‘Delighted’ Caulfield pens new two-year City deal

John Caulfield has pledged his future to Cork City for the next two seasons after last night confirming a new deal with the club.

Amid a host of players committing to the club in the past week, the manager last night put pen to paper himself on a new contract.

The news comes two weeks after Caulfield’s men secured the third League of Ireland title in the club’s history. They face Dundalk in the FAI Cup final on Sunday looking to complete the double.

Caulfield told the club website last night: “I am delighted; we discussed it a while ago, but it was just a case of getting down to the formalities of signing the contract. We were in the run-in for the league and we decided to leave it until that was all out of the way.

“I am thankful to the board and to FORAS for giving me another two years. Since myself and John Cotter came in, our aim was to bring the club back to a position where we are in Europe and challenging for trophies.

“The crowds have been fantastic, and the support has been massive all the way through.

“We want to keep driving on and pushing the club forward. There are no guarantees of anything, but we want to be challenging for trophies and in Europe every year.”

A legend from his playing days with City, Caulfield returned to the club as manager ahead of the 2014 SSE Airtricity League season, after successful spells in charge of Avondale United and UCC.

City took that season’s league title race to the final day, coming up just short to Dundalk.

They would finish runners-up to Dundalk in 2015 also, and lose that year’s FAI Cup final. They finished league runners-up once again to Dundalk in 2016 but claimed the FAI Cup last year thanks to a Seanie Maguire winner in the last minute of extra-time in the Aviva showpiece.

This year the club’s blistering start to the Premier Division season blew their rivals away and they secured the title with two games to go.

Commenting on last night’s news, Pat Lyons, chairman of FORAS and Cork City FC, said: “Having won the league, and with a chance at winning a double next weekend in the Aviva Stadium, is fantastic for the club. That is where we want to be, and we believe both John and the club share the same ambitions for this club, challenging at the top in Ireland and competing on the European stage also.

“In addition to the success we have enjoyed at first team level, John has done a huge amount of work on the footballing structure of the club and worked closely with our underage set-up. We believe all of this will make this club better and stronger in the future, and we look forward to continuing to work with John over the next two years to bring that hard work to fruition.”