New Cork boss Robson confident Maguire is staying

New Cork City manager Barry Robson has insisted that Seani Maguire will be staying with the First Division club.

The 47-year-old ex-Aberdeen boss landed in Ireland on Monday to replace Ger Nash and was in the dugout on Wednesday morning to oversee a 1-0 pre-season victory over Waterford.

The highest-priority item on his in-tray will be fending off suitors attempting to lure Maguire from the recently relegated Leesiders. Premier Division champions Shamrock Rovers have been linked with the 11-cap Ireland international, who has two years left on his City deal.

"He's obviously a terrific player and he's contracted to the club, so in my eyes he stays at the football club," said Robson.

"He's got a contract here. For me, personally, what do I think of him as a player? I think he's outstanding. He's a brilliant boy. I've spoken to him a couple of times. He can play in a few positions. He can play in that number 10 role. He can play as a striker.

"He's a talented player and I've had a number of positive, good conversations with him."

Upon further questioning, Robson reiterated: "Seani is contracted to the club and I love him as a boy and I love him as a player."

Robson, a 17-time Scotland international who spent two years with Celtic, has signed a two-year deal with the Turner's Cross club following a brief spell in charge of Raith Rovers.

He hopes to bring "stability" to a City side which has gone through three different managers and three further interim appointments in the past three seasons.

"I knew it was a big club that has got a real traditional big fan base, so it was a bit of a sleeping giant. That was something that attracted me.

"I like to work at big football clubs, I was lucky enough to play at big football clubs, so that was one of the big reasons."

Robson is due to meet Cork City majority owner Dermot Usher later on Wednesday for a discussion which will touch on the budget for new signings.

"We'll be talking about a lot of things that obviously I think we need to improve on, and other things that we can try and help. We'll have a meeting today about that and we'll see where we go from there."

Robson spoke positively about the club’s academy products, while acknowledging the need to surround those players with sufficient experience.

"The window's still open and we'll see," he said when asked about recruitment. "I can't just make a judgement right away when I come in.

"First things first for me is I have to assess the squad. I have to see where it needs improving.

"There's a lot of good players in there. There's a lot of young players, which is good. They bring a freshness and energy.

"But they also don't have that experience or nous to be able to play loads and loads of games, so we need to be careful with that one as well.

"I'm really big on giving opportunity to players. I want to do that and we'll see where we go from there."

The former Dundee United, Middlesbrough, and Sheffield United player inherits a coaching staff led by David Meyler and Mark McNulty. When asked about making new appointments, Robson replied: "They seem like good people, they know the league, and we'll see how that develops as we go on."

Robson described his style of play as "about winning football matches".

"You have to know what pitches are like, what opposition is like, there's a lot of these things, but we want to be aggressive and we want to be fast and we want to score goals.

"We'll be playing in a way that suits the players we've got here, and obviously we might be able to add to that as well, but we'll find more about that as we go."

Click here to read article