'Uncertainty' led Barry McNamee to leave Derry City FC
By Gary Ferry
Barry McNamee has cited uncertainty at Derry City as one of the key reasons for leaving the club after almost a decade.
The 25-year old signed a one-year deal with the league and FAI Cup champions yesterday, and admitted that it was a ‘no-brainer’ to sign for John Caulfield.
The departure of McNamee, who scored 10 goals from midfield this year, is huge for Derry City but the Ramelton man admitted that with so many team mates still to commit to Derry, he was forced to consider other options.
He told the Derry News: “The thing for me was that there are still a lot of players at Derry who still aren’t under contract whenever I decided to go and there wasn’t a lot of certainty about what was going to happen there. Whenever Cork came in for me, I was speaking to John Caulfield and he had a lot of players re-signed and he was looking to build on this year, so for me it was a no-brainer.”
Derry City have suffered with the loss of some big name players to both Dundalk and Cork City in recent seasons and McNamee revealed his frustration, which, he believes, prevented the club from building a title challenge.
“Look at the players we had this year,” he said. “We had a lot of good players and we had the nucleus of a good, title winning squad and I think we proved that at the start of the season. For me the big one was that the players weren’t under contract for next year. There are still four or five that’s out there not sure what to do.
“I signed last year in the middle of July and at the time I was delighted to because I thought we were going places with Kenny, but again, come the end of the year, a lot of people took a long time to decide what they were going to do . I didn’t want to be stuck signing a contract when I wasn’t going to be aware of who was going to be in the squad. I finally put myself first in my career and this is my new direction and I’m happy with it.”
McNamee has known for a few months that he would consider his options before deciding his future and after a tough season on and off the pitch, he feels he has now made the right choice.
“I was no different to any other player in that I found the year tough,” he admitted. “I decided maybe in mid-August that I was going to assess things. Every other time I was always under contract and I never had these bothers bar one season, but I decided this was the year I was going to sit down and decide what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I spoke to Kenny and explained my decision and he wasn’t best pleased but I’ve made the choice that I’m happy with for the sake of my career.”
McNamee has watched team mates Patrick McEleney, Stephen Dooley, Conor McCormack and Niclas Vemmelund leave the club in the past two seasons alone, all of whom have gone on to win trophies. Having just broken into Derry’s FAI Cup winning team of 2012, the midfielder is now keen to add more medals to his collection.
“I think there’s a lot more to come from me,” he said. “You could point out Fats, Dooley, Nico or Badger who left here and went on and won trophies. The goals are nice but at the end of your career, you’re not going to be judged on how many goals you’ve scored in one season, you’re going to be judged on how many medals you’ve won and I think now for me, whenever the league and cup champions are in for you and they’re looking to improve, it’s hard to say no. Speaking to John Caulfield, he thinks I’m the type of player he wants down there and hopefully it works out.”