The Saints Are Coming

In what’s been a horribly bleak season for Irish domestic football – with Cork City fighting for their continued existence, and dark rumours that apocalyptic financial meltdown may drag several clubs under – the European exploits of St. Patrick’s Athletic have been a beacon of light.

Having disposed of Maltese side Valletta in order to reach the third qualifying round, and then been fated to meet crack Russian outfit Kyryla Sovietov, Pat’s subsequently pulled off one of the most astonishing feats in their history.
After winning the first leg 1-0, the party seemed to be well and truly over when the Russians stormed into a 3-0 lead. At which point, Pat’s improbably scored twice to secure an away-goals triumph, leaving a gobsmacked Russian television pundit to fume about ‘the darkest, saddest and worst day in history’. The Inchicore team were greeted by a legion of grateful fans upon their return to Dublin Airport, and now face the heady prospect of a two-leg tie against former European champions Steaua Bucharest. If they can manage to slay that particular dragon, Pat’s will have qualified for the group stages of the Europa League (basically a re-branded UEFA Cup).
Pat’s chief executive Richard Sadlier is a familiar figure to Irish fans from his time with Millwall: his career was cruelly cut short by the same hip injury that thwarted his chances of making Ireland’s 2002 World Cup squad, and ultimately led to early retirement at the age of 25. Now happily esconsed in his position as Pat’s CEO, even Sadlier confesses that the miracle in Russia took him completely by surprise.
“Football being football, we knew it was possible,” he reflects. “We also knew that in realistic terms, it was very unlikely. For a million reasons – the conditions, the intimidation factor of playing 23,000 Russians in an arena like that, so far from home and with so little support. Plus, we’d been warned that it might be an awkward trip – in terms of whether they’d disrupt our preparations, alarms ringing all night in the hotel, prostitutes contacting the players at the dead of night, food being interfered with. As it turned out, none of that happened.
“In European football, there’s a gentleman’s agreement that as the home team, you’ll give your opponents all due co-operation and respect, and you assume you’ll get it in return. But not everyone operates on that basis. When teams come over to play us, we’ll arrange their buses for them, we’ll suggest various hotels, we’ll offer them a training pitch if they want one, supply crates of water, towels, cones, footballs etc. The idea being that it makes your trip easier when you go in the opposite direction. Now, when you’re at home first, you leave yourself open to being stitched up in the second leg. But I’ve got to say, Sovietov were excellent hosts to us. And Valletta in the previous round – that was a great trip, I met up with Roddy Collins who’s out there managing Floriana, having the time of his life. We had concerns about how the players would cope with the heat, the plastic pitch and the early kick-off, but it all went smoothly.”
Did Sadlier sense an element of disrespect from the Sovietov players, who apparently loaded up on crates of Guinness upon their arrival in Dublin?
“In all our dealings with the club officials, they were very respectful, polite, decent people, and they were good company. I think a club like that – and their players – would have looked at where they are in the pecking order, as against where we are, and they would assume that it’s a mismatch. I would expect the same applies with Steaua. I think everyone who saw the first leg at Richmond got the impression that they were guilty of under-estimating us. The sense was that they were capable of shifting up a couple of gears, and would have us for breakfast when it went back to Russia. And then, they went 3-0 up and seemed to be coasting.
“At that point, of course we feared a hammering. I did, the players did, Jeff (Kenna, manager) did. There was a carnival atmosphere in the crowd, they had a Brazilian lad up front, the crowd were chanting ‘BRAZILIA’ and it was party-time for them. The rest is history. The last 10 minutes were the longest of my career, everyone was dreading that they might nick a winner. I knew we were on the verge of something really special. If they had done it, the disappointment would have been heartbreaking. But here we are.
“Then there were the fans at the airport to welcome us back. We had gotten a heads-up that there would be a welcoming delegation, but we had no idea there would be as many as there were. When you’re away from home anywhere – particularly somewhere as remote as that – it’s very difficult to sense the response from home. You don’t see the papers, so it’s difficult to gauge how big the impact has been. Then when we landed at Dublin Airport, I got copies of all the newspapers, saw all the supporters and the reaction – we knew what it meant to people. On the night of the match, I was in touch with people and knew there’d been a bit of a big night in McDowell’s, which is kind of the fans’ HQ. You had grown men crying and all. But until you actually see it and people talk to you, it’s difficult to fully understand. For sure, it was my most pleasing night in football, by a distance.”
What was Sadlier’s reaction to being drawn against Steaua?
“Whoever we got, we were going to be underdogs. Which has certainly turned out to be the case. They’re a top side, have been European champions, though not in the last 20 years. They gave Motherwell a bit of a going-over in the last round. Jeff has already been in touch with the Motherwell manager, Jim Gannon, who’s sending over some DVD footage of their games. We’re looking into the possibility of sending someone over – whether it’s Jeff or a scout – to see them, if it’s affordable and doesn’t clash with our fixtures. We’ll gather as much info as we can from third parties, and school the players on what they’re going to be facing.”
As it turns out, the first leg in Bucharest will be played behind closed doors, the Romanian club’s fans having incurred the wrath of UEFA by repeatedly displaying anti-Hungarian banners. Does Sadlier expect this to work in Pat’s favour?
“I think it will. Y’know, the biggest difficulty in Russia was the noise and the atmosphere and the intimidation of 23,000 Russians. Of course that makes it more difficult. The Bucharest crowd is known for being a pressure-cooker. We’ve side-stepped that, we’ll be playing in front of an empty stadium. So it’s kind of neutered their home advantage. It is an advantage. The downside is it’s a big disappointment for our fans who can’t go over to see it. I’m sure a lot of fans would have gone over, because of the stage we’re at. Financially it won’t make a difference – under UEFA rules, the home team keeps a 100% share of the gate. The home game is your event to commercially exploit as you see fit, so you’re the sole owner of the rights in terms of TV footage.”
The Sovietov game was conspicuous by its absence from Irish TV screens, a state of affairs which has been noted by fans of the domestic game. Sadlier believes that in the event of Pat’s escaping from Romania without a trouncing, the second leg against Steaua simply has to be shown on TV.
“As far as the Sovietov game, it was a long way away, our success wasn’t really expected, and I’m aware that there doesn’t seem to be a budget right now for the Irish channels to televise every game. But if we go to Bucharest next week, and come back with the tie very much alive, I would be absolutely appalled if there isn’t one TV channel in this country which would stump up the money to show it. Depending on how the first leg goes, for a team from this country to be within 90 minutes of reaching the European group stages – that’s historic. If that isn’t shown, you’re into the realms of absolute disgrace.”
Aside from European glory, it’s been a tough season on the domestic front. With clubs having lived way beyond their means during the artificial ‘boom’ years, and wage bills vastly outstripping turnover, cold hard financial reality has come back to bite Irish clubs with a vengeance. Pat’s were one of the earliest clubs to adjust to the new realities and cut their costs accordingly, and Sadlier remains optimistic that the domestic scene can thrive again in time.
“I think clubs are working very hard at the moment,” he points out. “We knew coming into 2009 that this would be the most difficult year in terms of trying to raise revenue. We knew supporters would have less money, so they wouldn’t turn out in the same numbers. Because of the cutbacks we’ve made at this club, we’d a fair idea that results on the pitch would be poorer, therefore attendances are down. The problem is, a lot of industries can make cuts as they go. But as a football club, we’re still tied into contracts that were negotiated two or three years ago, which obviously can’t be just stopped. So you can only reduce costs so much. But I think across the League as a whole, 90% of players are out of contract at the end of this year, so from next year, clubs can completely re-structure things. There can be no more excuses like ‘oh, we didn’t see the recession coming, our sponsors are running into trouble’. From November on, everyone knows exactly what they’re going to be dealing with next year. So the days of €4,000-a-week wages – that’s finished.”
As someone who went to Britain and lived the dream until injury cruelly intervened, would Sadlier say that it’s better for most developing Irish players to stay here and get regular football, rather than going over and festering in the reserves at a League One or Two club?
“I don’t think you can apply one rule for all. There are players who’ve gone over, gone straight into English or Scottish first teams at age 18, had successful careers until their mid-30s, and met someone and got married and built their life there. That’s the fairytale. But there’s plenty of others who go over, don’t make the grade and come back after two years. Maybe better to play here for a while, then go over in your early 20s and do really well, Keith Fahey being one obvious example from our club. It’s a judgement call that each person has to make. I’m not always convinced by the argument that lads who get offered a move over should stay here until they’ve done their Leaving. I played with tons of lads who were 15, 16 who had no place waiting in school until 18, lads who weren’t exam-minded at all and had basically sunk in school. With these lads, there’s no point spending two years on an exam you know you’re going to fail. It all depends on the person, really.”