SHAMROCK ROVERS’ RECENTLY-departed manager Trevor Croly believes it was the right time for him to leave the club.
The Hoops boss stepped down from his position with the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division side over the weekend after they were beaten 4-1 by Limerick on Friday night, which leaves them 12 points adrift of leaders Dundalk in fourth place.
The 40-year-old, who took over from Stephen Kenny in November 2012 and won three cups in less than two years in charge, appeared as a guest on Soccer Republic last night and discussed the latter stages of his tenure.
“I think it was time (to leave),” Croly said. “I think I needed to go. What we were putting out on the training pitch wasn’t being taken onto the pitch.
“It’s a bit like a theatre. You can prepare all week but when you’ve got to go and put on a show on Saturday that’s fine. If you’re getting heckled and you’re getting abused, it’s kind of difficult and the players struggled with that.
“I don’t think I lost the dressing room. I think we didn’t deal with it (the pressure). Shamrock Rovers is a unique club in that if you haven’t played for it, managed it or coached it, you might struggle to understand it.
“There is a lot of pressure for players to play there and we just weren’t good enough to deal with it. I’ve got to take the responsibility.
“Over the last three weeks, it probably would have been more beneficial if I was a psychologist as opposed to a coach. Part of coaching management is psychology but we just struggled with the negativity.”
Rovers supporters have been vocal in expressing their discontent with performances in recent weeks and Croly believes his team found it difficult to cope with the criticism.
“You trace it back to the Dundalk game, we lost that one and that was a turning point,” he added. “You could feel the negativity at half-time. We didn’t play particularly well on the game and neither did Dundalk.
“At half-time, the lads were booed off. That certainly doesn’t help you. We go out and we lose the game then. Since then, we struggled to deal with the pressure. The players have struggled to deal with that pressure to be quite honest.
“If you look at results, we’re right up there. Right up until the Dundalk game. To be honest, we’re not a million miles off at the minute.
We’re 12 (points) off the top. It’s unlikely that we will win it now but we can still get into Europe. We’ve got to be realistic about where we are as a club.
“What we’re spending… Our budget is the fourth highest budget in the league so you’ve got to be realistic. We were building to challenge and we wanted to challenge and I think we would have got there. I’m not saying we would have won the league this year but we certainly would have been closer and we can be closer with a positive outlook.”
Click here to watch last night’s Soccer Republic on the RTÉ Player
What he on about? According to @ Irish soccer hub Shamrock Rovers’ weekly wage bill remains the highest in the LoI, €11k more than Pat’s, €13.5k more than Dundalk & €14.9k more than Sligo. Sligo Rovers weekly wage bill was/is around 20,000. Maybe that includes their second team? Considering their resources Shams should have walked the league this year.
As a Rovers fan I must say I’m surprised at Crolys assertion that we’ve only the fourth highest budget in the league. I assumed we ve the highest. But there u go!
You mean the loi mole on twitter I wouldn’t call him reliable!! His ‘inside’ info is far wide of the mark!!
The board cut the wage budget massively this season due to the b team!!
A lot of players left last season because they were offered contracts at a lower wage!!
Not sure that’s true Aodhan. If wages were being slashed why would Conor Kenna give up the prospect of playing Champions League Football for Pats to sign for Rovers ? The players who left were Chambers McCormack & Foran who weren’t playing regularly last season. Maybe they were promised more game time at Pats. Croly and the fans ran out of patience with Quigley and Killian Brennan for different reasons. Ken Oman knew McGuiness & Kenna would be 1st choice centre halves and with a vacancy at Pats he too went for game time. Rumour had it all the above weren’t being offered new deals anyway. Let’s not kid ourselves that any player is with a club out of loyalty. With one year deals being nearly the norm they’re going to go to the best payers. As I said I believed Rovers had the biggest budget and were therefore the best payers.
Rumor has it ha?? Croly had told a few of thoses player and other that contracts will be offered and with the induction of the b team first team wage bill was cut dramatically and he couldn’t afford to offer what they wanted!! Oman didn’t leave because of Kenna he left because he wasn’t wanted at the club.!! Kenna left as he from and lives in Tallaght and rovers time table for training suited him better!! It’s not all about money as lot of theses players have normal jobs to juggle around it
We have the biggest wage bill as we’ve 2 teams but we certainly don’t have the biggest wage bill for a team in the premier division!!
Pats would be top Dundalk second Sligo at the start of season would of been higher then us but then released a lot over the window and cork prob jumped into third as they signed a lot of players since the start!!
Wasn’t wanted at the club is the same thing as not being offered a new deal. That’s exactly what I said. Croly had them in at 10 every morning so that interfered with most players day jobs. That’s why Dean Kelly left for Pats coz he works for Co. Council and they couldn’t accommodate him with mornings off. Not sure if he’s still there seeing as he re signed for us this season. Anyway let’s not go round in circles. We both want the same thing.. A successful Rovers. I firmly believe Fenlon is the man to give us that. Here’s hoping!…
Croly comes across as a very bitter man.
He still thinks he was doing a great job and his 2 cups wins last season should of kept him safe for least 2 seasons more