Filippo was good if you forget his mental squad rotation policy.
But, he knew football no doubt. It was his first manager job. If he wanted, you could be much better manager now.
The gift that keeps on giving
My own assumption based on the quotes from the owner announcing King is that he was genuinely his preferred choice from the beginning.
It seems that Halpin and/or Gartland were allowed to pursue Long and Halpin was certainly inviting applicants (hence the notification of a deadline for next Wednesday with his contact details). But it seems that when their preferred choice Long became impossible, the owner has put a halt to that process and gone with his option.
The jump only makes sense to me in this scenario, where there were essentially two competing processes and only one was going to win the day.
Honestly allowing that press release to go out just seems bizarre in hindsight. Something's amiss behind the scenes because if they were that close to announcing King as a manager there was absolutely no need to even put it out. Especially if he was the owners preferred choice. Why invite more applications if they are going straight into the bin? Why have a director of football operations and CEO of they are not going to be involved in arguably the biggest football decision to be made at a club? Seems like there's a few different people rowing in different directions. If your a Dundalk fan you have to hope they figure it out before the club goes under.
He previously worked for Dundalk FC, has historical family connections to the club and is from Dundalk Im pretty sure. He has done well in developing his skillset and building his company which has some pretty big clients on the books. All the more bizzare that his efforts as club CEO look undermined at face value. I would say he knew what the reaction would be to King, mayve convinced the owner that his judgemet was off and was given a chance to approach a realistic target and active LoI manager. Once the approach was rebuffed by Waterford then BA took his man in, snap decision. A bit more pushing for Long and generally people get their chance to at least talk to those making an approach. No need for much fuss, he just had to give the statutory notice to the current employer!
From my reading, Halpin and Garts did not know that Noel King was going to be appointed, and were caught by surprise like the rest of us.
Long, Keddy from Wexford and Stephen Kenny were all sounded out before King was appointed.
Personally, I do not think King will last beyond 3 games.
Burns and Garts were doing well (even if there was a countdown on their effectiveness of caretaker manager). There was no need to rush an appointment. I also think this Dundalk squad is well capable of staying up - all we need is a spark going forward. We have dominated midfield in games, work fairly hard, and defend decent outside a couple of games.
This King appointment just makes no sense beyond it just being an arrogant, singular, and absent of football understanding decision by the owner.
Not sure it can be entirely siad that its an absence of football understanding, that is a matter of opinion. It is certainly an absence of understanding of Dundalk FC and its fans!
Last night went thro that famous interview when King was ROI interim mgr in 2013 when TOD interviewed him. God he is so bitter it will be interesting to see if Tony O Donoghue will interview him again?
Gary Cronin is he the right man to manage Longford Town?
Decky Devine given the permanent job as Glens manager. Maybe a bit surprising, based on their middling results.
On the basis of results certainly, but on the basis upon which the club is run, not in the least.
Which is not to say he's a bad manager (am in no position to comment), but the club is in such a state that Pep Guardiola would struggle to get a tune out of them.
One interesting comment from the club statement: "Declan will have responsibility for playing matters at all levels throughout the club, including full authority over player and senior coaching staff recruitment."
The most pressing problem at the club (though by no means the only one!) is that the absentee owner has appointed a mate to run the club on his behalf, with that mate working in conjunction with a mate of his own. Those two have screwed up appallingly, even despite having serious money to spend, so that the whole club is a bit of a shambles.
Tbf to Devine, after the most recent debacle (losing 2-0 at Cliftonville on Saturday, when apparently they were atrocious), he lashed out all round him. Fans seem to feel that while he must bear at least some responsibility, he at least spoke the truth. Apparently half the squad are out of contract next month, so it will be interesting to see who comes in instead. If they're picked from DD's contacts book, then maybe he can do a decent job.
But I would fear that he'll still be hamstrung by the clowns above him.
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