Lure of Limerick too strong for Leahy

Former UCD defender Mick Leahy became Stuart Taylor’s second new arrival for the 2014 season today, and he spoke exclusively to Extratime.ie about the reasons behind the move.

As is the trend, most players will eventually depart Belfield for various reasons, and Leahy was quick to highlight the importance of the Limerick FC boss in making his decision.

“I met Stuart and I got on really well with him. I really like his philosophies and his style of football. That was a huge factor. Playing against Limerick last year was huge too – seeing what was going on down there – the club really is evolving. It looks like it’s going to be improving a lot in the next couple of years. The setup is always improving and it’s a really attractive proposition.”

Leahy has always been outspoken about the role UCD play in Irish football. While most are quick to question the club, the former Students captain was quick to defend them.

“It’s a great place to learn football and non-football things – obviously I was in college there for five years while I was playing. On the pitch, Martin [Russell] taught me a lot football-wise. It’s probably the greatest place in the country for a young player to learn, but then obviously you do want to be competitive and win things, so that’s a lot of players end up moving on.”

UCD are known for their technical brand of football – a brand of football which Stuart Taylor is trying to implement from grassroots up at Limerick. Leahy is hopeful that because of that, he won’t have any trouble integrating into the squad.

“Obviously Martin emphasises technique-based football; playing the ball on the ground a lot and Stuart sets his players out to play in a similar fashion. Obviously there’ll be a step up in tempo, but being used to that style will help.”

The 24-year old centre half is ambitious but he has remained very modest in terms of his personal goals for the year.

“I want an injury-free season first of all. I missed too many games last year through injury for the first time in my whole career. I want to get back playing, try to establish myself in the team and we’ll have a good squad in Limerick this year so – we want to do well in the cups and obviously finish as high as possible in the league.”