Dundalk manager Vinny Perth has confirmed to RTE that his assistant Ruaidhri Higgins has left the club in order to join Stephen Kenny’s backroom team with the Republic of Ireland.
The news was confirmed on Wednesday evening with the current League of Ireland champions saying that a deal had been reached with the FAI. RTE state that Higgins will be chief scout and opposition analyst. He will now join former Ireland players Keith Andrews, Damian Duff and Alan Kelly in the backroom team. Perth said, “The FAI has reached an agreement to enable Ruaidhri’s departure,”.
Higgins in fact played for the club and won a league title in 2014. He returned to the club in 2017 where his job was opposition analyst under of course Stephen Kenny. Last season he was assistant to Perth and helped guide the club to four trophies in a super year for Dundalk. Current boss Perth said, “He was a popular and valuable member of our backroom team and I would like to thank him for the support and assistance he gave me during his time at the club”. Interestingly in April when Kenny took over the reigns from Mick McCarthy the FAI approached Higgins. However, Dundalk were not happy by the way this was done. In fact, Perth “he wasn’t happy about it” at the time.
However, Kenny and Higgins obviously have a great working relationship. They but are winners which is what we want to see in green jersey in the next few years. One thing is for sure Higgins will have his homework on the opposition done down to a tee.
