We Need To Talk About cork city
cork city are going to wrap up Sean Maguire's league title over the next week or two possibly even as early as Monday. I don't think any league of ireland fan would begrudge Sean Maguire this honour. It was an incredible achievement by Sean Maguire to win the league this season.
But the elevation of cork city fc and their "manager" john caulfield as a near unrelated by product of Sean Maguires success in winning the league this season raises some issues which the whole league needs to be aware of. Just a few off the top of my head:
Europe: obviously there's a lot of coefficient fans on here. When cork city without Sean Maguire lose 3 0 on aggregate to the champions of andorra it's going to set the league back years.
Fan Ownership: I'm going to use two examples from the match last night which I feel illustrate the issues with fan Ownership on a tiny scale like the scale you see practised in cork.
1. For the second time in a row heroes in the cork support racially abused 20 year old Limerick player and all round nice guy Chedozie Ogbene. Would this have happened if something other than the cork board putting their fingers in their ears had happened the first time? Will some more heroes go for the three in a row in the Joe Delaney Stand next Friday? Probably since their board obviously have absolutely no interest in tackling racism.
2. Which brings me nearly to point two. cork city have a reasonably large group of what can only be described as misfortunes following them aping the casual culture in the UK. Some of these kids are barred from all areas of Turner's Cross including the Joe Delaney Stand. My sources tell me that Limerick FC requested the IDs of these individuals and the board of cork city actively obstructed Limericks efforts. The end result? A group of lads from cork got a hiding because they travelled up to Limerick intent on causing trouble because they knew that sneaking regarders on the cork board have their backs with regard to entry to games.
And this is one of the problem with fan ownership on a tiny scale like they have in cork. Clowns get promoted above their station because they are "sound lads" and they then have to maintain the appearance of being sound lads often to the detriment of the proper running off their club.
Look in the dugout. john caulfield a man who wouldn't even have been considered for the job if he wasn't an ex player and now remains in the job basically because he's not a jackeen. A man who is incapable of a modicum of class despite the fact he has been handed a procession by Sean Maguire. He spent more time in the Limerick technical area than the cork technical area last night. That's what players want to see when they are a goal down and they look to the sideline in a tight away game, a tiny little man running up and down in and blind panic cursing and swearing at nothing in particular. What was the plan last night? Kick ogbene and everything will work out? A stronger board would have clipped this fellas wings long ago unless he can convince Sean Maguire to come home and win him a league single handedly again I'll be astonished if he sees next summer.
Then you have things like people who should know better voting the home of the Joe Delaney Stand Turner's Cross as the best ground in the league despite the fact the away section is reminiscent of an internment camp from a Balkan war. Again small time stuff from their board everyone is a paying customer after all.
Then you have the situation in glanmire where "cork citys" new training facility now has a completion date set at three years after the fai finish their training centre on the moon. Again would a board that wasn't made up of a few of the lads maybe have a little more clout with pushing this forward?
Look I don't want this to come across like I'm having a go for the sake of it. I'll reiterate once again: Sean Maguire single handedly winning the league was an incredible achievement that will rightly be talked about for years. But I'm just point out that having sat on the toilet thinking about it for ten minutes is it fair to say that for cork city to have success in anything other than the shortest of short term they should maybe have a small look at themselves rather than another round of high fives at a supporters direct meeting??
Discuss the issues.
No club bashing please if at all possible. Only constructive suggestions for cork city. Thanks