issue 6 ire v czech rep wed oct 11 2006

YBIG: Best memory as a manager to date?
STEPHEN: B r i n g i n g Longford from the bottom of Division One into Europe was a massive lift for the whole town and had a big effect for everyone. It lifted everyone in the town. Then the league title with Bohemians was another highlight and also with Derry, to get the European wins against Gothenburg home and away.

YBIG: Describe the fans in Derry, they seem to have really taken to you?
STEPHEN: I think it’s cause a lot of the players are from the city so there is a great rapport there. There is a real passion for the club in the city and the club is very important for the city, more so than most in Ireland. And certainly I think it still has to hit its peak.

YBIG: Growing up, who has guided you to where you are now?
STEPHEN: I played schoolboy football with Bluebell and Belvedere and I really enjoyed the philosophy of Belvedere, Noel O’Reilly was the coach there.

YBIG: When things ended the way they did with Bohs, did it ever cross your mind to give it up?
STEPHEN: It was a bit of a shock because I was only there two years. And we had won the league, we finished first and second the two years I was there. We lost against Levadia Tallinn in the second round of the Champions League in one we were expected to win but Newcastle only beat them 2-1 the other night and that was virtually the same team so they weren’t that bad a side. After that (the Bohs exit) very few clubs appealed to me but Derry had been in relegation trouble for a few seasons. I knew that Derry were thrown out of the Irish League and no-one shed a tear. In other words, the club had to fend for itself and get back into the league. And now, bar a few players, we are practically a local team and doing so well and it’s great to be apart of that, there is a great passion to it. There is an edge to it that you don’t get in other clubs, very fanatical, the most passionate in Ireland for football.

YBIG: Are there players in the eircom League who are good enough to be in the Ireland squad?
STEPHEN: I am not saying there are a lot of players that should be in the Ireland set-up. I am saying that over the last seven or eight years there have been players that have been called up at various stages and haven’t been out of their debt. There are a lot of players with a cap but I don’t think we have many players in our league that are good enough to get into Stephen Staunton’s international first team. But there are players who could come in and play given injuries in certain positions who could ad to it. With the emergence of Stephen Elliott and Kevin Doyle we are better off up front than what we were. Kevin Doyle is a prime example. He hasn’t improved that much in the six months he left Cork for Reading. Darryl Murphy will probably be the next one cause he had been with Waterford. He had to withdraw previously through injury. And it is good that Stephen Ward and Kevin Deery are getting recognised in the B squad and that can only be good for the league. Jason Byrne and Joe Gamble were called up before so it’s good that there is consideration been given to the league, that’s a positive thing.

YBIG: All time favourite player.
STEPHEN: Maradona. I liked Kenny Dalglish growing up but I liked Maradona cause he played in the most cynical of eras and he was singled out for such treatment and brutality and that forced him to become more cynical himself to survive.

YBIG: Worst dress sense in the Derry set-up?
STEPHEN: The players have been slagging Stephen O’Flynn a bit for some of his outfits but I think Declan Devine, my first team coach. His wife has been dressing him lately, she is dressing him like a teenager, I’d have to put him up there.

YBIG: Biggest joker?
STEPHEN: There is quite a few in the dressing room here, it’s hard to say. I’d say a lot of it goes on away from my eyes. That’s
air enough, I encourage a good atmosphere but I’m sure a lot goes on outside the dressing room so you would have to ask the lads.
YBIG: The longest in the shower?
STEPHEN: Paul Hegarty.

YBIG: Do you see yourself as a possible contender for the Ireland job in the future?
STEPHEN: I think anyone can think that way. It’s dangerous to look too far ahead. In my business as a manager, you can look too far ahead. You can make long term plans but you have to produce every year. It’s not realistic for me to say that I’m going to manage my country. What is realistic for me is to make Derry City the best club in Ireland. With all the young players we have brought through, to make us consistently challenge and that’s what I’ve got to do over the next couple of years.

YBIG: What about that final push for the group stages in Europe?
STEPHEN: When you are 90 minutes away you are very close. We had a great run this year. Gothenburg, who are a massive club and to win 7-3 in the second round and then the draw with PSG in Derry. I think PSG was the toughestdraw we could of got. The draw was tough on us. But having said that I think we have to get better. This is my second season with Derry and I think we will definitely be betternext  year. With the likes of Pat McCourt, Kevin Deery, Killian Brennan, Barry Molloy, Mark Farren, with the likes of these lads getting better, we are going to definitely improve.