CHRIS O'LOUGHLIN - THE MAN AND THE MYSTERY (Limericks required)

A while back somebody posted about Katrien Meire and acronyms. I reckon very soon we need a section on Chris O'Loughlin and limericks. Apparently he was born in Limerick, and he's now in Charlton and there's been a lot in between - but pretty hard for journalists and writers to research.

If you actually try to find out any information about him, you will find the trail leads back straight to the horse's mouth. He himself is the source of almost everything that's on Wikipedia and in interviews such as one that appeared in The Irish Sun, which I posted on here a while back. Either the guy's a figment of his own imagination, or he's a great publicist - but this mystery that surrounds every key figure at the club makes me think that some Lord Lucan's riding Shergar around the boardroom on Saturdays behind the darkened windows.

Anyway I have tried to find any Cliftonville supporter who has ever seen Chris O'Loughlin play or has even heard of him off-hand and have not found one, not even the club's official historian. I'm not saying he didn't play for them and it doesn't even matter if he did or not, but everything about his situation makes me think of the (sometimes unconscious) exaggeration that people come up with at the start of their careers when they're looking for a job. Often at that stage of your career, you don't realise you are going to be out of your depth and that seems to be a feature of several people in the club at the present time too. I got this sense of his not understanding the complexities of local context when he talked about not being able to get a job in Northern Ireland. The reason for that is probably because it's a very particular type of football environment where you need to have contacts with people and players at that level. Probably not that different from the 3rd or 4th division (to which I genuinely fear that we could be heading).

Now having said all that I do hope he turns out to be a decent coach or manager as he is inevitably going to become at some stage. Last night at the Trust meeting David White said that there are few really great players who become great managers. So the reverse logic of that is Chris O'Loughlin could finally become the non Scottish born Alex Ferguson that we've been waiting for since Guy Luzon departed in what seems like a dozen managers ago.

But anyway I look forward to the limericks at some stage. Until then I will keep up the search for a Cliftonville fan who knows anything about our prospective new manager even if that's not what he is called yet.