‘Have f**king confidence!’, roars the Saints assistant coach, who is busy putting the team through their paces at the Basaksehir Fatih Terim Stadium.
For Jake Mulraney, confidence is one thing, but “a new lease of life” is another, as he puts it. That’s what he has found since Stephen Kenny took the reins at Richmond Park in May.
It’s the evening before the club’s huge Conference League play-off second leg against Istanbul Basaksehir.
St Pat’s are looking to make history and qualify for a European group stage for the first time.
In overcoming Liechtenstein’s FC Vaduz and Azerbaijan outfit Sabah before last week’s 0-0 first-leg draw, Kenny has led the Inchicore side to five successive games unbeaten in Europe.
Mulraney has had a front-row seat for the Dubliner’s return to League of Ireland management and he has loved what he has seen.
“He’s been brilliant for me. You can see why he has gone on and been so successful, and why he got the Ireland job, you can see exactly why,” says Mulraney, speaking to the Irish Independent at the Saints’ Istanbul base.
“His man-management is brilliant and tactically he’s very good. It’s just been a new lease of life for myself, him coming in. You feel the trust.
“My performances were just a bit up and down under Jon [Daly, Kenny’s predecessor]. I was in and out of the team, which was fair enough. But with the way we’re playing now, we’re a bit braver. We’re going to try and score, and not worry about the opposition.
“The last two or three games [in Europe], he hasn’t cared who it is, it’s mad like. It’s just about, ‘we’re going to score’. I love that. I love that bravery.
“When he talks, you listen. You know what he has done in the league and then went on to manage the national team for a long time. You know that he knows what he’s talking about.”
This summer has been Mulraney’s second European campaign with the Saints since returning home to Dublin from the MLS in January 2023. Citing family reasons for the move back to home soil, the winger offered a candid insight into the realities some players face in the United States’ top flight.
“Things took a bit of a mad turn in the States,” admits the ex-Ireland U-21 cap, who signed for Atlanta in 2020 after eight years playing in the UK.
“We were enjoying it but then I got traded to Orlando out of the blue. You get a call on a Wednesday, then you’re in Orlando on the Friday when your family are left in Atlanta. It was just too much. My first question was, ‘what’s happening with my girls?’. They just say, ‘look, we have traded you, that’s that’. You don’t really have a say. It’s completely out of your hands. We decided to come home a few months later.”
Mulraney and his young family are loving life back in Dublin, but this week he’s a long way from Inchicore as, on the edge of the continent, he’s hoping to help the Saints make history.
With Basaksehir’s squad worth an estimated €50m, boasting senior international players, and having played European group-stage football in four of the last seven seasons, the 28-year-old says it would be huge to get over the line. And not just for the club, but for the whole of Irish football.
“My ma showed me a poll that was going around, which said we had a 4pc chance of going through,” he laughs.
“For Irish football in general it would be a huge statement. You see the likes of the gaffer [Kenny], Damien Duff, there are people who go on about wanting to improve Irish football and I think it would be a huge statement to have two League of Ireland teams in European group-stage football.
“The league is screaming out for it, screaming out for help. The quality is there but the facilities aren’t. If we had four or five Tallaght Stadiums the standards would go through the roof.
“It [the lack of TV coverage for Irish sides in Europe] is disappointing. I saw the other day that they [RTÉ] had a Champions League qualifier on instead, but help your own, you know what I mean? It just doesn’t make sense to me.
“First and foremost this is for St Pat’s, but then yeah, in a way after that it’s for Irish football.”
But personally, what would it mean? “It would be my greatest achievement in my career,” he smiles. History awaits.
