John Caulfield opens up about the pleasures and pressures of managing Cork City
The glittering prizes stand side by side on a table in Cork City’s headquarters in Bishopstown, home again from a mini-tour of Donegal where they were in the safe hands of club captain Johnny Dunleavy. “Savage”, he says with a grin, describing the proud experience of getting to show off the League and FAI Cup back in his native place.
After Dunleavy drops off the silverware, he picks up his own reward: A new contract with City which, hopefully, will see him back in the colours in March once he has fully recovered from the serious knee injury which made the club’s doubly triumphant 2017 such a bittersweet season for him.
Dunleavy’s re-signing is another box ticked for John Caulfield as he continues to assemble his squad for next season. The two biggest trophies in Irish football might be just along the corridor from his own office but the manager needs no telling that, on this cold winter’s day in the middle of the close season, their warming presence represents a challenge as much as an achievement. To put it in the vernacular: How do Cork City folly dat?
“Everyone judges it as to whether you win something or not, and that’s obviously our aim,” says Caulfield, sitting behind his desk.
“But I think it’s more about you doing the best you can do. ‘So you’ve won the double, what can you achieve next year?’ For me, it’s just making sure that we’re as good as we can be. At the end of the day, if Rovers or Derry or Dundalk come along and win the league by eight points and we weren’t good enough, well, so be it. As long as we did everything we could. I’m practical that way — but, then again, that might not keep you in a job.”
He is also eminently pragmatic about Cork City’s Champions League prospects next season, even as supporters will be moved to dream of replicating or even eclipsing the kind of seismic European breakthroughs experienced in recent years by Dundalk and Shamrock Rovers. But Caulfield has only to reflect on the more challenging days of this historic domestic season to know that, for League of Ireland clubs, the best-laid plans can always rub up against harsh reality.
“We lost Dunleavy, (Kevin) O’Connor, and (Sean) Maguire, three first-teamers,” he notes.
“Now if we’d kept those three, would we have gone the season unbeaten? On reflection, you think that we probably would have. But it didn’t happen so when you talk about Europe you cannot progress there when you’re losing key players. When Rovers and Dundalk got to the group stages, people talked about it becoming a regular thing. I never saw it like that. Rovers had one great night in Belgrade when they rode their luck and got through. Dundalk had a great night against Bate. But those are nights when everything must go for you: You have to be at your max and them below their max. So could we do it? You’re always hoping but it’s a freak for Irish football because you’re basically looking at three full rounds and that’s incredibly difficult.”
Which is not to suggest that Caulfield lacks ambition for City; quite the opposite in fact. Indeed, his vision for what he would define as success for the club extends well beyond next year, and is characterised by a determination not to repeat the old boom and bust cycle of the past while laying the foundations for what sounds almost like a ‘boot room’-style line of succession.
“It’s the whole point,” he says. “When I go, it should be a situation where, when I look back, the club is still up there. And for me, it should be someone from within the club who should be the next manager. That’s why you look at all the guys we’ve brought in to coach the underage teams — the likes of Dan Murray, Billy Woods, Colin Healy. With the senior team I have John Cotter and Liam Kearney. All brilliant guys.
“It’s my vision that we want to bring people in who’ve played with the club, top-quality coaches who know what it’s about, who understand the ethos of the club, and will want to drive it forward. The more of those we have the better. Look, I could lose three games and be sacked. My vision is that, whatever happens, when I move on I would love if John Cotter is the next guy to come through as manager. Or Colin. And that the club keeps driving on.”
Cork City FC have certainly done that in Caulfield’s four seasons in charge, the manager confounding sceptics who thought that the Leesiders installing a former fans’ favourite with no League of Ireland managerial experience was a sentimental gamble, a case of heart ruling head on the part of the supporters-owned club.
“When we were appointed, I remember saying to John (Cotter), ‘People in the League of Ireland think we haven’t a clue’,” says Caulfield.
“We were getting a lot of praise but it was all about being former players, this and that. People wishing you well but they didn’t really think we could do anything. And I could see why people would think that: You know, it’s a romantic story but it will probably blow up after six months. And, to be honest, you’re not so sure yourself.
“But I had experience of playing under different managers — some with great ideas, some with bad ideas — and of being a manager myself, 10 years in non-league football. So maybe this was my time. Would I, 10 years ago, have achieved what I have done with Cork City now? No chance. But you have to be realistic too. Winning stuff does give you confidence and it shows you that you’re on the right track. Especially for the players.
“But as a manager, you’re ultimately on your own. Even though I have a phenomenal backroom team, exceptionally loyal, when you go through a sticky patch, like we did in September, you do feel isolated.”
At the end of a season in which, despite the late wobble, his team ended up as the dominant force in the domestic game, it’s sobering to hear Caulfield reflect on what it’s like to be the man in the firing line.
“No one even remotely understands the stress and the pressure of being a manager,” he says. “I remember one time Gordon Strachan was interviewed and he said that the minute the game finishes, win or lose, he forgets about it, it’s on to the next game. He must be some man to be able to do that. The stress is always in your body but you get to a point where you find ways of trying to control it. And it’s crucial to have positive people around you.
“But everyone at home is immersed in it too. I can remember in the second season, there was a period when things weren’t going great and one of my daughters said, ‘They’re saying this and that about you’. And there have even been times when I’ve said to the family, ‘Don’t go to the games, stay away for a while’. It’s hard, especially for the kids, if someone in the stand is saying ‘Fucking Caulfield, he doesn’t know what he’s doing’ or whatever. It affects everyone.”
Experience has taught him strategies to insulate himself against the most vitriolic criticism.
“At the start you’re reading a lot of everything. And then you go through a stage where you decide to ignore everything. You don’t watch television programmes where they’re talking about you or your club. And, to me, it’s amazing how positive and fresh you stay if you do that. Does criticism hurt you? Of course, no one wants to be criticised. But you get to a point where a lot of it is immaterial. And if you waste your energy getting upset about those things, you lose your head and you lose your focus.
“But coming into the club I never thought it would get as vicious as it did. Some of it was very personal. I can’t name the person but there was a famous guy in Cork who said that 95% of the people are brilliant but then there’s 5% and they don’t know if they want you to win or lose. It’s like being in a small village (laughs). But the majority of people are just fantastic. Even walking down the street now, people are coming up to congratulate you. You have no idea who they are. The players are getting that too. And even for me, it’s been much bigger than I thought it would be. So many people are thrilled.”
Whether the times are good or bad, switching off doesn’t come easily to him.
“You might go out for a few pints with friends and you end up talking football,” says Caulfield, laughing.
“It’s 24/7. You might go away for a week’s holiday but ask me if I’ve made a few calls that week about something to do with the club? Of course I have. But it’s a brilliant place to be if you can handle it. You’re not here for the money, you’re here for yourself. And you have to be motivated to be here. It’s not like a normal job.
“When people say to me ‘You’ve got a contract for another two years’, I always say I’m self-employed. Whether it’s one year or two years doesn’t matter. If we play on a Friday night and Sligo are playing on Saturday, I have a choice. I can stay at home and go up to the local or I can go to Sligo. It’s my choice. No one is telling me. It’s just that I prefer to be there.”
Ask him where on the man-management spectrum he more often resides — between throwing tea-cups at one end and the arm around the shoulder at the other — Caulfield replies: “You’d probably have to ask the players what they perceive but I think they’d see me as very hard-working and diligent. But we also have massive craic in here. In the heat of the dressing room, are there times when I’d be cross? Yes. I’m passionate and they see that.
“I think I learned more from managers’ mistakes, in some ways, than what managers did well. As a manager, you have to show leadership and have a strong mentality. You have to know the game. You can’t bluff. If you’re doing your tactics or discussing different players or whatever, you have to know your stuff. And that’s why you put the hours in. Driving out of Sligo at 10 o’clock on a Saturday night and getting home at 3 — does that bother me? Absolutely not. Again, I have a great backroom team doing video analysis and everything else but if we’re playing Sligo the following week I want to see them for myself. I need to be comfortable in my own head that I know what I’m talking about. And I think that transmits to players.
“That’s what I mean about, as a former player myself, learning from manager’s mistakes. As a player, you know when the manager is not doing the work. You can see when they’re not being strong, maybe by letting a player off the hook. I was in dressing rooms where things happened and the manager never dealt with them. Those things can fester. And you lose respect for him then.
“And it’s not that you deal with everyone the same. You can’t: Some are 18 and some are 35. There might be family issues. A guy might be in a bad place and you need to look after him. Sometimes you might go to a guy who you know has a problem and say, ‘Take the next two days off’. But as soon as you do that, you’ll know that some other guy will come in a couple of weeks later looking for something and saying, ‘But you gave Liam Mackey two days off’. And you need to be ready to deal with that, too.
“Ultimately, players look at you, like I looked at my managers, and always see you as ‘He’s the guy who picks the team and, when I’m not in it, he’s the fucker who picks the team’ (laughs). I know it’s difficult, especially for an experienced guy, to find himself on the bench. But as a manager, you can’t think of it that way: The guys on the bench are as important as the guys that play because they all have to push each other. But they will never understand that until they’re 40 or 50.”
And so back to the near future, and the work which is keeping John Caulfield busiest throughout the close season: Building his squad for 2018.
“Fantasy football management, that’s become massive now,” he chuckles. “Everyone thinks it’s straightforward. We’re a supporters-owned club and everyone knows we operate within a certain budget but it’s like people still want you to sign Lionel Messi.”
In fact, as he knows only too well, the big question the supporters want answered is: When is he going to sign the new Seanie Maguire? When the subject is broached, the first thing Caulfield points out is that the man who would become a goal machine for City, before moving on to Championship side Preston and then making his international debut, was hardly a marquee name when he first came to Turner’s Cross.
“There was no hullabaloo,” he points out. “In fact, some people were even asking ‘Why have you signed him?’ Because he was in a bit of a rut and wasn’t even getting games at Dundalk. And, being honest, even as the manager, I couldn’t give him any guarantees because there are no guarantees to give. But I knew he had the potential and ultimately he showed what he could do.
“But there was no magic to it, no fantasy story. Same as for any other player we bring in. The environment is great, we’re very hands-on. We’ll train you hard and try to make you a better player, but, ultimately, you have to have the attitude that you’re going to do it. And Seanie had the right attitude and then his belief and confidence grew. I remember watching him and thinking of great League of Ireland strikers like Gary Twigg, Glen Crowe, Stephen Geoghegan, Flynny (John Flynn), even going back to Pat (Morley) but, this year, Seanie seemed to go to a level where he was virtually unmarkable.
“So how do you replace that? Since late April we were morning, noon, and night trying to get someone in. But we didn’t sign anyone because there was no one who we thought was coming even close, who we thought would make an impact. We had four or five fellows in on trial. We were close to signing one player in England we thought would be very good for us but he pulled out. So we went on a different track, and that’s where (Kieran) Sadlier came in, with (Karl) Sheppard going in as centre-forward.
“We’ve brought in young Josh O’Hanlon (from St Patrick’s Athletic) now. I think it would be wrong to compare him to Seanie, he’s a different type of player. But, again, he’s one of those who has talent and what we’ll find out is: Can he be consistent, can he handle the pressure here, will he be able to deliver?
Delighted to have signed for @CorkCityFC for the upcoming season, looking forward to the new challenge and hopefully improving as a player⚽️ pic.twitter.com/RzuFhyN0US
— Josh O'Hanlon (@JoshOHanlon9) November 10, 2017
“At the same time, we’re still looking at bringing in another forward. Compared to where we were last April, I think there are more options now. We’re not in the middle of the season either with matches coming all the time. But it has to be someone who will buy into what we want. Someone with the right attitude, not a big-time Charlie. It’s not just about being in the pitch, it’s someone who fits in with the whole environment. So that’s ongoing, and will be until January.”
In the meantime, City have already picked up an acknowledged League of Ireland gem in the form of ex-Derry City playmaker Barry McNamee. But where exactly is he going to fit into a side which, even allowing for Greg Bolger’s departure to Shamrock Rovers, is not exactly short of quality personnel in the middle of the park?
“It’s one of those brilliant headaches I’m going to have,” Caulfield answers with a grin. “I’m really excited for the pre-season to see him because, to me, he’s a fantastic footballer, a creator, someone who scores goals and opens up defences. A guy who can give us even more. Is he a 10 and (Garry) Buckley drops back a bit? It’s intriguing. If you ask me have I got my starting XI for next season, the answer is I haven’t. I had my starting XI when I first came in because we only had 12 players anyway (laughs). But now we’re at a different stage.
BREAKING | We are delighted to announce the signing of @Barry_McNamee: https://t.co/OI1Z3D0Wzw #CCFC84 pic.twitter.com/AhLMWqOdmT
— Cork City FC (@CorkCityFC) November 8, 2017
“As a manager you can’t have too much of a good thing. People say ‘Oh, you’ll bring trouble on yourself because you’ll have guys complaining that they’re not playing’. Actually, they train better. Because guys want to be with better players. And players want to win. When you’re at this level, it actually makes the group better. And one or two get injured you have good players who will come in and keep the standard up. Greg Bolger was a perfect example this year.”
And so the conversation ends as it began, with John Caulfield contemplating how best to go about ensuring, as best he can, that a season of plenty will be followed by, well, a season of plenty more.
“We will expect to be up there challenging next year,” he says.
“As a management team, we have to make sure these guys are hungry and don’t take the foot off the pedal. And with the new fellows coming in, we think there’ll be a lot of excitement. You also hope that the buzz of what they’ve done this year, what they’ve seen around the place, will mean that in their minds they’re thinking, ‘This is unreal, we want more of this’.”
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