NEW Limerick FC manager Martin Russell is aiming not only to make an immediate impact in the role, but also to help the club to enjoy a prosperous long-term future.
The 47-year-old was presented to supporters and media at the Limerick City Hotel on Monday evening and he joins Limerick after a brief spell as assistant coach at St Patrick’s Athletic, prior to which he managed UCD for five seasons.
Russell helped to cultivate the careers of a number of League of Ireland players in his time at Belfield, where UCD’s unique scholarship-based structure meant that he worked primarily with younger talents.
He now finds himself at a club with a strong desire to blood players from within and in a city with a thriving junior soccer scene, and Russell said that he would ideally like to draw upon these avenues to develop Limerick as a club in the long term.
“The ideal situation is that a lad is born in the area, plays his schoolboy soccer and goes into the first team. That’s [the case] the world over. They’re special players in the clubs where they are situated. The reality is that you only get so many special players. You’ve got to treasure those and build support players around them that come from outside the area.
“I’ve already talked to Tommy Barrett, the under 19 manager, and he’s given me some information on up and coming players. I’ll be seeing them down the road and I’ll be looking closely at the lads that are in the current squad. I’ve went out and visited Bruff already with Pat and Kieran. I don’t think there’s another club at the moment that’s trying to put the emphasis on developing their own players as Limerick are doing and I applaud them for that. It’s a long-term project, but it’s something that if it’s seen through, it will reap its benefits down the road.
“For me, as a country in general, we’ve been years behind as senior, professional clubs in looking after our underage troops when you compare it to anywhere in Europe. That was the one thing about UCD. It probably was the academy that was out there in terms of giving lads the experience. None of the other clubs seemed to have that emphasis on it.”
Russell said that Limerick FC has grown considerably as a club in a short space of time and believes that, with a solid support base from those involved with the club, it has the potential to become even bigger.
Attendances have been notably sparse at Thomond Park in 2014 and the new manager is eager to try to attract more paying punters through the turnstiles.
“The work that’s being done at the club has not been easy when you think about where it was a couple of years ago and the strides that have been made. The only way forward can be with proper support from everybody around the area, from the media, the supporters and the people here.
“Everybody is in it together and if we can really get it going, think of the good times that can happen. The biggest immediate effect would be to improve gates to help the income, to help the board and to help me as a manager to improve the staff. It would be great if we could get more people down to Thomond Park cheering on the lads. We’ll do our best to put on a show and hopefully we can go ahead and do something special.
“All I ask for is to give me a realistic amount of time to make an impact. We’re all judged at the end of the day and I think a realistic amount of time is all any manager wants.”
Russell arrives at Limerick FC at a time when the summer transfer window is open. He has stated his intentions to take time to evaluate the squad of players currently at his disposal, although he has not ruled out the possibility of dipping into the club’s transfer funds if he identifies prospective signings.
“There is an immediate thing now with the window being open at this while to see what we can do. If we feel we can get the right type of player in, we may be able to do something. Everybody will have their chance. This weekend we won’t have a competitive game but we’ll have a chance to assess the players and that will continue throughout the window and the rest of the season.
“I think that things will be done in the right way. It’s a case of assessing the squad. If we can bring somebody in and it fits the budget, we’ll do it. If there’s a young player who needs to be given a chance, we’ll look at it as well.
“The thing about UCD is that it was very difficult to get the senior players into the setup. There just wasn’t really a budget there. It got less and less each year and we tried to do the best we could. I would like to think there’s a bit more scope to attack that end of the market in terms of getting senior players in with the right blend of young players to make it a winning formula.
“We’ll look at all avenues. There are players at St Pat’s who may be available, or at other clubs in the league. I think everything is on the table at the moment and first we’ll assess the players that we have. We’ll see in the upcoming games who can be a part of the future. We’ll give them every opportunity and also keep an eye on the right type of player and character that can come on board at Limerick.”
In his time at UCD, Russell gained a reputation as a manager who leant towards an attack-minded tactical approach. It was one that tended to work for the most part, as he consistently kept a club with a hugely constrained budget in the Premier Division, and he believes that attractive football and positive results are not mutually exclusive.
“UCD was one project. I tried to maximise the philosophy of the club and Limerick is a different one. We’re going to develop our best players, but we’ve got more of an opportunity to be competitive in the league than I would have had with UCD, so I’m looking forward to that challenge.
“The thing about playing attractive football, for me it’s a core element. I don’t think you have to compromise on winning by playing good football. They’re the objectives that I’ll try to get into the team. I’m not expecting it to happen overnight but we’ll be working towards it.
“It’s a competitive enough league. Even the bottom sides can trouble the top teams as they have done. In the middle and the top, everyone is capable of beating each other. As Limerick we need to get a consistency in our game and pick up more points between now and the end of the season, while also playing good football.”
Russell will have a few days to put his ideas into practice on the training field, with Limerick not due in action until Saturday July 25 when they are scheduled to play Sligo Rovers, although that fixture could be moved owing to Sligo’s European commitments. The new manager’s first home game is likely to be against Shamrock Rovers at Thomond Park on Friday August 1.
