Rovers fly to India for eight-team preseason tournament

Shamrock Rovers manager Pat Fenlon has laughed off the suggestion that taking his players to an Indian city he has never seen for what may prove to the bulk of their preseason represents a gamble. "If you were out in the AUL this morning you'd think that was a bleeding gamble," he says, with a rueful smile and a shake of the head; "trying to train in that . . . I can tell you! It was a gamble with cones and that flying around, so no, no, it's not a concern for me."

Rovers fly out this morning to Kozhikode, a city of about 500,000 on the southwest coast where temperatures generally go close to 30 degrees at this time of year. They are playing for the revived Sait Nagjee Trophy, an eight-team tournament that starts, for the Dubliners, on Monday and could involve a three-week stay if they make it out of their group and all the way to the final.

Warming up

For the most part, the other sides are made up of under-23 players, but the standard is high, with Fenlon’s men set to take on 1860 Munich on Monday then Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk two days later and finally Argentina, whose team is currently warming up for the Olympics.

“It’s brilliant,” he says. “Try standing in the AUL today with planes going over your head and the wind howling. It’s difficult to work. It was difficult for the players this morning too.

“At least now we’ll get a bit of time, twice a day on the pitch training; it’s a godsend for the managers and coaches to work with the players and spend a bit of time together. They were the main reasons for going for me – the games and being able to get a bit of time on the training pitch.”

Good reports

Former Shelbourne defender Dave Rogers, who now works for Liverpool in India has, Fenlon says, sent back good reports on the venue and from the club’s point of view it all seemed too good to turn done with the entire trip for six staff and 21 players only costing Rovers around €10,000 for vaccinations and the like.

Having been on eventful trips to Iran and Libya during his own time as a player, Fenlon acknowledges there’s a hint of stepping into the unknown, but, he insists: “You’ve got to be open-minded to this sort of stuff. It’s an opportunity of a lifetime. The staff we have are good. They all have experience of being around European games and that sort of stuff. This is something different to look forward to.

“It is the quality of the games here that we are really looking forward to.”

Fenlon says he is happy with the squad he has assembled for the coming season, although there is still the possibility that Cody Mulhall and former senior international striker Stephen Elliott will be added to the group in the coming weeks.

Cody hasn’t signed yet,” he says. He’s a player I like, I brought him to Hibs but he’s getting himself fit, he needs another month. He’ll spend time with the under 19s.

“Stephen had trained with us up until last week. His father passed away so he hasn’t been with us since last Thursday. I spoke to him and he has a plan and he’ll train while we’re away and we’ll have a look at him when we come back.”