WHITHER now Shelbourne and St Patrick's Athletic? Well, there will be a few more well deserved nights of celebration and a month or so of rest for the players, but already thoughts are turning to matters European, and pre season training from late June onwards. No rest for the wickedly successful then and, in this instance, it was pretty much a Tolka Inchicore carve up.

Both clubs go forward into Europe already with designs on fending off the Irish League vultures circling the National League in these murky days after the Bosman ruling.

Relief all round on Inchicore anyway, for St Patrick's are believed to have re signed their prized asset Eddie Gormley (Brian Kerr is reluctant to discuss contractual matters publicly as this might help prying Irish League managers).

After persuading Stephen Geoghegan and Greg Costello to sign new four year and two year deals respectively, Kerr's Shelbourne counterpart, Damien Richardson intends to augment those signatures with several more, and wants to sign about three new players.

Uppermost in his mind is the addition of a defender, a mid fielder and a striking foil for Stephen Geoghegan. He has been having discussions with the out of contract Derry full back Pascal Vaudequin, whose overlapping flair would surely make him a big hit (provided his temperament and fitness hold up) with the Tolka faithful, who like their football played with a bit of panache.

The possible addition of the mercurial Frenchman (the two parts of the description seem to go hand in hand) raises interesting questions about Costello, a midfielder converted into arguably the best right full back in the league this season. "I see Greg as an eventual replacement for Mick Neville," says Richardson.

In the interim, the Shelbourne manager is considering toying with a 3-5-2 formation, which is becoming de rigeur in this part of the world. Costello might move alongside Neville as one of the three centre backs.

Another inevitable tactical alteration is the Richardson seal of approval for the roving, central midfield role which Tony Sheridan so craves.

Shelbourne and the domestic game are probably destined to lose Sheridan, but at least he is under contract at Tolka for another season.

Richardson yesterday reiterated his suggestion to Mick McCarthy that Sheridan be drafted into the Republic of Ireland squad and added the name of Geoghegan. It would convey all the right messages to the domestic game without in any way being merely a sop. Go on Mick.

With Sheridan supporting Geoghegan through the middle and a couple of fully fit wingers in Dave Tilson and Mark Rutherford on the flanks, Shelbourne have the pace and attacking verve to trouble even continental opposition when they enter the preliminary round of the Cup Winners Cup on August 8th and 22nd.

Richardson admits the European campaign must start out as "the club's priority for next season." To that end, they will resume training on June 24th. "I want to work for about six and then start games from the middle of July and get about three or four weeks of games in.

In that, as ever, Shelbourne ought to be ahead of the posse. Nottingham Forest and Tottenham Hotspur have already been lined up, as have Tranmere and Southend. The club are negotiating with both Liverpool and Manchester United, while, Leeds are again a probability. Most informative of all, though, will be a pre season game with Porto - "a great fixture for us" says Richardson.

For the club to reach its abundant potential, Richardson believes they need to develop more of a "full time mentality. We're a friendly club but we need to become more professional, look what Pat Dolan has done in a full time capacity for St Pat's."

There has to be a greater emphasis on reaching out to the local community and building up its support base, for that is all that is missing at Tolka. With a more professional, full time outlook Richardson is liable to pledge himself this summer to Shelbourne for at least four more years.

Though St Patrick's will probably begin their UEFA Cup campaign in the same week as Shelbourne they await confirmation of this from the organisers.

In the interim Brian Kerr has thought of a novel way for clubs and the FAI to co operate and strengthen their hand in European fare.

To make it happen for each other perhaps we should have a training camp for a week, perhaps in the National Institute of Physical Education in Limerick. Maybe the FAI could use the 40 per cent cut they took from the Lansdowne game and the 25 per cent cut from the Dalymount replay to fund preseason training for the teams, given the players would have to commit themselves to six or eight weeks training for European matches without being played until the competitive football starts, Kerr suggests.