SHAMROCK ROVERS ASSISTANT manager John Gill has come out firing in defence of Hoops boss Trevor Croly after he was subjected to hefty criticism on RTÉ’s Soccer Republic.
Croly was accused of allowing Rovers to drift during his time in charge of the Tallaght club. RTÉ football pundit Alan Cawley said Croly was “uninspiring” and was guilty of fielding a team that has lacked any discernible identity.
Speaking on Monday’s show, Cawley declared, “If you asked me to describe Shamrock Rovers, I wouldn’t know where to start… The manager is there a year-and-a-half and he still hasn’t put a stamp on things. When he came into the job I actually thought he would do well. He came in as a very well regarded coach, which was fine.” He added:
But the problem is that he is not a coach any more. He is the manager and it’s a whole different ball game as he is finding out. I look at his interviews week in, week out and it’s the same rhetoric every week. He is uninspiring, I feel, listening to him. Shamrock Rovers, at the moment, I don’t know where they are going.”
Fellow analyst Stuey Byrne stated his belief that Rovers are not out of the title race but said the club lacked inspiration. Cawley went further and said the nine-point gap was already a gulf too vast for the Hoops to overcome.
Speaking to In Tallaght, Gill has hit back at Cawley. “I thought it was disgusting. I could drag a few skeletons out of his closet. I’ve a few things I could say about Alan Cawley.”
He then goes on to drag out the skeleton of Cawley refusing to warm up for Malahide, who he managed at the time, in 2013 as he was upset at being left out of the starting line-up. He describes Cawley as ‘a hurler on the ditch’.
“It’s easy to sit there and criticise a manager, isn’t it, when you’ve never even managed at the top level yourself?” Gill ends the interview by asking Cawley if he would prefer ‘a Peter Kay-type manager who is cracking jokes after each match’.
The gloves are off.
You can read the full interview with Gill here.
