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'Fractured' St Patrick's Athletic structure needs 'big reset' - Graham Gartland

St Pat's fell to a home defeat to Sligo Rovers in what turned out to be Tim Clancy's final match in charge at Richmond Park
St Pat's fell to a home defeat to Sligo Rovers in what turned out to be Tim Clancy's final match in charge at Richmond Park

St Patrick's Athletic need to look at streamlining their structure as well as undertaking the search for Tim Clancy's managerial successor, according to Graham Gartland.

After a run of three defeats in a row, including back-to-back losses over the Bank Holiday weekend, the Inchicore club confirmed that they had parted ways with Clancy.

The Saints are currently seventh in the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division after an inconsistent start to the campaign.

But while identifying a new manager will be high on the agenda, former Drogheda United, Longford Town and Shamrock Rovers defender Graham Gartland also feels St Pat's need to make changes to their overall structure.

"Pat's need a big reset here," he told the RTÉ Soccer Podcast.

"And from that point, I mean Pat's academy [teams] play their games at Blanchardstown, they train in Ballyoulster, the first team train in Ballyoulster and their first team play out of Inchicore.

"They're fractured in terms of how they are. They are trying to do things off the pitch well and they have a really good youth set-up.

"But they need to align everything and get themselves a base where their academy can train out of, their first team can train out of and everything's together.

"I know that they want to put money into the first team and make sure that it's competitive and build the stadium up, and I get all that, I totally agree with all of that, but there has to be plans put in place to build the club, that it's not just a case of a manager comes in, he's not successful and they move him on.

"Give him the tools where he can train at a proper training base, their young players can train at a top training base every week that the first team are involved in and then they can build something that can be sustainable over a longer period of time.

"That should be the aim of every club in the League of Ireland and I think if they could do that and then look to go who's going to lead it and be at the helm of it and try and guide them through that, I think that might be a better way of doing that going forward."

2 John Kiely was at the launch of The Dillon Quirke Foundation fundraising drive

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