'I’ve expressed my desire to work with him' —John Daly wants Pádraig Amond to stay at Waterford

Amond's form last season has seen him attract interest from a number of clubs, in particular Shelbourne.

Newly appointed Waterford head coach Jon Daly poses for a portrait after a media conference at the SETU Arena in Waterford. Pic: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

New Waterford manager Jon Daly has reassured the club’s fans that he is planning for life with star striker Pádraig Amond at the Blues next season.

The 37-year-old was the Premier Divison’s top scorer last season with 14 goals, despite Waterford’s struggles which saw them narrowly avoid relegation to the First Division, defeating Bray Wanderers 2-1 in their playoff recently.

His form has seen him attract interest from a number of clubs, in particular Shelbourne but speaking to reporters at his official unveiling on Wednesday, Daly insisted he would like the under contract forward to remain at the club.

“I’ve obviously spoke to Podge. He’s a top player. I’m not surprised there’s speculation, there’s speculation around all the top players in the league and he’s certainly one of them,” said Daly.

“But Podge is under contract, so we have had a conversation, and I’ve expressed my desire to work with him so I’m looking forward to doing that.

“I’ve only met him a couple of times, but I’ve always got the impression he’s a really genuine guy, he comes around as a top person as well not just a top player.

“Having that type of character around the training ground and around the place on a day-to-day basis is massive.

“I certainly amn’t looking to lose someone like that. I’m trying to make sure he can go and do that (be top scorer) again next year and help us to progress and hit the targets we want to hit.”

As well as fighting to keep hold of Amond, Daly, who previously managed Dundalk and St Pat's, and was most recently an assistant coach under John Caulfield at Galway United, is looking to sign players to improve the squad in the short-term but insists the club will look to build slowly over the medium to long-term.

“When I spoke to the owners and the board at the club, the vision they had for it, where they see the club going in the future… for me, it’s an interesting one,” he added.

“It terms of that connection with Fleetwood and seeing how that works. It’s the first time I’ve ever worked at a club that has that connection, I think it’s a great opportunity to connect with a club from the U.K that has certain structures in place.

“It’s a club with a proud history; it’s a one-club town and Waterford as a county – big population – so there’s always opportunities to really grow the club and really push on.

“The owners have great ambition for the club. They’re under no illusions where we are. They just avoided relegation through the playoff the season just gone by, so we know that we need to be better next year.

“We need to try and build. We’re not going to shoot for the stars in the first year. Yes, we want to overachieve and try and push on but we want to try and build something and that takes time.

“We will work together to try and actively recruit players that we feel can improve the squad and can helps us to get to where we want to go.

“I’ve had a couple of meetings before signing and I’ve had a couple since about how we can do that. There’s definitely support there, I’ve felt the support, I’ll be able to lean on a lot of people to help make things happen.

“There will be targets that we get and there’ll be targets that we miss. Ultimately for me we want to bring players to this football club that want to play for Waterford.

“We’re not going to blow people out of the water financially to bring them to the club.”