AFTER THE LATEST round of fixtures, another SSE Airtricity League manager is out the exit door with news that Drogheda United and Robbie Horgan have parted company.
With these mutual consents you often don’t know how to take them. Nine times out of ten, it is the club’s decision but funnily enough in this situation I could well believe it was a genuine mutual consent.
It was getting to the stage where something had to be done but I don’t know whether the club would’ve wanted to have changed at this point in the season.
Looking at Robbie’s whole demeanour after the Athlone defeat, he was fairly flattened by it all. You could really tell that he had got to the stage that he couldn’t do it anymore. It just gets to that point at a football club where there is nothing you can do and a change is needed.
The gap between themselves and Athlone is down to eight points and they’ve a game in hand. Drogheda are on an incredibly bad run and I think the players have to take an awful lot of the responsibility as a manager isn’t going to set up his team to be beaten like that. It just goes to show you how infectious a bad run of form can be.
If it highlights anything, it’s the fact that there was never any need for a change in the first place last season. Whatever differences there were between Mick Cooke and the chairman at the time, it probably seems a small thing in comparison to the situation they find themselves in now.
That was a management team made up of Mick Cooke and Robbie Horgan and I believe they would be looking at a very different situation had they stuck with that. It’s a harsh reminder to a football club that one knee-jerk reaction can cause you years of pain.
In terms of a replacement, I don’t think there are many suitable managers out there at the moment. There might be some available but if you’re looking for something new and fresh it’s a difficult task.
Drogheda are a good strong mid-table team who have a lot of experienced players in the squad and when you compare them to others clubs like Bohemians, for instance, they would have a considerably bigger budget.
They should be around mid-table, maybe even pushing for one of those European spots and nowhere near where they are now.
Eric Foley left the club by mutual consent recently and it all sounded to me like typical football stuff. An awful lot of crap goes on in the background at football clubs when you’ve got a squad of 18-20 young, hormonal men.
You can get immaturity in the squad and I don’t see why that wasn’t dealt with better. The writing was on the wall at that stage and his position was probably becoming untenable.
Speaking after the Athlone game, I thought he was going to resign there on the spot. He looked like a broken man and he may well feel like he has been let down.
I’ve heard Mick Cooke could return to the club now and we’ve seen before managers going back to football clubs.
Certainly, he has been scarred by what happened at Athlone. Keith Long is a young manager who has gone in there hungry to concede. He has started to turn around what was looking like a desperate situation.
When he was appointed, I spoke of the need to give players hope and something to play for as that would be more than half the battle. He has done that and it no longer looks like an impossible situation and we’re not even halfway through the season. I know he’s not in there long but it is a good example of a young, hungry manager.
Drogheda might be looking at bringing in an experienced man and I would have thought if it was closer to the end of the season, appointing someone who is experienced in relegation battles could be a smart move.
They’re not in that situation, however, and they’ve got plenty of time to rectify the current troubles. Two wins gets them right back in it.
Personally, I’d love to see a new manager come in to bring in new ideas. It would be great if someone like Jim Crawford was to get back involved in football again but the problem is Jim is working for the FAI at the moment.
I know Pat Fenlon is available but I don’t think he would take it and maybe it could be a little too soon for Roddy Collins in terms of getting his head right for a new job.
If ever there is an opportunity to change something, it is now as you’ve got the break to get the manager in and assess the situation as quick as he possibly can, then he has a week’s training to get under his belt before the season restarts.
