Dundalk FC face key player departures as Mountney and O'Kane make moves

Last week Andy Boyle departed Dundalk for Premium Division Waterford. This week it seems that club captain John Mountney and midfielder Ryan O'Kane may also be on the move.

According to reports in the Dublin media Mountney seems set to be on the move to Bohemians. Shelbourne at last appear to have won the race for Ryan O'Kane.

Mountney signed for Dundalk in 2012.He spent one year with Pats, before returning to Dundalk a year later in 2022. He made 268 appearances in total for Dundalk. The midfielder and defender scored 23 goals in that period for the Oriel Park club.

John's career has been bedevilled in the later years by injury. He picked up a serious injury with Pats in a game against Dundalk at Oriel Park.

Stephen O'Donnell stuck by John who returned to Dundalk when O'Donnell became manager in December 2021. John missed much of the 2022 and 2023 season through injury. In 2024 he shrugged off the injury and was one of a few who shone for Dundalk in a dark season.

John won five Premier Division medals. Four were with Stephen Kenny in 2014,2015,2016 and 2018. He also won a league medal under Vinny Perth in 2019.John captained Dundalk last season.

Stephen O'Donnell's decision to make him captain raised many eyebrows during the official launch of the league in January 2024. However it was certainly one move that Stephen O'Donnell got right last season. John was immense in his new role.

It was the first season in four in which he was an almost ever present in the team. John was an inspiration to his players. But sadly even he could not prevent Dundalk's relegation to Division One. John's contract ran out at the end of the season.

He went off to think over what he intends to do as he comes towards the end of his career as a player. All the indications are that he will be travelling up the road to join his old skipper and manager Stephen O'Donnell at Dalymount Park.

Stephen is assistant manager of Bohemians. At age 32 John has another couple of seasons ahead of him if he can remain injury free.

John also won three FAI Cups with Dundalk . That was in 2015, 2018 and 2020. He also won a cup winners medal with Pats in 2021. I was really hoping John would stay at Oriel for next season.

His leadership and experience are what Dundalk needs in their battle to get straight back up. But who can expect John or any player to opt to play in Division One when they can stay in the Premier Division. But football is a strange game.

Maybe John may change his mind and stay with Dundalk. He always has the choice to do that until he signs for Bohs. New manager Ciarán Kilduff will be disappointed that John looks set to depart.

It was clear when Ciarán came in as manager a few weeks ago that he seemed keen that John would stay on. Who knows. Maybe he will still get his wish.

Ryan O'Kane is one player that nobody expected to stay on with Dundalk. His three year contract at Oriel runs out at the end of November. He played with Warrenpoint and Cliftonville before joining Dundalk in February 2021.

Ryan is a very talented player who has enormous potential. I feel he has not been played to his full potential by the various different managers at Oriel since he came in.

The last two seasons he has often been left on the bench and brought in late to the games. This was a mistake. Ryan is a very skilful winger. There are not too many players who play on the wing who have his skill and potential.

One manager who definitely believes in him is Damian Duff. For weeks I have been saying that Ryan was on his way to Shelbourne. The delay seems to have been caused by the keen competition there was among other clubs for his signature.

At the weekend it seemed as if Damian Duff had won the race and that Ryan would be joining the champions. Ryan is the kind of player that would suit the Damian Duff style of playing. A move away from Oriel Park is what he needs.

The experience he will get at Tolka Park will be enormous. Ryan will be all the better for it. I wish him every success as I am sure do all Dundalk supporters.

Former Dundalk player Stephen McGuinness of the Professional Footballers Association of Ireland (PFAI) was on Newstalk's Off the Ball programme last week. He spoke about all things League of Ireland.

He did spend a lot of time speaking about Dundalk's close brush with liquidation in October. Stephen said that the game is in a really good place on the pitch, with nearly one million spectators attending games and the exciting finish to the league race between Shamrock Rovers and Shelbourne.

“It's been six years since we have had any issues about pay off the pitch” he said on Newstalk. “We are working with the FAI about the different models that exist or could exist at clubs. A club's spend is only supposed to be sixty five per cent of their turnover.

“If that was the case one would think that the issues that happened at Dundalk last season would have been highlighted, particularly when they were carrying a debt of €1.3 million from the year before. So I think there is a lot of concern that a lot of clubs may be losing from the year before.”

He continued: “I think that there is a concern there in general that a lot of our clubs are losing a lot of money per year. We need to get to a point where these issues need to be monitored.

“Clubs just can not be losing money every year. There have been established owners who have been there for some time. But the concern would be what would new investments look like.

“What are the guidelines for the new investments, what are the thresholds that have been brought in for that. The worry would be like the Dundalk situation seems to be someone who came in who did not have to show they had the financial power to run the football club.

“That's a concern when you have a club with a history of 123 years of history and that we are allowing people to come in and take it over.

''Obviously they are companies in their own right. But we do have to ensure from a point of integrity that we have to protect the game. We have to ensure that we have the clubs here for another 121 years.

“We have to ensure that there are the protocols and the parameters to ensure there is the correct oversight placed on clubs. The ownership model in general among the clubs is good. It's the new owners that we must ensure are coming in for the right reasons.

“There seems to be a lot of investment floating around football not just in Ireland but worldwide also. Not everybody's intentions are the same.

“If a potential owner is coming in they must be able to prove that they have the finance to run the club. The concern we had in Dundalk's case is that the FAI did not require it to be shown that a new potential owner had the finance to take on the one million euro required to run the club.

“The finances of the new incoming owner were not being checked. If we are going to allow people to come in and takeover football clubs, they must be able to prove that they have the financial power to do that.

“What we wanted was that new owners have a certain amount of money when they takeover. The FAI are reluctant to put this in place.

“The feeling seems to be that it might scare off people from investment.At the moment all that is needed is for a new investor to convince existing owners that they have the investors required to run the club.

“They only have to convince existing owners that the investors will follow after the front man presents their case. No details on these investors have to be given.

''They do not have to prove anything to the FAI either. The only thing that has to be done is for the existing owners who are selling the club that the potential take over investors have the finance to take on the club.

''You are putting a lot of faith in the people who are running the football club to make the right decision. If they are under financial stress, they may take anybody that comes in the door.

''I am not saying that this is what happened at Dundalk. But from the outside that is what it looked like what the case was. The closing date for club applications for licences has been pushed out to November 26th to give the clubs a bit more breathing space for Dundalk and other clubs.'' 

The PFA are proposing to introduce a minimum of academic players in the league next season. Stephen McGuinness also revealed that a third Division in the League of Ireland has been pushed back past 2026.

McGuinness's expression that the FAI oversight was not as thorough as it might have been last year when Brian Ainscough took over at Oriel is understandable. Dundalk were awarded their licence a month before the club changed hands.

FAI CEO David Courell has accepted accepted that it was not correct where checks carried out Ainscough was the Kerry FC owner. He was able to transfer over to Dundalk after he purchased the Oriel Park club.

Stephen McGuinness says that the extension of the licensing deadline would make people think that time is needed for some clubs from a financial point of view. He says there is money owed at Dundalk.

Club owner John Temple and CEO Peter Halpin are working through this. McGuinness says he has been in contact with John Temple.

He says John has confirmed to him that players will be paid before the licensing date. That McGuinness says must be taken in good faith and that the PFAI do.

McGuinness says that there are a lot of elements to the debts at Dundalk. He says there is an awful lot of work in it. Stephen says that from John Temple's point of view when he took over at Oriel he only really started to realise the types of monies that were owed.

Stephen says it's been a difficult time for Dundalk. It's a big rebuild. But Stephen says that everyone is hopeful that the club will be in a healthy state for next season.

Meanwhile the Dundalk FC Supporters Trust held their first Annual General Meeting eight days ago. Moves to set up the Trust only started five weeks ago.

It's aim is to be there as a protector of the club, should it ever come close to the liquidation scenario it faced in September. 190 members attended. The fund collected so far was €90,000 and increasing. People are continuing to join.

It's a fantastic tribute to the new organisation that they have already reached such a strong membership and raised such an amount of finance. 13 directors were elected to the new committee, while the new constitution was adapted.

Trust media officer Gerry Lennon says the meeting was a very successful meeting. '''Nearly half the members of the Trust attended the meeting”, he said.

“The fact that we have been able to raise nearly €90,000 in such a short period is beyond belief. We are really delighted and thankful to people who attended the AGM and who contributed and voted in a new constitution.

They also elected 13 new directors. I would also like to thank everybody else who has contributed financially or in any other way. We have had lots of assistance with promotion days around the town.

We know there are many people out there who are waiting to see what is happening with the club and ourselves. I would appeal to these people to get on board and join the Trust now. Look what we have done in a few weeks. The potential for the trust is unlimited''.

He continued: ''If the full fanbase of the club were to get behind us, there is no limit to what we can achieve. It has been hard work getting us to where we are now. Many people put in a lot of work.

“There are even some people who do not live in Dundalk who have put in such expertise in getting us to where we are at now. Our website is now up and running, https://dfcsupporterstrust.ie.

“We are also on Facebook and on Twitter or X. The payment options to join are all on these social media outlets.I appeal for more people to come out and join us. The more members we get the stronger we will be.

''To have 200 members on board is phenomenal. Three weeks ago we would have been happy with a membership of one hundred or 120.To be where we are even now, I would never have expected this.

“We even had people queuing up to get in here tonight for the meeting. The people of Dundalk are seeing the merit and value of the Trust and what it can achieve. The people who have signed up have taken the leap of faith.

“There are many others who can do so also. They are very much needed so that we can insure the club never again goes to the point of being nearly liquidated.

''We are independent, but we are willing to talk to anybody .We are willing to talk to whatever owners that are in Oriel. I could not see why an owner would not want to speak to us, given the volume of people and finance we have already gathered up.

“I think that we will be able to engage with the club sooner rather than later. It's early days for everybody. We are not exactly sure of the status of the club going forward. But we are all here. We all want the one thing. That is for Dundalk FC to thrive and survive.

''Hopefully the response to the Trust and the numbers who have joined already are laying down secure foundations for the future of the club. Dundalk FC has thousands of supporters out there.

“If people want to join for €260 for the year or the €520 they will be very welcome. We have had quite a number who have paid the €1,000 membership fee. But it does not matter what people pay.

“The different pay amounts will give everybody equal membership rights. People can join for as little as five euro a week. There is no financial return for anybody who does join.

“But people are realising that this is the way to secure the future of the club. If we get the numbers and get the buy in, we can certainly do a lot of things around the club, but not necessarily by buying or owning the club. Let's see where we can go with this''.

Gerry emphasised what committee member Tony McBride had told the members, that the Trust was not there to pay past debts. The Trust will be there to avoid future debts.

''Lets help the owners whoever they may be, that the Trust can take on with projects or commercial aspects of running the club on a season basis that can take the burden off them”, he said.

“That's the sort of engagement we want. We do not necessarily want to own the club. Maybe at some time in the future there is a shared option or a shared percentage available of owning part of the club, In the future we might look at that.

“But that would have to go back to the members. That will be a decision for the members to take. All we would want is that our money is being used in the right way and that there is general good governance in the club.

''We have very professional people involved in the Trust. This includes a number of accountants and legal people. We have had other good people with strong integrity involved as well. We all as members, just want our club to survive and thrive''.

Ciarán Kilduff has confirmed his staff for next season. Ken Kiernan arrives as assistant to Ciaran. Gerry Spain returns to the club as match analyst. Liam Burns remains on as first team coach while Peter Cherrie stays as goalkeeping coach.

Ken Kiernan was Kilduff's number two at Athlone Town last season when they led the women's team to the FAI cup in November 2023. Ken then took charge of the Bohemians women's team in the season just gone by. 

Gerry Spain was a key member of Stephen Kenny's backroom staff between 2013 and 2016. He returns as first team coach and match analyst. It's great to see Liam Burns staying as first team coach.

He showed how good he was in the dark days last season when he took charge of the first team temporarily as managers fell by the wayside.

I was very impressed by the way Liam took charge of the team and by his honest reflection and interpretation of the games in post match interviews. Liam has a fantastic understanding of the game.

Peter Cherrie to me will always be a legend at Oriel Park. He was signed in 2009 as first team keeper. He won a league medal with Stephen Kenny in 2014. Kenny surprisingly let Peter go at the end of the season.

It's doubtful Dundalk would have won the league in 2014 except for a super save from Cherrie against Bray in the Carlisle grounds in the second last game of the season.

Peter returned to Oriel in 2021. It was a season where Shane Keegan, Filippo Giovagnoli and Jim Magilton were managers at different times. Common sense prevailed when Vinny Perth returned.

But he left Peter on the bench for a number of games. As Dundalk slumped towards relegation Vinny turned to Peter. He provided instant stability and was able to ensure Dundalk finished in mid-table. 

Peter has been with the club since Vinny brought him back. He became the second team keeper in 2022 and 2023. In season 2024 he was appointed goalkeeping coach and holds the position for next season.

It was a proud week for Dundalk academy player Sean Keogh who made his under 21 and under 19 debuts for the Republic of Ireland. Jad Hakiki also made his debut at under 19 and 21.

Sean played in wins over Azerbaijan and Iceland as the under 19's topped their group. Jad played over 85 minutes over two friendlies against Sweden in Spain.

Dundalk FC are looking for players to join their Womens' under 17 and 19 teams for next season. Prospective under 17 players would have to be born in the years 2008, 2009 or 2010.

Prospective women players for the under 19 team must have been born in the years 2006 and 2007. To register interest potential players are asked to email womens.football @dundalkfc.com.

Dundalk FC have announced CLUB 500 .This is a unique supporters programme designed to boost the stability of the club next season.

Club 500 offers fans an exclusive chance to support Dundalk FC while enjoying special benefits, such as a Stand Season Ticket, 20 percent off the shop, gym membership and indoor pitches, match day food and a match day programme.

Go to the following link on the club's twitter page bit/.ly/40VNNCB. Supporters are being urged to sign up today.

The PFA Ireland held their awards on Saturday. Dundalk boss Ciaran Kilduff received the PFA Ireland's Women's Premier Division Manager of the Year award for 2024. 

Have a safe week. Be careful out there. Please remember to look after each other.