Chris Turner Interview
by Keith Wallace, June 10th 2009.
Arguably Dundalk’s best and classiest performer this season, the news in the past week that midfielder Chris Turner is tied to the club until the end of the year will come as a small boost to supporters who have watched their team slide back into the relegation playoff places. And Turner, who has been recently rumoured to be the subject of interest from West Bromwich Albion, says he has no intention of going anywhere. “I’m on a one-year contract and hopefully I’ll be seeing that out,” he told the DFC Magazine this week, before stating: “Obviously, I want to play at the highest level possible but if that opportunity doesn’t arise then I’m happy to stay in Ireland.”
Early beginnings
Chris, from Ballymoney in Northern Ireland, started off with a local side before moving to England and Derby County in 1999. “I started off with a local club called East End in Coleraine and then I moved to Institute in Derry when I was 12,” Turner explains. “That’s when I really started taking my football seriously, under Paul Keane and John Cunningham. I went over to England for a few trials – I went to Derby County and Leeds when I was 12 and I ended up signing for Derby. I just went over on trial and I obviously impressed them in the trial game. They offered me a scholarship so I done that and then they offered me a three-year professional contract so that’s what took me up to my six years there. Under George Burley, I was getting my chance; I was getting on the bench and I came on in the FA Cup. It was good at the time, I was young, I was only 18. Obviously George Burley left and Phil Brown came in as manager.
‘League underrated’
“I was young and my contract was running out,” Chris continues. “I had only six months left on it when he came in and I didn’t get offered a new one at the end of it, so that’s when Sean (Connor) got in contact with me. Sean used to live nearby in Stoke and he used to watch the Derby reserve games, so he seen me playing for them. That’s how he knew me, and my agent at the time was also Sean’s agent, so he sort of knew me through that as well.” After such a long spell in England, the now 22-year-old agreed to return to Ireland and says he had no problems in doing so. “I think this is a very good league,” he says, “and it doesn’t get as much credit as it should do. You just have to look at the players it has produced and that have gone over to England and done well – the likes of Keith Fahey recently, Kevin Doyle, Shane Long and Dave Mooney; that’s a few that have gone over there and they’ve done very well. They were playing in this league not so long ago, so it’s a very good league and it’s got some very good players in it that can definitely go across and do things.”
Sligo sojourn
Turner arrived at the Showgrounds just months after the Bit O’ Red had won the 2005 First Division title and promotion to the top flight for the first time since in five years, and it proved another successful season under Connor as they finished safely in fifth. “It was my first season in first-team football,” Chris recalls. “I was young, I was 19. It was good and I had good people around me, experienced players that helped you along, the like of big Burnsey (Liam Burns), Conor O’Grady and Michael McNamara. They helped you settle in, and it always helps when you’re going well. We had a good year that year, with the semi-finals of the FAI Cup and we ended up finishing fifth in the league.” Connor departed towards the end of that campaign, though, to take over Bohemians, a move which Turner admits came as a slight surprise. “It came as a bit of a shock,” he says, “because obviously we were going well and it interrupted our stride a wee bit, but everyone wants to better themselves and obviously Bohemians is a massive club and Sean wanted to go on and better himself and go on and win more things.”
Bohs blues
Turner remained at Sligo for the first half of the 2007 season but rejoined forces with Connor the following July as Bohs forked out €30,000 for his services. “Sean left (Sligo) but he made it very clear, publicly, and obviously to me that he wanted to take me with him,” Chris says, “and I eventually ended up going. I was under contract at Sligo, I had another year left but I think Sligo ended up getting €30,000 because Bohs paid for me in the end, so I only ended up staying at Sligo for a year altogether.” The former Northern Ireland Under-21 international didn’t experience the best of times at Dalymount Park during a 12-month stay, but says he doesn’t regret leaving Sligo. “I don’t regret it,” he states. “When I went to Bohs, I was injured anyway because I done my medial ligament, so maybe that was part of me leaving as well, quicker than what was intended. But when I eventually went to Bohs, my career didn’t really take off as I had hoped or maybe as Sean had hoped, but you’ve just got to get on with it.”
Dalymount departure
Part of the reason for an unhappy spell at Bohs was the change of manager that Chris was faced with just six months after arriving at the club. Despite finishing third in the league, the Gypsies sacked Connor, leaving the door open for Pat Fenlon, whose plans didn’t include Turner. “Obviously Sean left and a new manager came in and he had his own ideas, I didn’t fit into them so I decided to part ways with Bohemians,” the midfielder says. “But I enjoyed my time there. I was only there for a year, I didn’t really get going and Bohemians fans didn’t really see the best of me, I don’t think. (Sean leaving) was a big shock, because obviously we got to a cup final, a cup semi-final and we finished third in the league. The club was going in the right direction and I thought we could have kicked on the following year, but obviously people at Bohemians decided to let Sean go and get Pat Fenlon. I signed a three-year contract when I first went to Bohemians so I had two years left, but I wasn’t playing, and at the end of the day, as a footballer, you just want to be playing football, so I left for my career really.”
Thistle time
As a result, Turner returned to foreign shores in search of regular first-team football, and after a time on trial at Rangers, he ended up signing for fellow Scottish side Partick Thistle, who had seen Chris playing for the Glasgow club in a reserve game. “I went on trial to Rangers and ended up staying there for nearly six or seven weeks,” Chris explains. “At the end, I just needed to get back playing. I was playing in the reserves and they just kept asking me would I stay another week. They weren’t too willing to offer me a full-time contract so I just kept staying for an extra week and then another one. I was still playing for the reserves and the Partick Thistle manager Ian McCall was there watching. He got in contact with me after the game and said he would like to get me down to Partick Thistle. I thought about it for a couple of days and then got back to him and decided to take the opportunity. I wanted to get back playing and enjoying it so I thought I’d sign there. I signed there for a year. I came on in my first game against Livingston in the Cup and I scored – we won 2-0 that game. I got off to a good start but after that he didn’t really play me. He just used me as a utility player which I wasn’t really use to. I wasn’t playing week in, week out, which is what I wanted to be doing. But it didn’t really happen that way.”
Oriel arrival
With Turner unable to nail down a first-team place, he again came back to Ireland when Connor was unveiled as the new manager of Dundalk. “Sean rang me when he got the job here and said did I want to come back here and get my head down and get back playing again,” Chris says. “I thought it was the best career move for me at the time so I came back over and I’m enjoying it. I’ve been playing and that’s the most important thing for me. I’ve managed to score a few goals too so at the minute I’m loving it. I didn’t mind at all (coming back from Scotland), because I knew I’d come back here and be playing, which is what I wanted. I didn’t really know much about Dundalk but I knew that they were a big club and they had a big history, and obviously I came back and seen the setup and the way the place was getting run. Then Sean’s ideas, Joe Miller and his coaching – it’s very professional the way things are being done and I never had any doubts it would be otherwise. I’m loving my time here at the minute. We just need to get a few more victories under our belt, I think it would give the whole place a lift. I think our main aim this year is stability and to maintain our place in the league, which I think we will do, we just need to win a few more games, especially at home. We’re not really making this place a fortress. Teams are coming here and we’re not making it hard enough for them to get a victory, so we just need to sort that out and I think we’ll be fine.”
Disastrous defeats
Dundalk have lost their last two home outings, to Saint Patrick’s Athletic and Sligo Rovers, and the 22-year-old admits that last week’s loss to his former club was particularly hard to take. “They’ve been very disappointing, especially the Sligo game,” he says. “We dominated the game. It would have been stopped after the first half had it been a boxing match but obviously they’ve got their goal just before half-time and it’s a killer blow. We came in and the team-talk is changed from what it could have been to us having to go out now and score two goals to win, which is always hard when they were so defensively-minded. They defended well and that’s always hard to break down. But we’ve just got to keep doing what we’re doing and hopefully our luck will change and we’ll start scoring a few more goals.”
Tight table
Despite sitting in the relegation playoffs zone, the Lilywhites are just four points off the top half of the table and equalling Sligo’s achievement four years ago. However, Turner insists the main priority for the club this year is to stay in the Premier Division, although he hasn’t ruled out repeating what the Bit O’ Red managed in 2006. “I think first and foremost we’ve got to consolidate our place in the league,” he says. “We’ve got to stay in the league for the club’s sake and obviously for the players. As for pushing on up the league, the league is very tight and everybody can beat everybody. There’s no team that’s going to run away with the league. So fifth place isn’t a million miles away, but I think first and foremost we have to consolidate our place in the league.”
Confidence in Connor
Turner, who has 13 Under-21 caps and 10 Under-19 caps for the North, has now worked under Connor at three clubs and is confident that the Belfast-born boss can turn Dundalk’s fortunes around and overcome the barrage of abuse he has suffered in the past week. “Obviously Sean rates me as a player and I rate him as a manager,” Chris says. “As a footballer you just want to be playing every week, and Sean plays me. I feel as if I’ve got a good relationship with him. It’s not just for football, he’s a great man and if you have any personal problems he’ll help you out. He’s always there – any time of the day, if you need him, he’ll try his best to help you out. I think, as a manager, if you’re not winning games you’re always under a bit of pressure, but Sean has a thick enough skin to take that and, as I say, we just need a bit of luck to change and things will come good for us.”
