Russell is gone.

[osarusan]

From the clubs FB page:


Limerick Football Club and Martin Russell have today parted company by mutual consent. Chairman Pat O’Sullivan and Marin Russell have released the following statements:

“The board and Martin had a meeting this morning. Following a discussion we mutually agreed to go our separate ways. The board and Martin subsequently met the players to inform them of Martin’s departure.

All at Limerick FC wish to thank Martin for his tremendous contribution to the club’s development since joining in 2014, and we would like to express our sincere gratitude for his hard work and commitment throughout that time.

His role in winning the First Division last year in such spectacular fashion, as well as reaching the final of the EA Sports Cup, will not be forgotten and secures his place in our club’s history. He will always be warmly welcomed back to the Markets Field.” – Pat O’Sullivan."

“Following a meeting this morning the Club and I have mutually and amicably decided to part-company. I would like to place on record my sincere thanks to Pat O’Sullivan for the opportunity to have managed Limerick Football Club. I would also like to wish everyone at the club, players and staff, the very best for the future in driving the club forward to achieve their goals” – Martin Russell.

There will be no further comment until a new appointment is made.

[Lim till i die]

Let me go on record once again saying how much I love this club :D

Bring on the Malky!!

[Lim till i die]

Also, whatever anyone thinks of Martin Russell I genuinely want to wish him all the best in the future. He got some justified stick and a lot of unjustified rubbish thrown at him in his time here.

But the fact remains, regardless of budget available, last season was about as good as its gotten for this Limerick fan of 25 years. The style in which it was achieved was all credit to Martin Russell.

[LK37oldskool]

Wish Russell the best in future endeavours. I think it's for the best. He seems to have lost some of the players confidence. At least the club didn't wait till it was too late. Hopefully we can get in someone to motivate a good bunch of players. They are better than what we've seen so far.

[osarusan]

Good luck to him.

He might have gone at the end of the 2015 season, but nobody could complain about 2016. Talk about stress-free football.


Looking to the future - I'm not sure who is out there to take the job. Whoever gets it will inherit a squad with small groups of players, best suited to about 4 different styles of football.

[thomas72]

Correct decision the man just was not learning from his mistakes making players play out from the back no matter what pressure there under has cost us 3 goals already he just wouldn't change.

Question is now what top managers are available you'd imagine it will be an attractive project for somebody decent side there with a good budget aswell.

[bluewhitearmy]

Didn't think they had the balls for it but fair play to the club correct decision.

Like others have said wish Martin all the best lovely fella and gave us some great memories especially last season. Had to go though was clear we were going nowhere above the level we had already seen.

[NeverFeltBetter]

Had to be done. Maybe in a normal season he would have gotten a bit more time, but with so many going straight down you can't wait around. The club seemed to be hyping up the Cork game a bit more than normal and the resulting poor performance must have focused some minds. Whatever about his positives, his defensive coordination, record in "big" games and the situation with his son all spoke poorly of Russell. He walked a poor First Division in style, and got Limerick to a cup final where they got outclassed, which isn't nothing, but doesn't justify continued faith.

I suppose Baraclough would be in the running. I hope they have someone in mind anyway.

[osarusan]

To be honest, losing to Cork wasn't that big an issue for me. We lost to a clearly better team.

It's the games against Harps and Bohs that bothered me. Those teams are mediocre at best,yet we offered next to nothing against them. And we'd continue to be utterly ineffective against other mediocre teams who just sat back and defended.

With the squad we have, I don't know how a new manager is going to find a way to make us better equipped to break down opposition teams. We have such a mish-mash of players.

[LK37oldskool]

I've just seen a stat that puts his time in charge in perspective. - 30% win rate in 54. Premier league games. That's extremely poor return.

[Lim till i die]

Im hearing Bucko (gas craic) and Doolin (dear sweet lord!!)

[Treaty Gooner]

Bucko would be more of the same. Doolin would end up doing 25years in Limerick prison if he got a hold of some of our lot.

[fieldofmarkets]

Will Joe Gamble take the team Friday?

[4tothefloor]

Im hearing Bucko (gas craic) and Doolin (dear sweet lord!!)
Buckley is only a slightly more ar3ed personality than Russell. 5 years ago was the time to bring him in, no thanks now.

[sbgawa]

You guys could do worse than take on trevor Crolly. He is a good coach who things didn't work out for at rovers but that happens and rovers fans are unforgiving.....

[bluewhitearmy]

So who do we want and who do we think we will actually get?

Fellas out of work that I can think of

Brian Kerr
Mick Cooke
Paul Doolin
Trevor Croly (kind of)
Roddy Collins
Malky Thomson
Damien Richardson

Can't think of many tbh. Brian Kerr would be the number one for me by a country mile. I hope now having shown the balls to sack Russell they show the same with the appointment and don't go down the nice man bit of a yes man route they have with the previous 2 appointments.

[rooster]

Tommy Dunne !!
might also tempt henderson away from cobh

[bluewhitearmy]

Tommy Dunne !!
might also tempt henderson away from cobh

The aim is to get better than Russell though.

[fieldofmarkets]

Brian Kerr was on a podcast last week sounding like a man interested in managing again. Whether he would be interested in driving up and down the M7 several times a week, I highly doubt.
If we parted ways with a manager 6 games into the season, we better have much better than the rest of that list already lined up.

[fieldofmarkets]

Think you can rule out Kerr.

[fieldofmarkets]

"jumpy, ridiculous, no justification"

[osarusan]

"jumpy, ridiculous, no justification"

That's analysis from 2 lads who haven't seen anything other than weekly MNS highlights of a minute or two, if they have even seen that each week.

They are right in that we shouldn't really be judged on results against Cork and Dundalk, that's fair enough. But we should be judged on results against teams like Bohs and Harps, and they were both truly woeful. Those 2 wouldn't know how bad the games were though.

All that said, when a manager who wants to pass at all costs is hired by a chairman who thinks football is kicking the ball as far up the field as possible, the manager will eventually suffer.

[bluewhitearmy]

Was always a long shot anyway.

[LFC Blue]

I presume luring Pat Fenlon from his DOF role at Waterford is realistic. What would ye think of this? Personally he would be my favoured choice.

[bluewhitearmy]

You guys could do worse than take on trevor Crolly. He is a good coach who things didn't work out for at rovers but that happens and rovers fans are unforgiving.....

I'd be happy with Croly was doing well at Bray.

[Treaty Gooner]

I'd take Croly, Doolin or Fenlon. But who knows, the club might go back to Kerley in the short term. Tommy Barrett will surely take the team at the wkend?

[Jofspring]

I'd take Croly, Doolin or Fenlon. But who knows, the club might go back to Kerley in the short term. Tommy Barrett will surely take the team at the wkend?

Willie Boland, Eddie Hickey and Gamble are to take the team at the weekend.

[Mr A]

Paul McGee the obvious choice. Doesn't take crap from rival managers and knows how to make an impression.

[MattB11]

Baraclough the front runner for it according to Neil O Riordan

[LK37oldskool]

Barraclough's record is not a whole lot better than Russell's.

[bluewhitearmy]

Barraclough's record is not a whole lot better than Russell's.

He won the league the fai cup and the setanta between 2012 and 2014 with Sligo I'd say that is a tad more impressive than Russells first division title.

[fieldofmarkets]

I would hope we will not be wasting money luring anyone from anywhere to add to any unproductive money that has been burned in parting with Martin.

[Lim till i die]

Logically speaking it has to be someone from the uk.

There could be many, many, changes in july.

[LK37oldskool]

Bwa, Barraclough's record is 51% win rate which is better than Russell's but that was with an excellent team he inherited. When he started bringing in his own players he was far less successful and got turfed out. I don't think the team we have is anywhere near the quality of that Sligo side. I'm just not sure he's the right man for the job. Imo.

[bluewhitearmy]

Bwa, Barraclough's record is 51% win rate which is better than Russell's but that was with an excellent team he inherited. When he started bringing in his own players he was far less successful and got turfed out. I don't think the team we have is anywhere near the quality of that Sligo side. I'm just not sure he's the right man for the job. Imo.

So his record isn't similar to Russells really as he never managed in first division. Take out first division Russells is 30%. He might not be any good ya never know.

Micky Adams worth a look too.

[CraftyToePoke]

Micky Adams worth a look too.

I watched Adams Leicester side a lot one time and you will never be troubled by him passing out from the back for one thing anyway. Center halves like quarter backs looking to launch as standard. Was he any different at Sligo ?

[bluewhitearmy]

I watched Adams Leicester side a lot one time and you will never be troubled by him passing out from the back for one thing anyway. Center halves like quarter backs looking to launch as standard. Was he any different at Sligo ?

Not sure on style of play at Sligo tbh but I'm gone beyond caring about it looking nice Taylor and Russell were nice to watch I want results.

[Lim till i die]

All the stats being trotted out about win ratios etc are meaningless drivel.

We played most of a Premier season with Coco O'Donnell in goals and the decomposed corpse of Aidan Price infront of him.

You could have had Antonio Conte in charge and you would struggle with that.

The number one biggest issue with Russell imo was the fact you had players like that. Because he was beyond hopeless at recruiting. Now a large share of the blame for that has to lie with Pat O'Sullivan but be that as it may ultimately the likes of Coco were Russell signings.

Even this pre season when there was a wad there:

Bastien Hery
Tommy Robson
Rodrigo Tosi
Chedozie Ogbene

Off the top of my head. Does anyone believe for a second Russell had anything to do with any of them? They were slapped together by board and coaching staff when it became evident a squad wasnt being assembled.

The Russell signings in the squad:

Ian Turner
Dean Clarke
Stephen Kenny
Brendan Clarke
Chris Mulhall
Paul O'Conor

I expect the majority of those to be shot out of a canon in July by whoever takes over.

[fieldofmarkets]

Ah come on BWA, we all want something nice to look at!

[bluewhitearmy]

Ah come on BWA, we all want something nice to look at!

Then get some good looking women in the shop on the pitch I just wanna win haha

[da bishop]

Was never a fan of Russell ,but why appoint him if you are going to sack him after 6 games where,while it hasn been great neither has it been a complete disaster ,does not add up to me...too many captains advising the general by the looks of it.

[bluewhitearmy]

Was never a fan of Russell ,but why appoint him if you are going to sack him after 6 games where,while it hasn been great neither has it been a complete disaster ,does not add up to me...too many captains advising the general by the looks of it.

Could be his complete and utter ineptitude at signing a squad after he was appointed that did it too.

[CraftyToePoke]

I feel that this was a lot of it too, he didn't get a crack at the Prem last time due to off field funding issues so you could argue he was owed this chance, but clearly team building pre season did not go smoothly. As LITD says, some of the signings have the look of being of the more collaborative net casting variety and there was a real late flurry which looked a bit 'pick out the better trialist there & sign him'. I suppose this coupled with the manner of the goals being conceded made this inevitable, and in those circumstances better to get it over with so all can move on. Had he got the players he went for in pre season, it might have been different, particularly at CB but he didn't and now its time for the next era.

It would be nice if Kerr in particular were a bit more aware of the nuances of this situation, it's inaccurate to attack this as simply a sacking after six games while in eighth place. You get enough of that ill informed reactive coverage from the British game week in week out so you look to LOI coverage to amount to a more informed balanced one but Kerr failed in that.

[Jofspring]

Agree with you crafty. To me Kerr' comments felt like Limerick were awful to sack him but if another 10 games I and we were in a relegation dogfight he would be saying the club needed to react quicker considering 3 go down. Dammed if you do, dammed if you don't.

[harpin]

It looks like the club were waiting to pull the trigger as quickly as they could so I would hope they've someone lined up...but then again

And people should not concern themselves with Pat's "Get it up the field" that's his go to phrase and wasn't just reserved for Russell....although I love thinking back to the time where he told Sean Brosnan to get in the wall up in Jackman and he did....keeper, manager, chairman

[LK37oldskool]

The appointment of Willie Boland as intrem manager sounds like whoever was lined up, if there was anyone, has fallen through. Wish Boland and his staff all the best.

[bluewhitearmy]

There was nobody lined up Russell went on Monday Willie came in on Tuesday to take training for the week for the Pats game.

Does he have pro licence does anyone know?

[Jofspring]

I had thought it was pretty much known on Monday that Willie, Joe and Eddie will take the team for Friday. I would have been extremely surprised if the club had someone ready to come in within a few days.

[bluewhitearmy]

LOI pull out going with Tommy Dunne as one the favs to replace Russell. Make no mistake people I will boo him onto the pitch the first game if he gets it. Would be a joke appointment so hopefully just paper talk.

[thomas72]

LOI pull out going with Tommy Dunne as one the favs to replace Russell. Make no mistake people I will boo him onto the pitch the first game if he gets it. Would be a joke appointment so hopefully just paper talk.

Jesus please God no