PREMIER LEAGUE OWNERS are not the only ones with a tendency to visit the dressing room, as Shane Keegan, the current Cobh Ramblers and former Wexford Youths manager, explained on Football Family, a podcast for subscribers to The 42.
Chelsea caretaker boss Frank Lampard defended the right of owner Todd Boehly to communicate his frustration to the players in the dressing room, after reports he told the Blues squad their season had been “embarrassing” following Saturday’s 2-1 home defeat to Brighton.
Back in 2012, Keegan had to have a conversation with then Wexford Youths owner Mick Wallace, the former property developer and now MEP, after he appeared in the dressing room before a game while the manager was addressing his players.
“My first ever game as a League of Ireland manager, Mick Wallace, with Pat Dolan in tow, arrived into my dressing room a couple of minutes into my pre-game talk and sat down,” Keegan said.
“So, yeah, anyway, I managed to get the players’ attention back on me and continued on with things and we played our game and yeah, after the game I went to Mick, and I said: ‘What was that about?’”
“And Mick genuinely said. ‘What, like, is there an issue?’ And I said: ‘Absolutely, Mick, you cannot be in the dressing room before a game.’ And Mick said: ‘Jesus, we would have done it all the time under previous management.’”
🗣️ "I said; Mick you cannot be in the dressing room before the game."
— The42.ie (@The42_ie) April 18, 2023
Whatever about Todd Boehly being in the Chelsea dressing room... @ShaneKeegan81 once had Mick Wallace in his! 😅
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Keegan added: “Now you do have to remember that Mick Wallace did previously actually manage Wexford in the League of Ireland in the first year or two. He was pretty much the manager. And Dolan, I actually got on very well with Dolan, he’s a gas man, Dolan would have been his advisor.”
After his initial surprise at his manager’s request, Wallace agreed not to come into the dressing room before games again.
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