Pat Fenlon’s third stint at Bohemians signals an upward curve. He previously made an indelible imprint on the club as a player – scoring 29 goals in 88 appearances and being voted PFAI player of the year in 1992 – and did so again when he returned as manager in 2008.
His five-year tenure in the dugout (2008-13) saw both peak and nadir in the Phibsboro institution’s history. He delivered a league and cup double in his first season in charge and retained the league in 2009, their last title to date.
Bohs’ subsequent financial collapse undermined his ability to build on that success. The €2.4 million first-team budget used to secure the 2008 title plummeted to €120,000 by 2012, when the club finished seventh, 25 points adrift of champions Sligo Rovers.
When the Celtic Tiger was done mauling the club, Zurich Bank had a charge on the stadium, prompting Dublin City Council and Bohs men like Matt Devaney and Daniel Lambert to save Dalymount from dereliction or, worse, a concrete makeover.
As the club scrambled to avoid liquidation, Fenlon evolved into a director of football, first at Waterford before five years at Linfield allowed the 53-year-old to return this year with a wealth of wisdom.
“The club is completely different from when I was here as a manager, completely different,” said Fenlon over coffee in Phibsoro. “It was about winning, you had to win. Now, Bohs should still be about winning, to a point.
“Listen, I want to put in structures but when you have been at the level of football I have been at in this country it is about winning. Declan [Devine, Bohs manager] is of the same opinion; this is a club that should be successful. It is about handling the pressure of wanting to be successful, that’s why recruitment is key. It is going to take a bit of time but it is where we want to get to.”
Bohs can swallow most realities but Shamrock Rovers picking off Andy Lyons and Liam Burt in successive seasons, dangling the carrot of European football, provides immediate motivation.
Jonathan Afolabi is already making the desired impact up front but signing Polish defenders Kacper Radkowski and Krystian Nowak might spark a special campaign.
“It’s about making the club an attractive place to come and play,” said Fenlon, “you have got to have a plan in place around the younger players and the retention of players. That is something we have got to do better.
“You are always going to lose players to clubs across the water and if you are properly compensated you can live with that. What we don’t want is somebody walking out the door at the end of the season to join clubs in Dublin. Our overall recruitment policy needs to improve, but that’s why Clint Nelson has come in.”
Jamie Mullins (18) signing for Brighton will, ideally, pay Bohs via a sell-on clause, maybe not the €1.7 million they received when Wolves sold Matt Doherty to Spurs for £15 million in 2020, but a steady income stream nonetheless.
“The club have done really good job in how those deals are structured so as young players’ careers progress, Bohs will do well out of it.”
It makes Craig Sexton’s academy the truest route to meshing sustainability and success.
“Our academy model is completely different to Shamrock Rovers. Young players coming to Bohs know they will get an opportunity in the first team and that might be different at one or two clubs in Dublin.
“It’s not always about money. The club is structured really well at the moment. Bohs probably takes a bit of flak about what is being done off the pitch, which is a bit unfair. Off the pitch has to marry with what happens on the pitch, I get that.”
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The collectible shirt has turned Bohemian FC into a unique entity within Irish sport. The club may be easily labelled a hipsters’ paradise, but Palestinian children in Tulkarem will benefit from 10 per cent of their latest sales, while Bob Marley’s family came on board last year to help refugees and asylum seekers, and the current diversity and inclusion partnership with Dublin Bus has genuine meaning.
Crucially, when it comes to reimagining Dalymount as a terraced utopia, they have an ally in Dublin City Council assistant CEO Dick Shakespeare.
“If you look at the identity of the club, it probably slipped last year,” Fenlon conceded before highlighting the unquantifiable impact made by the return of Keith Buckley and Paddy Kirk. “I brought Keith into Bohs when he was a kid. He knows how the club functions.”
“I love the job I am in now,” he added. “It excites me. I think I have plenty to offer. When we get our feet under the table, we will see a difference.”
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