BOHEMIANS AND Dundee United have a set a deadline of close of business today to resolve the issue of Pat Fenlon’s future with both club’s agreeing that the matter needs to be resolved quickly.

Fenlon met with members of the Bohemians board last night when he reiterated his desire to take on the challenge of managing in the Scottish top flight but also reassured his current employers that he will not simply walk out in order to go to the SPL outfit.

It seems, in any case, that the Scots would be wary of recruiting him on that basis for fear that a tribunal would hand them a bill for something in the region of what Bohemians have been demanding this week.

United officials, meanwhile, finally made contact with their counterparts late yesterday afternoon and some headway appears to have been made with regard to discussing a level of compensation that might prove acceptable to the League of Ireland Champions although it is believed that they so far only offered something in the region of €75,000.

Talks are due to resume today, however, and it is possible that a deal can be arrived at. But Bohemians have indicated that they are willing to be flexible in terms of a schedule for payment but continue to maintain that that they should be properly compensated for the loss of such a successful manager with three years remaining on his contract so close to the start of the new season and it is believed in Scotland that United will not go beyond €100,000 to get their man.

After last night’s meeting with Fenlon, however, club secretary Gerry Conway would only confirm that: “The two clubs are talking now and we have agreed that the talks should be concluded by close of business tomorrow.”

United officials had been briefing their local media over the past couple of days to the effect that Fenlon was all but certain to be in place by the weekend but all sides now seem to acknowledge that the move is hanging in the balance.

For Bohemians, the prospect of compromising significantly on a figure they never saw as especially attractive – they have been widely reported to be seeking at least what United got from the SFA for Craig Levein – will be a difficult one to swallow but they will be wary too of alienating a manager they hope to keep by appearing to unreasonably hold him back after two very successful years at Dalymount Park.