Cork City's squad-building ‘nearly done’
“We have our back five from last season signed up again and Kevin was the final cog in that,” said Caulfield. “He is a talented young player and he is hungry for success, and that is why it was vital for us to keep him.
“The squad is nearly complete now, and Kevin is another part of that jigsaw. It is important for us to retain our top players, which we have done, and Kevin is another one of those. We are nearly done now — we have eighteen players done and we also have a few of our 19s to come in. We will bring in possibly one or two more.”
Said O’Connor: “There was a huge team spirit in the dressing room last year and hopefully we can build on that. John has obviously made a few new signings, but the bulk of the team will be here again next year, which is good because I think we had a great squad here.”
Meanwhile, two former Cork City players will play leading roles in the management team for this year’s training camp for out of contract league of Ireland players run by the PFAI.
Former City captain Dan Murray has been named manager while former striker Neale Finn is coach. The goalkeeping coach is Brendan Clarke and the physio is Tony McCarthy.
Since the international players’ union FIFPro is no longer running its annual tournament in Oslo, the format for this year’s training camp has changed, with fixtures set to be arranged for early January before the start of the 2017 season.
The training itself takes place at the National Sports Campus Training Centre in Abbotstown.
