PAUL POWER TALKS **EXCLUSIVELY** TO BLUES 'TILL I DIE

Are you happy with the squad you have now or would you like to strengthen it further? We probably could do with one or two additions at the moment but I'm very happy with the spirit in the team,you never have a situation where your completely happy .It would be unfair to single out individual positions but the reality of the situation is that we'll probably need more defensive and midfield cover particularly when Rennie is out in the middle of midfield it's very hard to just put a guy in,but once the spirit is good that's all I'm looking for at the minute.

Have we seen the last of the constant long ball game and negative tactics of being "happy with a 1-0 defeat"?! That quote was mentioned last year but I couldn't imagine anybody being happy with a 1-0 defeat but my background is that I like to play good attacking football and if I play a \par long ball it will be called a long pass !!!Paul Cashin and myself in particular like to play \par good football.You can never set out how you're going to play,if the team are very strong you're going to find yourself under pressure so you're going to have to defend, Idon't believe you can say we're going to defend or we're going to attack my argument is that if you pass the ball correctly you have a better chance in launching attacks.There will be certain times during a match when you're going to be under pressure for one reason or another you can't just go out and say I'm going to defend or I'm going to attack,it doesn't happen that way.

What are your realistic expectations for the season ;can we expect to challenge at the top from the start? I would be very dissappointed if we weren't competitive but the most important thing is that when we do eventually go back to the Premier that we have a team that will stay up and what I don't want to do is bring the team up,a local team,and then suddenly 8 or 9 players have to come in.I'm quite happy at the moment with some of the young players. David Breen and Aaron Moroney in particular and Eric Bradley to name just 3 are to me all good enough to play in the premier division and that's the type of player I'm bringing into the team at the minute.

Do you think that the local squad base will heighten interest around the city? It has to,going back to 2 of the new signings Breen and Rea,both of them are working in the community and in their place of work people are going to go in and make an instant connection so I would imagine that there will be greater participation around the town because of that local element.And also we played Scarborough in Cahir recently and there were a huge number of people who came from Clonmel to see the Clonmel Town influence and I've no doubt that you'll get peoplecoming in not only from Waterford but Clonmel and also from Wexford.And for that reason I think it is important next season particularly in the pre-season games that we might be able to take some of the games out of the RSC and play them in those areas.

In trying to strengthen your squad have you been hampered by the clubs financial position? Well everybody knows that the financial situation at the club is not good but that has been inthe past we just have to try and go forward.The situation is that we've sat down and agreed to abolish all signing on fees and have put in place a maximum wage.I think the days of guys comingin and demanding big wages at Waterford are over with.What we are trying to do is get guys working locally,based in the community and if they're working they won't be demanding huge wages.And local players are more likely to stay with the club long term than players brought in from outside who may do a job for you but will move on as sooon as they get a better deal elsewhere.

Will the number of young inexperienced players in the squad be a problem? A lot of these young kids have gone through international squads so they're used to playing at a higher level of football and more importantly they have the confidence to play at a higher level.And in the team at the moment with Devine on goal,David Breen, 21 but with a lot of experience behind him,Brendan Rea,Alan Reynolds,Alan Kirby, Paul Scully,there's still a hard core of experienced players there.And although not exactly a blessing in disguise the fact that we are in the 1st division will give the younger players a chance to develop. People shouldn't get carried away particularly with the way we played and the result we got against Shamrock Rovers because there will be occassions when the kids are not going to play as well and people have to be patient but I'm quite confident that a lot of these players will into fine players for Waterford United.

Have you been under any pressure to sell players,such as the reports of a big offer coming in for Mick Devine? I'm the manager and I deal with the transfers of any players.Michael came in,I spoke to him and he asked to go on the transfer list and officially he is still on the transfer list but the bottom line is that no club can afford to buy Mick Devine.Mick will be a free agent at the end of the season,I would like him to negotiate a new contract, I've put a new contract towards him,time will tell but I'm quite happy with Mick,he's a very good goalkeeper as you know and I hope Mick will in 12 months time look at it in a more favourable light.

What is the training situation with regard to outsiders such as Karl Gannon? Karl Gannon will not be playing for Waterford United this season!The reason why is that he is not able to give the commitment that he wants to give to the club or that I want him to give.The current situation with Karl is that as from today(Thurs 11th) he has been released by the club.He has a lot of work commitments in Dublin.I've thanked him for his commitment to the club.Himself and Seán Riordan probably of all the players on the books for the last couple of years deserve a lot of praise in the sense that they came from outside and they've given us a lot.

You've used 4-4-2 and 5-3-2 in the pre-season games ,have you a preferred system? I don't discuss tactics in my dressing room and that's being honest about it, I'm not into this blackboard jungle at all,work hard on the training ground with different ways alright.There will be certain games where we'll change things around but thebottom line is that systems don't win games,players win games.

What do you think of the standard of the 1st division in general this year? I don't know I didn't see enough.Last season I was involved with Kilkenny as you know and I would imagine there was a divide between the top 5 and the rest. Against that there was no easy game in the 1st division,Limerick finished bottom of the table but they gave Kilkenny some of the hardest games of all last season. A couple of clubs rely on the long ball tactic and it's very hard to counteract it but by and large the standard of the 1st division at the top of the table is not bad at all.

How did it feel having guided Kilkenny to promotion and then leaving them to return to the Blues,in the 1st division? As you know my background is looking after Tramore for the last 17/18 years and I have no grey hairs!!!but I looked after U-14 and youth Waterford teams so my background is in Tramore and Waterford so it was a natural progression for me. I got my chance through Alfie Hale,another Waterford man,and I took no pleasure in seeing the Blues go down but at the end of the day I think it was fate the way things worked out for me.

Having supported the Blues all your life and watched them in Kilcohan do you think that the track around the RSC ruins the atmosphere? I'll go on record and say that it is very hard to generate a proper atmosphere with the running track between the stand and the pitch,there is no doubt about that.My long term hope is that we would be able to have a ground of our own and the fans would be able to get closer to the players and the pitch along the lines of Ozier Park.

Do you hope to attract big crowds to the U-21 games? Yes I think the U-21 league could be a very attractive league with playing the likes of Shamrock Rovers & St.Pats,we will be playing high quality teams in that league. The rule for the league is that you can play 4 overage players but I don't I'll be playing 4 seniors the whole time because I just want to use the U-21 league as a stepping stone to the first team,anybody that I bring onto the U-21 squad has to have the potential to play in the first team otherwise there is no point.

So how would you feel with a future link-up with a big cross channel team? I'm more interested at the moment in the development plan we have in place with the schoolboy league which will mean that we'll be helping out with the coaching of U-14 and U-16 squads this season and these two squads will be playing in tournaments at the end of the season and eventually I would love to see a quadrangular south east competition at those ages at the end of each year where you will see the best of the talent from Wexford,Waterford,Tipperary and Kilkenny and that way there will be a conveyor belt.If we were tied up with a cross channel team players don't have to go to that club,no matter what tie up you have there is no way any club can legally tie themselves to any kid,Iwould imagine if we did go down that road eventually that you would contact the club and say we have a player here but legally a club could not sign any player because ultimately the decision rests with the kid and his parents. My own ultimate goal would be to have our own schoolboy squads which would mean that they would be tied up to Waterford professionally at U-15 or U-16 level. That might not please everybody but my argument is at the moment we're losing the elite,the likes of John O'Shea and others,and my concept is that if we had these guys on a form in some way that we could negotiate a proper transfer fee if they do eventually go across channel Waterford United would make sure that the club who helped coach the player at under age levels would be re-imbursed and that ultimately everybody would actually benefit.

What do you think of the new 10 team league to start in 2002/03? I think it was going to happen simply becaue Dublin have so much pull,there's a big divide at the moment between the provincial clubs around the country and the top Dublin clubs and as you currently see the likes of Shelbourne,Bohemians,St.Pats, are talking silly money at the moment and something needs to be done to help out the provincial clubs.At the moment I'm trying to create a model down here that should be the envy of every other club in the league,that we can be self sufficient,that we can blood our own players and I don't think it's too much pie in the sky if a proper structure is put in place.

Do you think the improved European results this year represent an improvement in the standard of the eL in general? To be brutally honest we are still a huge way behind European level football.I honestly think the only way forward is actually to improve the standard of football and that comes from facilities,because without facilities you can't do proper technical coaching during the winter months basically all you're doing during the Winter months is running around pitches,indoor halls and you can't really concentrate on proper technical coaching.Most clubs cross channel or Europe are training 3 times a day and there's not enough work done in Ireland on the technical aspects of the game, and with players being given the ball and shown proper moves on the ball , there is too much emphasis on physical fitness and the coaching element needs to be addressed big time.Every club should have a fully qualified level 3 coach.We've been very lucky this season in that we've got the help of Darren Murray,the regional development officer in the south-east and a level 3 coach and he has taken a lot of pressure off me because I can't do everything,especially during the preseason when things are so busy.He is a very good coach and as you can see we are at least trying to play football.Alan Kirby and Alan Reynolds have done the first part of their coaching licence and ultimately I would like to see a situation where if we were to go down the road of having full time palyers,so that we wouldn't have to be giving them a substantial wage,we could get them involved in the local schools.Mick Madigan is also helping out with us this year and he will be putting soccer into the schools through a FÁS initiative so we're hoping that we'll get some of our players involved in that and that will be good for everybody and that will increase the connection with the local community again.

What do you think of Waterford having a fanzine? My background is in looking after kids and I'm all for young people coming up and giving us ideas because att the end of the day the fans are the people who actually pay the wages of the players and they should be telling us they want and it's very important to me that there should be a special chemistry between the players,the directors and the fans

Summing up Paul Power sent this message to the fans:All my backroom staff are very very commited,I have a goal to put the Blues back up to the top division playing the type of football that I've seen since I was a young lad watching the Blues knock the ball around the place.If you play good football you'll get the support out to watch.......C'est la vie!!

All at "BTID" wish to thank the manager Paul Power for helping out the fanzine and for the interview and also thanks and good luck to everybody at Waterford United.