Boss Declan Devine focused solely on Derry City

The Creggan man, whose current deal as City boss ends this season, insisted he hopes to speak to chairman Philip O’Doherty in the coming weeks about a new deal.

“I’m very proud to manage Derry City Football Club and have not spoken to anybody about any future employment outside of this club, I have enough on my plate,” he insisted.

“I’m delighted with the job I have got. I’m delighted with the people I’m working with and I’m confident we can have every bit as good a season as we did last year.

“I haven’t spoken to anyone regarding any post anywhere in the UK, Ireland or further afield. There’s nothing in the nonsense that has been going about over the last few days.

“It’s nothing that overly concerns me as I have enough on my plate. I’m doing 14/15 hour days at the minute with Paddy McCourt and Kevin Deery, we are preparing to start a season that’s going to be confined to 15 games, so we are working every hour that God sends to us at the minute and when I have time to sit down with the chairman about my own situation, that won’t be a problem. We’ll sit down and do that then.”

Devine also said some reaction on social media to his recent additions, Adam Hammill and James Akintunde, have been way off the mark and claimed his new signings and squad deserve more respect.

“We are extremely happy with what we have and what we are trying to bring in. I’m delighted with James Akintunde, Walter Figueira, Adam Hammill, Stevie Mallon and the rest of the boys. There’s no doom or gloom floating about the club,” he added.

“First of all, I have money to spend and the board have backed me but I’m going to spend it where I see the value for money. We have a wage structure at the club, which we are very happy with and we aren’t going to break that wage structure for anyone.

“We aren’t going to throw crazy money at anyone. Every club is different, but at this moment in time I’m delighted with the budget I have and I’m delighted with the money I have left to bring players to the club. However I’m also delighted with the players I have at the club and think the players we have deserve a hell of lot more respect than what they have been given in some social media circles over the last number of days.

“Remember, when we came in a year and a half ago we spoke at our press conference about players who want to play for Derry, those are the players we want to bring to the club. We have to see in a player that he wants to play for this football club. If for any other reason that player wants to go to another club, then good luck.

“But, as I said, I’m delighted with the players we have at the club and I’m delighted with the ones that I’ll be bringing in over the next couple of days.

“We want to bring new players in and we have already brought in some really talented, attacking players . If people can’t see what Adam Hamill will bring to the club, or James Akintunde who has been very, very good for Chester and been very good at the clubs he has been at, then people are jumping the gun, because this boy is a talented boy, as is Adam.

“Yes, we are under no illusions that we are still trying to bring in another one, two or even three, depending on who is available, but everybody needs to rein it in a little bit and have a bit of respect for who is at this football club.”

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