Kilduff only wants players who want to be at Dundalk FC

New Dundalk FC manager Ciaran Kilduff expects to make wholesale changes to his squad – as The Lilywhites prepare for next season’s SSE Airtricity League First Division.

Among the nine players contracted to the Oriel Park club for the 2025 campaign are Daryl Horgan, Jamie Gullan, Dara Keane, Sean Keogh, Dan Pike and Aodh Dervin.

While Kilduff has outlined that Horgan, whose deal runs out in 2026, is a “massive part” of his plans, and that Dervin was also being retained, he suggested some in-contract players would be moved on, with Gullan thought to be on the radar of Bohemians.

“I probably won’t be keeping all nine,” he told The Democrat. “There’s stuff going on in the background, we’ve just been relegated, there’s budget things. All of those things now are going to come to the fore. I need to speak to as many players as I can as quickly as I can.

“I only want players who want to be here. I don’t want players who want to be elsewhere and will just stay here for the sake of it. That’s not the way I want to do it.

“I want to be here and I want my players and my staff to want to be here too. I don’t want them to be here for any other reason other than they want to be here to fight for Dundalk FC in this time.

“My work starts now with the players. I need to get around them now. I need to start talking to others and I need to just make sure that we’re in a better place and that by January and by February we’re ready to go.”

Of those out of contract, ex-Dundalk forward Kilduff – who played alongside John Mountney, Robbie Benson and Andy Boyle – plans to sit down with his former teammates with a view of trying to persuade them to remain at Oriel for next season.

“I’d like to speak to all the lads,” he said. “They’re kind of awkward conversations when they’re your ex-teammates and friends. I have to speak to John and that’s probably on my to-do list.

“I’ve just got announced five minutes ago, so I’m literally getting to work now. John is someone right up the top of my list that I want to sit down and speak with.

“I’ve no knowledge of maybe where John’s headspace is at after the way last season went and stuff like that. I’m going to be open and honest with John the same way John will be with me.

“As much as it’s a negative to sometimes have awkward conversations, you can also be honest. Me and John are going to have a good chat either way and I’d like to think I can have a really positive chat with John.”

On Boyle’s future, he added: “Again, another one that’s on the to-do list. You have loads of lads to speak to. They’ve just got relegated. They probably have aspirations to play in the Premier Division. I don’t know if they have opportunities or offers.

“I have a lot of information I need to get in the coming days from staff, senior players here and also young players coming through and also players I’m trying to bring in.

“You’re trying to get a gauge on where people’s heads are. The reality is there has been trauma, and players need time to digest that.

“I’m coming in trying to promise them a new dawn, but I don’t know how much that trauma has taken a toll on them. That will be my work for the next couple of weeks.”

As a player, Kilduff was a First Division winner at both UCD and Shelbourne, and he believes Shels winning the Premier Division title this season can inspire Dundalk.

The Lilywhites have twice in their history won the First Division, doing so in 2000-01, before a last-gasp promotion in 2008, at the expense of Shels, ended a seven-season run in the second tier. Dundalk’s new boss hopes it’s a case of “third time lucky” in 2025.

“We are where we are and you’ve got to roll your sleeves up and fight to get out of it,” he said. “Every year 10 teams try to fight to get out of it. We’re just one of them now, but they’ve done it before.

“All the great sporting stories have gone through tough times. You have to overcome adversity and we’re in adversity right now, but I’m hoping it’s the start of an upward curve now for the club and its future.

“You have to look at those case studies and stories as motivation and tools. Dundalk have done it themselves in the past, not just Shelbourne or (Shamrock) Rovers.”