Tougher times lie ahead for Galway

Friday's amazing 8-0 win over Monaghan was a fairy-tale end to an eventful week for Galway United but no one knows better than Tony Mannion that it means little enough in terms of the battle for survival that lies ahead at Terryland Park.

Asked last week whether United could defy the odds and stay in the top flight, Mannion said simply that staying in senior football was the issue.

In fact, United could be in much worse shape financially. While the new men take over a club whose expenditure still comfortably outstrips its income the last action of outgoing chairman Gerry Gray was to write a cheque for United's debts.

The upshot is his replacement will start with a clean slate, something most of his colleagues at the other 20 Eircom League clubs could only dream of.

Furthermore, it's hard to imagine Nial O'Reilly, a driving force behind the development of Terryland Park back in the early 90s, or the likes of Ollie Daniels, Mike Murphy and Kieran O'Mahony, all prominent in the running of Salthill Devon, have come in to usher the club out of the league.

Even Mannion's warning on the future looks more like a reminder to the people of Galway that the club's problems can not be ignored any longer.

Already the new men have made it clear they will strive to broaden the club's supporter and financial bases. In a city the size of Galway, particularly given the interest in football there, it should not be impossible to run a league club that can prosper on and off the field.

Mannion, ironically, is more optimistic about the club's footballing future than most, even if he believes his initial task will be to cut budgets further. If decent training facilities can be secured and the local presence in the first team squad built on he feels the club can be challenging for honours within a few seasons.

First and foremost, he agrees that things simply can not be allowed to go on as before. That, of course, is an implied criticism of Gray, although no one can accuse him of anything more serious than letting his desire to see United do well get the better of him.

While supporters have accused Gray and fellow-former director Eamon Naughton of lacking ambition, some of those who have replaced the pair see their failure to come to terms with the likely consequences of reining in budgets as the root cause of the current budgetary difficulties.

Several attempts have been made over the past year to cut costs but the sacking of Don O'Riordan looks to have been a key event in a terribly painful period at Terryland.

The move turned out to be a false economy as fans were alienated, many of the club's off-the-field activities were hit and, ultimately, little money was saved.

Gray has been criticised for his poor public relations skills and there is little doubt the way O'Riordan was forced out was a PR disaster. Many of Gray's difficulties with the fans stemmed from that and he scarcely helped matters by being seen as high-handedly dismissing attempts they made to have an input into the club.

In any event, for a man who is reckoned to have put a substantial six-figure sum into the club over his 10-year involvement to depart because he and Naughton were being abused by the fans is incredible.

United recouped roughly 15 per cent of their €350,000 expenditure last year through the turnstiles and while fund-raising secured much of the rest there remained, as in other years, a substantial shortfall.

That the men involved in making up that shortfall should be deterred from bringing their families to games because of the invective directed at them goes some way towards explaining why this league is the financial shambles it is.

The new committee insist the business plan they are drawing up will be hard-nosed and realistic, in part because, they point out, there is unlikely to be anyone around to bail United out if they do not finally start to pay their own way.

Scarcely will the fans have gotten over their delight regarding Gray and Naughton's departure than the reality of the situation will start to sink in.

No one doubts Mannion's ability to make the best of what he is given to work with but if United are to achieve the success the fans want they still probably need someone with an interest in football and a fair amount of money to blow to come on board. Someone, in fact, like Gerry Gray.

(emalone@irish-times.ie)