Coughlan talks on Cork's future
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If Cork had been hoping for a bumper crowd to keep the wolf from the door, then Sunday’s turnout of 3,262 against Ipswich will have proved somewhat underwhelming. It wasn’t quite the magnitude of the crowd which turned out to see Keane’s previous club, Sunderland, two years ago; but, with tickets retailing at €25 a pop, the money raised should go some way towards aiding the club in its ongoing battle with the Revenue Commissioners.
A fine performance will also have cheered the supporters, with Cork running out deserved winners by a margin of 2-0. Manager Paul Doolin was keen to emphasise the positives after the game.
“You’d have to be satisfied after a display like that against a Championship team, even if it did come against a team in the middle of their pre-season,”, he said. “I thought Faz [Kuduzovic] and Kevin [Long] both played well, and Cillian Lordan was excellent”.
“Davin O’Neill did wonderfully well for the second goal. I thought our performance today showed real character. It was a good crowd, and that will help financially. It’s an ongoing problem but we’ve just got to keep focussed on what we do on the field”.
“You saw a lot of young lads out there today, many of them local boys and that’s testament to the talent and spirit at this club. Qualification for Europe remains our goal and I’d have every confidence that we can do that”.
Chairman Tom Coughlan had come in for abuse from a section of the shed supporters who remained behind long after the final whistle to vent their frustrations at the manner in which the club is being run. Coughlan’s stock has plummeted on Leeside in recent weeks. Once viewed as a saviour, here he had to run the gauntlet of chants that the club was “in the wrong hands” which will be familiar to anyone who attended games towards the latter stages of Arkaga’s ill-starred tenure at the helm of the club.
“Well, Monday week remains the deadline and nothing has been finalised yet” said Coughlan when asked about the club’s current problems with the taxman. “We’re in negotiations and I’m sorry to say that the Revenue are taking a very harsh stance”.
“Ultimately, what we all want to see is a sustainable club capable of standing on its own two feet. We don’t want to be in the sort of situation where we find ourselves in a similar mess two or three months down the line again. There’s obviously the short-term imperative of dealing with the current situation, but we’re also trying to look to the long-term side of things too.”
When asked about his feelings on having come in for a sustained barracking by the fans, Coughlan tried to put a positive spin on things. “Well I guess at the end of the day, it’s not the San Siro. I can take the stick. It shows just how much people care about this club, and the important thing now is that we all pull together. The people of Cork mustn’t allow this great club to fold”.
When it was put to Coughlan that ultimate adjudicator on the club’s future would not be the people of Cork, but rather the Revenue Commissioners he remained upbeat. “Look, we saw today how good a team this is. We battered Ipswich, absolutely played them off the park.” He was asked if the money raised would go anywhere close to satisfying the Revenue’s demands he said that club had “Probably cleared somewhere in the range of €50,000 today. That’s obviously going to be useful in strengthening our hand.”
He was asked if any more sales were on the cards as the club struggles to cobble together the cash to keep itself afloat. “Well, hopefully Ipswich might put a bid of £1.25m for one of our lads,” he joked. “But I just want to promise you this much,” he continued: “This is not the end of anything... it’s only the beginning”.
Monday’s Evening Echo saw Coughlan expand further on his plans for the club. Speaking to Connor George, he outlined a vision that would see the ownership of the club pass into the hands of the supporters, a similar model that of Barcelona and, closer to home Shamrock Rovers. The timeline given to implement this new structure was put as being some time in the next three to four months. Whether that will lessen the wrath of the supporters, and whether there will even be a club come the Autumn, remains to be seen.
A fine performance will also have cheered the supporters, with Cork running out deserved winners by a margin of 2-0. Manager Paul Doolin was keen to emphasise the positives after the game.
“You’d have to be satisfied after a display like that against a Championship team, even if it did come against a team in the middle of their pre-season,”, he said. “I thought Faz [Kuduzovic] and Kevin [Long] both played well, and Cillian Lordan was excellent”.
“Davin O’Neill did wonderfully well for the second goal. I thought our performance today showed real character. It was a good crowd, and that will help financially. It’s an ongoing problem but we’ve just got to keep focussed on what we do on the field”.
“You saw a lot of young lads out there today, many of them local boys and that’s testament to the talent and spirit at this club. Qualification for Europe remains our goal and I’d have every confidence that we can do that”.
Chairman Tom Coughlan had come in for abuse from a section of the shed supporters who remained behind long after the final whistle to vent their frustrations at the manner in which the club is being run. Coughlan’s stock has plummeted on Leeside in recent weeks. Once viewed as a saviour, here he had to run the gauntlet of chants that the club was “in the wrong hands” which will be familiar to anyone who attended games towards the latter stages of Arkaga’s ill-starred tenure at the helm of the club.
“Well, Monday week remains the deadline and nothing has been finalised yet” said Coughlan when asked about the club’s current problems with the taxman. “We’re in negotiations and I’m sorry to say that the Revenue are taking a very harsh stance”.
“Ultimately, what we all want to see is a sustainable club capable of standing on its own two feet. We don’t want to be in the sort of situation where we find ourselves in a similar mess two or three months down the line again. There’s obviously the short-term imperative of dealing with the current situation, but we’re also trying to look to the long-term side of things too.”
When asked about his feelings on having come in for a sustained barracking by the fans, Coughlan tried to put a positive spin on things. “Well I guess at the end of the day, it’s not the San Siro. I can take the stick. It shows just how much people care about this club, and the important thing now is that we all pull together. The people of Cork mustn’t allow this great club to fold”.
When it was put to Coughlan that ultimate adjudicator on the club’s future would not be the people of Cork, but rather the Revenue Commissioners he remained upbeat. “Look, we saw today how good a team this is. We battered Ipswich, absolutely played them off the park.” He was asked if the money raised would go anywhere close to satisfying the Revenue’s demands he said that club had “Probably cleared somewhere in the range of €50,000 today. That’s obviously going to be useful in strengthening our hand.”
He was asked if any more sales were on the cards as the club struggles to cobble together the cash to keep itself afloat. “Well, hopefully Ipswich might put a bid of £1.25m for one of our lads,” he joked. “But I just want to promise you this much,” he continued: “This is not the end of anything... it’s only the beginning”.
Monday’s Evening Echo saw Coughlan expand further on his plans for the club. Speaking to Connor George, he outlined a vision that would see the ownership of the club pass into the hands of the supporters, a similar model that of Barcelona and, closer to home Shamrock Rovers. The timeline given to implement this new structure was put as being some time in the next three to four months. Whether that will lessen the wrath of the supporters, and whether there will even be a club come the Autumn, remains to be seen.
