As we enter into a new year, the fallout from the previous regime continues. Im going to try and write this entire article without mentioning their name.
Fingers Crossed.
Over the last few weeks we have seen reports of players leaving such as Cameron Dummigan, Will Patching, Daniel Cleary and most recently, Cameron Yates.
The latter is a departure that I wanted to discuss, moreso for the way the player was treated by the previous ownership and moreso by Jim Magilton, the previous Director of Football at Oriel Park.
Jim Magilton no longer works at Oriel Park, he was one of the immediate departures from the carrick road venue after the new ownership took over, but its coming to light now how the treatment of players has caused a number of them to leave.
Cameron Yates came to Oriel Park in the latter half of the season , he was signed by Vinny Perth as an addition to the goal keeping team and as a challenger for the number one shirt, but according to comments from Cameron’s father on the website, OrielWeb, it became evident immediately that something wasnt right when Cameron joined Dundalk FC.
Cameron signed a two year contract with Dundalk FC, according to his father this deal was overseen by Vinny Perth and Jim Magilton, the terms were agreed upon by all parties and signed, but at some point during his time at Oriel Park the terms of the agreement were changed without his or his agents knowledge, shortening the contract from two years to “end of the 2021 season” terms.
With the completion of the 2021 season in November, it came to light that Cameron no longer had a contract at Oriel Park, his agent nor himself were aware of this change to his contract and this left Cameron without a club, a contract or an income.
Unfortunately, given the bad experience he has had with the previous ownership and with Jim Magilton, Cameron has decided to stop playing football at the age of 22.
“Sadly, yesterday at the age of just 22, my son decided to give up his dream and stop playing football based on his experiences for the past few years and the frustrations with injuries that have plagued his progress since the day he first turned professional at Leicester City…..and has culminated in some terrible deception from the previous owners of Dundalk FC over his contract renewal.“
Acording to Camerons Father it wasnt just his son who was experiencing the poor treatment from above, Vinny Perth was faced with an impossible task trying to manage a team with little or no support from his Sporting Director.
“I am advised that it was jim Magilton who was responsible for this “deception” and many other “goings on” behind the scenes during is tenureship which made life so difficult for Vinny Perth“
How many more players and staff were affected by this?
It would make sense why we saw our Medical team walk during the season.
It would make sense why we lost numerous players and why some of them signed pre-contracts with other clubs during the 2021 season.
It would make sense why Jim Magilton couldnt find someone to take over the first team manager position, if this is his form.
It would just make fucking sense!
“I have seen how much VP has been vilified on this site (OrielWeb) by various posters but i can advise that from what i know, he was a fundamentally decent man who was trying his best to do a difficult job while others around him made it virtually impossible to do so. He was adamant that Cameron had signed a 2 year deal as he was involved in the negotiations and he was equally shocked to discover what had happened as he had seen at first hand the effort“
Over the last 12 months we have lost some big players from our club,
but given the news today about the treatment of some of the staff and players by the previous owners I am not suprised by the turnover of players from Oriel Park, nor do i blame them.
With all that said, we need to all look forward to a new season, with new owners and new management. The new season is upon us, we go again.
CMon The Town.