Buckley pleased with Rovers’ progress so far
SLIGO Rovers manager Liam Buckley understands the frustration of Bit O’Red fans, but he wants them to know that he is focusing on quality and not quantity when it comes to the signing of players.
The former Pats manager still has some way to go in order to complete his squad, but he is insistent that he does not want to sign any players for the sake of it.
“It’s difficult to bring players in everywhere. I had difficulty bringing players in at St. Pats because other clubs have more money.
“It’s a fickle business, players do go for more money. You will find that players move for opportunity, coaches because of the way they play, money, etc, and it is difficult in our league here. Look at Mikey Drennan and Rhys McCabe, they’re gone to Pats and I’ll tell you why, because they got more money.
“And they got out on a technicality, god be with the day when a man’s shake was his bond.
“If they don’t want to be here we’ll let them go, we’ll get on without them. We’ll bring in replacements that will help get us competing at the top end.”
The season begins on Friday fortnight, and Buckley wants fans to know that the players he is hoping to sign should be able to slot right into a squad, without needing a pre-season.
“I have no doubt they’ll be nervous because of the numbers and where we’re at but the players that I’m talking to now will be in season as such so there won’t be a pre-season required for them.”
Rovers take on Ballinamallard tonight in a pre-season friendly at Ferney Park. The only injury doubt is David Cawley who is struggling with a knee injury. ROMEO Parkes arrived in Sligo over the weekend.
Some may see the friendly against Sure Sports, in which Rovers were 11-0 winners as pointless, but Buckley felt there were many positives for him to take.
“The benefits I got out of the game last week, it was a stupid score but you need to score goals. I was looking at the movement of the boys that we have, we are trying to develop our patterns of play, that’s an ideal opportunity to do that. For me I’m learning about the players as well from an ability point of view. They’re conditioning themselves and that sort of stuff.”
The work continues to try and sign players, and the Rovers boss is confident deals will be tied up shortly.
“I’ve come up to Sligo, I want to try and win matches, I know our supporters wouldn’t want me to sign players for the sake of signing players and then have the same type of season we had last year or the year before, I want to try and get players in here that are going to make an impact. We’ve brought in a few already between John Dunleavy, if we can keep him fit he will be a fantastic signing for us, he’s a great lad to have around the dressing room, his fitness levels are through the roof.
“Ronan Murray, obviously we’ve brought him in from Dundalk, Dante is the captain of Bermuda’s international team, I’ve no doubt he’s going to add something to it. Romeo Parkes is also a Jamaican international. I hope and I think these guys aren’t just coming here for the sake of coming here and see how it goes. We want to compete. We’ll do that with a style of play and make sure that’s backed up by our fitness levels. John Russell has done a fantastic job in relation to all the planning of sessions. We still have about four or five to bring in. We’ll have 20/21 players and that will be it. Budget wise that’s where I’m at. I think our quality will be good and hopefully that will be enough.
“We’ve got a budget here and we’ve got to respect that. We’ve got to maximise what we can value out of that budget. We are squeezing everything we can out of that.”