Craig Levein’s pursuit of Roy O’Donovan is an epic of persistence. It is two
years since Dundee United’s manager travelled to a match between Cork City
and St Patrick’s Athletic to watch a clutch of players who had been
recommended to him. With his pace, movement, bravery and scoring instinct,
O’Donovan immediately stood out. Deciding he was worth signing was simple
enough, actually getting him has proved far more complicated.
Reading had signed Kevin Doyle, a teammate of O’Donovan’s at Cork, for £78,000
due to a clause in the player’s contract. The striker’s duck-to-water
conversion to the English Premier League was a double whammy for anybody
looking for bargains in the Irish League. Firstly, the clubs, and
particularly Cork, were determined not to be stung so again. Secondly, the
scouts of English clubs were asked to return to their files and discover if
there were any more gems across the Irish Sea.
O’Donovan’s name began to be linked with everyone and anyone. Celtic were
quoted along with several others but Hull were first to table a serious
offer, of £180,000 in January 2007, which was rejected. By that summer, the
price was rising rapidly and out of United’s reach. With Roy Keane coming
from Cork and Sunderland, backed by an Irish consortium, signing players
left, right and centre, there was a certain inevitability that O’Donovan
would end up on Wearside. Yet the fact another club had signed his target
and put him on a wage which was also way beyond United’s budget did not
deter Levein.
Standing in the sunshine watching O’Donovan take part in some shooting
practice towards the end of United’s training session at St Andrews last
week, he took up the tale. “When he went to Sunderland in mid-July I phoned
Tony Loughlan, Roy’s number two, who was at Leicester when I was there, and
said, ‘If the lad is not going to be involved is there any chance I can get
him on loan?’ I harried and harried away, all the way up until the end of
August, and got an agreement to get him on loan last season. Then, of
course, at the last minute we realised he had played for Cork and Sunderland
and couldn’t play for a third club in the same year. We had to wait a whole
year for him, and there were a right few teams in for him this year as well,
but he knew I was desperately keen to get him. The other thing was Willo
[Flood] was here as well, and I think he knew Willo.”
Yet the player Levein eventually got on a season-long loan was not the same
one he wanted so badly. O’Donovan felt this could be his breakthrough season
at Sunderland and took time to get his head round the idea that he, like
many of their squad, would instead be going on loan as Keane’s signing
policy entered a new phase with the arrivals of players such as Djibril
Cisse, El-Hadji Diouf, Steed Malbranque, Teemu Tainio, Pascal Chimbonda and
Anton Ferdi-nand. “He’s an extremely talented boy but when I got him, I
think it was a little bit of a surprise to him. He had worked his socks off
over the summer, thinking, ‘Right, this is my season in the Premiership’.
Then Sunderland go out and spend mega and he’s away down the pecking order.
I got the feeling his mind wasn’t clear coming here. It’s only in the last
two weeks I have noticed a difference in training.”
The 23-year-old didn’t see it that way at the time, and was a regular visitor
to Levein’s office in consequence, but now admits his omission was probably
correct. “I went in and said, ‘Why aren’t I in the team?’ because I had come
here on loan to play, but I think maybe at the time he was right and I was
getting used to being out on loan. It’s the first time I have been out on
loan. Fair dos to him, he put me back in the team on Tuesday [in United’s
Cooperative Insurance Cup tie] and hopefully I can stay in now and prove him
right.” Staying in the team will prove difficult after O’Donovan was given a
straight red card during yesterday’s match at Falkirk, meaning he will be
suspended for United’s visit to Ibrox to face Rangers on Tuesday.
A groin injury to Jon Daly had opened the door for O’Donovan. He scored, with
the aid of a deflection, against St Mirren last Saturday, then started in
the cup win over Dunfermline which put United into January’s semi-finals
along with the two Old Firm clubs and Falkirk.
Levein now hopes others will soon see why he was so determined to sign the
forward. “There was a situation the other night [against Dunfermline] where
a ball was played over the top and he was one-on-one with the goalkeeper. He
threw his head in, knocked the ball past the goalie and was absolutely
clattered by him, and that was what I remember – quick onto things and as
brave as a lion. He doesn’t know it yet, but he could be absolutely anything
in this league. Our supporters haven’t seen the best of him yet.”
O’Donovan finds Levein’s belief in him flattering, it is why he rejected
offers from Championship clubs to come to Scotland this summer.
He has already rebuilt his career once, after being released by Coventry in
his teens as part of the financial fall-out after the collapse of the ITV
digital deal. “Leaving home at 15 is always difficult. I had two-and-a-half
good years there and then went back to Cork City. Being at home with my mum
and dad again was nice and I was only just 18. They send us over [to
England] in bulk, but they send us back in bulk as well. It is only the
lucky few who get a chance and I am lucky to get a second crack of the whip.”
His return to Cork was full of medals and good memories. His confidence
rebuilt, he flourished on the right of a three-man attack beside Doyle, who
had also served his time on the right flank, and John O’Flynn. Levein saw
O’Donovan playing in this role but always envisaged using him more
centrally, where indeed he moved in his final six months with Cork. “I
always thought he was better when he came in the pitch. When he was beating
people for a shot at goal, rather than beating people for a cross.”
O’Donovan believes the top six in the League of Ireland are probably
equivalent to the bottom six in the Scottish Premier League but adds it will
always struggle to attract the crowds, and hence money, to stop its best
players leaving. He comes from Dublin Hill on the north side of Cork and
Keane, naturally, was a childhood hero. He’s only from about five or 10
minutes up the road from where I grew up, so himself and Denis Irwin were
huge. It’s what you aspire to be, so you look to them because they are from
Cork.
“I have great respect for the guy and he’s never been anything but fair to me.
He’s given me the chance to come here and get some experience and I can
always go back if I do well.”
Furman leads Old Firm loan arrangements - but managers want rule review
Apart from being Paul Le Guen’s first Rangers signing, it was a pretty bare cv
that Dean Furman took with him to Bradford on loan, writes Simon Buckland.
The 20-year-old may have received a football education at Chelsea and
Rangers, but where was the work experience? One substitute appearance for
the Ibrox club against Dundee United was the sum of it
Now Furman, right, wants to extend his loan spell until the end of the season
for the sake of his Rangers future after becoming a regular at Valley
Parade. The South African midfielder is one of 11 Old Firm players currently
on loan, but is probably the one with the most to play for as his current
Ibrox deal expires at the end of the season. Furman is welcoming his
exposure to what he calls ‘real life’ at Bradford in England’s League Two.
Managed by Stuart McCall, himself a former Rangers midfielder, Furman will
return north in January, but with Rangers having signed Pedro Mendes and
Steven Davis, he believes he might be better staying put and continuing to
play first-team football
‘Sometimes, playing in the reserves, you’re wrapped up in cotton wool a little
bit,’ he said. ‘Now I’m fighting my own way. It didn’t matter that I came
from Chelsea and Rangers, I had to start from scratch and show what I could
do. You can’t come in thinking, “I’m from Rangers, I’m going to walk
straight into this team”, because it’s not going to happen. There are
players here who’ve racked up hundreds of games. I needed this loan move to
test myself out. It’s a clean slate. There’s much more pressure than in the
reserve league. It’s sink or swim and it’s improving me as a player’
All 12 Premier League managers agreed at Gleneagles recently that the under21
rule, which requires teams to name two young players in their matchday
squad, is flawed, partly because it puts the bigger clubs off allowing
players to leave on loan. Gordon Strachan claims he would have loaned out
Paul Caddis and Darren O’Dea this term, but for the requirement to fill his
bench. ‘It would be smashing to let Paul go to work with Gary McAllister at
Leeds or other friends I have in England. He should be out learning his
trade,’ said the Celtic manager
Walter Smith, his Rangers counterpart, would make it easier for clubs to
borrow his young talent. ‘If we loosened up the loan ruling it would give younger
players the opportunity to go out and play meaningful football,’ he said.
‘It’s something we have to look at. Under21 players are not young. If they
are not a player by then, they are never going to be. Footballers should
always get picked on merit, not an age ruling. Barry Ferguson didn’t need
it. What you need is ability’
Scott Cuthbert signed a new two-year contract with Celtic before heading on a
season-long loan to St Mirren, a move which previously worked for Charlie
Adam of Rangers. Furman has no such security, but remains optimistic because
of the successful precedents. Allan McGregor also benefited from loans at St
Johnstone and Dunfermline. ‘I’m just enjoying playing,’ added Furman. ‘The
time had come when I felt I wasn’t going to progress any further in the
reserves. We’ll be speaking soon and my aim is to get a new deal. I wouldn’t
change the upbringing I’ve had at Chelsea and Rangers, but you have to take
one step at a time and that means doing as well as I can here at Bradford. I
don’t know if going back in January would be the best thing, but it depends
what Rangers want. My intention, whenever I do return, is to go back a
better player’
RANGERS LOANS Paul Emslie (Clyde) Dean Furman (Bradford) Alan Gow
(Blackpool) Steven Lennon (Partick) Alan Lowing (Clyde) Lee Robinson
(StJ’stone) Andy Webster (Bristol C) Mark Weir (Kilm’ock)
CELTIC LOANS Scott Cuthbert (St Mirren) John Kennedy (Norwich) Rocco
Quinn (Livingston)
