signed a new two-year deal with Bray Wanderers at the weekend.
‘We need a couple of wingers but it’s looking inevitable now that we’ll have to look outside the country for them.
‘The one or two talented players within Ireland that I feel could do a job for us are not available and we have to respect that.
‘In relation to Dylan Connolly, he initially said he was out of contract but he had a year left that he was not aware of. That ended that because Bray were not interested in a discussion to sell him and that’s their right.
‘We need to be patient now and look elsewhere. That might mean that we don’t get players in until after pre-season has started but if that’s the case then so be it,’ he said.
Kenny admitted that the loan market ‘is an option but never a perfect one’ and also revealed it was ‘too early to say if anyone was not staying’ of those who have yet to sign new deals.
Last week goalkeeper Gabriel Sava signed fresh terms with the club while Dane Massey has now followed suit in commiting to Dundalk for another season.
Kenny said he was delighted to have both back on board for 2017 and said he was ‘hopeful’ that others would follow this week.
‘Gabby was very influential in winning the league this year. He played in the Cork game at Oriel and a few other crucial matches. It’s important to us to have two good goalkeep- ers to compete for places and no one should underestimate Gabby’s ability.
‘Dane really came to the fore this season when it mattered for us. He’s a terrific character and was one of my first signings when I came to Dundalk. He’s coming into his fifth year here now and he has been very consistent in that time and virtually an ever-present.’
Kenny also revealed that Massey’s understudy Shane Grimes would be having a scan in the next few weeks to determine how he is progressing in his bid to return from a serious hamstring injury that required an operation at the end of the season.
With no pre-season schedule yet arranged, Kenny departs for America on Wednesday with plenty of challenges to overcome.
He is confident in tackling them, however, and even spoke about the possibility of becoming the first Irish team to reach the Champions League group stages when picking up the Manager of the Year award at the RTÉ Sports Awards on Saturday night.
‘It was another great honour and one I collect on behalf of the whole team and backroom team for the part they have played this season.
‘Obviously we qualified for the Europa League and had a great run this year and the next step is the Champions League. We have to think like that.
‘We are asking a lot to compete with the level of resources the clubs have at that level but we must certainly strive to have that.
‘We mustn’t accept mediocrity, we must have a desire to get better all the time and constantly improve,’ he insisted.
‘The Champions League won’t be easy. We have a big, big challenge to get there especially after losing players of the calibre we have but that’s part and parcel of the job.
‘I still feel people would be foolish to write us off though. Some of our rivals have their squads assembled already and are further down the line than us but we just have to be patient.
‘We’ve had an incredible season and that takes its toll on everyone. We have to regroup now over Christmas and come back re-energised and good to go again. It’ll be another big challenge but nothing in life is easy,’ said Kenny.
It certainly isn’t but then again Kenny was never one to shirk a challenge and either will his Dundalk FC side in 2017, no matter what the squad’s make-up is.