QUITE A WEEK, then, at Cork City.
On Tuesday, popular winger Daire O’Connor was pulled aside after training by manager Neale Fenn and pointed towards the exit, told he had no future at the club. It transpired O’Connor’s future at the club was only a day shorter than Fenn’s – he and assistant Joe Gamble left the following day.
Chairperson Declan Carey thanked Fenn and Gamble for their contribution to the club behind the scenes, but admitted fare on the field was a problem. With five games left in a shortened Premier Division season, Cork were bottom, two points from Harps in the promotion/relegation play-off spot, and four from Shels in the safety of eighth place, with a game in hand.
On the same day, members of the Friends of the Rebel Army Trust (Foras) – who own the club – were informed they would vote at the end of this month on whether to sell the club to Preston owner Trevor Hemmings for €1.
Thursday saw Colin Healy take training having been installed as manager until the end of the season, while yesterday evening the club were soundly beaten at Bohemians. The result secured European football for a second-straight year for Bohs; Cork are sinking and running out of air.
While O’Connor’s exit caught much of the supporter base unaware, they weren’t alone in being taken aback by the news.
“I was surprised myself, to be honest”, O’Connor tells The42. ”There was no bust-up, there was no fall-out, I showed up to training and I was pulled in and told, ‘Look, you’re not going to be part of our plans, you’re not going to be playing for the rest of the season, no matter what happens.’
“I was a bit baffled as I’d just broken back into the team having not been in it. I couldn’t wrap my head around it, logically. He didn’t want me there for some reason. Deep down, I know it wasn’t a personal thing as there was no falling out, no scraps. You’re nearly looking for an excuse to give yourself but I haven’t been able to find one.
“The weird thing is we got on really well, particularly off the field.
“I was told I wouldn’t feature in any capacity regardless of what I did, which didn’t sound awfully fair to me at the time. I knew in my heart I hadn’t done anything to warrant that. I know football can be a cruel game and at the end of the game we’re just numbers rather than people, so I just have to put up with it and get on with it.”
If it seemed a strange point in the season at which to make such a definitive call, it was made to look all the stranger by Fenn’s exit the following day. O’Connor said there was some informal contact with Cork after Fenn’s departure to see if he could return, but it was too late: the relevant paperwork had been filed with the FAI and, now as a free agent, couldn’t re-sign for Cork outside the window.
Rumours of a sour atmosphere at training have spread in the last week or so, but O’Connor says the mood has been pretty upbeat.
“It’s impossible to be very optimistic when you’re bottom of the table. But we show up to training and there’s no lack of effort. We have been training as hard as we can as at the end of the day, it’s our career that’s on the line as well as the club’s future. Everyone is rowing in the same boat.”
In spite of his curious exit, O’Connor wishes the club well and says he was struck by the support he received from the members of the board and those around the club.
It has been a deeply weird week for O’Connor. He still lives in a house with Cork team-mates Kevin O’Connor, Henry Ochieng, Joseph Olowu, and Deshane Dalling, and has had to come to terms with leaving the club while those around him prepared for a defining game with Bohs.
“It’s a strange one in the house, they have been preparing for the game of their lives tomorrow and I’ve been packing my bags, but they are all bang on.
But the dynamics haven’t changed, other than the fact I am getting an extra hour in bed in the morning while they go off to training. We still have our afternoon coffee, have lunch together and play Fifa, so it helps they are here, to be honest. It’s been a turbulent few days so to have that support around is good. And I have done my absolute best to them not to be a nuisance to them ahead of the game, I haven’t been moping around.
O’Connor can’t sign for a League of Ireland club, but as a free agent he can move to a club in England, Scotland, or Northern Ireland immediately, and so is targeting his next move there.
Nonetheless, unemployed in the teeth of a pandemic isn’t exactly where O’Connor saw his life going when he joined Cork City at the start of last year. Having impressed in the President’s Cup in Dundalk and in an opening-night defeat against Pat’s, he was singled out for praise by then-Irish manager Mick McCarthy.
“When I arrived we has come second in the league. Expectations were high, there were a lot of new signings. I got off to a great start but it went gradually downhill after I dislocated my shoulder.
“When I came back, John Caulfield wasn’t in charge any more, and he was the manager who signed me. John Cotter was under severe pressure, he was chopping and changing a lot. By the time Neale Fenn came in I had a run of games and scored four goals, so I started and finished the season well.
“I had it nailed on that 2020 was going to be my year, but what has happened this year has sent shockwaves across the world so I can’t be too down on myself, but I’m hopeful. The phone is ringing, but I won’t rush into anything.”
