Three year Terryland deal for Connor

Sean Connor was today introduced to the Galway public as the new manager of Galway United, having signed a three-year deal on Sunday which club CEO Nick Leeson hopes will "reinvigorate" and radically change the way the Connacht club goes about its business.

Speaking today at Connor's unveiling in Supermac's Eyre Square branch, Leeson admitted that mistakes had been made in recent times but vowed to address the matter and hoped that the stability of a long-term contract for the side's manager would be a turning point in the club's fortunes.

"It is my belief that we need to reinvigorate the football club at this time, and we have had some difficulties over the last couple of years," Leeson stated. "One of those has come from the fact that Galway United has been a team not a club, and we need to change that over the next few years. It is that reason that Sean will be signing a three year deal to make sure we change the way the club is run, and the way that it interacts with the community, and the way we deal with the local leagues.

"In the upcoming years I am sure that Sean Connor will challenge me, and hopefully during those years I will challenge Sean also. I have no doubt that we will improve our league position next year, and in the years after that as well."

Challenges of varying sorts were a recurring theme among the speakers, who included Club President Michael D. Higgins, and Leeson first outlined the challenging process of how the Board identified their number one target.

"We have undergone a very painstaking interview process over the past week or so. Two Directors of the club and an independent HR professional were used to interview the first candidates. I would like to thank everybody who applied for the job. There was a very high calibre of individual who applied. The first series of interviews were on Tuesday and Wednesday of last week. A scoring process with certain criteria was used to examine those candidates, and two exceptional candidates came forth from that process.

"Of those two there was one outstanding score which was Sean Connor. Sean and one other were interviewed by myself and the Chairman on Sunday. We sought references as part of the process, but the very clear winner of that process, and the person the Directors of Galway United wanted to manage the club going forward was Sean Connor.

"Sean has an outstanding knowledge of football management, and it was very clear from the interview process that he has the drive and the ambition that is probably unrivalled in the League. Above all he is an excellent coach, and it would probably be fair to say that in the coming season we will have limited rescources at our disposal so Sean's coaching knowledge will very much come to the fore, and hopefully will drive us to the next level."

For all his coaching expertise, in the immediate future, the job criteria is simple, yet challenging. Keep the club in the Premier Division. Not much of a new diversion from the objectives of the past few seasons for Galway United, yet one which still excites the newly installed man.

"I am very excited," Connor revealed. "The thing that attracted me is the challenge, it is a massive challenge. It is probably the biggest challenge I have taken as a coach or a manager, and I am well aware of the situation as regards resources, but the whole League of Ireland is facing a challenge. From the outside I think this is a massive club, a big city, and there is no reason why that we cannot be challenging for honours and European football.

"I had a couple of offers to go to Africa which I turned down, I had an opportunity to go back to America, and I had one or two other options, but I talked to my family, and we wanted to stay in this country. There is a challenge here to build a football club from the bottom right up, and the fact that I will be in total charge of the football side of the business is what excited me, and I really want to get my teeth into it now. I want to see what impact I can have in the history of Galway United."

"I have signed a three year contract, and it is like at any football club, I am going to test Nick, he is going to test me. I am quite sure that the ambition of this football club will more than match my ambitions, and it is going to be a long process. It is not going to be easy, resources are tight, it is going to be a difficult year, but the job is to make sure we stay in the Division, and to put structures and foundations in place so we can take this football club forward."

Connor also confirmed that his backroom staff would comprise of a much trusted lieutenant in Gareth Gorman, who has worked with him at both Sligo and Dundalk and was a player at United for four seasons, and Billy Clery, who had a spell as caretaker manager in 2008 following Tony Cousins' removal.