Tiernan Lynch has emerged as a candidate for the St Johnstone manager’s job.
It is understood the Belfast man is on a list of potential targets to replace Craig Levein, along with several others, including Scott Brown, Peter Leven and coaches from Europe.
Courier Sport takes an in-depth look at Lynch’s career to date, with the 44-year-old emerging as Northern Ireland’s most talked about and highly-rated club boss.
Early years
Lynch’s career in football has very much been a coaching story rather than a playing one.
He started getting his badges at the age of 19 before heading to America on a soccer scholarship.
“My time in the States was a real eye opener for me because everything over there was focused on ball work and improving you as a player and as a team,” he said.
“Whereas, at that time in Northern Ireland, if you had a 90-minute session then half of it would be based on physical work and half of it would be focused on football-specific work.”
Working with an ex-Saint
The coaching journey in senior Northern Irish football began at Cliftonville and Glentoran.
During five-and-a-half years at the latter, he worked under Eddie Patterson, Roy Coyle and a man familiar to all St Johnstone fans, Alan Kernaghan.
The club won two Irish Cups in that time and Lynch was able to put into practice his footballing ideas before taking on his first job as a number one at Larne.
A club at rock bottom
St Johnstone may be struggling in the Premiership at the moment but you wouldn’t call them a ‘crisis club’, certainly not when you compare them to Larne, who Lynch took over in 2016.
“When I came here it’s fair to say we were struggling (they were bottom of the second tier),” he reflected in a recent interview.
“The ground was closed and we were playing all our games away from home.
“Our budget back then was minimal (less than £300 per week). We had one player who decided to stay from the previous season.
“But we rolled our sleeves up, dug in and thankfully we are where we are today.”
Rags to riches for Larne FC
Rolling sleeves up is a fair description of what happened.
Back at the start, Lynch could be seen going door to door in the town’s High Street, trying to secure sponsorship for a club that had become something of an embarrassment to the local community.
Within a year, though, local businessman Kenny Bruce, one of the co-founders of online estate agents Purplebricks, bought it.
Larne and Lynch had lift-off.
Money has been spent – but not thrown at – on player wages and transfer fees.
Solid foundations have been put down, with £3.8m invested in infrastructure and building an academy programme that is now partnered with Newcastle United.
Larne have also been boosted by American investment. Bruce remains the majority shareholder, however, with Lynch his biggest asset.
“He is the secret source behind the success,” said Bruce.
“This guy is way, way above any manager in the Irish League. He has proved that time and time again.
“Tiernan learnt on the job and he just gets better and better. He surrounds himself with great people, which is really important. He creates an environment where a great culture can flourish.”
Football achievements
Lynch wouldn’t still be in a job – and linked with Saints – if sporting achievement hadn’t matched off-field transformation at Larne.
He has undoubtedly delivered.
Promotion to the top flight was secured in 2019 and in 2023, Larne were crowned Premiership champions for the first time in their history.
Having backed that up by retaining their title, they have now made a significant mark in Europe.
After beating Balikani and then Lincoln Red Imps, Larne are about to embark on a Uefa Conference League group campaign.
They’re the first Northern Irish side to qualify for group stage European football since Ards in the Intertoto Cup in 1997.
Lynch described the achievement as a “Utopia” moment.
Larne are currently 10th in the league but have several games in hand as a result of competing in Europe.
‘We, not me’
Lynch has developed a clear vision of the foundations need for a successful football club, and a manager’s role in it.
“I’ve been put in a million different situations and scenarios,” he said recently.
“The players might not agree with this but hopefully I’m a better people person, learning from the mistakes I made early on in my managerial career.
“The big thing for any manager or coach going into football is: it should never be about themselves. It should be about how to help the players and they get better.
“I read a book once that said a football manager is only there to serve. That’s how I try to go about my days.
“The biggest culture in the club is ‘we, not me’.
“It’s a collective. It’s always about the club. It’s not about individuals. You’re stronger together.
“That’s something we work hard at as a club to make sure we have the right culture and people know exactly where they stand, whether they’re coming in for their first day or they’ve been here seven years.
“The club is always first.”
Brotherly love
Wherever Lynch goes next, it would appear almost certain he’ll bring his big brother, Seamus, with him.
The pair are a management double act.
“It’s probably the best relationship, because I know he totally has my back but he will never be a ‘yes man’,” Lynch said in 2019.
“He will always fight it out if he disagrees with me. We tear lumps off each other on a daily basis about what we are going to do in a session, but it’s because of a genuine care and desire.
“There are times I have to hold my hand up and admit I hadn’t thought about doing something the way he suggested, and I’m happy to have him change my mind.”
Lynch’s preferred football style
Larne’s two title wins have been built on a 3-5-2 formation.
Lynch has always strived to have his teams dominating the ball but not at the expense of winning.
“This is probably the third team that we have built at the club since taking over in 2017,” he said.
“I am a football purist at heart and I want my teams to play the right way. I was also determined to showcase that Irish league players and teams could play pure football.
“That was shown in the first team that I built because we played excellent technical football with 500 or 600 passes in games as we looked to dominate the ball.
“That was pleasing for me to watch as a coach; however, the brutal reality is that for all of our good football, we did not win anything because we probably lacked a true balance between playing good football and being able to engage in the physical side of the game.
“We felt that we needed to find more balance and the team we built last season (2022-23) was more of a blend of players and characters to allow us to have a little bit of everything.
“We always want to play whenever we can but if a team wants to engage in a physical battle then we can do that and if we need to mix our game up then we are able to do so.
“The way that we discuss it with the players is that when we need to fight, we are prepared to fight and when we are able to play, we will show that we can play.”
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