STEPHEN BRADLEY has joined Stephen Kenny in slamming Ian Harte for his claim that League of Ireland clubs were ‘killing lads’ chances’ by ‘blocking dream moves’.
The former Ireland international turned agent was branded an ‘empty vessel’ by St Pat’s boss Kenny for his comments on a betting blog.
Shelbourne supremo Damien Duff added: “I don’t like agents. I never have. I’d die for my players, I’m not sure how many agents would die for their players.”
And Shamrock Rovers counterpart Bradley – who denied Harte’s claim that Justin Ferizaj, now with Italian side Frosinone, had been priced out of a move to the English Premier League – chipped in too.
Bradley said: “Sometimes something comes out in the media that doesn’t even warrant a response. I don’t know what to say to it. It’s incredible.
“Maybe the clubs should get together and we all agree, I’ll speak to Damien and see can we agree to let our players go for free, maybe.
“We’ll all agree to that, try to keep him happy. You are wasting your time responding to that, really.
“I know it’s grabbed a few headlines, but I don’t think there is one person around who agreed with one point in the whole article. Crazy stuff.”
“I think we have shifted away from it, to be honest. I think as a country we have, and we need to keep going that way.
“But it’s really hard to give a measured response, or any type of response, to that article, because it is so wrong. Every fact in it was wrong.
“I’m not too sure what it was about, other than to try and grab a headline, which it obviously did. But it was madness.”
Ferizaj broke through at Rovers in the 2022 campaign, at the end of which he spent time on trial at Tottenham.
He featured for the Hoops early in the 2023 season but then fell out of favour before joining Frosinone in August of that year. The 20-year-old has yet to feature for their first team.
Bradley insisted no move to England had been blocked for the ex-Ireland under-19 international, who is also eligible for Albania.
He said: “No. Never ever happened. Incredible. Like I said, every fact in it was completely false. I’m not too sure where he got his info.
“We are past that, I think, as a league. The fans know it, we know it, you know it, the teams in England know it.
“We are past that. That was probably here, I don’t know how long ago, but it’s not anymore.
“Don’t worry about people’s opinions. Everyone has an opinion. You are allowed an opinion.
“But you don’t have to listen to it. Especially when it’s like that.
“If there is some merit in it, some facts that you thought, ‘that’s interesting’, you have the conversation.
“But we have got to focus on what we are doing, and what we are doing is really good.
“We need to make it better, of course, we all know what we can do to make it better, we’ve been crying out for it and we need to keep banging the drum.
“But we are definitely on the right direction. There are also a lot of ex-internationals who are supportive of the league.
“You can’t forget that. Don’t get sucked into the negative narrative.”
BIGGER PICTURE
Bradley highlighted how the lack of urgency when it comes to state funding for academies was a bigger issue.
On Thursday, Minister Patrick O’Donovan suggested questions on the issue should be posed in a year’s time despite the issue being in the programme for government.
Bradley – who has fielded teenagers such as Michael Noonan, Victor Ozhianvuna and Cory O’Sullivan already this season – said: “That’s something we need to really push for and not let that be pushed out another year.
“It is so important for our academies that we have investment.
“That is something we need to keep banging the drum about and keep talking to the right people and doing the right things.
“That is something that will help us grow the industry in this country and help bring more Michaels and Victors and Cory O’Sullivan, and the likes of those through.
“We have got to keep having open dialogue with these people, the decision-makers, and let them see how important it is for us to have that investment for this league; for every club and academy to have it, because that is our future.
“Football has changed, the landscape has changed, we have all seen that over the last 10 or 15 years, and obviously now with Brexit it has changed again. For the better, I feel, for this country.
“But we have got to take ownership of that. I feel what we offer here to young players is really, really good.
“We offer them a chance to develop in a real-life situation, not underage football.
And that is so important for players’ development, both as players and as people.
“That is something we can’t allow to be pushed down the road.”
