Kevin Doyle: From Mick Wallace's couch to the Colorado Rapids

A version of this interview originally appeared in Cork City match programme City Edition.

It never ceases to amaze me, the innate ability of an Irish person abroad to pick out a country man or woman no matter where in the world they are. Here I was in a Toronto hotel, quite literally in the shadow of the CN Tower, waiting for the coach carrying the Colorado Rapids and Kevin Doyle to arrive.

The lobby was humming with excitement; a bell-hop was lining up his trolleys, an anxious manager pacing the floor checking his watch and a well turned out receptionist re-arranging a table full of room keys for the umpteenth time. It seemed that I was the only one that wasn’t fretting as a WhatsApp from Doyle had given me the heads up of a minor delay.

The coach finally pulled up, and off bound Doyle with an enthusiasm that belied his long flight from Colorado (the longest he faces in the MLS). Despite having never met, his gaze cut through the crowd and he gave me the thumbs up; “I’ll be down in two secs…must throw the bags in the room”.

There was something refreshingly relaxed about the Colorado Rapids squad, with not a club tracksuit in sight and a wide range of fashion (or fashion faux-pas!) being sported. This was something Doyle would later tell me he greatly appreciated as it allowed him and his teammates relative anonymity at airports and when exploring the various north American cities they would visit.

Despite the casualness of the team, I was witnessing a well-oiled machine working at full tilt in this upmarket hotel. Kit bags were already piled high on the trolleys and room keys were distributed with minimal fuss. I could not help but think how different this setting was to the many interviews I had done in the League of Ireland in carparks and outside gyms.

I barely had time to process the difference in my head before Doyle was back shaking my hand and conversation was in quickly full swing.

“You’ve certainly come a long way from sleeping on Mick Wallace’s couch,” I remark. The Republic of Ireland international erupts into laughter.

“Worst decision I ever made!

“Thanks to Mick for putting me up, but he lives in Clontarf and we were training in Leixslip, so the journey in the morning for training [was brutal]. I might as well have stayed in Wexford and I’d nearly have done it as quickly.

“Eventually I moved out after four or five months and moved to Lucan.” 

As a teenager Doyle had his suitors who tried to lure him across the Irish Sea with trials at English clubs, but the young striker showed remarkable maturity to know that he wasn’t emotionally ready to uproot his life from Ireland.

Instead, the Wexford teenager opted for a move to St Patrick’s Athletic in September 2001 where he would sign for Pat Dolan – a man who would ultimately play a major role in his career.

Doyle played initially for the St Pats under-18 side before progressing to the first team, but made the move down the M8 in early 2003 to join Cork City, where mentor Dolan was enlisting recruits for his ‘Rebel Army’.

As fate would have it, the fixtures came out and his first game for the Leesiders was an opening weekend televised clash with St Patrick’s Athletic. Doyle is not afraid to admit that it was nerve-wracking as it was the biggest crowd he’d played in front of at that stage, and ‘doubly so’ because it was his old team.

“Pat Dolan was the new manager and there was a couple of new players so there was a lot of expectation. It’s vague memories now, but I do remember it was a shit game: 0-0. I remember just thinking that I’d played crap but no-one had played good on that day probably. When you sign and you play your old team you want to play well, but it was a nothing game in front of a big crowd.”

Had he taken those earlier trials, 19-year-old Doyle could have been living in a relatively comfortable bubble at some English academy. Instead, here he was making his debut, in front of 6,000 screaming fans and the TV3 cameras, against the side he just left.

Even though it was a dour stalemate, Doyle wouldn’t have swapped places with any of his contemporaries and a small fire of passion lights in him as he extols the benefits of staying in Ireland as a young player.

“I’ve always said over the years when I’ve been asked about playing in the League of Ireland, to me it’s the perfect route. Anyone who asks me now what they should do, I would encourage them to stay with their local League of Ireland team.

“If you’re not going to be good enough to get into your local League of Ireland team first of all, you’re not going to be good enough to play at the next level in England.

“Also, if you are good enough and you’re really good, you have that exposure to playing in front of 6,000 people with pressure and the interviews. Down in Cork you have radio stations and newspapers and you’re doing all the stuff, on a slightly smaller scale grant it, but stuff you wouldn’t be doing if you had moved to England. It really prepares you for it and it prepared me for it massively.

“I went to England as a nobody in their eyes. I had done well in Cork and enjoyed it but when you go there it’s like starting again. They probably were a bit surprised that when it came to interviews and things like that that it was quite straightforward for me. That wasn’t a learning curve.

“Things like that are stuff that maybe people don’t think about, like interviews and stuff, they are stressful things when you are that age. Being able to do it all at Cork City and playing in front of big crowds made my transition a lot easier.”

It was no fluke that Doyle’s arrival on Leeside would coincide with one of Cork City’s most successful time on the pitch and the corners of his mouth begin to turn up into a smile as he reminisces on his time there and the players he played with.

“It was great. I look back with rose-tinted glass maybe or nostalgic eyes, but I look back at that team and think there were really, really good players everywhere on the pitch.

“When I first went there, John O’Flynn was the best finisher I’d ever seen and I still say that. If he had stayed fit…? He had so many injuries, but he was as good as anyone I’ve seen in terms of someone who can score goals.

“We played up front a little bit but then he was injured and I would have played up front with Neale Fenn who was a fantastic player, and George O’Callaghan a bit. As I was there a little longer, George dropped back into midfield and it was his better position as it turned out.

“You look at the back line then with the Dan Murrays, the Alan Bennetts and the Horgans and the Billy Woodses... it was endless. Joe Gamble came and Roy O’Donovan came and Liam Kearney. Mick Devine then was a really, really good keeper.”

At his peak for Cork City, there was somewhat of a clamour on Leeside for Devine to be brought into the Irish squad. As well as playing with Devine, Doyle has of course been part of many Irish training camps and from this unique position he has no doubts that the shot stopper would not have been out of place.

“Mick was as good as any keeper. It’s just difficult to get that pick from a League of Ireland team. I see Mark McNulty is there doing great stuff now. He was backup keeper when I was there, but he’s been brilliant the last few years. To get that break and get that into Ireland squad is tough.

“If a keeper is in a good team and he’s not as busy, he’s not showing as much because you’ve got a good team ahead of you and you don’t have as many saves to make.”

It is obvious that happy memories are beginning to flood back as the Colorado Rapid striker looks into the distance and the smile spreads more broadly across his face.

“When you look back at that team and we talk about all those players, it brings back some great memories!

“I felt at the time that we were the strongest league of Ireland team. By the time I left, we were really coming into our own over those two or three years consistently. In the league we finished third then second, with good results in Europe and then the season when I left in the June or July and the boys went on to win it.”

In 2003 and 2004, Dolan’s Cork City began to play with a swagger with the Intertoto Cup run in 2004 standing out in particular. Although he has gone on to play at the highest level, Doyle still cherishes those European nights.

“It was with the quality teams we played like Malmo and NEC Nijmegen, a really good Dutch team at the time, and then onto play Nantes in the French league. We could have played a random team that no one had heard of but we were playing all teams that I had heard of and had a sort of idea and knew they were good quality.

“To beat Malmo and Nijmegen made it that little bit extra special.”

Now playing up front, it was the NEC Nijmegen game at Turner’s Cross where the Wexford born striker began to make people outside of Ireland take notice, grabbing the only goal in Cork City’s 1-0 win over the Dutch side.

“It was another day in Cork where the place was sold out and there was a great atmosphere and a lovely sunny day. We won the game and we had a great celebration out that night afterwards!  

“From a personal point of view, to be able to play in those European games and score a goal or two, just to be able to show when you are dealing with the next club when you go to England and they say, ‘well he’s played in Europe and he’s scored against these teams,’ it gives you that extra bit of credibility or star power or whatever to try and show that you deserve your chance at the next level.”

As a Cork City fan, I can distinctly remember that 2004 Intertoto run and fearing no-one. Whoever we drew, I fancied our chances. This started with the manager and quickly spread through the players and subsequently the fans.

“Compared to their coefficients or whatever it is called now, Ireland teams have probably done a little bit better than their coefficient would suggest over the past few years I think. Back then we certainly did [feel unbeatable] in that year. It seems to get harder and harder for them, but they always seem to get good results.

“Pat obviously built us up [as a aquad]and built us up individually, so to the outside world we were unbelievable. That fed to us players and you felt that you were as good anyone. You didn’t feel inferior to any team. We felt like that on the pitch too.

“The amount of preparation and the small details that went into those games, watching the videos and the other small details that helped us believe that we were as good as them, we did everything that you would have done at the time in the Premier League in England. There was nothing different in terms of the preparation or anything that goes into those games.

“We all felt, well I certainly did anyway, that looking around the team that all the players we had were as good as we were going to have!”

“He [Pat Dolan] demanded a lot and made it very tough. It was tough. He was as tough on you as any manager, but you could see yourself benefitting from it.

“As hard as it was, he wanted us to believe we were as good as everyone else and not to feel inferior to any team. People supporting English teams used to drive him mad, he wanted everyone to be supporting the League of Ireland teams. All that fed to us as well. It was tough, but from my perspective it gave me the belief and helped me know what to do when I went onto the next level.”

Dolan would lead Cork City to third place in 2003 then second place the following year, before he was sacked as manager ahead at the end of 2004. Having followed Dolan from St Pats to Leeside, I ask Doyle was it tough for him at the time?

“Yes, it was. He’d been my only professional manager but it had been tough for all of us. We were all shocked at the time I think, but Damien Richardson came in and steadied the ship and on we went again.

“I often laugh and joke with Pat about it and say, ‘the best thing that ever happened was that you got sacked at Cork, because I’d have never got a move and would have been still there’,” Doyle guffaws.

“To play under another manager professionally, one with a different style of management, and to see that he still liked me and he still picked me. When you are that age you don’t know if it is just one manager who likes you, but Damien came in and I played just as well and even kicked on again that season for the first ten or fifteen games I was there.”

To date Doyle has carved out a successful career in football; winning a league medal in the League of Ireland, a Championship medal and promotion to the Premier League with Reading, a League One medal and promotion to the Championship with Wolves, and reaching the play-offs with QPR. So how does his time on Leeside and the dressing room there compare?

“You look back on it now and we had a great spirit. Different clubs you come to though, you can have a great spirit. That Cork team was great for a couple of years but then it all turned sour with financial troubles and everything. Nothing ever lasts at whatever club.

“We had great times at Reading and we didn’t have some great times at Reading. We had some great times at Wolves and some not so great times at Wolves. So wherever you go, you can have good times or not but looking back now, I was lucky that the whole time I was at Cork was good. I left before any finance trouble so I only had good times at Cork which is nice.

“I suppose that is unusual for any club to leave on a high like that. It was just enjoyable the whole time. I had college friends down there and I was living on College Road in my first year there. Then we moved to a house and there must have been about twelve of us in that house – it was cracked! We had great times at the [Western] Star.”

A mischievous grin has now spread across the former Reading striker’s face at the thought of his nights out in the famous UCC watering hole.

“I used to be going in and getting my lunch in the university, but it was great to be able to do that, as a full-time professional footballer with Cork, to be able to live a bit of a college experience life.

“A lot of lads go straight in to an English academy and they don’t get that; they’re in a bubble. I was lucky to get a bit of the messing out of my system I suppose at 17, 18, 19, 20 and go to England being able to drive a car and have my own apartment and do all of that stuff. You don’t take it for granted then. It was amazing, I was just so happy to be able to have that opportunity.”

Dolan would continue to play a big part in Doyle’s career despite his sacking, alongside his brother Eamonn who was underage coach at Reading.

“That’s how I ended up more-so at Reading. At the time when I was leaving Cork, there was a few different people sniffing around and all and that was one of the reasons I ended up at Reading. Eamonn was going to make me feel more like home.

“He was the youth team manager but he was still a big help to me when I first went over; giving me little tips and what Steve Coppell would like and telling me what I needed to do to impress Steve Coppell. You go over there, and it’s hard for them to quantify where you are when you are when you’re playing League of Ireland to where you would be if you were playing in the Championship at Reading.

“I was lucky and I was fit and full of confidence when I left Cork City and joined Reading. Eamonn in particular gave me plenty of little hints in the first few weeks of what would impress Steve Coppell and what would make sure that I would be given my chance and it was up to me then whether I would take it or not.

“I was 20/21. A lot of the lads had already been to England and come back or whatever. I’d had different opportunities with trials or whatever and I’d not taken them. I was young but also I was a lot more experienced than I would have been as a 15 or 16-year-old. To go over there at 20 was perfect for me.

The Republic of Ireland international admits he did a lot of growing up during his time in the League of Ireland and doesn’t envy young players trying to make it in the game amidst the backdrop of an unforgiving world of social media.

“It was hard to do anything out of the limelight, but I was lucky and I am blessed that there was no Instagram or twitter or any of that back then, because the pressure that brings on a player now. Every performance and every little thing you do in a match or whatever is commented on and you’re the worst player in the world after only your first or second game.

“If you are a young player and you are 20 and if it was me and my first game in England. I was lucky in that I hit the ground running, but if you have a bad first game you could have hundreds of people on twitter slamming you. Then that was not the case so I was able to settle in and I was given my chance relatively quickly and I took it.”

To say he ‘took it’ is a bit of an understatement. Doyle took the Championship by storm and fired his side into the English Premier League for the first time in their history. He admits that never in his wildest dreams could he have predicted how well it would have gone as the striker found himself caught up in a whirlwind.

“I remember the first week of pre-season we only had 12 players and you wouldn’t have known what way it was going to go. We were probably more likely to get relegated than to win the league, but you could never predict.

“You can dream but for example we still have the points record for getting promoted to the Premier League. 106 points or something and 33 games unbeaten. In no dream you’re going to have that. It was fantastic.

“The following year then we’re in the Premier League. Within a year and a half of playing league of Ireland to the Premier League, and we finished eighth that season. Then within two months [of joining Reading] I was in my first Ireland squad. Brian Kerr picked me for it.

“There was a lot of giant steps very quickly. It was slow maybe up to 21 then all of a sudden very quickly, but I was prepared for it. I didn’t feel like I didn’t belong and I was in a good environment where I was. Reading really looked after me really well.”

Doyle’s moved across the water to the Championship, midway through a season where his Cork City teammates were looking to seal the League of Ireland title. It is hard not to draw similarities between his situation and that of Seani Maguire who has recently made the switch to Preston North End. Living in Colorado, the 33-year-old is well aware of Maguire’s reputation so what advice would he give the 23-year-old?

“He’s a great age. I don’t know him, but from speaking to Liam [Kearney] I have heard that he’s a great lad. That’s half the battle. It’s a case of getting that bit of luck. He’ll be fit and he’ll be ready to go and then it’s just a case of, when you get that chance, taking it.

“In one way it’s tough because he’ll go from being a star at Cork and a star in the League of Ireland to there, but he’s lucky because there’s quite a few Irish lads at Preston now and that will help him a lot.

“You sort of have to re-prove yourself again when you get that chance. At least he will be fit and in a rhythm when he does get that chance, he should be in position to take it.

“All the tips I got were like, to be showing you are doing extra and be showing that you are in the gym. Even if you’re not doing it, but showing that you are dedicated. All of those little things and the manager knows he can trust you.

“Forget about nice cars and being flashy for six months or a year or whatever it is to just do all the other stuff. Then when things work out you can have all the things you want but you just need to be so blinkered and not give anyone any reason to doubt you or not want to pick you.”

It’s not just Maguire’s form that has caught Doyle’s attention as he has numerous connections with John Caulfield’s men who have opened a large lead on their nearest rivals Dundalk.

“Greg Bolger is a second cousin. Benno [Alan Bennett] I still keep in touch with and obviously Liam [Kearney] and I have been good friends since I’ve been in Cork. I had him and Hoggy [Neal Horgan] up in Wexford for two nights out last Christmas.

“It’s getting thinner on the ground there, but there’s still a couple and it still gives me an interest with Cork to see those names still there. Nults [Mark McNulty] as I said is another. The odd time I would send Woodsy [Billy Woods] a message on Instagram.

“It’s nice to see those people still there and it’s nice to see that they’re coaching too. We’re all at that age now. There’s less and less people I’d played with still playing with more and more retired. It’s a strange transition.”

Amongst all his achievements on the field, unsurprisingly playing for, scoring for and captaining his country out ranks all else. As a six-year-old, Doyle would be wearing his Ireland jersey, kicking a ball around with a career as a Republic of Ireland international a fanciful dream. As we begin to discuss his international career, the international veteran is bursting with pride and it’s obvious he values each and every single one of his 64 caps.

“Sometimes then, when you get one cap you think you’d like ten – ten, 20, 25, then when I got to 50 thinking jeez I’d love to get to a hundred. Beggars can’t be choosers though and when you get to 64, you’re incredibly proud. Particularly when you look at the route I took, people don’t expect you to.”

These days it is a common occurrence for League of Ireland graduates to find their way into Martin O’Neill’s Republic of Ireland squad, but Doyle was once the poster-child for domestically based players trying to make it.

“I was [one of the first]. I perhaps started a little trend and since then a lot of lads have done well since. I’m immensely proud of it. There’s one other person for Wexford that has played for the senior team and it was in the 1920s.

“When I was young it was trying to see a route of how I could do it and there was no path before. Even now it might give other lads at home in Wexford hope to see that Kevin Doyle played for Wexford Youths and he went to St Pats and then Cork and there is a way. It was either Gaelic or nothing at that stage in Wexford.”

In fact, it has become so commonplace that Doyle confesses that it is not something the League of Ireland alumni talk about as much anymore.

“There’s so many of us there in the Irish squad, that it’s not that unusual anymore. Daryl Murphy, who I get on very well with, we’d speak a lot. We left at the same time from the league of Ireland and Stephen Ward left a year or two after and I’d have played with Wardy at Wolves.

“You’d have a good chat about it. You’d have good memories and good time talking about it and the other lads wouldn’t know what you’re on about. But now it’s such a normal thing that it’s not a really a topic anymore.”

After Reading, Doyle joined Wolves before having loan spells at QPR and Crystal Palace. In 2015 however, the former Cork City marksman perhaps raised an eyebrow or two when he left the familiarity of English football and uprooted to Colorado with his wife and kids in tow.

“At the time, I wasn’t up for it and I was going to stay in England and keep doing what I’d been doing. Colorado were excellent though and they flew me over for a look around. I told them ‘look, I’ve two young kids and I’m not going to move,’ but I came over and have a look and they convinced me. I was only here for two or three days with my brother and they sold it to me and I’m delighted that they did. I’m here over two years now.

“The odd time you’d see English football around Christmas and you’d think ‘you know what, I’d love that atmosphere’ on Stephen’s Day and things like that, but then I’m on holidays at Christmas and I’m enjoying that as well with two months off. Sometimes I look at some of those games and think I’d love to be involved, but I’ve loved it here. I’ve really enjoyed it and if I hadn’t come I’d have massively regretted it.”

Colorado Rapid’s number nine admits he and his family are loving life in Colorado and the lifestyle it brings.

Doyle isn’t the only one of that title winning Cork City squad who have gone further afield to play football neither. George O’Callaghan and Joe Gamble had stints in Asia, Liam Kearney would play in Australia while Roy O’Donovan would play in both. Elsewhere, people like Cillian Sheridan have made a career for themselves in less traditional football leagues like Poland and Doyle thinks that this is something that young Irish players should consider.

“Definitely, why wouldn’t you? The tactics are different and the style of play is different. There’s a lot more South Americans here and it’s a slower style of play. It’s more technical and people can either believe me or not when I say that but the amount of tactics and training we do and coaching would be a lot more than I’ve experienced in England.

“And I love English football! I think it’s the best to watch and stuff but to come here and see a different side to it has been great as well. Different experiences and different coaches. The American style of coaching is different to the English style of coaching and it’s been great.”

But what about the knockers who say that MLS is a poor standard?

“You can say this and that and some people say that the defending isn’t good here, but if you look at English game and look at the defending there, there’s loads of goals in every game.

“It’s whatever you want to see yourself in the game, but if anyone is coming I would tell them that you have to like playing in thirty degrees heat. You acclimatise but it’s tough. From May to September it’s hot, whether you’re in Colorado or wherever.

“You do a lot of travelling and a lot of hotels etc. For me that’s been the toughest side of it. I’ve two small kids in Colorado and I’m away this weekend on Thursday and back on Sunday. It’s tough on my wife whose there with them, but then again, she’s loved it. It’s easy for me to say as I’m lucky that I’m getting paid well to come over here and it’s a fantastic experience.

“From a lifestyle and seeing football from a different set of eyes, I’ve loved it. If I was ever wanting to be a manager, I’ve learned so much from the different coaching here. You shouldn’t always do things the one way and it’s nice to see another way.”

The 33-year-old is still leading the line for Colorado Rapids in the MLS, helping them to the playoffs in 2016. Unlike other internationals like Damien Duff and Keith Fahey, Doyle does not envisage a playing return to League of Ireland however.

“You never say never but I don’t think so. I think when I’m done here or wherever, I’m done. I’d just be forcing the issue. I have good memories of playing in the league of Ireland – real good memories, and there would be no need to. Whereas Damien Duff had wanted to experience the League of Ireland so he came back, but I already did that so I don’t think I need to.

“I have my league medal too. I had a great night down in Cork collecting that after that season. I got to come back from Reading when I was the off-season and I got it off Brian Lennox on the pitch at half time.”

With former teammate Neale Fenn now managing Longford Town, Colin O’Brien managing Ireland underage sides and Dan Murray and Billy Woods teaming up to manage Cork City’s under 15 side, Doyle is warming to the idea and will do his coaching badges.

“I always said when I was younger ‘no, definitely not’, but now as I’ve gotten older, I’ve been swayed a bit. You learned so much and you’ve seen so much with different managers that you’d love to be able to put your point across, but it’s a stressful job. Every manager gets sacked no matter who you are. Unless your Alex Ferguson or Arsene Wenger, you’re getting sacked after three or four years. Jose Mourinho has been sacked twice and he’s one of the best managers in the game.

“You have to really weight it up, and do you want your family to be moving about for the rest of your career. So, I’ll do my coaching badges and maybe dip my toe in, but it’s a big big commitment and I admire anyone who becomes a manager because it’s a tough tough job.”

Whatever lies in store for the Wexford native, he has the task of first trying to help his Colorado teammates to a second successive post-season. They may be towards the bottom of their conference, but he returns from Toronto to his new home in the Rockies with a valuable away point against last year’s finalists and a fighting chance of making the cut.

This interview is adapted from an original interview that appeared in Cork City’s match programme CITY EDITION. Many thanks to Cork City FC and Kevin Doyle for allowing for this to being re-published on this site.