CORK CITY HAVE completed another piece of good business as they build towards next season.
Having announced a new contract for top goalscorer Sean Maguire yesterday, the Leesiders have confirmed this afternoon that Kevin O’Connor will also remain with the club in 2017.
The attacking left-back was one of City’s star performers in 2016, as John Caulfield guided the club to another second place finish in the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division and their first FAI Cup triumph in nine years.
“It’s good to be back,” O’Connor told City’s official website. “I just wanted to get everything sorted and I am looking forward to next season. I think we can kick on from what we did last season and hopefully go one step further in the league this year.
“There was a huge team spirit in the dressing room last year and hopefully we can build on that. John has obviously made a few new signings, but the bulk of the team will be here again next year, which is good because I think we had a great squad here.
“I think you have to improve every year. You want to get better every game and the ultimate aim is to be the best you can be. I was happy with how last year went, but I won’t be settling for that. I want to go even further this year.”
O’Connor, a native of Enniscorthy in Wexford, joined City from Waterford United midway through the 2015 season. An Irish U21 international, he made 28 appearances for the club in 2016.
“It’s fantastic, we are really delighted,” said City manager John Caulfield. “The squad is nearly complete now and Kevin is another part of that jigsaw. We all know how good he is, he came in two years ago and was very good, and he was phenomenal last year. We are looking for him to drive on again next year and be even better.
“He was part of the cup-winning team, he saw the celebrations and he saw what a huge role he had for us this year. It is important for us to retain our top players, which we have done, and Kevin is another one of those.
“We have our back five from last season signed up again and Kevin was the final cog in that. He is a talented young player and he is hungry for success, and that is why it was vital for us to keep him.”
City have already brought in Conor McCormack from Derry City and Sligo Rovers pair Jimmy Keohane and Achille Campion for the 2017 season, but Caulfield says there may still be more new arrivals.
“We are nearly done now,” he said. “We have 18 players done and we also have a few of our Under 19s to come in. We will bring in possibly one or two more. I am not surprised that players have signed back. The players can see what a fantastic club this is, how well we did last year and there is a lot of hunger in this team.
“We want to win trophies and, after playing in Europe, they can see the platform this club is at, the facilities we have and the whole make-up of the club. Everything at the club is set up for a professional player and geared for more success, and that is what we want.”
I don’t condone racist comments in any shape or form but a person cannot be imprisioned for a racist comment. it is disgraceful what was said but at the end of the day that person has the right to his opinion even if it is a disgusting one. the best thing that can be done is the comment removed and the person in question should be banned from games by the club.
Are you familiar with “Prohibition of Incitement To Hatred Act (1989)” – http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1989/en/act/pub/0019/print.html ? It has been used to charge and imprison people who have made racist comments though it doesn’t appear to have been successfully prosecuted where the comments were made online.
We need to smash racism wherever we see it. Disgusted at some of the casual acceptance of this kind of behaviour.
Racism is blown out of proportion in this country.. simply ignoring it in cases like this is the best thing to do. If this was left go a few twitter followers of this person would have been the only people to see it.. now with the publicity attached hundreds of thousands of people have seen it.
I’m glad the racists have been exposed and hopefully banned from Shamrock Rovers. Racism needs to be nipped in the bud because it spreads among idiots very quickly. Shamrock Rovers fans take enough stick without having a racist label attached to them.
I’m glad the racists have been exposed and hopefully banned from Shamrock Rovers. Racism needs to be nipped in the bud because it spreads among idiots very quickly. Shamrock Rovers fans take enough stick without having a racist label attached to them because of a few uneducated simpletons.
Heard you the first time WS
Politicians should also be called to answer if they contribute to racist incitement
I dont agree with the tweet, dont even know who the player is, but being racist on the internet shouldnt be a crime. Get the post deleted …..problem solved.
all cars should be blue……..
@ stephen : just because it’s the internet doesn’t give you license to be a racist p$&#k , why should you be allowed to abuse people from behind a keyboard and once it’s deleted ‘everything is grand again’ ??
The gas part is, if the fan said it to the players face AND kicked the sh1ite out of him – nothing would have happened!! But be racist online?! Oh god forbid…
Mr Hamstrings, have you ever heard of the word “Assault”?
You can’t just pretend a racist comment didn’t happen once it has been deleted! Imagine how the player feels about an insult like that being thrown at him? If club officials ignored it, it would be adding insult to injury.
Imagine how the player feels now with it going out on every news wire in the country. Its a horrible comment, but the media now add serious injury to insult.
Agreed that its a horrible comment and would probably be better for the guy if it wasn’t in the public eye but it HAD to be reported to the Guards.
Without a doubt. No question of reporting it to the guards.
You have to laugh at the people saying delete it and it’s grand. Funny how they’re all white. You do realise the lad who received this tweet is black? Do you think he’s sitting at home going, “ah sure, he deleted it, I feel ok now”? Racism is not something to be swept under the carpet, the people who are saying we should do that obviously have no clue what it’s like to be discriminated against. Racism is not an opinion, it’s disgusting bigotry and it harms the victim or victims. Extreme levels of naivety from some people.
Here mick Lennon I was in tallagh stadium not so long ago and I’ve heard rovers fans abuse Gilbert in clear ear shot of stewards and it has been let go so about time they got caught and hopefully get prosecuted !
also a further point, any abuse that Gilbert has received during games were due to his ability as a footballer and had nothing to do with the colour of his skin
i dont know what you mean?
could have been a bohs supporter tweeted it
Same old rovers always trying to blame someone else, your club has seen the tweet, anyone that follows football in Ireland can see the tweet, and the person that posted it had rovers comments on their page going back a couple of months. There is even screen shots to prove them. Take the blame for once and stop trying to deflect the fact that the club has racist problems that have been going on for a number of years.
Gilbert should feel worse about his “performances” this year rather than this one incident…also its sad that LOI articles are constantly put up on this site, but only this one, a bad new story, has attracted significant attention and comment
Ok sort the racist thing out and them deport him
this all stems from the racist remarks made in the UK.
some journalist has seen the tweet and now is spinning it to try and make an Irish version of the story..
God save us with this over the top control of what individuals do.. the racist like tweet reference say that the person involved shows poor judgement of their view of the world and others in it if it is in fact a genuine poster and not a journalist running a scam for headlines sake….
Either way I’m not sure my non white colleges will give the comment as much thought as farting in private…. The comment deserves as much attention as that… Now can we all get on with our lives as we always have done…..
When it’s Bohs, Pat’s or anyone else there’s a serious racism problem among League of Ireland fans.
When it’s Rovers it’s just a silly schoolgirl whose actions shouldn’t represent the rest of the fans.
Rovers have handled it awfully going so public with it. It’s gone from doing the rounds among rival forums and being a bit of slagging ammo to becoming a national news story. Why did they feel the need to???
For what it’s worth I don’t think there is a racism problem in the LOI. When the issue of race does crop up it is usually Rovers though. Monkey Chants at Joey Ndo in Dalymount, Nazi salutes in front of their flag on European away trips, Turner and Zayed and the reaction to that incident.
That’s also not to say that all Rovers fans are racists. To do so would be as bigoted as the racist comments themselves.
There are rumours that Gilbert gave a thumbs down whist holding the crest of his jersey and made wa**er gestures towards a section of Rovers fans during the cup final on Saturday.
I would bet money that the girl in question sent that tweet in the heat of the moment from her phone right when that happened.
I don’t condone it or any racism for a second, I’m merely pointing out that that’s the problem with the likes of Twitter being so accessible.
The correct thing to do would have been to privately send a copper (I’m sure there’s at least one Rovers fan policeman) round to her house and put the absolute fear of god into her. I’m sure the Rovers fans more so than the club itself have their own way of weeding out racists.
did you send it Dave,your being very defensive and blaming rovers,sounds like your trying to deflect the spotlight from bohs fans and have innocent rovers fans tarnished
so much for freedom of speech.
So your a racist now Father