Kenny looking to add three more

As the new season gets nearer, it’s been busy at Oriel Park in recent weeks. Stephen Kenny was in attendance at the Dundalk Community Trust AGM on Thursday evening to give an update on his progress in the close season and spoke about possible expectations.

First off, he spoke of how his squad building has gone and what he intends to add before his 2013 squad is finalised.

“We have a squad of 16 players. I will be signing another goalkeeper, to put pressure on Peter(Cherrie), another striker and probably a left-sided attacking player. That would conclude the squad. “

Kenny also confirmed that he is taking a look at the club’s U19 players, including Sami Osobe, who returned from Preston North End last summer.

“We have some players from the U19’s. Sami Osobe is training with us at the minute. Conor McDonald is with us. Fergal McMahon is a good player that has come in from Monaghan. Sami, Fergal and Conor are training with the first team at the minute and any other players who do well with the U19’s will be involved.”

While some players will progress onto the senior ranks, one player who may not be joining up with the first-team is highly regarded striker Bob McKenna and the former Shamrock Rovers boss explained that the youths player has other plans to move away from the club.

“More than likely Bob will leave the club. He has his heart set on a scholarship in America so we’ll wait and see what happens but it looks like he’s leaving.”

While fans have been content with Kenny’s squad building so far, there are some question marks over the lack of experience he has recruited. However, the former Candystripes gaffer dismissed those concerns but conceded that they will need ‘luck’ in the injury department.

“We haven’t got a lot of seasoned pros. We could have gone down that route. Instead, we are going with players who have a point to prove. I haven’t signed kids. I have signed young players like Andy Boyle, Kurtis Byrne and Richie Towell who are 20/21.

“Mark Rossiter and Stephen O’Donnell obviously have great experience. Dane Massey has five years in the league. Perhaps our squad size could be bigger. But we are not in the Setanta Cup or Europe so we don’t have that type of drain on the players. We need some luck with injuries. We have brought in Graham Byrne to do the sports science end of things”

The 41 year-old finished off by describing how he sees the league shaping up this season but refused to get into indulge on expectations for his own side.

“We’re going to win the league!, he joked. I can’t make any predictions about how we will do. It’s an interesting season ahead. Sligo are champions – Rovers, Derry, Pats, Cork, Drogheda have all added. Limerick seem to have a lot of resources. Bray have brought in a few and UCD will always be decent. Back in 2006 – the league was like that. Every match was really competitive. Last season Dundalk and Monaghan were cut off a bit. There was some weak teams in it last year. I don’t see any weak teams this year.”