The 36-year-old former Lilywhites captain spoke about a number of different issues, including his decision to retire, his new position at the club, the steps involved in recruiting players, the club’s structure and the possibility of new faces arriving in the summer transfer widow.
You can listen to the interview and read selected quotes below while the interview is also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts
Announcing his retirement…
I just decided, ‘Right, that’s it!’ I was going to a stag in Dublin and I said, ‘I’ll do it when I get on the train’ because I kind of wanted to be on my own. I had the tweet all done but I was nearly at Dublin before I could press send! It was a hard thing to do but that’s life and that’s the game. It happens to everyone at some stage.
The job…
It’s a whole different world. Players don’t realise and people don’t realise the fine details and bits and bobs that go into it. I really enjoy it. It’s something I like and it’s a challenge. I enjoy the business side of the game as well as the playing side and understanding the league, stuff like that, but, like everything, I’m learning as I go on and unfortunately, I’ll make mistakes but, like a player, it’s how you learn from them.
Recruitment…
To qualify for Europe last season with a team that was only put together in pre-season, the management did a phenomenal job, but this year was the start of a proper rebuild.
People have been critical, saying that we signed too many players with potential, players from overseas, lads coming in from U21 or U23 football…and that’s grand, I understand that, but I think people are maybe starting to see why we did that. One of the other criticisms before was that we weren’t planning forward, but these lads are signed on two and three-year contracts. We’re signing those players because the landscape of the league has changed. We want to build a team for now, to compete as much as we can, but also so that we’re going forward in the future.
On giving players time…
It takes time to settle into a new league and a new team. You’ve got to remember that even when we signed the best players in the league, the likes of Robbie Benson, Daryl Horgan, and Michael Duffy, it took time for them to settle and it was always sort of the second season or halfway through the first that you’d start to get a bit more. Even for players of that calibre, it takes some time to settle in and get to know and get used to people that you are playing with and then if you’re coming from abroad, you need to get used to your environment, in terms of living here.
I always keep that in my head because I can be quite hard on people but you have to live in the real world and be a little bit understanding. Part of the job is to step back, be understanding and say, ‘Right, we’re seeing the development and seeing the traits we want to see’. I think you can see the potential and the quality of the players we signed now, and they’re at the stage where there’s more to come.
On competing with other clubs…
The landscape has changed, especially with the two at the top, Rovers and Derry. Rovers’ budget is phenomenal, Bohs have a massive budget, Shels probably came up around about the same budget as us this year, but they’re now going to kick on, Sligo are probably in and around us while Pat’s have pumped money into the playing side of it.
Our budget has increased from last year. The club has supported it and put more in but what you can’t account for is everything else changing or going wild. We had loads of money when PEAK 6 were here and that’s gone now. We’ve still got a competitive budget but everything else has changed so you drop down in terms of the rankings in your budget. So we need to be realistic.
Possible new arrivals…
We need to replace Rayhaan Tulloch and Wasiri Williams. We’re actively looking to get people in. You don’t do much shopping in the league during the season because everyone’s in contract and if someone’s out of contract, it’s more than likely they’re not playing so they might not be one we want.
We’re looking at different options but with the transfer window only opening in the UK it can take a bit of time. Players there are just back into preseason, so they’re going to try and put their case forward or clubs will want to have a look at them before they decide to send them out on loan or not so that’s kind of where we are. We’re working hard.
Signing for the sake of it…
Do we want quality or quantity? I get told all of the time that we need players but do we sign a player just for the sake of it, or do we wait? That’s what we did in January and Archie Davies is the result of that. He’s been quality, one of the best players in the league this season, but if we had jumped sooner, just for the sake of getting somebody in, when John Mountney got injured, we wouldn’t have Archie so that’s the reward. Obviously, there’s risk in that as well so it’s a fine line.
On investment…
Everything comes down to resources and if you want to do it all, in terms of building a club, you need investment. The guys that came in and took over the club, they’re putting their own money into it but you can only do that to a certain level and it needs to be sustainable, otherwise we end up back where we were 11 years ago. It has to be done in stages. There are lots of people that approach them for investment, but it has to be the right investor. This is where our understanding has to come into it. I know football is short term and everyone just wants to win here and now, but we have to build a football club. The first team is on a good path and we need to build the other functions of the club, the community, the academy, and the facilities, in unison. As a club, we are where we are so let’s do the best with what we have in the environment we’re in and let’s look to go forward.
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