Limerick have at least 37 reasons to thank McCarthy

ON SOCCER:HAVING BEEN described by a local paper after his intervention to save Limerick 37 as the city's own Roman Abramovich and observed that he saw it all as "a unique business opportunity", New Jersey-based lawyer Jack McCarthy could be forgiven these days for wondering quite what he let himself in for back in January.

Born in Princeton, where he still lives, McCarthy always felt a connection with Ireland as a result of his grandfather from Bennetsbridge in Kilkenny and grandfather from Killaloe in Clare.

Since the late '60s when he did an undergraduate thesis on the work of economist Dr TK Whitaker he has been a regular visitor and, having come into contact with the FAI a couple of years back when he explored promoting a game involving the Ireland team in New York, he has been a club proprietor for the last eight months.

McCarthy appears to have made a universally positive impression on those who have dealt with him in that time. He took on a club searching to recapture the success and popularity of its glory days and a fair proportion of the local fans might have seen him as the sort of walking, talking chequebook who took over Chelsea back in 2003.

The immensely personable American laughs at the idea and while he is coy about how much he has stumped up since assuming ownership (he is reported locally to have cleared around €200,000 worth of debts and guaranteed losses reckoned at some € 150,000 a year) he readily admits the sums involved are far from inconsequential to a man who suggests, "there are probably 500 guys in Limerick who could buy and sell me a few times over".

One or two have probably owned the club in one of its previous manifestations and should not be expected to clamber back aboard anytime soon but McCarthy's aim is to build a coalition amongst a few of the rest while tapping into the reservoir of mainly dormant support that exists in order to restore the city's senior footballing fortunes.

Though he seeks to play as active a role as possible in the club's affairs, McCarthy only gets across to Ireland every six to eight weeks.

In his absence the day-to-day running of the club is entrusted to his CEO, Andrew Mawhinney, general manager Ciarán Judge and first-team manager Mike Kerley, all of whom come in for serious praise from their Stateside boss.

Working with a budget roughly one fifth that of the main promotion contenders, Kerley has done a remarkable job this year with a team comprised pretty much entirely of local-based players, several of them still very young, and who comfortably holding their own in the division (coincidentally they have 37 points just now) - and scoring two wins over old rivals and promotion favourites Dundalk.

Kerley's task, reckons his captain Pat Purcell, has been made that much more manageable by the fact that McCarthy has honoured every commitment he has given to the club's players and staff over the past few months.

Comfortably one of the squad's most experienced figures, Purcell feels that Limerick under the American's ownership are probably the most stable operation he has ever played for.

The wages might be modest but, without fail, they arrive on time, while the kit is good and the training grounds are properly organised. The depressing reality is that some much bigger outfits have failed to match Limerick's performance on at least one of those counts this season.

What nobody seems entirely sure about, however, is quite where Limerick 37 are going in the longer term. Inspired, in part, by the success of the Munster rugby team and the enormous support it commands in the city, McCarthy is not short of ideas and has just signed a deal with the Department of Defence to lease six acres of fields plus a former officers' quarters out at Knocklisheen, which he hopes to transform into a training centre.

The money required is not the sort he can write a cheque for, however, and so he will be looking to the local authority, the Department of Sport and the FAI for funding to make it all happen.

Much the same line up has already been approached about how the club's need to develop a home in some way worthy of the city's senior football traditions might be developed. Jackman Park, though well located, is pretty much the league's most basic facility, with not a single seat and little enough room for development.

Inevitably there is talk of a return to the mythic Markets Field which Bord na gCon has been trying for some time to sell. Pressed into naming a ballpark figure for what it might cost to get the club established there with a 5,000 or 6,000 capacity stadium, McCarthy plumps for € 10 million.

Clearly his hope is that those in charge of the city's current regeneration project will see the same potential in working with club and FAI that South Dublin Council did when they decided to build the community stadium which Shamrock Rovers will soon call home in Tallaght.

In the meantime, the difficulties of surviving day to day will be eased a little for a while next month when Republic of Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni comes to town for a fundraiser at the Castletroy Hotel on October 16th. The dinner looks set to sell out and if the auction afterwards goes well the night could raise upwards of €50,000. To a club whose average attendance this season has been 355, that's big money and McCarthy is excited.

As John Delaney observed on the day McCarthy arrived in January, though, "Limerick is the third biggest city in Ireland and it is only right that it should have a top football club." Few would disagree, certainly not the club's owner, but if it's really to be achieved then the association, and a few others, have their work cut out.