Caulfield confirms some players have signed pre-contract agreements with other clubs

The game has been moved from its scheduled Friday night slot due to Rovers’ involvement in the Europa Conference League – the Hoops were in Kosovo for the first leg meeting with FC Ballkani last night (Thursday) – and for some, that is only delaying the inevitable against the one side you don’t want to be facing when needing a result.

While United have drawn three of their last five meetings with The Hoops, they haven’t beaten them in the league for 19 years, and the 1-1 draw in Tallaght Stadium in April 2024 ended a 20-game losing run against the Dublin side.

The mood of United fans won’t be helped this week with the confirmation that some players in this year’s squad have already signed pre-contract agreements with other clubs for next season: City Sport is aware of at least two, and possibly up to five, of this year’s squad having such arrangements in place.

“Yeah, and that’s frustrating, of course it doesn’t help, but you can’t do anything about that,” Caulfield replied when asked if any United players had signed such deals.

“They are still our players until the end of the season. That’s unusual in League of Ireland football that pre-contracts have come in, but there’s been a big push by the PFAI [players’ union] this year to get pre-contracts in.

“Obviously the bigger fish with bigger money are coming in and it’s just the way it is and there’s no point in complaining,” he said, before confirming it is also an issue at other clubs.

“I think [Cork] got rid of two [players] last week because of that reason. And, you know, I suppose, [the question is] do you get rid of the players, or do you not?

“The problem is it’s so hard to get players to Galway, you’re midseason, we’re already after bringing a number of players in that hadn’t played since May. They’re finding it hard to get up to the speed of the game, we are battling for our lives. We have to survive and that’s frustrating, but, you just have to get on with it,” he said.

It is hardly ideal preparation for a meeting with a side who have won on each of their last 13 visits to the Dyke Road venue.

“We’ve been on a disappointing run for a while and, you know, the only people that can get you out of it is yourself. You can be blaming luck and this and that, but you have to create it yourself. There’s a bit of pressure on the team and you have to stand up and be counted. Unfortunately, some of the team are just not performing as well as they could,” he said.

The management team responded to United’s poor run by making six changes for last week’s game, but when you are low on confidence, you need things to fall for you, and that just didn’t happen in Turner’s Cross, starting with performance levels.

“We’d worked on lots of things of how to penetrate, how to create chances of getting behind them, and unfortunately, some guys just didn’t play well and didn’t do that tonight and that was disappointing because we thought we could really cause them problems and but we just didn’t.

“Sometimes under pressure, players begin to hide and check back instead of going forward, [not taking the shot on], and at the moment we are in a battle. That’s just the way it is and there’s only one way you can do it with these guys, you get your head down to hope the confidence bounces back.

“We’ve been on a disappointing run for a while and, you know, the only people that can get you out of it is yourself. You can be blaming luck and this and that, you have to create it yourself. There’s a bit of pressure on the team and you have to stand up and be counted, and unfortunately, some of the team are not just performing as well as they could,” the manager said.

Pictured: Galway United manager, John Caulfield.