Candystriped_Latic

I definately did not degrade the Pro Licence, that is his strongest card, by some margin.

He has 60 League appearances his entire his career.

It could be argued he knows a bit about the non league scene too, which might be helpful for a player or two.

With regard to Simon or Peter, that is his level of experience. I appreciate he is more qualified than them, and a bit more experience, but that is his level of employment. Hence some of the concerns.

I stress, I really, really want it to work.

On one level I am excited to see if he can make it work.

By 60 league appearances I assume you mean in England? Don't be too quick to discount appearances in Ireland. 3 or 4 years ago Derry were a better side than Oldham and in Kelly's era Derry beat IFK Gothenburg home and away, trounced Scottish cup finalists Gretna 5-1 away (Kelly scored the equaliser), drew with PSG at the Brandywell and only lost to them 2-0 in Paris. Darren Kelly was a very good leader on the pitch. Time will tell how effective he is from the dugout.

I moved to Manchester in 2003, partially because of the Oldham link so I don't need to worry about the flight issue. I enjoyed the pre-season tours to NI in the Dowie era. Maybe DK might resurrect a tour in the coming months/years. I remember in the late 90s there was an Oldham fan from Raheny in Dublin.

There was no opinion within the piece.

There was Mike. Who the 'legend' reference was aimed at was inconclusive. I'm not naive enough to think that it wasn't referring to Martin McGuinness but it wasn't a certainty. In addition, you removed the 'so called Bogside Massacre' in a later draft. Personally, I felt it was a needless article.

Ha very good Midsblue. No I'm not a Celtic fan. I've got very little time for Scottish football, partially due to the tribalistic element to The Old Firm but it tends to be a path that a lot of the decent Derry City players want to take. I don't think we'd attract Niall McGinn from Aberdeen unfortunately but if Adam Rooney can look good in that team I'm not sure what that tells you,

Long time stalker, first time poster. Oldham fan from Derry here. I could spend a month going through all the comments on all threads for a bit of perspective but I'll skip all that and focus on potential signings from an Irish contacts point of view. I'd like Darren to bring in Michael Duffy on loan from Celtic - he can play wide or up top and I think Celtic would be open to it as League 1 would toughen him up. Another potential Derry link is Danny Lafferty at Burnley who lost his place in the Prem this season. Burnley's full backs have been decent so they might be signed meaning Lafferty would get his place back but it's still worth a look. A final former Derry player is Stephen McLaughlin who's a winger and was on SKY playing for Southend last night on loan from Forest.

I'm sure he'll have a few other Aitricity League and NI contacts he'll be keen to explore.