Shelbourne Confirm Keith Long as New Academy Director

Shelbourne have handed Keith Long responsibility for the next generation at Tolka Park, confirming the former Bohemians and Waterford manager as the club’s new Academy Director.

It’s a very different job from the one most League of Ireland supporters will know him for. Long has spent more than a decade picking teams, chasing points and dealing with everything that tends to come with Friday nights in this league. At Shels, he’ll now be working much earlier in the process, helping shape the players who might eventually end up giving a senior manager those headaches instead.

The club confirmed the appointment on Wednesday, 16 September. Long’s move had already been reported in August and his name appeared among the League of Ireland’s incoming academy directors earlier this month, but Shelbourne have now formally confirmed the role.

There’s plenty in his background that makes the move make sense.

Long spent almost eight years in charge of Bohemians after taking over in 2014, guiding the club back into Europe, finishing second in the 2020 Premier Division and reaching the FAI Cup final a year later.

Young players were a big part of that period too. Dawson Devoy and Promise Omochere were among those who established themselves in Long’s first team before earning moves abroad, which feels fairly relevant when your new job is essentially trying to produce more of them.

Long later took charge of Waterford in March 2023, winning promotion through the play-offs in his first season before keeping the club in the Premier Division in 2024. His spell at the RSC ended in April 2025.

He isn’t walking into an academy waiting for somebody to come in and build everything from scratch either.

Shelbourne signed an 18-year lease at the AUL Complex in May 2025, describing it as the biggest academy investment in the club’s history. Around 450 players across 27 teams are involved in the set-up, with plans covering four pitches, a new all-weather surface and dedicated areas for analysis, meetings, homework and coach education.

The all-weather development received €500,000 through the Community Sport Facilities Fund, giving Shels something much closer to a permanent academy home rather than having to piece things together season by season.

Considering where the club has come from, that’s a fairly big shift.

Shelbourne won the league in 2006 before financial problems ripped through the senior side and eventually sent the club back into the First Division. What followed was years of promotions, relegations and rebuilds before Shels properly found their way back towards the top again.

By 2024, Damien Duff had delivered a first league title in 18 years.

The club has moved quickly since, and the academy is clearly being asked to move with it.

There are already examples of the pathway working. Gavin Molloy, Stephan Negru, Luke Browne, Raymond Offor and Lewis Temple all progressed through Shelbourne’s academy into senior football before earning moves to Britain, while Jess Ziu followed the women’s pathway before eventually joining West Ham.

Long’s new position is also being supported through the League of Ireland Academy Investment Programme, part of an initial €3 million Government commitment towards strengthening academies around the league.

That money is allowing clubs to bring in more full-time football staff and put a bit more structure around something that, for a long time in Irish football, often relied on people doing several jobs at once.

For Shels, though, the important bit won’t be how impressive the staff list looks.

It’ll be whether more of those 450 players eventually make the jump into senior football at Tolka Park.

Long has spent years deciding whether young players are ready for the League of Ireland.

Now he gets to have a much bigger say in getting them there.