LAUREN Shiels was told by her mum, actually make that ordered, that she could do anything with her life but marry a footballer.
Dad was, after all, Kenny, a former player and then a manager who won a League Cup with Kilmarnock and an army of admirers for his straight-talking attitude.
It was football, football, football in that house. But Lauren didn’t listen. A chance meeting with one of the star players with Linfield, Oran Kearney, meant she broke a family promise but it wasn’t all bad. Lauren did get into the Wag Q&A in the Belfast Telegraph.
This included the following:
"Describe Oran in three words? Charming, funny and kind or, summed up in Oran's words - A complete legend!"
The supporters of St Mirren will hope this is more than just a boast.
Kearney, 40, becomes the fifth Northern Irishman manager in the Premiership – Brendan Rodgers, Neil Lennon, Tommy Wright and Stephen Robinson are the others – which is equal to the number of Scots.
Steven Gerrard must be feeling a bit left out.
That’s three trophy winners and in Robinson someone who led Motherwell to two cup finals last season. The new Ulsterman on the block has a lot to live up to.
He was always going to be the next one to travel across the water to Scotland or England having quickly made a name for himself as a manager with Coleraine. The full-time teacher won the cup and despite losing just one game narrowly missed out on the Irish League.
Kearney was interviewed by St Mirren in the summer when Alan Stubbs got the job. His job now is to get more from a group of players who are better than they have shown so far. It begins on Friday at home to Celtic. So, an easy start.
“It has become a cliche to describe someone as a nice guy, and it’s used far too often, but that is what Oran is,” so said Chris Morgan of the BBC in Northern Ireland who covers the Irish League.
“He is a very measured man. You will see that in his press conferences. His answers tend to be straight and he stays away from the spin other managers use for to get their message across.
“Oran’s man-management is by every account superb and that won’t come as a surprise to anyone who has met him. If St Mirren don’t lack talent but maybe some confidence then he will be perfect for them.”
Kearney, unlike his fellow countrymen in Scotland, came into football late and from a different route to Lennon and Wright; both played for their country.
“Oran is an educated man, he went to university in England I think, which means he is different in football,” said Morgan. “He has a teaching background, he was teaching PE in a school until the St Mirren job came up, and he got into playing in his early 20s, so he was late to football.
“It will be a jump for him. Unlike Neil and Tommy, he is going straight from the Irish League to Scotland and he’s going to need to do a lot of learning and do it quickly.
“Oran did really well with Coleraine so we all expected there to be interest in him. It’s going to be fascinating to see how he gets on but I think he will do well over there. He’s seriously bright, has a good personality and St Mirren and himself could be a good match.”
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