Galway Chairman Outlines Reasons for Dismissal

Galway United chairman John Fallon revealed the reasoning behind the sudden dismissal of Tony Cousins in his weekly Sports Matters column in today's GALWAY INDEPENDENT.

Titled "The demands of professionalism", Fallon wrote:

"It is far from pleasant to terminate a person’s employment but when the Executive Board of Galway United FC assembled for their regular board meeting at 7.30 am on Monday morning, they knew they had little choice but to relieve Tony Cousins and his management team of their duties. The demands of professional sport mean there is little room for sentiment. It is a performance and results business, which cannot accommodate excuses or whinging.

Targets, expectations, and high standards are minimum requirements in professional sport and the Galway United Board could themselves stand accused of dereliction of duty if they did not take action as the club foundered.

A year ago, with the onset of a full-time set-up and a budget of €1.2 million, enormous demands were placed on everybody involved in the club - volunteers and otherwise - to step up to the requirements.

It was appreciated by all that it would take time, even with a full-time set-up, to re-adjust to life in the Premiership. Results and performances began to pick up eventually towards the end of the season after extra money was found - the Executive Board have all made financial contributions to the club - to bolster the squad during the summer transfer window.

Top flight safety, after going six months without a win and going out of both cups to inferior opposition, was finally guaranteed by the second last match of the season and all could breathe a sigh of relief.

It was expected that the quality of results and performances at the end of the season would set the minimum benchmark for the new campaign when the club would push on and start challenging the clubs in the top half of the league.

Unfortunately, that did not happen. A rigorous fitness test of all players a couple of months ago revealed disturbing figures.

That had since been addressed but it will take time to get to the levels required. An indifferent pre-season campaign against lower league opposition heightened fears and one point from the first four games, including two losses at home, and just one goal scored, tells its own story.

Seven wins out of 37 league games since returning to the top flight just over a year ago does not stack up in a division where half of the clubs are part-time.

The players have to shoulder a lot of responsibility. It has been pointed out to them that they cannot have been satisfied with what they have produced as elite athletes.. They now need to respond like men, more importantly they need to respond with the standard you would expect from a professional.

On Monday the club offered to tear up the contract of any player who wanted to walk away at this point. None did. Anyone who stayed did so on the understanding that what was produced to date was miles away from what is required and what massive improvement will be demanded across the board, Galway United is fortunate to have someone of Billy Clery’s quality to come in and aid the club at this point. The Claddagh man never lacked passion when ha played for and captained Galway United and he will give the club space to make a permanent appointment.

The punter who forks out his or her money at the turnstiles - and let’s face it, full-time football is expensive - is entitled to expect at the very least a performance and ultimately a result.

It is now incumbent on all involved to deliver that. There is no guarantee that relegation will be avoided but professionalism demands that every effort must be made to achieve success. It can be a cold and cruel environment but you don’t need professionalism to tell you that success in sport has rarely been achieved without pain."