CLIFTONVILLE chief Gerard Lawlor has revealed the club turned the chance to sign former Celtic star Paddy McCourt as the figures were “way outside our wage structure”.
Speaking from Cyprus on Thursday following the Reds’ Europa League exit to AEK Larnaca, Lawlor warned “it’s only a matter of time” before another Irish League “ends up in trouble”: “The approach was made to us, would we be interested in signing Paddy McCourt? Anybody would be interested in a player of McCourt’s ability, but the figures that we were quoted to us were way outside our wage structure.”
Glenavon signed McCourt, recently of Luton Town, on a one-year deal earlier this week: “I’m not having a go at the club that has signed McCourt, but some of the figures being quoted for some players in the Irish League are ludicrous," Lawlor added.
“I think we’re starting to lose focus again. It’s only a matter of time before another club ends up in trouble. At the end of the day, I’m a Cliftonville supporter, but we need to have a good business model going forward. Bringing in Paddy McCourt wouldn’t be good for team morale as he would’ve been on more money than anybody else. We’ve also turned down a number of high-profile players this year.”
The Reds chairman fully expects manager Gerard ‘Skin’ Lyttle to make “one or two” more signings before they kick off their league campaign away to newly-promoted Ards on Saturday, August 6. Lawlor has been hugely impressed with new centre-backs Jason McGuinness and Chris Ramsey in pre-season and hailed the team’s brave Europa League challenge against Cypriot side Larnaca, which they lost 5-2 on aggregate on Thursday night.
Cliftonville were the only Irish League club to reach the second-phase of European competition this season after overcoming Luxembourg outfit Differdange in the first qualifying round of the Europa League earlier this month.
The north Belfast club has made a tidy profit of over €400,000 in Europe this summer: “It’s been financially rewarding for the club and the players have been rewarded too, so we couldn’t have asked for any more,” said Lawlor.
“It’s been a very worthwhile experience. We’ve had two trips away, which you could never normally do in pre-season and it helps team bonding and improves our match fitness. We’ve got through a round of Europe, which was our objective, and we weren’t embarrassed against Larnaca.”
The Reds squad will return home via Dublin on Saturday afternoon: “We decided to stay an extra day so the players can enjoy themselves,” Lawlor explained.
“There is a direct flight to Dublin tomorrow rather than taking three or four flights today to get home. It means the boys have a day in the sun here and they’ll have a few drinks after a very successful pre-season so far.”
On putting the finishing touches to the first-team squad, the Reds chairman added: “We had to look at the defensive weaknesses of the team from last year and we’ve tried to get that part of the team sorted for the new season.
“The preparation and work that Skin has put in has been fantastic. We would still like to add one or two players to the squad before the start of the new season, which would mean one or two leaving the club.”
