O’Neill eyes transfer market as thin Mayo FC squad is exposed

Anthony O’Neill will go into the transfer market after Mayo FC’s squad was stretched to breaking point in Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Salthill Devon.

Injuries left the Mayo FC manager with only five substitutes. One of them was his assistant manager, Micheál Schlingermann.

Mayo finished the FAI National League game with nine men, as both Oisin O'Reilly and Alfonso Barrios Sanchez were dismissed.

The green and red now face their final group game against St. Francis on October 31, short on bodies, with suspensions to come.

“The squad is a bit thin, which we know,” O’Neill said. “There’s a major lack of players now coming into the final game of the season.”

The manager will have to call on the under-20s. “Obviously there’s suspension as well,” he said.

O’Neill wants experience. “We need to bolster the squad, we need to sign a few more players, more senior players,” he said.

He has a timeline in mind. “All going well, we’ll have a stronger squad in January, going into the first full season,” he said.

He has targets, but is wary of saying where they will come from.

“There are players we’re interested in, but where do you get them from?” He queried. “There’s different places you can get them.”

The League of Ireland First Division has just finished, and he expects some players to drop down.

He is also looking at Mayo players in Sligo’s under-20s side. “There’s a lot of Mayo lads playing in Sligo with their under-20s team that are good players that we’d have an interest in,” he said.

The Mayo Super League has also just finished. O’Neill said Mayo FC have not approached its players, out of respect for the clubs. They have only spoken to those who came to them.

He feels the talent is there in the Super League that could add to the squad.

“There’s definitely a number of players in the Mayo Super League locally that we’d like to bring into the squad as well,” he said.

But he set a condition. “Ultimately they have to have the hunger and desire to want to come in and play for Mayo,” he said. “That has to be within them.”

The door is open. “If they do, we’re definitely open to bringing in those players for sure,” he said.

O’Neill is encouraged by the performances of his young players. He named Guga Kokaia and Aran Heaney as “excellent in recent weeks”. He said the young players are learning and getting game time. “That’s what the truncated season is for,” he said.

The Galway native conceded that the loss to Salthill Devon effectively ends Mayo FC's hopes of progressing into the knock-out stages, and he is keen to have a stronger platform for the first full season in 2027.

Mayo FC wants to challenge for honours at the top end of the league, he said, and he believes they are close. “We’re not far away, given our performances,” he said.

Salthill Devon deserved the win, he said, but there was little in it. “We’re not far off it,” he said.