Gamble: We make life hard for ourselves in Cork

CORK CITY midfielder Joe Gamble is hoping that Sunday’s FAI Cup Final clash with Longford Town will prove third time lucky for the Leesiders, after Drogheda United twice denied them cup success in the last two years.

“Hopefully it’s better than the last two — the FAI Cup and the Setanta Cup,” says the Irish international. “Hopefully it will be a good game but the players just want to get on with it and leave all the politics to other people. But it’s only going to be a good game if we win. Simple as that, really.”

The prolonged build-up to the last fixture of the season has left ample room for talk ahead of the action, with Gamble wearily fleshing out what he means by “politics”.

“The debate about the three-week gap, tickets for the cup final, hotels for people — all that sort of stuff goes on around cup finals,” he says. “You get hassled for tickets and all that. But hopefully all that is sorted. As I say, the players just want to get on with the cup final and that’s it really.”

At the 11th hour, the club are also finally resolving some of the player contract situations which have proved the biggest talking point of all for a squad preparing a cup final. Following on from striker Denis Behan’s new contract, Darragh Ryan, Admir Softic, Colm Carroll and Sean Kelly have all signed deals this week but that could still leave half a dozen players uncertain about their futures after Sunday. Although he was speaking ahead of the latest developments, Gamble nevertheless made it trenchantly clear that, in his opinion, the club should never have allowed the situation to linger until the very end of the season.

“A few lads have signed contracts but, really, to keep 11 lads out of contract at the end of the season — I don’t understand the meaning behind it,” he said. “I’m only a player here so I don’t understand what’s going on at board meetings or whatever. But it’s getting beyond a joke. Most of the lads are sick of it. I think last year it happened and the year before it happened. Players should get respect, just like managers. You can’t tell a fellow at the end of the season that you don’t want him. Then what is he going to do? He has to find a new contract.

“I just really can’t understand that. Why couldn’t they tell them three months ago? Why couldn’t they get them a new club? It has happened to other players around the country and it’s unfair really. It’s about respect. You tell a player if you don’t want him and that’s it. I know you have to deal with budgets but that’s why people are in clubs as accountants and business people. Let them deal with that sort of stuff and you tell them who you want or who you don’t want.”

Gamble reckons the uncertainty can’t but play on footballers’ minds ahead of a big game.

“Some of the lads have been sorted now so obviously they are at ease and they can prepare for the game,” he said. “But no matter what you say, people are going to be uncertain if they haven’t signed a contract. They are going to go into a game thinking other clubs might be watching them and you never know what might happen. People will get a bit uneasy or nervous. But hopefully the lads who are not signed can be strong and get on with it, but it’s not easy.”

Gamble, never a man to mince his words, believes the contract situation is symptomatic of wider problems at the club.

“In general, this club is known for these fiascos. Until people actually really get a foothold and get things sorted and run the club properly, it’s always going to be like that here. I don’t know what any other club in Ireland would do, but definitely we make life hard for ourselves. As players all we want to do is to do the best for ourselves. We’ve asked for stuff before and to get stuff done and in fairness things have been moving well in the last three years. But compared to other clubs in the League of Ireland we are way behind in terms of other stuff. I just hope for Cork City’s future and for the players’ future, things can be sorted better than this, because I should be talking about a cup final and not contracts. We should just be talking about football matters. But here we are again at the end of another season talking about things that should be irrelevant to us.”

Of more immediate relevance for Gamble is the novel venue for Sunday’s game.

“The RDS? To be honest, I’ve never actually seen it, I’ve never been there,” he said. “It could possibly be a good venue, with a capacity of 18,000. I don’t think there’s any other ground besides Lansdowne that has that. So in that respect it’s good. I don’t know about the playing surface. We’ll obviously see when we get up there. But I’ve no qualms about it. I think most of the players just get on with it. We’ll treat it like every other game and just get stuck into it.

“There is no other way around it — we are going to be favourites for it. But that doesn’t mean anything. We’ve just got to go out and perform. I know there is a lot at stake — UEFA Cup, Setanta Cup, finances, whatever. But as players if we start putting pressure like that on ourselves, it’s unnecessary. We’ve been saying all week and the manager has been telling us all week that it’s another game. You go out and do what you do in a normal game. You go out with the attitude to win the game, you do the right things and that’s the way it is. You have just got to go out and do what you normally do, take the occasion in but don’t get caught up in the moment.”

And, for 90 minutes, all the other issues are relegated to second place?

“You are more focused. You can leave all that other stuff behind and worry after the game. But during the game you are focused on one thing, and that’s just to win and do your best as a team player. Hopefully that’s enough to win it on the day.”