Pat Fenlon has joined the ranks of the ever growing list of Irish managers in Scotland’s top flight. The 42-year-old Dubliner agreed terms to manage the green side of Edinburgh. He joins Neil Lennon, Danny Lennon, Kenny Sheils and most recently, Steve Lomas in the Scottish Premier League. Sure, Fenlon is from south of the border but we’re talking in terms of rugby here.
The influx started when Neil Lennon took the helm at Celtic just over a year and a half ago. He was then joined by his namesake Danny who strictly speaking is only Irish because he played for them. Fear not though, Lomas was actually born in Hannover making him German. The St Mirren boss was officially in charge two days before his countryman. Neil Lennon had held the Celtic post in a caretaker capacity for three months previous to his appointment. Next to join the legions of Irishmen was Kenny Shiels who also took over as caretaker initially. He has enjoyed mixed success so far at the helm of Ayrshire club, Kilmarnock.
Those three have been on the radar for a good while now. Lomas and Fenlon are two new additions to the ever growing list.
Steve Lomas joined St Johnstone at the start of this month and in doing so became the youngest manager in the league, at only 37-years-old. The former Manchester City, West Ham United and Queen’s Park Rangers midfielder started his managerial career at lowly St Neots Town back in 2009 and then joined his old club, West Ham to manage their reserve side for a short period. The St Johnstone job became available when Derek McInnes became another Scottish manager plying their trade in the English leagues.
Being in charge of the Perthshire club is the first major job in the game for Lomas and continues the recent trend at the Saints, that has seen them plumming for young, keen and interesting managers.
He had the unenviable task of leading his team out for the first time against Rangers after the scheduled match against Aberdeen fell victim to extreme fog. Lomas had time to look at how he would approach the game at Ibrox, thanks to the international break and his side managed to have the majority of possession. They kept Ally McCoist’s side at bay and held on to a worthy 0-0 draw.
The situation that McInnes left the club in was favourable and the Saints currently sit in a healthy fourth position in the current SPL table with 23 points from 15 games. Four of these points have come against the Old Firm, a 1-0 win at Celtic Park earlier in the season to add to last week’s draw at Ibrox.
The newest member of the Scottish Premier League managerial hierarchy is Pat Fenlon. He is no stranger to the league as he was linked with the Dundee United job back in 2010. He takes over from the unsuccessful Colin Calderwood, who this week became Birmingham City’s number two this week, and aims to do a lot better than last season’s tenth place finish in Scotland’s top flight. They currently sit in ninth position with 14 points from 16 games after defeat to Lomas’ St Johnstone on Saturday.
The bottom half of the SPL is extremely tight with only eight points between fourth and the very bottom of the table. Fenlon does have experience winning trophies having notched up a total of five League of Ireland titles, three under as manager of Shelbourne, and most recently back to back titles in 2008 and 2009 when he was in charge of Bohemians. The Dubliner has a tough task ahead of him but will hope his experience can see his side shoot up the table to challenge for a top six finish. Odds on a top-half finish are 6/4 and for Hibernian to finish in third place – they are 3/1 for this season and the following two. Mr Fenlon is also being quoted at 6/1 to lead the Leith side to their first Scottish Cup since 1902.
Whatever the attraction seems to be for the Irish to arrive in Scotland, it seems to have boomed over the past 18 months. One more and there will be more Irish than Scottish managers in the SCOTTISH Premier League; even if one of them is Scottish and the other German. That’s an argument for another day.
Odds via McBookie.
