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Robbie Keane and Kenny Cunningham are two of the names linked to the vacant checkpoint at St Pat’s.
In football, however, there is a significant distance between the rumours and a real date and it is worth remembering that Cunningham’s call was already connected to St Pat’s work, in 2018, after the departure of Liam Buckley. On this occasion, Harry Kenny was nevertheless given it.
However, Cunningham remains an intriguing choice, his main profile after a brilliant career in the game, which included a three-year stint as Ireland captain Brian Kerr.
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Then Keane, Ireland’s most capped player, sensible top scorer and longest-serving captain. Currently at Leeds United, with Sam Allardyce’s training ticket, a season at an AllIreland club is unlikely, even if his exhibition at Leeds ends up being short.
As this whole hypothesis unfolds, a possible successor lurks in sight, having been in Pat’s technical domain at Turner’s Cross, Richmond Park and Tallaght Stadium for the past two weeks.
Jon Daly may not have the profile of Keane or Cunningham, or even his Irish boundaries, but in three games as interim coach, Pat’s has racked up six problems. Those are six more potent problems that any candidate can type into an application form.
It’s a resume worth scrutinizing as it is several pages long and dates back a quarter of a century, to the days when Daly was one of the Irish school scene’s greatest prodigies, the remarkable player of his time alongside Keith Fahey.
“Dinty (Daly’s nickname) had his club pick,” says Sean Dillon, former Shels defender from their 2006 title-winning team, a new Daly from Clondalkin and later his teammate at Dundee United.
“Rumours abounded: ‘Manchester United are interested in Dinty, Liverpool are interested. ‘I would say part of the Premier League sought him out when he was 15. At our age, he is the important man. The fact that he chose Stockport County surprised some people, but I didn’t.
There is a clever explanation for why for this, Daly’s pragmatism is to return to the pressure-free house in which he grew up. Once, after seeing him score twice against Belgium in a European Under-19 Championship match, his correspondent spoke of his past. due father, who had traveled to Norway to watch his son play in that tournament.
“As long as I’m happy, I don’t care what team I’m in,” his father said, as we reviewed a team sheet showing his contemporaries signed through top clubs, Liverpool, Spurs, Aston Villa, Newcastle.
While those patterns presented an opportunity to be glamorous, Stockport presented opportunities, with Daly making his debut for the club in a friendly at 15, scoring for them in a competitive match at 16. Then came the wounds, his crusader in 17; With his ankle causing him problems, his dream that he would die when he changed employers, Hartlepool United gave him a loose transfer.
In January 2007, he became the forgotten boy of Irish football, no longer ranked in the “next big thing” category, worn down by injuries and the routine of lower departmental football.
Dillon had also moved and was sitting in a hotel in Dundee, when a text message arrived on his phone: “Will you sign for Dundee United?”Read
“Yes,” Dillon replied, naively, before launching out a text message.
“Who is it?”
It is his former Irish mining colleague, Daly, who had grown up in Bawnogue, a property next to Dillon’s space in Clondalkin.
“It was Dinty, a step forward,” said Dillon, who still plays professionally at 39 in Scotland but this week was back home, watching educational sessions at Bohs and Longford. Once again, Daly texted: “I heard you were in Ireland. “he said.
“You know how he tastes like those things,” Dillon says with a smile. “It’s so sharp. “
These have been the comments from St Pat’s camp since the interim boss followed Tim Clancy’s departure two and a half weeks ago, with players like Chris Forrester publicly supporting him, others speaking privately with friends in the game.
“It is said that he (Pat’s team) enjoys it,” says Graham Gartland, another contemporary, who once lived next door to Daly in Dundee.
Now a junior coach at Shamrock Rovers and a league veteran, having earned a name with Drogheda and cups with Longford, Gartland has his ear to the ground.
He heard about his old friend in detail, calm demeanor and organizational effectiveness.
“Soccer is a small town,” says Gartland. If he’s a smart guy, everyone quickly finds out.
“He is a brilliant captain for Dundee United, helping them win the Scottish Cup, only at the moment they achieved it.
Then they called the Rangers. So, Irish Catholic, signing for the Rangers, some other people created a big problem. problem. Still, fair play for Jon fait. je would have done it. But I would never have signed for, say, a club with the philosophy of Zenit St. Petersburg, with the way its enthusiasts treat black players. People here, I don’t think, realise how vital the Rangers are in Scotland.
Dillon, however, this.
So the Rangers are moving, a Dubliner going to a club that wears red, white and blue, whose enthusiasts are known for singing sectarian songs, took courage.
“I dressed in makeup for him,” says Dillon. As if he had been in Stockport, Hartlepool for much of his career. And look, here he asked to pass the game in front of 50,000 other people in Ibrox every two weeks. At 30, he was lucky enough to point out for a massive, huge club – having turned down the option of a Premier League club at 15. He is a man of the circle of relatives, Dinty. I lived 50 meters from him in Dundee. Es the choice of my life. He had to take it.
He has taken advantage of any and all opportunities since, taking up training positions at Hearts, TPS Turku in Finland and then, from December 2021, at St Pat’s.
That’s a long way from when he and Dillon drove an hour from Dundee to Stirling to begin their UEFA training badges in 2011. session. Then, on the way home, we would say, “Why were we worried?”Now look at it, it is far ahead of me, in terms of training.
And that Pat’s paintings are not his first look at management. In 2017, he also took over as interim manager of Hearts, securing a draw at Ibrox, while overseeing a further 3 games, adding one at Celtic whose manager at the time, Brendan Rodgers. , criticized Hearts’ recruitment policy.
Daly responded, strongly protecting the club’s position, suggesting that Rodgers meddle in his own business. This position has earned him great respect.
He was only 34 at the time, but the strain of taking a team to Celtic Park or Ibrox didn’t put him in sync. There were 58,843 enthusiasts in that first game, 49,677 consumers in the second. This context is mandatory when we weigh their alleged inexperience.
“Inexperience?” Dillon asks, a little lost in words through perception. “This is Dinty’s 25th year in professional football, eighth as a coach. I grew up a fan of Pat. Je I know the club. More importantly, so does he. ” It’s been there for a few years. I’ve been in a locker room with him and I know what he brings. It has presence. Every club would like to have a Jon Daly inside. “
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