McGeeney & County Board close to deal.

Reports on KFM suggest that McGeeney is close to agreeing to stay on for his 6th term in charge of the Kildare Senior Footballers.

Kieran McGeeney and the county board are close to finalising details regarding continuing as football manager.

The manager and the Board have been engaged in discussions up to and including this weekend on a couple of issues the manager wants clarified.

There’s strong speculation that McGeeney was prepared to step away unless these were sorted.

Kfm Sport now understands from sources close to both parties that agreement will be finalised in the coming days for McGeeney to continue for another season.

What I would like to know is what were these issues that needed to be sorted?

Has McGeeney not got a year left on his Contract anyway? Anyone shed any light on the situation?

what funding there for senior team next year

What demands or requests did the County Board bring to the table?

Is there any changes in personnel in terms of selectors, back room staff, Strength and Conditioning Coach?

I am all for McGeeney staying on board. The level of professionalism he brings is something Kildare have not experienced.

However I feel there needs to be some freshening up. Maybe a new Strength and Conditioning Coach.

Clear the decks and completely new coaches with a new approach? Something needs to change.

Good news if you ask me, but there needs to be changes. As I mentioned in the other thread, Cian O Neill is the trainer of Mayo and was for Tipp when the won an All Ireland. Julie must be looking over her shoulder. He's a Kildare man and I'm sure he would like to try his hand at preparing Kildare at some point.

When you see the transformation in Donegal and Mayo it shows it can be done in a short time.
All the players, no exceptions need to be asked are you willing to commit again fully to the cause, if not then part ways, no hard feelings. Same with the management, physios, masseurs or whoever. Training regimes need overhauling, more time spent on speed and endurance than bulking up. More time on tactical drills. Whenever I have watched training, it just seems to be a warm up then AvB game. I have yet to see a tactical drill. You can bet Donegal practice their set up, a tactics like it's a well oiled machine.

There is no reason we cannot be as good as Mayo or Donegal. Get the tactics right, get the training right and get the players committed and you are on your way to wherever you want.

We are playing in Div 1 next year so that's a start to get the levels right, no easy showboating games in there. The next few months are very important to get the foundations solid again.
I believe McGeeney is the man to set these foundations right and be ruthless when he needs to be in changing what needs to be changed. Reality hit home this year, sentimentality has no place anymore.

Good post Spartacus I would agree with everything you said, especially about speed work and we also need to be able to adopt to different teams tactics, what I mean is have several plans for different opposition, change is good if we have fellas on the panel that have no hope of getting a game then they should be dropped and give a few of the very promising players around the county a go.

Lads, the main problem is the money been spent on county teams.......i was told there is a serious over haul of all expenses by the county board that is been spent on county teams, especially senior team, heard that club chairmen at special finance meeting last week insisted that county board have a detailed break down of all monies been spent on all teams, what cut backs were made in relation to staff that work for county board, what planned fund raising for 2013........also i was told that greezer won't been staying for another year due to the county board demands and concerns with our finances......anyone else hear any reports from that special meeting last week......

It's all very well looking for strength and condition coaches etc, but the way the County Board is leaking money at the moment I would like to know who is going to pay for it.
The debt at the moment is approaching 700,000 and increasing.Of this 700,000 over half a million of it can be attributed to the senior football team.
In other words expenditure is larger than income, which will lead to the debt increasing at a greater and greater rate. As I said, most of this is going on the Senior Football team, with nothing to show for it. Another year like this will see the debt increase to the one million mark. All the current chairman can offer is platitudes, nothing tangible about how income can be increased or expenditure reduced.
I have nothing against Kieran McGeeney and feel that he has turned the County Football Team around, however despite all the promises made at the previous finance meeting the County Board has failed to get it's house in order.
These financial issues are due to be discussed at Tuesday nights monthly meeting, it should make for a lively debate., especially as the executive are looking to the clubs for a solution.

And the clubs should tell the CB where to go! Clubs already pay their fair share towards the CB's coffers and get very little in return.

McGeeney has spent an obscene amount of money in his pursuit of an AI and we haven't even come close. Cuts need to be made and if McGeeney is not happy with this then we should let him go because we will be crucified with huge debts for years if we keep spending money at this rate. All the while he will walk away and not give Kildare a second thought.

Training camps to Portugal are all very well but the county as a whole has to be looked after. Look at out county grounds ffs, it's an embarrassment.

I'm not having a go at the man as I feel he is a decent manager and has done football in this county no harm with the revamp of Hawkfield, the boxing nights that were organised, etc.

its all very well the chairman praising the professionalism of the present set up but this by definition costs and this is money Kildare don't have at the moment and with everything getting checked by Croke park its unlikely to become available. It's debatable if the current manager would be willing to work on in conditions less than what he considers necessary to succeed

McGeeney places huge emphasis on loyalty so I can't see him ditching his staff either

Are we going to be like Leeds united they overspent and got relegated, you cannot buy success and if we are in debt we cannot spend money we do not have, we may also have to accept that we may not be good enough to win an all Ireland. Managers no matter who they are have to work within there budgets. Unless some sugar daddy comes along I do not see the situation changing, if the CB want to over spend they should not come crying to the clubs for money, what I am trying to say is cut your cloth according to your means.

It is good that we have the manager situation sorted out relayively quickly but don't think it is a good idea for McGeeny or any manager for that matter to be making demands of the county board, surely this should be the other way around. Sounds very much like a case of the tail wagging the dog.

maybe cuts were made this year but it looks like more will be needed next year but whoever is in charge will not have that taken into account at the end of next season its all about results as far as most people are concerned

Exactly Athyman, we don't have the money. McGeeny himself is probably on a modest enough allowance or whatever you want to call it, especially given the hours he puts in. It's all the extra expenses that come with running a county team that are killing us. Things like bring John Bannon from Longford to ref training sessions is just wasting money we don't have.
I feel that the County Board thinks that there is no one good enough within the county to do any of the support jobs, such as selector etc.
A breakdown of Senior Team expenses is a starting point, followed by a more realistic budget policy.. Otherwise Kildare GAA may get it's own version of the Troika.

money, money, money, money, money............................. jesus lads even if most of the money did come at the expense of the senior panel who allocated and budgeted for it. mcgeeney obviously handed a,b and c to the county board and they put up. the portugal trip was raised by the players and staff so would people stop blaming mcgeeney over the financial situation in this county. lads on about the county grounds, is that his fault too!? it would cost a few milion to sort that place out, where would we be then.

F*ck it lets throw our hands at it. 10 years getting knocked out by the end of June should clear any debts then we'll have the best balance sheet in the Country but a football wasteland.

Taibi, you are naive if you think that clubs should tell everyone where to go. Like it or not a successful County team brings in the money and gets kids interested in the GAA. These kids are the clubs life blood. These kids are drawn to success, a success on the highest level. You might no like to hear it but kids don't grow up dreaming of playing for Nurney, they dream of playing for Kildare in Croke park. Maybe when they are older they will see it differently, but at that age it's Kildare. It's this age you need to catch them and a rubbish County team won't do it.
Donegal and Mayo with their runs this year have just got their next generation of players interested in their County and thus their local club. If you don't see the link between the two you are blind.

How does Mayo do it when they are in debt to the tune of millions. They find a way. We won't, we'd rather just blame McGeeney for everything including St Conleths current state of disrepair according to some here and send him on his way and expect to compete at the same level and then moan even more when we are no longer competitive. I for one won't though, as there is no way in hell I'll spend my money following a half arsed prepared team due to a restricted budget, I've got the T-Shirt for that one already.. That'll be more money they'll have to find, and if I'm thinking that then so are thousands of others.

If we want to compete with the best we have to be prepared to pay what it costs from the seniors down to the u/14's, we have about 15,000 hard core fans who spend 100's every summer following the team around the country, 15000 x 50 works out at 750000 but how many would put there hands in their pockets to set the finances straight?

spartacus wrote:

F*ck it lets throw our hands at it. 10 years getting knocked out by the end of June should clear any debts then we'll have the best balance sheet in the Country but a football wasteland.

Taibi, you are naive if you think that clubs should tell everyone where to go. Like it or not a successful County team brings in the money and gets kids interested in the GAA. These kids are the clubs life blood. These kids are drawn to success, a success on the highest level. You might no like to hear it but kids don't grow up dreaming of playing for Nurney, they dream of playing for Kildare in Croke park. Maybe when they are older they will see it differently, but at that age it's Kildare. It's this age you need to catch them and a rubbish County team won't do it.
Donegal and Mayo with their runs this year have just got their next generation of players interested in their County and thus their local club. If you don't see the link between the two you are blind.

How does Mayo do it when they are in debt to the tune of millions. They find a way. We won't, we'd rather just blame McGeeney for everything including St Conleths current state of disrepair according to some here and send him on his way and expect to compete at the same level and then moan even more when we are no longer competitive. I for one won't though, as there is no way in hell I'll spend my money following a half arsed prepared team due to a restricted budget. That'll be more money they'll have to find, and if I'm thinking that then so are thousands of others.

Who is blaming McGeeney for the state of St. Conleth's Park? I didn't read that anywhere so don't be so sensationalist. All I'm saying is when the shit hits the fan the CB always go crying to the clubs to prop them up yet when Kildare are in the Championship the clubs are forgotten about and ignored.

The GAA as a whole need to look at the spending by counties and put a cap on it, it's an amateur sport ffs. How can the likes of Leitrim, carlow, etc compete with the spending power of the likes of Dublin, Cork, etc.

How did Micko do it at all without spending the guts of a million eh???

I'm not being sensationalist, you implied that the money spent on County teams would have been better going to St Conleths.

Micko, seriously you are saying Micko did if for free and spent nothing. For the love of God man, the original supporters club was set up to get money for that team and his travelling expenses. Laughable.

Every time there is a discussion on here about money you always trot out the line that the Clubs should give nothing as if that's going to improve things. Jesus, you'd swear the clubs went round houses and forced people to give money at gun point.
You are like the lads that come on here and bitch and moan about Club Kildare even though they would never dream of taking out a membership or dipping into their pockets and help fund different teams.

As for the Club Championship at which point when the Seniors are playing every week in the Qualifiers do you suggest they play another round. Come on lets here it. You are well able to fire it out there. I'd love to hear a solution.

It's not an all or nothing scenario. We don't have to waste obscene amounts of hard earned or hard collected cash to appease a manager who so far has delivered nothing, and in his one remaining year might or might not. We keep thinking that more conditioning, more speed work, more agility training, another advisor from north of the border will get us an All Ireland, meanwhile Donegal a county with far more limited resources have gone further than we ever have,
We have a rudderless County Board who can't seem to live within their means and are afraid to say to the management that they have a budget.
I support Club Kildare, I also support my own club, that is going to be the sole limit of my contribution. I have never bitched or moaned about Club Kildare.
It boils my blood when I see the entourage that accompany the Kildare team onto the field in Croke Park. Who are all these people and what purpose are they serving, other than lining their own pockets, are the County Board expecting me to go and funraise so that they can swan around in Kildare tops and tracksuits, even though they have not the slightest link with the county.
Spartacus if you only deal in facts how do you deal with the fact that our cumulative debt is in the order of three quarters of a million and rising. Add this to the debts of the individual clubs within the county, all of which must be funded from the one pool.
lillyboy, I would have no problem handing over 50 euro, however not to pay John Bannons expenses to drive from Longford to ref a training game.

Again, where did I say money would be better spent on St. Conleths rather than the county team? There has to be a balance, we can't just throw hundreds of thousands of euros at the senior team and expect them to win an AI. Money would be better spent on our development squads and our facilities. Our underage record speaks for itself, we have county grounds that are a disgrace. I'm sure every young boy and girl between 10 and 16 has been there to watch Kildare play or have played there themselves and has seen the shithole in all its glory.

Where did I say there was no money spent on the county team when Micko was in charge? Of course there was but I can guarantee you it was nowhere near the amount that this current manager has spent.

You're right I don't have a membership for Club Kildare, I've better things to be spending my hard earned money on. I give money to my club no problem, weekly lotto, annual dinner dance, club membership, etc. I have no problem giving it to my club as I know it won't be wasted on pointless foreign training camps and the like.

As for your last dilemma, I never mentioned the Club Championship fixtures, that's a whole other argument.

Taibi wrote:

You're right I don't have a membership for Club Kildare, I've better things to be spending my hard earned money on. I give money to my club no problem, weekly lotto, annual dinner dance, club membership, etc. I have no problem giving it to my club as I know it won't be wasted on pointless foreign training camps and the like.

In fairness Taibi I agree with most of your sentiments but the players themselves funded that training camp. Didn't do an awful lot of good though.

Taibi wrote:

How did Micko do it at all without spending the guts of a million eh???

Wow funny thread, this even had me in stitches.

lol - ignorance is oozing out of that one. And this thread is nothing but rumours & gossip.

BTA, On the contrary-all these figures were presented to Club Chairman and Secretaries last week. It was requested that a further breakdown be given, this is due to happen tomorrow night. The training camp is not included as it was funded separately.
The situation re. finance is serious, far more serious than people imagine. The County Board are burying their head in the sand, hoping for a bailout from the clubs. Many clubs are at their wits end trying to keep their own finances in order and are in no position to do further fundraising.
If you can't increase income, you have got to reduce expenditure, it's a simple equation.

No, it's laziness and you don't cut your nose off to spite your face. Money came too easy before and now somebody has to get off their arses and generate income. We've been too depenedent on the Kildare Supporters Club and Club Kildare to generate income that prior to this should have been generated (or not in this case) by the county board.

Its not a team managers job but he is the one being castigated. The county board have got to be a bit more professional and try being a little innovative. How does the Kilkenny's, Dublin's, Cork's, Kerry's, Donegal's, Tyrone's etc etc do it???

Its not Kieran McGeeneys fault Conleths park is the way it is. It's not Kieran McGeeny's fault that apart from gate receipts there is no other source of income and so on

If you read the facts and figures of county team expenditures we are not in the top 5 in the country yet everybody demands that we are on a results basis. But hey lets blame the senior team manager. Lets bring in another coach on top of the one we have and pay him loads too.