It was a rookie mistake, I'll admit, forgetting to ask about the highest profile transfer in the League of Ireland off-season. Fahey only returned to St. Patrick's Athletic one year ago amid much fanfare after almost five years playing in England for Birmingham City. There, he sampled the highs of promotion and of being a Premier League footballer, and the lows of relegation and of being cast aside on the footballing scrapheap.
Birmingham not taking up the option to extend his contract probably suited Fahey, though, given that he had spent quite a lot of time back in Dublin on compassionate leave for personal reasons not long prior to his eventual permanent departure from the club. Homesickness is a hard thing to shake. Fahey being homesick at 16 and Fahey taking time off at 30 to be with his family for his own personal reasons isn't the same thing, I know that - but some people are just home birds, and that's okay.
Anyway, I've gone off topic. I was speaking about how, in the course of interviewing Saints manager Liam Buckley, I forgot to ask him about Keith Fahey. There's no excuse for it, I did just forget to ask Buckley for his thoughts on losing a Republic of Ireland international. The article turned out perfectly fine without the input, but I still should have asked the question. In the end, as far as I could tell, the piece didn't attract much interest anyway.
I have only been working with Extratime for a short while but have found that the articles I have written on First Division clubs have gotten more traction than articles I've written about Premier Division clubs - if people feel the Premier Division is under-covered, the First Division is almost non-existent in national media.
As to why I forgot to ask about Fahey, that's harder to pinpoint. It was my first time attending an Airtricity League launch, and the experience was enjoyable. I was with a team of reporters from the website, so we divvied up the 20 clubs between ourselves just before the launch officially began. I knew which clubs I had to chase, Pat's being one of them, so I began jotting down the questions I wanted to ask. The Fahey question wasn't one of them.
It just slipped my mind, but the reason it was able to slip my mind, I suppose, is because I don't believe Fahey's loss will affect Pat's fortunes all that much this season. Don't get me wrong, he's a smashing footballer - I was one of the biggest advocates of him getting capped for Ireland while he was playing here, never mind at Birmingham. You'd rather he was playing for you than against you, that's for sure, and he'll certainly improve Rovers in a season where Pat Fenlon will be looking to make a serious mark in his first full campaign in the Hoops hotseat.
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| Pat's will probably miss Fahey's stache growing ability in 2015. |
What I think stands to Pat's this season, though, is that nine of the squad which won the league in 2013 without Fahey are still at the club: Brendan Clarke, Ian Bermingham, Kenny Browne, Ger O'Brien, Greg Bolger, Killian Brennan, Conan Byrne, Chris Forrester and Christy Fagan. A tenth player, Sean Hoare, was coming through the ranks that season and made only four appearances in 2013: three in the Leinster Senior Cup (against Longford Town, Shelbourne and Shamrock Rovers) and one in the EA Sports Cup (against the Hoops again).
They lost some big players after winning the league, such as skipper Conor Kenna (Shamrock Rovers), Johnny Russell (Sligo Rovers) and Anto Flood (the scourge of emigration to Australia). Honourable mentions of other influential squad players go to Shane McFaul, Aidan Price, Jake Kelly, Sean Gannon, Jake Carroll (who departed halfway through the season to sign for Huddersfield Town) and Daryl Kavanagh (who arrived halfway through the season after an indifferent spell at Cork City).
And we can't forget Philly Hughes and his memorable midseason loan spell from Shelbourne. Without his one and only contribution as an 88th minute substitute in the Saints' first leg Europa League game against Zalgiris Vilnius in Lithuania, Pat's never would have won the league that year.
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| An old programme I found in my room - with Philly Hughes picture on the front during his first spell at Pat's. |
While Buckley relied on a core group of players to win the title - only 15 played ten or more games in the league for Pat's - there were other squad members at the club with proven quality in the LOI as well who didn't get much of a look in that season, such as Lorcan Fitzgerald, Stephen Maher, Conor Murphy, Jordan Keegan and Dave Ryan (who departed midseason to be replaced by Rene Gilmartin - who then inexplicably earned a move back to Watford despite doing very little at Pat's).
As well as Sean Hoare, some other young players were knocking on the door too, players who are now starting to establish themselves in the league: Gavin Boyne (once a Football's Next Star contestant and currently at Athlone Town); Marco Chindea (also at Athlone Town); and Peter Durrad (Bray Wanderers). What some will say is that while Pat's still have the young players coming through to supplement the squad, they don't have the same amount of experienced LOI players in reserve to deal with a spate of injuries to their starters.
Defensively, this isn't the case. While Kenna and Price departed after the 2013 title win; and their replacements, Ken Oman and Derek Foran, both left after the 2014 season ended; Bermingham, Browne and O'Brien are still at the club; Hoare established himself as a first-team regular last season; and Conor McCormack - despite being a midfielder by trade - has proved a more than able deputy for Ger O'Brien at right-back since arriving at Richmond Park ahead of the 2014 season.
In the off-season, Buckley also signed experienced centre-back Jason McGuinness from Rovers and Republic of Ireland u21 defender Lee Desmond from Shelbourne, who enjoyed an impressive debut campaign at centre-back in the First Division last season after coming home from Newcastle United, despite arriving at Tolka Park as a left-back for the u19s. Plus, with Brendan Clarke still in goal, they have one of the most reliable goalkeepers in the league, so the Saints are tight at the back (unless it's windy).
If they stick with the 4-3-3, they're well covered in the front three area as well: Fagan and new signing Ciaran Kilduff aren't a bad pair to rotate between through the middle; Byrne and Forrester are nailed on to start on the wings; Aaron Greene can play anywhere across the front three; and Buckley has stated that he can use Kilduff on the wing if needs be. Striker Sam Verdon, an u19 product, is also patiently awaiting his chance to show what he can do at the senior level (up front; not in goal, like he was sometimes forced to do for the Pat's u19s side).
Brennan, Bolger and Chambers will be crucial to Pat's once again in this season. Credits: The Irish Daily Mirror (Brennan) and Ray Lohan (Bolger and Chambers).
It's the three in midfield where people may argue that Pat's, on paper, seem light in cover, particularly after the departure of Fahey. In 2013, they seemingly had an embarrassment of riches in the middle with Brennan, Bolger, Russell, McFaul, Gannon and Maher to choose from. In 2014, those last four players all left the club, but Buckley retained Brennan and Bolger and added Fahey, McCormack, James Chambers and Lee Lynch (who departed for Limerick FC midseason).
This season, Brennan, Bolger, Chambers and McCormack have all been retained, with Togo international Cyril Guedjé signing from Turkish side Boluspor and the Hawaiian Morgan Langley just recently joining from United Soccer League (USL) side Harrisburg City Islanders (ironically enough, the side who were beaten 2-0 in last season's USL Pro Championship play-off final by Sacramento Republic FC - the new club of former Saint, Derek Foran).
McCormack's versatility, though, makes him more valuable to Buckley as cover at right-back for O'Brien. According to reports, Guedjé can play in both midfield and up front, while Langley also seems to be more of an attack minded player as opposed to an orthodox central midfielder, based on the words of his new manager and the website of his former club who listed his position as 'Forward, Midfield'.
So while those two may well be utilised in the deeper midfield roles over the coming season, Buckley could also be relying on three products of the Inchicore club's u19s side to pad out his midfield options: Jack Bayly, Jamie McGrath and Darragh Markey. Buckley has confirmed that some of these players are on professional contracts like the other members of the first-team squad, so they can be expected to see plenty of game time over the course of the season.
"They're all top players," Buckley told me at the Airtricity League launch. "Please God, they'll step up this season and step in. It took Sean Hoare quite a while, a season, to get a feel of where we were at from a first-team perspective and he done very well last year, so we're expecting these other kids to step up this year and see how it goes and then push on from a career perspective from there."
While Bayly was included just once in pre-season - he was an unused sub in the 7-0 win against Tolka Rovers and had been suffering with a groin problem, which perhaps curtailed his involvement - both Markey (three substitute appearances, including the 2-1 Preisdent's Cup defeat to Dundalk) and McGrath (two starts) have featured quite a bit. Both players were also introduced as a second half substitutes in the Saints' opening day 1-0 defeat to Shamrock Rovers.
Jamie McGrath in action for Pat's. Credit: Connolly Photographs.
McGrath, in particular, looks to be a player of immense promise. If his second goal in a recent Republic of Ireland u19 international friendly against Azerbaijan is anything to go by, he possesses the natural ability to make a mark in the LOI in the not too distant future (admittedly, Paul Doolin's side trounced the Azerbaijanis 6-0, but the quality of the goal remains). The 18 year old made his first-team debut in a 2-0 defeat to Athlone Town at the end of last season.
With the current fitness levels of both Guedjé and Langley unknown by those outside of Richmond Park, McGrath may well be the first port of call for Buckley should injury/suspension befall any of his three first choice midfielders in the coming weeks. That said, Buckley did start the Rovers game with a 4-4-2 formation, pairing Kilduff and Fagan up front from the start, but whether he sticks with this tactic or reverts back to his tried and trusted 4-3-3 remains to be seen.
As an aside, I'm looking forward to seeing Guedjé in action soon - a Pat's fan linked this video to the club's Facebook post announcing his signing. It's just random clips of him playing for Togo - but go to 7:27 to see Guedjé cap a goal with an excellent celebration. I hope to see that live in Inchicore this season, or at least on Soccer Republic. Langley also arrives with excellent pedigree having played for Philadelphia Union in the MLS, and seems to have scored and created goals consistently wherever he has been.
So while Pat's fans will fear the repercussions of losing one of their key midfielders for any length of time, I believe the Saints have enough in reserve to cover themselves effectively and ensure that they won't be lamenting the departure of Keith Fahey come the end of the season.
Having worked through all that, the fact remains that I still should have asked Buckley the question. There's no escaping that fact. Subconsciously, though, I guess I knew what I was doing. Sort of.
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