Armagh City chairman Ryan Kelly will be meeting with managerial candidates next week as the Eagles look to appoint a new boss for what he feels is “a sleeping beast”.

The Championship outfit have been without a manager following club legend Shea Campbell’s departure last month with the application deadline passing on Tuesday.

Having only taken over as chairman from stalwart Aidan Murphy ahead of this season, Kelly has already had to make some big calls and the next will be deciding who will take over dugout duties at Holm Park.

Kelly was impressed by the calibre of applicants – which came from both sides of the border – but the final decision will be based on what is right for the club moving forward.

placeholder image — Ryan Kelly with former long-serving Armagh City chairman Aidan Murphy. (Photo by Armagh City FC)

City spent three seasons in the Premiership before suffering relegation in 2008 and haven’t been back to the top-flight since, but plotting their return is Kelly’s ultimate dream.

"We went through the applications last night and will sit down with a few of them at the start of next week,” he said. “I was chatting to someone at another Championship club recently and they said ‘don’t rush the process, take the time and get it right’.

"That was refreshing to hear because we’re rivals on the pitch, but off it I’m getting really good advice from other chairmen and managers within the league.

"There’s no point in rushing it, we have to stay true to what we believe in. We want someone who aligns with what the club ethos has been and going forward.

"We’ve had some very strong applications from very experienced managers and coaches in the NIFL set-up. Being on the border, we have had strong candidates from the FAI side of it too.

"We’ve shortlisted nine or 10...there’s very good mangers who have applied and it’s now about meeting with them to see what fits for us.

"I believe this club is a sleeping beast and if we get it right we can awaken the beast, which is what we want.”

Campbell started his playing career with boyhood club City and enjoyed five spells at Holm Park alongside stints at the likes of Linfield, Dungannon Swifts and Ballymena United.

He masterminded Armagh’s Championship return in 2023 and Kelly admits it was tough parting ways with an iconic club figure.

"Shea is an absolute club legend,” he said. “He has been about the Irish League for as long as I can remember.

"The hard bit is you have that emotional connection, but the business side of football and what we wanted to do as a club and presented at the start of the year, we had discussions and couldn’t marry up the approach we wanted to have and went our separate ways.

"That’s always tough because Shea is a legend and always will be at Armagh City. We wanted to go a different road and build it into the beast we know it can be.

"It was a new thing for me to even consider and it wasn’t a snap decision...there were discussions with the management team for a month or two and how we wanted the future of the club to look as a good Championship club and pushing for the Premiership.

"We’re in an unprecedented situation this year in terms of no relegation...removing a manager who has been there for many years will always be disruptive, so we wanted to give ourselves time to build that second floor because we already had solid foundations from Shea.”