WATER' UNDER THE BRIDGE

'Its illogical, but it's just in me'... Daly's back in game

- BY GARRY DOYLE

WATERFORD FC's new boss Jon Daly has been in football long enough to know better.

Twenty-seven years in the game, from his teenage debut at Stockport County in 1998 to the dugouts of Inchicore, Oriel Park and now the RSC, should have taught him that this sport - especially this league — will break your heart as often as it fills it.

But here he is again, walking straight back into the madness with Waterford FC. A volatile industry, he calls it. He's being polite.

The logical thing, of course, would have been to step away. He has the mileage, the scars, the résumé: FAI Cup winner with St Pat’s, sacked ruthlessly the following season; Dundalk manager during a financial meltdown not of his making; a man long enough in the trenches to know that security isn't part of the package.

But Daly doesn't do logic. He does football.

“It is an illogical decision,” he admits. “But it’s just in me. It has been since a very young age.”

He recalls the conversations in school - teachers asking what he wanted to be, classmates laughing when he answered.