Bye bye Sarah then.
“Conor, mate,” Michael said over the phone. “As you’d expect, we’ve got a problem here with that twat bubble from the Journal after yesterday’s events. Obviously it’s not going to look good on you or me. Have you had a read of it yet?” he asked.
“No, I’m getting on the laptop now. Thanks for the heads up, boss. I appreciate it and for what you did yesterday.” Conor said as he hung up the phone and picked up his laptop from his bedside.
There the article was: declaring that Michael O’Donovan could not answer directly why he had chosen Conor McDonald - a 21-year-old recent graduate from the University Campus of Football Business - as the new manager of Cobh Ramblers, despite never having a job in football management previously.
It proceeded to state that Conor was “well out of his depth” and that O’Donovan’s outburst in the home environment was like “seeing a father try and protect his terminably vulnerable son from the bailiffs”. Whatever Sarah would have said was bound to look bad on the club and both Michael and Conor but he never expected it to be this bad.
Logging onto his locked Twitter account, Conor felt like he was opening a door to a room where everyone was talking about how shit Conor was for an appointment at a football club.
He typed in the club’s hashtag and East Cork Journal’s official Twitter account where they had posted a link to an article. He looked at the comments that several fans had made on the different searches and Conor had never felt so alone in his life. There were people wondering what on earth he was doing managing a football club, a list of expletives aimed at Conor’s appointment and Michael O’Donovan’s judgement.
Conor closed his laptop and looked at his wardrobe for two minutes in silence, gathering his thoughts. His mind swept from a defeatist mentality to feeling - as Sarah Kelly called - ‘out of his depth’. Coming to the end of his silent staring he combined all of those bad thoughts surrounding his new role and exploded into an outburst of ambition and enthusiasm. He wanted to bring those naysayers to Limerick for his debut league match away from home and prove every last one of them wrong for ever doubting him.
Conor had earned his position here through hard work on a personal level that most of these people had no knowledge of, it was time to make the most out of it.
Eoin: It's certainly good for Conor to know he has his back but it's also understandable that O'Donovan wants to protect his club's integrity, especially in a time like this!
Scott: You might've thought so, but it seems like she's got a lot of Cobh fans round to her way of thinking.
Griffo: A torrid introduction to life in the management world for sure!
Seb: No goodbyes just yet...
