The Death of a Football Club? The Story of Cork City Football Club : 2008

It’s not every day that a League of Ireland book comes on the scene. There have been some notable ones down through the years, like “Follow the Floodlights” by Brian Kennedy or in recent years “Tallaght Time” by Macdara Ferris and Karl Reilly, but  all in all there haven’t been many.

Even rarer again is a book actually written by a League of Ireland player, yet that is exactly what was plonked on my desk (or rather in my Gmail inbox) earlier this month when the powers that be at Extratime.ie asked me to review Neal Horgan’s “Death of a Football Club? The Story of Cork City FC – Season 2008”.

Many people in League of Ireland circles will be familiar with Horgan, but even still he remains somewhat of an un-sung legend of the domestic game in Ireland. Premier Division title? Check. FAI Cup? Yup. Setanta Cup? You betcha. Even a First Division title? He sure does. In fact, the League Cup remains the only national senior title that alludes the full back as his footballing career winds down and his attention switches to his other career as a solicitor.

Horgan first joined Cork City in 1999, but he was competing on the national stage as early as 1997 when he was the fulcrum of a Coláiste an Spioraid Naoimh midfield that would reach the Irish Schools Senior A Championship final against Summerhill College from Sligo. It was not to be on that occasion as a Summerhill side, containing the future League of Ireland stars like Sean Flannery, Ciaran Martyn and Horgan’s future teammate Conor O’Grady, came from behind twice before snatching a decisive goal in extra time. (All in McSharry Park that day, including this writer, will attest to the quality of Sean Flannery’s acrobatic overhead effort just before half time!)

Horgan would join Cork schoolboy side Wilton United from rivals Glasheen, where he would play alongside future Cork City teammates Colin Healy and Alan Carey. It was there that he first made the switch from the centre of the pitch to a full back position, winning a couple of Munster Youth Cup medals along the way before signing for he did a “Robbie Keane” (long before Robbie Keane did mind you) and joined the club he supported as a boy; Cork City.

When Extratime.ie caught up with Horgan to discuss his new book, he first spoke about joining Dave Barry’s men and togging out alongside the players he used to cheer on from the sidelines.

“John Caulfield… Decky Daly… Patsy Freyne… Genuinely I couldn’t believe it. And that’s the great thing about the club and the staying alive!

“I know it sounds silly, because it’s ‘only’ Cork City you could say, and it’s not Liverpool…but it is like a little dream happening! When you win the league with Cork City; Wow! It’s fantastic. Even playing in Turner’s Cross is fantastic or playing in Europe is special again on top of that.”

Our conversation is still only beginning, but already it is hard not to be impressed with Horgan’s enthusiasm for his club and his league. On top of his aforementioned medals, he has represented Cork City (and the league) in the Intertoto Cup, the UEFA Cup and the Champions League. In a recent online poll by CCFCForum.com to mark the 30^th anniversary of the club, Horgan was selected at right back in the all-time best eleven for Cork City; receiving 72% of the votes for that position – the biggest percentage and the most votes of any Cork City player in any position.

Horgan is the only player to have played both alongside John Caulfield and under him and in that time, he’s seen it all.

It is because of all this, that the prospect of a book penned by one of the domestic game’s most experienced servants is a mouth-watering one for fans of the domestic game, and the San Francisco born player doesn’t disappoint.

Opening with his memories as a fan in the early 90s (think Bayern Munich) and a look at some of the club’s memorable European nights, Horgan takes us back to a golden period in the club’s history from 2003 onwards. Pat Dolan was at the helm, heralding the dawn of a new professional era that was very focussed on player’s diets. There are plenty of colourful anecdotes and stories like the following excerpt, through which Horgan provides a vividly entertaining insight into life under one of the league’s biggest personalities ever.

“He monitored what the players ate and drank; on one of our earlier fitness adventures I spotted him leering at me across two tables as I ate one of the apple pies that had been served to us. His look I understood immediately. Recent tests had revealed that my body-fat percentage was higher than that of most of the other players, so, for Dolan, my decision to eat this pie constituted a breach of trust. In order to resolve the situation he took to following me around shops and restaurants on away trips. I was not alone in this: others, with similar body-fat readings, were followed too. Poor little Liam Kearney, just signed on his return from Nottingham Forest, was caught bringing a packet of ‘Burger Bites’ crisps onto his first trip away with the team. Dolan made him suffer”

Looking back Horgan admits to me that his former manager was ultimately right, as Dolan tried to drag the club into the modern professional game. Nonetheless, the book goes on to describe life under an altogether different proposition in Damien Richardson – or Rico as he is affectionately referred to.

The footballer-cum-solicitor-cum-author wastes no time in coming to the central focus of his book – and (with a little help from an extract from an Extratime.ie season preview) sets the scene for the tumultuous 2008 season.

Up until 2007, the club was owned by Horgan’s uncle and local ‘fish and chip magnate” Brian Lennox, but the former Wilton United player explains to us why Lennox sold the club to investment group Arkaga.

“That whole Arkaga thing, I’d say he’s getting over it now but he didn’t feel good about it for a long time. You can’t say he did everything right either, but he did as best he could.

“It’s just the way it went, and I remember Brian being in a little bit of financial difficulty before they came in. I remember he needed fast to get out, and whoever they are, they seemed like this golden f**king company, selling this dream. And they did it for a year and a half!

“From a player’s point of view, that needed to be explained in the book too. We were brought on that journey and it’s suddenly thrown in your face when they’re gone that your wages are to blame. But they were selling us the line that ‘you need to stay here’ and giving good wages to the likes of Gamble or whoever they made stay.

“There was still clubs in Dublin on better money, and we had just won the league. So from an employee point of view, we were kind of saying ‘I deserve the market rate if I’m doing well’. I know you can look back at the Celtic Tiger and say we all got a bit greedy, but when your employer is saying ‘we want you to stay’ and ‘this is the place to be and we’ve got loads of money’ and they then pull out, the players are partially held to blame?”

As things go from bad to worse on Leeside in 2008, the book cleverly switches to a diary format which delves deeper and sheds further light on just how bad things were. Wages going unpaid and broken promises feature heavily, as Horgan takes the reader into the dressing room where tension within the squad is palpable.

“Monday 8th September 

In his pre-match talk before we play Derry, the Gaffer tells us that certain people who are interested in taking over the club are at the match tonight.  

“Things are happening for the better, boys,” he says.  

There’s a good crowd so maybe we’ll be paid something. Darragh Ryan scores and I’m delighted for him; Denis is hacked down in a scandalous tackle and stretchered off. We concede a late goal.

League of Ireland: Turner’s Cross, Cork

Cork City 1–1 Derry City

The Gaffer’s disconsolate afterwards. “We’ll look at it tomorrow boys,” he says.  In the circumstances, though, I feel the most important thing was not to lose.    

Thursday 11th September 

Today Sully takes some of the training, which is great to see. Lawrie’s back from England also, but he’s staying in the ‘house of horrors’ – a house in the outskirts of Cobh that has no running water, put up by the club. We ask Denis about his injury and he reckons he’ll be fine once the stitches are out.  

“Our wages are back up to 50% tomorrow, boys!” says Mick, who’s found this out from Biscuits. Later, Stephen McGuinness (PFAI rep) rings each of us to see what we’re owed.    

Friday 12th September 

No sign of ‘No Show Joe’ at training this morning. Kearney rings him a few times but there’s no answer.  

“Maybe he’s gone to St. Pat’s?” jokes Lawrie. 

We train for an hour and then, with the Gaffer, we look at the late Derry goal on TV. He points out what we could have done better. 

After the video session I go to the gym to do some core work. Crazy Daz Murph is checking his wages slip.  

“50% wages in – get in there!” He’s delighted as he’s also heard that the potential new investor has bought the pub, and there’s been something on Red FM about a bid for the club, too.”

Despite that there is a strong sense of unity amongst the squad who continue to perform despite their off-field problems as the club move from the seemingly faceless owners of Arkaga to Tom Coughlan with the supporters rallying to form (now guardians of the club) FORAS.

As we discuss those darker days in the club’s history, Horgan reflects calmly on what he witnessed.

“Aidan Tynan did disappear for a while. He didn’t own the club, but he was running the club. A few months before examinership broke, there had been no sign of him and he was the CEO. People were wondering what was going on and who was in charge, and then Pat Kenny came in and told us the club was gone more or less.

“That kind of happened in a few months, and we’re going from a place where everything is better than hunky dory and we’re going to build a new stadium to a situation where you’re probably going to lose your job.

“You know though, I wouldn’t be putting blame on [Tynan]. He was definitely sent in with a task which was probably to kick the players into shape and he tried the best he could.

“When it comes down to it the owners themselves, Arkaga, the reason they pulled out was probably down to the All-Ireland league falling through. They were obviously out to invest money and make money and they did put a lot of money into it. They did lose money.

“The same with Tom Coughlan. Tom Coughlan became a scapegoat later and took the brunt of it. I would say, and I’ve written this in the Examiner which I think is consistent with the book, is that there is a structural problem with the League of Ireland and not enough effort has been made. It’s easy now to scapegoat and blame the FAI or whoever.

“What I’d be hoping to achieve with the book is this. People can read whatever they want in it, but my position is this; there is a problem. It needs to be diagnoses and if it is, then we can see what the future is. It doesn’t help to blame the FAI or Tom Coughlan or Arkaga or whoever. It doesn’t actually get you anywhere.

“At the same time we need to diagnose what’s wrong because it’s more than any of those people. It’s more than John Delaney, because he’s only been in the job for the past ten years or so.

“If the book adds to that debate, that would be fantastic. That would be the main thing for me, but whether or not that happens is another thing.”

Horgan points to a history of clubs falling by the wayside, particularly in Cork, and laments the loss of history and knowledge with each sinking club. He also knows that we are never too far from the next League of Ireland club going under.

“I can’t put it on anyone’s lap, but from a player’s point of view mindsets have to change. At the moment, the League of Ireland can’t exist as a respectable European league; and that’s all you’re looking for. I don’t think it is at the moment. It’s part time and it’s in between.

“What you’re looking for is for it to exist as per our population. Not to become a Dutch league or a French league, but to bat at its weight and the moment it doesn’t.

“It doesn’t help to blame anyone, what we need is ideas. We need change, but change doesn’t mean everything.

“I’d love to see more ideas coming forward, possibly from former players. There’s an era of us there from 2003 onwards, who experienced full time football who wanted more and who were nearly getting there.

“I would love to see these people, former players like Stuart Byrne and Neale Fenn as well as the likes of Pat Fenlon and Damien Richardson. I think there might be a generation of people there coming through that would like to see this through. I don’t know how it could happen, but I think people who were involved in the professional game at that time would like to see it happen and we have to just find ways to make it happen.”

Horgan’s passion is undeniable as we debate football for almost two hours, only stopping to plug his phone in. All his life he has lived and breathed football. Although he was given a squad number for the 2014 season, his involvement in the Cork City squad has somewhat petered out. Despite manager John Caulfield’s best effort to keep him involved with texts, Horgan tells me that it has been almost five months since he has last trained with the Rebel Army and how his career as a solicitor “doesn’t marry well” with that of a footballer. While he tells me he will “never say never”, it does look like this Leeside legend has donned the Cork City colours for the last time.

He isn’t about to forget where he came from though, as he tells me how he feels like a fan again and is enjoying it (save his recent trip to Oriel Park). Even the book itself has been published with the help of his teammate from the 1997 Irish Schools Senior A Championship final, goalkeeper of that day and current managing director of Urban Design and Print, Ciaran Buckley Barry; a further reminder of how the 35 year old has immersed his life in the beautiful game.

No longer influencing the domestic game on the pitch Horgan instead is now setting about influencing the domestic game off it, with this thought-provoking book that will strike a resonance with fans of clubs all over the country. While the situations and stories he depicts are from his time at Cork City, they will no doubt be all too familiar with fans of other sides resulting in this un-missable behind the scenes look at a League of Ireland club.

“The Death of a Football Club? The Story of Cork City Football Club : 2008” is available for in eBook format from sportsproview.com. The official book launch takes place on the 13th December at Cork City Club Shop in Douglas Shopping Centre.