Kenny comes home to Tallaght

STEPHEN KENNY, the new manager of Shamrock Rovers, has said that he wouldn’t have left Derry City for any other League of Ireland club.

“To be honest, I didn’t think I would leave Derry for anyone in Ireland,” he said, on the first day of his three-year contract with the champions. “But circumstances changed. What Shamrock Rovers have going here is very exciting and because I’m coming home as well, it’s a new period for me.”

The reference to home relates to the fact that Kenny hails from Tallaght and, indeed, played football for his school on a pitch on the very site where Tallaght Stadium now stands. However, Kenny admitted it was still a wrench for him to leave Derry and also for his young family to uproot from their home in Donegal. But the call of the league champions proved irresistible as, for the first time in his managerial career, Kenny finds himself taking over a club at the top of the tree.