Dundalk boss Perth provides update on players, staff and Europe as clubs learn of FAI return-to-play plan

Dundalk Head Coach Vinny Perth has said that he is hopeful that the FAI try their best to get the League of Ireland back underway.

Perth spoke to his club’s media team yesterday where he provided an update on incomings and departures from Oriel Park on both the playing and coaching staff side.

“It’s imperative that we try as best as we can to get football back up and running in this country,” he told DundalkFC.com. “The league is just not strong enough to take such a long break.

“If we’re not careful, it’ll become a case of ‘out of sight, out of mind’. If people get out of the habit of turning up to League of Ireland games, they might find it very hard to get back into it so we’ve got to work as hard as we can to get back.”

After returning to training this week, one man who has not returned to the Co. Louth club is attacking midfielder Cammy Smith.

“Cammy needs a bit of clarity at his end,” Perth said. “It has been difficult because of what has been going on so we will see how that plays out over the next few weeks.”

However, the former Longford Town caretaker boss said that former trialist Taner Dogan linked up with the squad again, and he will be joined by his compatriot Josh Gatt in the next week.

“Taner is back training with us now and we’re hoping that Josh will join in with us over the next week or so. The squad is more or less the same size as what it was last season, but we have rotated it to include more forward players.

“Having them in would enable us to play some 11 v 11 games,” he added. “I’m fighting with the medical department and the strength and conditioning team to allow those type of games as quickly as possible.

“To a point, playing games like that is still false, but with the quality in our squad, they’re games that could help us to prepare for Europe and they’re games that people would pay to watch.”



And the Lilywhites Head Coach added that he is hoping to get closer to appointing a new assistant in the next few weeks following Ruaidhri Higgins’s departure.

“We are looking to bring somebody in, and we have met with a couple of different people,” said Perth. “It’s such an important role so being able to meet people on a one-to-one basis is crucial and we haven’t been able to do that just yet.

“It’s still very early and we have lots of time on our side but, hopefully, this day week we’ll be a lot clearer in terms of what we’re doing.”

 

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