League of Ireland: Bohs hope to keep legend Fenlon:

TROUBLED TIMES:  Pat Fenlon at Boh's Dalymount Park

One piece of good news, at least, for Bohemians fans as manager Pat Fenlon will be in the dugout for tonight's derby at St Patrick's Athletic after fears earlier in the week that the Gypsies boss would walk away within days.

Just how long Fenlon remains in charge at Dalymount Park depends on the outcome of more talks between the manager and the Bohs board over the weekend, once tonight's league game is out of the way.

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A frustrated Fenlon, who told the board last week that he wanted to leave the club, held more talks with the board yesterday before the squad's regular training session at Dalymount Park last night – though even that is a source of discord as Fenlon is annoyed that the squad have to train at their home ground, despite the obvious damage to the playing surface, as a training ground has yet to be sourced.

In the middle of all that came another link with the Scottish game as Fenlon, who is being considered for a scouting job at Celtic, was immediately suggested as a contender for the manager's job at SPL side Kilmarnock (a job which he had been offered and refused previously), which became vacant yesterday when Mixu Paatelainen left to manage his native Finland Fenlon wasn't even mentioned among a list of 20 contenders on the website of one of the UK's major bookmakers, and he was even unaware of the Killie talk until a member of his family rang to say that he was being linked with the post on a Dublin radio station.

IN THE WARS:   Pat Fenlon

“Players feel a huge personal loyalty to Pat (Fenlon) because he is good to work with and he is also successful"


Fenlon declined to comment on the progress of the negociations when contacted by the Herald today but a source said they were “positive” and a deal could be struck over the weekend which would see Fenlon staying on as manager while taking on other roles in administration within the club, though there are a lot of issues still to be sorted out and an agreement is by no means a done deal. 

A source said today:“Pat's on the wage of a full-time manager but we're a part-time club now, he's the first to admit we can't afford him on current terms, so we're trying to find away around that."