'Derry City made me realise I wasn't the Messiah'

His time at Derry City is remembered for being brief, explosive and unsuccessful, but Dermot Keely now admits that it was all down to him.

One of the most successful and most outspoken characters in League of Ireland history, Keely won five league titles as a player and four as a manager, not to mention his seven FAI Cups throughout a successful career that saw him go on to manage an incredible 12 different League of Ireland clubs.

But, ahead of the forthcoming release of his autobiography, ‘Better Without the Ball’, written alongside Neil O’Riordan, the Chief Sports Writer from the Irish Sun, the now 70-year-old Keely, has admitted his time at Derry City is his only regret.

“It was the biggest failure of my life, in football,” he admits. “If I had my time back, I'd go back to Derry. I would love to be in Derry, with the big crowds in the Brandywell. I'd love that. I'd loved it all beforehand but I just didn't take into account what players I had. Normally I’d say if a player didn’t like it, they could buzz off. But you're up in Derry, and you're far away, so you can't be going on like that. I like being in Dublin, you can go and get different people and say, “Look, I don't like you, you can go”. But you can’t do that because the people then you’re trying to get in aren’t as good. It was a learning curve for me. I didn't let their personality come out and I didn't let my own personality come out.”

With Derry City in trouble at the foot of the table, Keely, who had won league titles with Shamrock Rovers, Dundalk and Shelbourne, was the board’s choice to replace Kevin Mahon. A winner throughout his career, he came to the Brandywell stating his desire to become the first manager to lead four separate teams to the top.

“I loved the thought of going to Derry,” he recalled. “I loved Derry. I loved the people and I loved the whole thing about it. But when I went, it just didn't work. I went in, you see, and I thought I was going to change the world. The first thing I thought was that they weren’t fit, so we trained twice a day.

“I had a formula in my head that I used, in that I would go in, get people fit, and get people in if I needed them, so I went into Derry full time and I trained twice a day. I trained particularly hard and I kind of remained aloof from them; I wasn't myself. The job really took me. In the end, they just didn't like me. It was the only club that I haven't done anything with. It wasn't their fault, it was me. It was me going in and demanding x, y and z, and not thinking, because it had worked everywhere else. There were really good players, these fellas. They were smashing players, but I just think that we got off on the wrong foot. It just didn't happen. It never happened anywhere else, anywhere. It was good everywhere else.”

From July to September, a dark cloud hung over the Brandywell, with Keely’s methods not endearing himself to the players, and results were not helping matters at all. A solitary win over Cobh Ramblers in the FAI Cup meant nothing when the Candystripes were dumped out of the competition by First Division Galway United, and too many draws kept City trapped in relegation danger. It all ended quickly following a 2-0 loss to fellow strugglers UCD at the Brandywell at the end of September.

“I always left a club in a better state than when I joined it, but I didn't with Derry. I actually made it worse, I killed it, I killed the atmosphere. It was a mistake,” Keely acknowledges.

“You try to apply a formula because you have it in your head. 99% of the time it worked but it just didn’t at Derry. It wasn’t that I didn’t respect them, because some of them were smashing. It was probably because I’d been successful elsewhere, then I went to Kildare, which was nowhere, and I probably just believed my own publicity, that I was the Messiah. But I’m not. I think that was the first time that I realised I couldn’t walk on water.

“That’s not a reflection on Derry because they were fantastic. I couldn’t say a bad work about Derry, about the way I was treated. It was all down to me and my ego. I didn’t think I had an ego, but going from Kildare to Derry is like going from the fourth division to Chelsea or Manchester United or Liverpool. I was going into solve everything like I was the man, but it was a load of bollocks because you need to get players with you, but they didn’t come. I didn’t get the chance. I’m proud of my work and I wouldn’t like to redo anything, whether it was good or bad, but Derry stands out. I’ve gone on holidays for longer.”

During Keely’s short tenure, the league troubles were momentarily put on hold by the visit of the mighty Barcelona on August 12.

Nine thousand fans squeezed into the Brandywell to witness a full-strength Barca side dazzle and delight, with household names such as Patrick Kluivert, Javier Saviola, Marc Overmars, Luis Enrique and Carlos Puyol the main attractions. The presence of Brazilian superstar Ronaldinho had the fans abuzz with excitement on a day that has never been forgotten by the fans.

But for Keely, it was unimportant.

“The Barcelona thing; for me it's not football, it's a friendly match,” he said. “I mean, it's a great crowd and it’s a great atmosphere. That's for the players and it's such an honour, and for the crowd, it's fantastic. But as a manager, it didn't do anything for me. I mean, it could have been Coleraine. It’s just big noise. I would have swapped ten Barcelona's to win a league with Derry. To me, it was a friendly match and that’s all.

“Failing in Derry, stands out but Barcelona had nothing to do with anything for me. I’m sure the players loved playing against Barcelona, it’s fantastic, but it leaves me cold.”

European attitude

Just two days after the glamour tie against Barcelona, the Candy Stripes were in Cyprus for their UEFA Cup tie against Apoel Nicosia and it proved to be a significant occasion as Derry City finally hit an away goal in a European tie, with Gary Beckett scoring in a 2-1 defeat. It gave some hope ahead of the return leg at the Brandywell, but the Cypriot side made sure of progression with a 3-0 win in Derry. Not that Keely was too bothered, as it wasn’t a realistic route to success. 

“I’m from the Jim McLaughlin school,” he explained. “Without Jim McLaughlin, there’s no Dermot Keely.”

“I don't think he ever took Europe seriously. He wanted to win leagues and cups domestically. I'm the same.

“I don't think he ever really thought he was going to win the league. His thing is, which is great for him, was that he wanted to be the best manager in Europe. I don’t think he ever really thought he was going to win in Europe. His thing was that he wanted to be the best manager in the league. I don’t think he wanted to be the first manager to win away from home in Europe or to score the first goal.

“Time has elapsed and people might think that’s terrible, but that’s how we thought. At the time, you weren’t paid a lot so it was also a chance to get a big bonus. We never sat down and thought ‘We’re going to go for Europe this year’. We just wanted to win medals at home. We couldn’t give a shit really about Europe.”

Keely’s tenure as boss lasted 66 days in total, during which time he managed just one victory. He left Derry City two points off the bottom of the Premier Division.

“My attitude was wrong,” he says now. “Seriously, when I sit here and look back, I mean, I was a proper asshole. I felt I could do anything anywhere. So, you know when you put yourself number one and the team number two, that doesn’t work. It's the only time I made a mistake and it chased me.

“It was me that was the king, not them, and they didn't take to it. And again, if I'd have been in that team, with this fellow coming in the way he came in, I wouldn't have liked him either. So, you learn from it.

“Your ego just runs away with it and you think you’re something special and you’re not. McLaughlin was something special, that’s a given, but that’s it.”