Bohemians took their time, and there were plenty of big names in the mix, but Declan Devine was finally confirmed as their new manager last Friday.
Devine succeeds Keith Long who departed the Dalymount Park club in August after eight years at the helm.
Bohs are sixth in the table and slumped out of the FAI Cup at the quarter-final stage where they were convincingly beaten 3-0 by Shelbourne.
Derek Pender, who has been serving as caretaker boss for the last two months, laid out the challenge facing Devine when he said: "It hasn't been good enough from all of us, players are on the pitch and will know themselves. It’s up to them if they want to buy into what Bohs is as a club and I don’t think everyone has this year. I am sure people will be moving on at the end of the season."
Speaking on the RTÉ Soccer Podcast, ex-League of Ireland players Keith Treacy and Paul Corry both acknowledged the Gypsies are in a state of flux but expect the experienced Devine to bring some stability and steel to the club.
"It'll be very interesting," said Treacy. "He done well in his two stints in with Derry - not so well in the second half of his second stint, but overall done very well.
"He was at the game on Friday night against Pat's [Bohs lost 3-1]. I was expecting there'd be a bit of a bounce just because he was in the building. You'd think people would think, 'aw the new manager's eyes are on me'. There wasn't really much of that there.
"It's a big job. It's a big, big club in the League of Ireland with a big fan base.
"He will have to hit the ground running. There's a certain degree of success that Bohs fans want, and I don't mean winning the league, I mean challenging for Europe. They didn't get anywhere near it this season.
"Declan Devine, what he will do is he'll go in and put a spine to the team, he'll put a structure to them and make them work hard. If they do the basics, and he gets people on side and he makes the right type of signings in the off-season, Bohs can challenge for Europe but... when you go back to the cup quarter-final against Shelbourne, it was so, so poor.
"Friday against St Pat's was really poor again. They're two Dublin derbies they just didn't turn up in. It's a bigger job than people think it is. I think there'll be a big clear-out in the off-season."
Corry echoed those sentiments and pointed to the massive changes at Bohs over the course of the last 12 months.
Since losing the FAI Cup final to Pat's on penalties in November 2021, there's been a major talent drain, with the replacements generally failing to click.
"Everybody kind of alludes to the League of Ireland and the huge turnover we've seen within sides, within squads. Bohs are no different," said Corry.
"If you look at the team that played St Pat's the other night versus the team in the FAI cup final, I think Ciaran Kelly was the only survivor.
"Naturally enough, recruitment is the most important part of football and getting the right players into the building. They've not done that. They've not replaced the likes of Ross Tierney, Dawson Devoy, Georgie Kelly; the players they have brought in, it just hasn't worked.
"There's a certain kind of work ethic the Bohs fans expect when the side goes out - they just haven't met that consistently enough.
"It's a massive, massive job. Declan Devine's number one priority now is that he gets the right bodies into the building to play the way he wants his team to play and the way the Bohs fans would expect.
"With the club going full-time next year, they've got a lot right off the pitch in recent years; they've got by and large a lot right on the pitch. It's important now that over the next 12, 18 months the club gets back on the right track to where it's been and they start pushing again, particularly on the European football front."
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