RTÉ Soccer analyst Alan Cawley believes manager Owen Heary has paid a price for a “naive” approach with Sligo Rovers ahead of his expected departure from the club in the next 24 hours.
The Dubliner will part company with Bit O’ Red after 15 league games that yielded only two wins.
Cawley said: “You have to say he has struggled since he has gone in. For a club that is playing with a big budget that is in relation to some of the clubs that are higher in the table, that is going to play a part as well.
“The criticism I would have; I think he was naive when he went in at the start.
“In one of his first press conferences he was speaking about challenging for the title and maybe winning the league title and that’s what he was there for. I think that weighed a lot of expectation on him from day one.
“He also didn’t bring in his own backroom team and I thought that was a mistake as well. He should have brought in his own assistant or a coach, whether that was his own decision or the [Sligo board].
“The third issue was when Liam O’Brien and Joseph Ndo came in as well after about seven or eight games. I think that undermined Owen. They are things I would point towards on Owen.”
Cawley told Soccer Republic that the players at The Showgrounds should also shoulder some of the blame for a season that has seen an expected challenge for the top four materialise into a relegation battle.
Last Friday’s 5-1 defeat to Shamrock Rovers will prove the final game in charge of Heary and Cawley was extremely critical of that performance.
He said: “On the other hand, I don’t think the players have helped Owen Heary. I have seen a lot of the performances and so many of them have under-performed.
“If they are honest with themselves, a lot of those players should take a good long look in the mirror because they have been dreadful in a lot of the games this season.
“Some of the errors were horrendous. You wouldn’t see it at schoolboy level, they really were that bad. That doesn’t help a manager.
“In fairness to Owen, he is trying to put things in place. He can’t play the game for defenders if they are making mistakes like that.”
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