LEAGUE OF IRELAND COUNTDOWN The Derry City manager is aware of how the club's stock has fallen in his absence and is eager to rectify the situation, writes Emmet Malone
WHEN STEPHEN Kenny headed for Scotland at the end of the good year and Derry City replaced him with the man who had guided Shelbourne to three of the previous four league titles, continued success looked more or less assured for the Brandywell club.
Instead, a year of frustration followed for City's supporters as first Fenlon and then John Robertson came and went.
The League Cup was successfully defended but that was no longer quite what the fans had had in mind when the 2007 season kicked off.
Kenny was a little preoccupied as things came off the rails at his former club but he got a clear sense, he admits, of just how the perception of Derry has been altered in the space of a year.
"I was sort of taken aback," he admits, "that everyone kept talking about the "Big Four" and the fact that everyone connected with those four clubs (Bohemians, Cork City, Drogheda United and St Patrick's Athletic) all just seemed to be concerned with each other.
"I'm not complaining," he adds quickly. "It was just interesting, that's all".
Those who doubt the speed at which the league is changing need only look at it from Kenny's point of view. His year away at Dunfermline has coincided with another round of hugely inflationary wage rises both among the leading clubs, who are chasing the very best players, and the second-tier outfits, whose decision to go full-time has intensified demand for footballers farther down the pecking order.
Having had to quickly weigh up his options, Kenny decided to return to the Brandywell in the belief it would take a year to rebuild. But a frantic few weeks of searching for players has enabled him to revise his position and now, he observes a little coyly, he "wouldn't rule anything out".
Developments elsewhere have suddenly left City's financial structure looking somewhat old-fashioned, with Kenny's comparatively modest budget dependent on such ventures as race nights, golf classics and raffles.
But the Dubliner has proven himself adept at persuading Derry's footballing exiles that they should be plying their trade in their hometown, a policy that had borne fruit on more than one front.
"To look at the squad," he laughs, "you'd reckon the only two ways you could sign for this club are to come from within a 10-mile radius of the ground or to have a degree from UCD."
It's a combination he seems happy with as he gets his squad ready for Friday night's trip to Belfield.
"It's strange how quickly people's perceptions change," he says. "A little over a year ago we missed out on the treble by goal difference - in a couple of other countries we'd have won it on the basis of our head to head against Shelbourne - and I can still pick eight of the 11 players who started the cup final. But people view us as outsiders. This is still a good team I've got here and my own view is that it would be foolish to write them off."
The problem, he concedes without argument, is that they're not the only ones. Of the obvious other contenders for the title Bohemians narrowly get his vote as the most likely champions by virtue, if nothing else, of having signed two of the players he regards most highly, Ken Oman and Killian Brennan.
Like Bohemians, Cork City and St Patrick's Athletic have spent heavily in the hope of catching up with Drogheda, and after his experience with Dunfermline Kenny is fairly sure he can see what's coming down the line.
"It should be fascinating," he says.
"Almost everybody has strengthened and it's really difficult to see where the easy games are going to be. At Sligo? Or Galway? I don't think so. And Harps . . . everybody's talking about them going down but I can't see it, I think they look strong.
"So the title will probably be won with a low points total in a tight race. And at least one of the teams expected to do well will probably do badly while one or two of the others might be struggling after seven games or so.
"And in those circumstances there are going to be managerial casualties because that's the way the game is going, particularly when there's so many clubs setting their sights so high."
For his own side to make a success of this season, he reckons players like Mark Farren and Pat McCourt have to stay fit and produce their best.
"Mark's a good player who has a couple of very good seasons - one spectacular one - up here, while Paddy's been outstanding in preseason only to pick up a niggling problem in the last week or so. If players like them fire on all cylinders, though, then we'd hope to be a match for anyone."
If they don't, and City struggle to recapture the form of 2006, Kenny, one suspects, still has more credit in the bank with his employers and the club's supporters than one or two others in his position.
It's not something he'll dwell on during the journey to Belfield for Friday night's first game of the campaign.
For a sizeable minority of his squad it might just feel like a quick visit home. For their manager, it marks the resumption of an uncompleted journey.
