AIRTRICITY LEAGUE NEWS:HAVING ANNOUNCED 300 jobs in Galway yesterday, video games outfit EA could claim at least partial credit for one more in Tallaght where the prospect of the cup they sponsor being decided on Saturday probably played some part in prompting Shamrock Rovers to appoint Brian Laws as Director of Football.
The 50-year-old former Sheffield Wednesday, Scunthorpe United and Burnley boss arrives with the brief of getting a big run -in out of the Dublin club’s players who face Drogheda United in the EA Sports Cup final on Saturday. Then it’s a battle over the last few weeks of the league to qualify for Europe next year.
“Yeah, the short-term objective is to try to get Rovers back in Europe,” said Laws, “and to do that we have to have a good run of games.” The former Nottingham Forest defender has also been asked to advise the board on what players might be kept, recruited and let go at the end of the campaign when almost all of those there now will be out of contract.
First up, though, he will try to help the club to win a cup; something he insists he will be looking to do for Stephen Kenny as much as anyone else. “Stephen’s done a fantastic job with the players,” he said. “I’ve worked with them this morning; they’ve got real good quality and it’s just a shame that he’s not able to take them over the line into the final. I’m sure every manager would want to do that, finish off the job. So hopefully I can do that for him.”
Beyond that, a strong finish in the league is, he says, “important,” and, while Rovers’ hopes of qualifying for next season’s Europa League are now tied to the fortunes of St Patrick’s Athletic in the FAI Cup, Laws believes it is important that the players refocus on their end of the task.
“I think that the players have to realise that it’s achievable,” he said. “The season’s not over by any stretch of the imagination. In fact there are some really good games coming up against the top teams we know we’re going to be taking some points off so that gap comes from five to three to two and you never know come the end of the season.”
If it works out like that then there will be some enthusiasm for having him stick around, an idea he said he is “open minded” about.
For the moment, though, the jury will be out with the club, having taken a sizeable gamble by sacking one manager at a critical juncture of his first campaign, now apparently taking another by opting for a replacement – albeit an interim one – with almost no experience of the game here.
The club’s choice, though, seems to have been influenced by Simon Elliott, the chief executive of its main sponsors, Volkswagen Group, which owns the Seat brand. Elliott, a former Scunthorpe United director who worked with Laws during his time at Glanford Park, previously had a hand in Ian Barraclough’s appointment by Sligo Rovers, another club his company backs.
“Simon is a good friend of mine,” acknowledged Laws. “He is connected with the football club and he has obviously got my attention because of the situation they found themselves in.”
