Q&A with Dundalk FC head coach Stephen O'Donnell ahead of ...

Q: Are you glad to have all your business done now?

A: Yeah, definitely. We were taken over at the start of December so between December and January, it’s nearly three months in the making trying to get our squad assembled as best we can so I’m delighted that that’s it now. It’s a line in the sand and now we can look forward to the season with this group and I’m excited by it.

Q: In that sense are you better off than last year when you went into the first game still signing three after it?

A: Yeah, we don’t want every year for it to be going up to two days before the start of the season doing your business but, as you said, if you’re comparing it to last year we signed Johannes (Yli-Kokko), Waz (Wasiri Williams) and Rayhann (Tulloch) after the UCD game so it would have been like the middle of next week. We’re delighted to get it done. We can really focus now and hone in on how quickly we can all gel together.

Q: Zak obviously came in today, just a word on him?

A: Zak was over before George but didn’t train. We just had a few little hang ups in regards the loan agreement etc but I’m delighted to get Zak on board. He captained England U18s last year and even in his couple of days here you can see he is a really good communicator for one so young. He has already had a loan at Hartlepool this season so he has experienced men’s football. I don’t know if you’ve seen him in the flesh but he’s a good size at 6ft 4in and a good athlete so I’m delighted to have him on board and if the first day or two’s training is anything to go by then he’ll be a big addition.

Q: Is he strictly a centre back?

A: Yeah, he could at a push maybe play right back but he’s a centre back.

Q: And George, what have you seen in him?

A: Yeah George is one we’ve been tracking for quite a long time with Forest and just with different sort of circumstances etc, a lot of these deals take time so I’m delighted to finally get it over the line. He’s a good age, 22. Like he’s not an 18 or 19 year old. He obviously wants an opportunity. For keepers it’s tough to get your foot in the door to be a number one or play games but he’s a good age and he has trained with lots of top class keepers with Nottingham Forest over the years and he’s soon to turn 23. He’s a good character and good personality and he’s assured of himself so between him and Ross (Munro), I’m delighted to have two really good keepers and it’ll be a good competition amongst them and really good competition amongst the whole group now.

Q: Is that one of your hardest decisions though because you can rotate other positions easier but you probably need to make a decision to go with one or the other?

A: Yeah, of course. As you said, even substitutions in game tend to be outfield positions but that’s the game and that’s my job. I’d rather that headache than having the headache of saying we have no keepers. We’re really happy and I hope they will really push each other in training with Sean Fogarty looking over them. That’s what we want. We want a healthy battle for places amongst the whole group.

Q: Did Sean have an involvement in the recruitment of the keepers?

A: Yeah well we always go through things as a coaching team. Obviously Sean would have more of an input with goalkeepers rather than outfielders but we go through the keepers and identify our targets and George was definitely high on the list, top of the list in that regard.

Q: How are you fixed team news wise for Friday?

A: We had good numbers today and everyone is fit bar John Mountney. He had a baby girl yesterday evening (Tuesday) so I’m delighted for him and Shannon. It’s great news for them. He would have trained fully today if he had some sleep last night but he was up all night. Hopefully he’ll be part of the group training tomorrow (Thursday). Everyone else then is fully fit really.

Q: It’s a great position to be in I suppose?

A: Yeah, it’s a great position to be in. Again, there’s a lot of competition but I’m looking forward to it.

Q: What have you made of Rovers? I’m sure you looked at the President’s Cup last Friday?

A: Yeah, I was at the game. They looked strong and thoroughly deserved their win. They looked sort of dominant. They’ve such a plethora of options when you factor in they were without Graham Burke, Johnny Kenny, Jack Byrne, Aaron McEneff, Pico Lopes or Richie Towell being involved. There’s a long line that didn’t feature at all last week so it just shows you the options and the calibre of their squad. We’re under no illusions but it is a game that we’re looking forward to as well. It’s on national TV, there will be a big crowd, a new stand is opening and it’s a good arena so we’re really looking forward to it.

Q: Is the opening night a good time to meet them because there will be a shock somewhere I’m sure?

A: Yeah there will but I think Rovers are well oiled now. There’s not a huge turnover of players. They looked in sync last week and they looked to have a bit of a rhythm so they’ll be one of the couple of teams who will be ready to go from the first game from a player personnel point of view and an understanding of how they want to play. That’s obviously an advantage to them.

Q: You’re 11/1 this morning with two major bookies for the game. There’s probably been European matches where you didn’t go in with such long odds. Does that reflect how dominant Rovers are expected to be?

A: Yeah I suppose they’re four times champions and probably going off the back of last week as well, they won convincingly at home. It doesn’t really factor into our thoughts what price we are. We’re well aware of the task in hand but we’re confident in ourselves as well and we’re excited by this group.

Q: I don’t expect you to tell me it but do you know your team in your head already?

A: Yeah I’d have a good idea of it.

Q: It’s obviously hard when there’s so many new into the mix?

A: Yeah but I’d probably have in my head that you’ve got to commit early and be clear in your head of what you’re looking for but you can be pretty sure that the first game of the season and the team sheets for the first game of the season that there will be lots of changes when you come to the mid-season mark and the back end which might not reflect at all your first game of the season team. There’s still huge competition for places. Obviously we have a very small body of work with a lot of players to go off to pick for the first game of the season but hopefully that becomes clear team wise as the weeks go on.

Q: There were a few matches obviously played behind closed doors. George aside is there anyone who hasn’t had minutes yet?

A: Well Zak obviously but everyone else has minutes.

Q: So you’re as happy as you can be with the pre-season?

A: Yeah we are and we’re at a good point now. There’s lads on different phases of fitness in regards how many minutes they’ve had under their belt or they were at previous clubs so not everyone is off the same fitness trajectory but everyone from a physical, injury point of view, is available.

Q: One player who kind of shone over pre-season was Eoin Kenny, Does this feel like a breakthrough season for him and what’s his ceiling?

A: Eoin is really serious about his training. He wants to be a player and he’s desperate to be a player. He’s doing his Leaving Cert this year and he had his mocks last week or the week before but we’re really happy with his rate of improvement from when he came into us at the start. From that to now has been very good. He still obviously has loads to learn but we’re really happy with his development and you never put a ceiling on anyone because if they have the right tools mentally then you don’t know where that takes you but, frame wise, he has got a lot. He is very fit, mobile and he’s about 6ft 2in so when you marry all them together you’ve got a lot of good, raw attributes.

Q: Are you expecting him to make a big impact this year?

A: We’ll see. We have really good options. You can never foresee anything but he’s in there pitching as a first-team squad member like any of them. For a lot of them it will be up to themselves but a lot of our squad could have a big impact and I hope many of them do so we’ll see with that one. There’s a lot of invariables to that answer.

Q: After a long pre-season is there just a sense of yourself and the lads raring to go now on Friday?

A: Yeah, I felt pre-season went quite quick as well because when you’re still trying to accumulate and get players in you always want the timing of the first game of the season to go back the way. It wasn’t a case that we were settled and ready to go on January 2nd when we were in for pre-season and it was a case of let’s bring on the first game. It was a case of week by week how are week looking squad wise, depth wise and personnel wise.

Q: Ahead of Friday and 2024 does it feel like it’s the strongest league in many years?

A: It’s definitely the most competitive. Usually when two promoted teams come up you’d say the league is probably going to get weaker but it’s the complete opposite I think. Those two teams, Galway and Waterford, are ready to go financially, squad wise, everything. They’re ready to really go and compete in the Premier Division so when you have that with the teams from below coming up, it makes it really competitive and it’s going to be a really, really competitive league.

Q: Off the back of that you said you were at the game last Friday with 8,000 there. This year there is more TV coverage. Does it really feel like there’s momentum behind the league than in a long time?

A: Yeah hopefully. I think it has been building. I think straight away when you get so many players and transfer fees now involved with players going to England, it alerts maybe the neutral punter to say the league could be decent. So Brexit has helped with that. So many Ireland underage teams now are filled with League of Ireland players. That generates a sense of respect amongst the lay man and that maybe entices them to go and watch the games. I think that is definitely happening and, again, the more games you have televised that will help but also we need to televise games in good arenas etc but that’s a whole different discussion. We could still do with more funding to create a really, really good industry but it’s definitely heading along the right road I think.

Q: How important is it that you get a good start to the league? I’m sure all managers are looking for that?

A: Yeah exactly. A good start builds confidence and builds momentum. In an ideal world you’d want a good start but I’m also conscious of the fact that we have a really new group as well that has been brought together late.

Q: You’ve build a strong squad this season so that if you are hit by injury then you’ll have plenty of cover.

A: Yeah, I think we’ve got good depth. We’ve good cover in specific positions now. We want players to go and excel and not have a bit of rotation etc. Obviously we have no Europe so we want players to separate themselves from each other now and have, in an ideal world, a somewhat settled team but also massive impacts off the bench. You see Liverpool this season… how many points have they won with their substitutions coming off the bench offensively? I think we have them options here as well but I’m looking forward to it. Again, we have no body of work to go off to say this is our reference point or this is what we’re guaranteed from this group but that creates an element of excitement too.

Q: It’s great to see some of the youngsters signing professional forms. That’s a good strong statement for the future.

A: Yeah definitely. Ideally that is the model we want. We want to have a first-team and then we want to be supplementing it with young players coming through into the squad and then being mainstays that have come up through the academy to be first-team players. Mayowa (Animasahun) is signed and I’m delighted to have him on board. He’s training really well. Then you have Sean Keogh who is probably a bit of left fielder. He wouldn’t have been hugely on our satellite last season but he came in and done pre-season and played 45 against Shelbourne and really got the eye. He was in training with us then after that and has done brilliantly. Luke Mulligan is only a 16 year old but he looks so assured and so mature for someone of that age. Then there’s Eoin Kenny so that’s four that have come up through the academy that are going to be legitimate first-team squad members and I think that’s brilliant. It gives credence for the academy coaches that they’re working towards something and also for players beneath that to say that there is a pathway here. That’s the model we want to create.

Q: If you were Stephen Bradley, how big a headache is it preparing to face you with 11 new signings?

A: I think Rovers have got into a mode now that most of what they do isn’t generated around the opposition. It’s more so that this is our style and we’re going to get out our style out. It doesn’t matter who we play domestically, we’re going to play the way we play and back ourselves to be better than the opposition. So from that point of view, I don’t think names or that massively changes how they go about it.

Q: There is an element of the surprise though. You’ve seen even here with Rayhann and Steven Bradley before him that they can come in and before people get to know their game they can have huge impacts. They were two players who really did hit the ground running. Can that be the same for someone on Friday night?

A: Yeah it can. It’s a mindset as well. It can work both ways. If you hit the ground running have you got the mental consistency to keep it going or is that going to be you or if you don’t hit the ground running have you got the mental fortitude or resilience to go and say ‘all right I’ve not started great but I’m going to get there’ and then develop into a player. Like I remember Michael Duffy didn’t start great. Obviously he was replacing Daryl (Horgan). I remember we were playing Drogheda away and he was getting a bit of stick off the Dundalk fans. It seems light years ago but he had the resilience to rise above it. They were big shoes to fill, replacing Horgs who was the brown eyed boy who had just come off the back of ripping it up in the Europa League. He was seen as a direct replacement but he didn’t hit the ground running and then over the course of time, he turned into a baller and he’ll go down as one of Dundalk’s best players as well. So there’s two ways of looking at it but ultimately you want the end result to be that you end up over the course of time of being looked back upon as a really good player for the club.

Q: I see you went out to The Blue Anchor for a meal as a group. Have you done anything else like that and how important is it to do those things just to get everyone gelling?

A: Yeah well post the Malahide game in the Leinster Senior Cup we had a meal and then the players sort of had their own evening together. That’s huge I think. When you get it away from a football environment they build relationships up personally. A lot of our lads would live locally now so I think that’s brilliant as well because they can go for a coffee after training and that type of thing and become actual buddies with your team-mates. It’s not a business transaction where you come in and go out. You’re going to work harder for someone that you have a personal relationship with on the pitch. You’re going to dig in and it's going to be a little bit like brothers in arms and that’s what we’re trying to generate I think.

Q: You have so many youngsters in. Is there someone within the club who can look after them if some of them come under a little bit of pressure mentally or anything like that?

A: Well there is no one at the minute from a professional standpoint but we would always be aware and on the lookout and chat to players if we think an individual is struggling or a bit down in themselves. We’d be straight in. The coaches would organise coffee meet-ups with them individually and sometimes football is not even spoken about. It’s not about football. Even our medical staff, sometimes players aren’t open to football coaches when they think it might affect being selected etc but we have a really good team whether it be the medical staff or coaching staff that players, if there’s anything bothering them that they’d be comfortable going to them. I think we’re quite good at spotting things as well.

Q: Finally, what have you made of (new owner) Brian (Ainscough) in the first few weeks?

A: Yeah, I’m really happy. He is really hands-on. It has just been so hectic in regards he has come in in December and trying to put structures in place is going to take a bit of time but I’m delighted with what he has done so far and our lines of communication. What he is looking to build and achieve I think is very exciting and hopefully it will be here for years to come.