O'Brien still without a club after parting company with San Jose
BRAY NATIVE Ronnie O'Brien is still without a club since leaving Major League Soccer side San Jose Earthquakes at the turn of the year. O'Brien had only been there for one year and had established himself as one of the key players and a fans favourite but in January the club released the 30-year old.
Speaking to American soccer website Center Line Soccer, the former Juventus man revealed the scenes behind closed doors as regards his departure.
'It's done and dusted,' said the midfielder. 'I won't be playing in San Jose this year.'
O'Brien confirmed he had met with san Jose General Manager John Doyle, but the gettogether was more a means of closing the door once and for all rather than an attempt at reconciliation. 'It wasn't a negotiation. 'It was a more a way for [Doyle] to tell me that this was it.
'There was no way forward.'
It is a decision that infuriated the club's fans, as O'Brien is held in extremely high regard in the States, and apparently when O'Brien was acquired from Toronto in 2008; it was done with the understanding that the midfielder would have his wages reduced for the 2009 season.
But instead, he will receive no wages from the Earthquakes.
'What's really disappointing is that [ San Jose] waited only a week or two before preseason was set to start to tell me that a deal wasn't going to get done'.
That left the Bray native attempting to find a new club overseas, and O'Brien has even signed with a new agent in a bid to find a club, after falling out with former agent Patrick McCabe.
'If I had known it was going to end up like this, I would have never come here.
'I did enjoy my time here. It's a great bunch of lads. But the way it ended, it just leaves a sour taste'.
