Lennox pledges he will lead City to brighter future
From todays Irish Examiner.
By Bill George
BRIAN LENNOX, who will take control of Cork City at the end of the season, yesterday pledged himself to leading the club to a bigger and brighter future after another season of unfulfilled promise.
“My predecessors have all done a very difficult job extremely well. But if Cork City is to survive they have to be successful,” he said.
Mr Lennox, 38, is the son of former Cork football ace Jackie Lennox. He grew up a committed follower of Cork Hibernians and it is his ambition to bring the success of Hibs in the 1970s, when they won all of Ireland’s major trophies, back to Cork.
He has been a boardroom supporter of the current administration at Cork City for the past five years and has been negotiating this handover for the past six months. The current directors will relinquish control after City’s last match of the season, away to Derry on March 31.
“The current board stepped in to save Cork City from collapse and they have done a marvellous job to keep it alive. I want to build on the base that is there and while we intend to strengthen the team with at least three new players for next season, the most pressing need is to secure the financial future of the club,” Mr Lennox said.
He intends to tackle this by bringing on board a number of new directors and with their investment money, plans to set up a series of working committees to handle the daily running of the club.
He welcomed the commitment of support he had received from the current board.
“Michael O’Leary is the current chairman and he will hold this position until the end of season. He will be an important player in my team as well and all of the directors have committed themselves to maintaining an interest in the club and helping wherever they can. Their experience will be invaluable to us.”
The transfer of control will not involve any financial negotiations — the incoming boss will just assume responsibility for the on-going finances of the club. And to maintain the club as a viable entity will require the provision of close to €1m per season.
“Cork City has been too reliant on gate receipts for operating cash. I am hoping the club will finance itself with off-field activities and fund-raising,” Mr Lennox said.
“To thrive we need to create a situation where gate receipts represent just 20% of our income. Securing the other 80% is obviously going to take a huge commitment and occupy a lot of my time and that of the new directors and the hard-working committees.”
Most of the new chairman’s work will involve developing the public side of Cork City and to this end he intends to take advantage of the new floodlights at Turner’s Cross by playing matches on Friday and creating an evening of entertainment for all the family.
”We will develop a special family enclosure as well as providing more entertainment in the form of pre-match activities and half-time promotions to create a more inclusive atmosphere.
”I would like to see Cork City develop into a more community-based club with many of the activities being organised by the members themselves. Communication is the key — communication within the club between the directors and playing staff and communication with our supporters as well.”
Among the issues affecting the playing staff which he intends to tackle is the provision of permanent training facilities. This season, Cork City have been training in a variety of venues but with the FAI committed to developing a football centre in Mayfield, it is intended to set up a long-term leasing arrangement there for training purposes.
“One of the problems we had this season was having too many young players in the team at the one time. We will keep all of them on and set out to surround them with more experienced players next season. They will be a year more advanced themselves in any case,” Mr Lennox said.
Cork will use the close-season to hunt down possible new recruits in England.
“Like every other team in the land, we need a goal scorer, and a couple of other players in key areas. Our manager Liam Murphy and his assistant Patsy Freyne will go to England at the end of the season and we will begin our search at Leicester City, with whom we have a partnership arrangement,” he said.
