Stephen O'Donnell insists it is ‘not a dictatorship’ at St Pat’s and that all voices matter on the coaching ticket.
Dundalk made headlines this week after calling a press conference to convince all that Shane Keegan was their gaffer, not Filippo Giovagnoli.
Giovagnoli - who called the shots last season en route to FAI Cup glory - does not have a Pro Licence and his 60-days of grace has expired, but Keegan does have one.
It is a similar arrangement at St Pat’s where head coach O’Donnell - clearly seen as the Saints boss - has yet to get that qualification.
But team manager Alan Mathews is a Pro Licence holder and is a firm part of their staff along with assistant Patrick Cregg.
O’Donnell said today: “I think everyone is getting hung up on titles.
“You see all different types of relationships on the sideline and I don’t see how it’s possible to curb anyone's input.
“Dundalk had their say in the week but nothing has changed on our part - we work the way we’ve been working for 12-18 months.
“Alan is the manager and I’m the head coach. You see a lot of different titles in leagues all around Europe and nothing has changed on our behalf.
“It's a whole staff effort from all of the coaching staff. It's not a dictatorship, every one of our coaching staff has their own input into team selection.
“I know Dundalk said their piece but it's nothing to do with us.”
Mathews - who was previously boss at Longford, Shelbourne, Bray, Drogheda and Cork - insists the arrangement works well for St Pat’s.
Mathews said: “We’ve had a good operating rhythm for the last 18 months, from bringing in players to moving players on and to what way we want to play.
“No one has the overall (say), it's a collective and it works. We feel we’ve no questions to answer because of something else that's gone on outside of our control.”
Mathews added: "Myself, Stephen and the club spoke to senior people in the FAI before last season to outline how we were going to operate.
"That was totally acceptable to them and, to date, we’ve not been called to address any issue because I believe that we’ve conducted ourselves in the correct format.”
