BRADLEY: NOW THE FOCUS IS ON DRIVE FOR 5

Champions again but boss knows Rovers cannot afford stand still and posture

STEPHEN BRADLEY says talks about his Shamrock Rovers future are “moving well” – with preparations for the Hoops’ drive for five already underway.

Bradley became the first ever manager to complete a four-ina-row and Rovers the second team to pull off the feat, after the famous Hoops side of the 1980s.

Up to recently the smart money was on a change in the dugout, with Bradley and the board struggling to agree on the approach to next year.

However, the 38-year-old, who got his hands on the league trophy once again last Friday night, after Rovers’ 4-2 win over Sligo Rovers, had some good news on that front.

“Well, things are moving well,” he said. “I think the club and myself are aligned in terms of what we are thinking and I think that is important.

“My job is to push the club and to always want more, and that has always been my way.

“People will put that down to budgets, but it’s not about that, it’s about everything. Our standards need to keep rising, we need to keep getting better.

“Every team out there is working out a way to beat us, every club is working out a way to catch us. If we stand still and think we’re okay, we are in trouble.

“I can’t afford to do that. I can’t let the players down. I can’t let this club down. I can’t let those 8,000 fans down if I accept that.

“Me to the board has always been, this is how we’re going to get better.

“Like I said, things are moving in the right direction. We are speaking to players, Graham (Barrett) is speaking to the board in terms of my own situation, which is moving now.

“So the plan is to enjoy, relax and then go full force.”

Bradley is also confident that talks with players whose contracts are due to expire shortly will bring more cheer.

“I think we are right down the road with that,” he said.

“I think we’ve spoken to a number of players. We are right down the road with that and then we are talking to a few that we want to bring in as well.”

In terms of recruitment, Bradley is finding it harder and harder every season to bring in the right type of player.

“You are at a level where there are not many who can improve what we have. When you go outside the market becomes really expensive. So it’s a really difficult one,” he said.

“When you are bringing in boys from outside, they want to live in Dublin, and it’s not cheap. We all know that, with the housing crisis and everything.

“It’s really hard to recruit. When you are coming up, you can sign five or six and take chances on four of them, but when you are here you can’t do that.

“So it becomes a completely different market. It becomes a lot harder to recruit when you are at the top.”

Bradley, meanwhile, paid tribute to departing stars Alan Mannus (left, with Graham Burke) and Ronan Finn. Mannus has retired at the age of 41, while Finn is on his way to UCD.

He added that their exits would not thwart his five-in-a-row ambitions.

“That’s the beauty of the group,” Bradley said. “Our senior players demand that from the younger players when they come in.

“They demand that they train to a certain level, they hold themselves to a certain level.

“When we travel, when we play, they represent this club on and off the pitch. Our senior players see to that, and Ronan and Alan have led that for us.

“They have set our culture, they have set our standards. It’s up to us now to take that on further, but those two have been incredible in how they’ve led that for us.

“But like I said, all the senior players hold everyone to that and they hold each other to it. But those two helped set that.

“When I spoke to Alan, six to nine months before I signed him, that was the key, we wanted to drive standards, and Alan helped to do that. Ronan was key to that as well.

“So we are losing two incredible men. Top players, but incredible men.”