Game 26

Sligo 2-1 Dundalk

Another game, another lead squandered, another opportunity to take some very important points missed, another mind blowing interview with Bill. Just a regular couple of days in Dundalk FC’s 2021 campaign.

The performance in the opening exchanges in Sligo wasn’t too bad. We got a goal but then immediately conceded a shocker before coughing up another shocker in the 2nd half.

On another day, all the talk would be of the poor performance on the pitch, the injuries, the manager and all that fun stuff but the elephant in the room with with alarm bells ringing around it must be addressed.

I’ve toyed with a couple of ideas of what way to approach writing about Bill’s interview and I can’t figure out what part to focus on.

Should we focus on his ridiculous recruitment strategy which will continually set us up to lose our best players?

Should we focus on the fact that we have been encouraged to look at the positives and stop focusing on the negatives by the person who is at the root of almost all of the negativity surrounding the club?

He wants us to focus on the positives when the only positive he can offer us is that we’re still in the FAI Cup and we could still mathematically finish third. Are they actually positives? We’re not going to finish third and having beaten Treaty United in extra time and St Mochtas we are still in the cup. Woohoo.

Focusing on the positives that are outlined simply highlights the reality of where we are. We might finish 8th or 7th. It doesn’t look likely but it could still happen. At which point we will more than likely be told that this is a positive. We had so many injuries and we still finished two places clear of automatic relegation. Pop the champagne.

Maybe we should look towards next season with some positivity? Where we won’t be signing anyone to a long term contract who doesn’t have resale value. Where we will look to bring players in, give them one year, ask them to prove their ability, then if they’re any good, watch them sign for someone else who will give them a longer contract.

It does make me feel better to know that what we perceived as incompetence and lack of forward planning is actually part of their recruitment plan. It’s a flawed and incompetent plan but at least now we know what they’re thinking. We know not to expect sensible decisions.

Stanton, Patching, Duffy, Hoban, Cleary, they will all be offered longer term contracts with other more stable, more coherent clubs. We will go into next season with a raft of new signings and start this process over again. But hey, stay positive.

Oh and when we bring in new players, please don’t criticise them. That’s not nice. We wouldn’t want to create a hostile environment where players find it hard to perform at their best because of ongoing shenanigans behind the scenes and changing managers three times in one season and the owner burying them in interviews. Stay positive guys.

Don’t worry though, they will do everything in their power to make sure legends of the club who have massively contributed to the culture and success of the club don’t just leave. That would be stupid.