Seven potential candidates to succeed Vinny Perth as Dundalk manager

Dundalk parted company with their league- winning manager Vinny Perth on Thursday evening, just nine games into the shortened 2020 season.

Many predicted change could be afoot following Wednesday’s disappointing 3-0 Champions League elimination at the hands of little know Slovenian outfit NK Celje.

The defeat, allied with poor league form that had yielded just two points from three games since the resumption, prompted American owners Peak6 to pull the trigger within 24 hours.

Unlike the circumstances surrounding Perth’s accession two years ago, a result of Stephen Kenny taking the Ireland under-21 job, there’s little chance of a smooth transition this time around.

While the Lilywhites remain champions – for the next month at least – Perth’s time at the helm has seen a lot of turnover in the playing squad with replacements for key players yet to convince.

Whoever takes on the job beyond the weekend, when Alan Reynolds and John Gill will take the reins, has a rebuilding job to do in the short term and, potentially, the long term too.

The Dundalk job is still one of the most attractive in Irish football – a squad of whom many have won multiple titles and owners with deep pockets.

Nevertheless, the manner of Perth’s departure will have given some pause and, given recruitment has increasingly come from abroad rather than the domestic league, Dundalk may look overseas for their next manager.

So who are the prime candidates to take over the Dundalk job?

Alan Reynolds

Former Waterford boss Reynolds was added to Perth’s coaching staff just under two months ago following his departure from the Blues.

He guided the Blues to the First Division title in 2017 and a fourth-placed finish the next year would have got them into Europe had UEFA not deemed the club to have breached ownership criteria.

The 46-year-old has also taken up a role as assistant to Jim Crawford with the Irish under-21s but it’s unlikely there would be an issue in balancing the two jobs.

He did well to guide Waterford to a sixth-placed finish last season following drastic budget cuts related to their removal from Europe and is highly thought-of by his peers.

With his time at Waterford having ended prematurely, he might relish the prospect of getting back on the horse with the league’s leading club over the past six years.

Mark Burton

As news broke that Perth had been relieved of his position on Thursday night, they were quickly followed by the name of Mark Burton.

The Canadian is not a well-known figure in Irish football circles but he has, for the past few weeks, been working with the club as a one-on-one coach.

Burton was most recently a youth coach with Manchester City and his appointment would more likely be a stopgap until the end of the season, unless he sees it as a step into management.

While he has no senior managerial experience, certainly less than the other candidates, his background with one of the world’s biggest clubs would be attractive for owners Peak6.

And while he has spent the past few weeks with the club, his lack of connections to the previous regime may also count in his favour.

Keith Long

It’s hard not to overstate the gravity of the transformation that has occurred at Bohemians since Keith Long replaced Owen Heary at the end of the 2014 season.

The former Bray Wanderers and Athlone Town manager may not have been a club legend like his predecessor but he quickly won the fans over with a stylish and successful brand of football.

A fifth-place finish in his first season was a remarkable achievement for a part-time club who had lost a number of top players who had followed Heary to Sligo Rovers.

Bar a blip in 2016, it has been continuous progress at Dalymount Park and last season’s third-place finish, behind the much-wealthier Dundalk and Shamrock Rovers, earned a Europa League spot.

So far this season, the bar has been raised still further and victory over the Lilywhites two weeks ago saw Bohs establish themselves as the main contenders for the title alongside Rovers.

Long’s preference for short-passing, progressive football and getting the maximum out of the players at his disposal would endear him to Lilywhites fans who have become accustomed to attractive ball.

With Bohs about to embark on their first European campaign in seven years, Long would be unlikely to move in the middle of the season but an offer in November could be more tempting.

Collie O’Neill

If Long represents the nearest approximation of the Kenny philosophy in the League of Ireland, Collie O’Neill represents the next level.

O’Neill’s UCD side strolled to the First Division title playing arguably the most attractive football that division has ever seen – playing passing football almost to a fault at times.

Whether supporters would accept a Drogheda man at the helm – or vice versa – is another matter, but they’d have little to complain about in terms of style.

Kenny’s success has been on moulding players in his image, and O’Neill has taken his group of scholarship players and immersed them in his vision of how the game should be played.

It’s difficult to know whether he would have the same success with older pros, but he has certainly demonstrated the tools on the coaching field.

The idea of taking on Dundalk might be anathema to a Drogheda man, and indeed he has a good job he may not risk for full-time football, but football-wise it would be a good fit.

What may count against O’Neill is the fact he was sacked mid-season by UCD amid attempts from the club’s high brass to interfere in on-field matters.

Similar rumours have surrounded Perth’s final weeks in the job and it’s doubtful a hard-headed coach like O’Neill would have time for that jibber jabber.

Paul Cook

The most ambitious – and thus probably unattainable – candidate of the lot is the former Sligo Rovers boss Paul Cook.

The Liverpudlian has won admirers all over England for the work he’s done with Accrington Stanley, Chesterfield and, most recently, Wigan Athletic.

He guided the latter back to the second tier of English football and kept them in the division playing an attractive brand of football while developing young talent.

Cook won plaudits for the dignified manner in which he handled the club’s administration this season as unexplained off-field problems saw them relegated due to a 12-point deduction.

He handed in his notice shortly afterwards, himself and his staff having gone unpaid for long periods, and is currently without work.

It’s difficult to see Cook returning to Ireland having build such an impressive resume in England but he may view the job as an attractive short-term proposition.

The one accolade missing from Cook’s four years at Sligo was a league title (Ian Baraclough won it the year he left with the bulk of Cook’s squad) so he has some unfinished business.

Dave Rogers

If international standing is what Dundalk’s American owners are interested in, then they don’t come much bigger than Liverpool FC.

For the past six years, former Shelbourne and Dundalk midfielder Dave Rogers has been one of the Anfield club’s most prized development coaches.

He has helped develop and set up programmes for the club in India, South Korea and the United States while developing his own coaching portfolio.

Rogers has managed DSK Shivajians in the Indian League, and was also involved for a time in the Indian national team as Steve Constantine’s assistant.

He’s currently head coach of semi-pro outfit FC Arizona, but fits the profile of a young, successful coach with a philosophy of passing football that would fit right in at Oriel Park.

Rogers completed his UEFA Pro License with the FAI this year and is already based in Louth so would intuitively understand what the club means to the community.

Rogers, perhaps more than any other candidate, can boast extensive knowledge of the league and Irish football and extensive experience in football outside of the country.

Terry Phelan

Another to have extensive experience in Indian football, Terry Phelan has long spoken of his desire to manage in the League of Ireland should the opportunity arise.

The former Ireland and Manchester City has spent the past decade in India working a variety of technical roles with the country’s top clubs.

He’s currently technical director with Benagluru-based South United, having previously spent several seasons with Kerala Blasters, both as technical director and caretaker head coach.

Phelan previously spent four years as player-coach of New Zealand side Otago United, and also spent time as a player in the US with Charleston Battery.

Manchester-born Phelan is fiercely proud of his Irish identity and spent childhood summers in his mother’s hometown of Tubbercurry, Co Sligo.

He has always maintained he would like to live in Ireland and the head coach role at the league’s biggest club could be the very thing that tempts him home.