After a season of upheaval, Derry City ended 2027 on a positive note at Aviva Stadium on Sunday.
But what’s next for the Candystripes with a seventh Club Orange Men’s FAI Cup in the trophy cabinet and European football secured for the next campaign?
Interim manager Mark Connolly has been adamant that he will return to his main remit as director of football despite impressing as head coach since the summer.
But can he be persuaded to rethink that stance and if not, who can take on the vacancy and try to make Derry more competitive on all fronts next season?
On this week’s RTÉ Soccer Podcast, Alan Cawley and Keith Treacy pondered just that after running the rule over Sunday’s Cup final victory over Waterford.
On the live post-match coverage on RTÉ after the match on Sunday, Cawley did ask Connolly directly whether he would reconsider his current posture of not wanting to take the job.
And while the vacancy is “an attractive proposition” with decent foundations to build on, he believes it will be a tricky task for whoever does step into the void ahead of next season.
“(Connolly) deserves an enormous amount of credit. And that’s why I asked him the question afterwards about taking the job,” Cawley said on the podcast.
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“I couldn’t believe he was so adamant at ruling it out. I thought he would have been a bit more, ‘Maybe we’ll have a look, we’ll see’. But he was adamant.
“That tells me he’s not taking it. I would have thought after he’s done such a good job, it’s set up lovely for him because the problem they have now is he’s turned it around, he’s got a tune out of the players, there’s a feel good factor everywhere.
“Now you bring in another new manager. He has to start all over again with the same group of players. He might not get the same tune out of them.
“I know (Connolly) doesn’t have the Pro Licence, but if there’s some way around it, I’d be pushing for (him to take the job).”
Meanwhile, Treacy agreed that Connolly should be the prime option if there is any way to persuade him. However, the former Republic of Ireland winger did speak of an ex-Boys in Green manager’s name spinning in a rumour mill that is also bringing up current Bohemians assistant Stephen O’Donnell.
“I’m hearing a lot of rumours about Stephen Kenny possibly going back up there,” he said.
“Obviously, he’s contracted to St Pat’s, so that’s quite a tricky one. I think if you’re in that Derry backroom you’re thinking let’s try and persuade Mark Connolly to keep going with this because, like Alan says, if a new guy does come in and he doesn’t do well or even loses two games on the bounce, the name on everybody’s lips then is, ‘Well, Mark Connolly did well. Why don’t we get Mark back in?’
“And it’s just going to keep rumbling on. So I think Mark needs to take a swing at it otherwise his name is just always going to be lingering about.”
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