EMOTION AND AMBITION were the driving forces for Stephen O’Donnell when he agreed to leave St Patrick’s Athletic and become Dundalk head coach at the end of the 2021 season.
The manner of the departure, only two days after guiding the Saints to FAI Cup glory and having finished second in the Premier Division, resulted in a fair amount of rancour.
He is not the first and won’t be the last person to line up another opportunity while already in employment, yet the situation he finds himself in now is far from what would have been sold to him when he did decide that Dundalk was a better bet than St Pat’s.
As the Sunday Times reported on St Stephen’s Day that same year, it led to them “seeking legal damages against their former manager” and “the club also want a High Court order to prevent Stephen O’Donnell from approaching former players or staff or using the club’s ‘intellectual property’.
Two seasons on, the ill-will lingers, and had St Pat’s not lost three on the bounce since their win away to Galway United on the opening night they might have taken more pleasure in the predicament O’Donnell finds himself in at Oriel Park.
Dundalk come to Richmond Park this evening bottom of the table – just two points below their opponents – after a 5-0 hiding from Sligo Rovers on Monday, described by their own club media as “a shocking night for the club.”
It was their biggest home defeat for 34 years.
“There’s no clear identity at the minute, with or without the ball, and we have to become a team that our supporters, at the bare minimum, know what they’re going to get on a Friday night,” O’Donnell said ahead of the visit to St Pat’s.
This is not a situation he expected to find himself in at the beginning of his third campaign in charge, and it felt pointed that he would talk of a lack of clarity on the pitch.
That’s understandable given the upheaval off it.
It was O’Donnell’s decision to let last season’s top scorer, Pat Hoban, leave the club for Derry City over the winter when he had one year left on his contract. That ensured they recouped a mid five-figure fee and also get their highest earner off the wage bill.
O’Donnell wanted a team that could press high and with intensity while also being capable of quick counter attacking against more established sides who would control possession.
Hoban didn’t fit that mould so a decision was made to let him leave.
“I know the connection that’s there between the club and the supporters. The mood of the club dictates the mood of the town,” O’Donnell said at his unveiling.
He was the chosen one to lead a homegrown revival following the chaotic ownership of American investment firm Peak6. Dundalk had new owners at the back end of 2021, Andy Connolly returning to the helm along with STATSports pair Sean O’Connor and Alan Clarke.
The sense – or the selling point – was that a bright new dawn would be created in unison. Connolly was one of the men who brought Stephen Kenny to Louth in 2012, a move that heralded the most successful period in the club’s modern history.
O’Donnell was captain under Kenny and as well as lifting four league titles he was, of course, part of that exciting Europa League group stage campaign in 2016.
But it soon became apparent that Dundalk was still a club on the market, either a full sale or outside investment being sought to truly be able to revive hopes of challenging a Shamrock Rovers side who are now aiming for a fifth successive League of Ireland Premier Division title.
In October of last year the club released a statement denouncing “a mixture of pure speculation, half-truths and simple falsehoods” about a takeover.
This had all been allowed to swirl due to the fact that as far back as January 2023 Dundalk were in talks with Hull City owner Acun Ilicali. The Turkish millionaire and his advisors visited Dundalk for talks but they also had their eyes elsewhere.
By June Ilicali completed the purchase of Shelbourne.
Dundalk continued to search for a new owner and by late November he arrived, the Boston-based Dubliner Brian Ainscough confirmed as majority shareholder just after O’Donnell missed out on a European place by two points to Damien Duff’s Shelbourne.
“The objective for 2024 is to get the club back into Europe,” Ainscough said upon his arrival. “That’s our goal. We were only two points off finishing fourth last season which shows how close we are and Stephen O’Donnell can fully get to work now and talk to players and assure them that the club is in a good place and ready to kick on.”
At a meeting with supporters at the end of January, Ainscough said he was “definitely bringing in investors” and that “we have some people on the hook right now, we’ve just got to get them into the boat so to speak.”
While St Pat’s this week announced new “strategic investors” in the Kenosis Sports Group, who include former NFL and NHL stars Joe Flacco, Chad Greenway, Matt Birk and Anders Lees, Dundalk’s are still dangling and O’Donnell must now feel like it’s a battle to keep his head above water.
