Stephen Bradley predicts Shamrock Rovers' trip to Shelbourne will ...

STEPHEN BRADLEY is focused on winning tonight — but he knows the game is also a chance to sell Irish football.

Bradley’s Shamrock Rovers make the trip across the Liffey to face Damien Duff’s Shelbourne in a game that needs no hype.

It is a clash of the league leaders and four-in-a-row champs where the winners will be top of the pile at 10pm.

It will showcase some of the league’s brightest stars such as player of the month Will Jarvis of Shelbourne and the in-form Graham Burke for Shamrock Rovers.

Were the FAI not floundering in their Ireland managerial search, Bradzer v Duffer would be one being keenly watched by Abbotstown.

But after a bad week for the FAI, where the April gaffer appointment was pushed back to September, tonight represents what is good about Irish football.

Bradley said: “I think we can all agree that the league is definitely going from strength to strength, on and off the pitch.

“You look at the attendances up around the league, the standard of football and players in the league.

“We all know that we need improvement in facilities across the board and I think that is slowly happening.

"We need to keep banging that drum to make sure that it does happen.

“But what we have done really well is stay focused on us as a league in terms of each club has been really good in promoting their brand and their club.

“We can’t affect what is happening at other places. That is up to them to get their stuff in order.

“It is about us focusing on what we do and keep to what we are doing, keep building and keep making it better, keep making the product better.

“I think every club is doing really well in that regard.”

The League of Ireland is now the poster boy for Irish football.

This is a long way from when Bradley played in the league and ex-CEO John Delaney described it a as ‘difficult child’ a decade ago.

Those days when Bradley returned home from the UK to sign for Drogheda United — in 2005 — were boom and bust, where now there is steady growth.

The Hoops boss, 39, continued: “We can’t fall into the trap in Ireland of reacting to what I would say is yo-yo budgets up and down. You can’t build any sustainability.

“When you look at teams or clubs of similar sizes to ourselves around Europe that we’ve played throughout the years, they work off three- to five-year cycles.

“That is a really important model that should be followed as you aren’t reacting to one good year or one bad year.

“I think that is really important. I think we are in a better place as a league as a whole. Attendances are up which obviously helps.”

And he believes that all the work that has made games like Shels v Rovers tonight an easy sell is also helped by clubs being able to do big sales.

Such transfers are epitomised by the move of Gavin Bazunu from Rovers to Manchester City in 2018.

This also included a sell-on clause which reaped dividends when he joined Southampton in 2022.

Bradley continued: “What we’ve done well and I can’t speak for other clubs here, but for our club we have brought in really good money in transfer fees throughout the years.

“Roughly, I’d imagine it is around €5million with Gavin’s sale.

"We’ve sold young players from the academy, we’ve sold players that we’ve recruited and improved and sold on.

“Gavin’s move has helped. That should be part of any club’s business model in this country for sure.

“That’s really important that it’s part of your business model and that it stays that way. That helps you grow on and off the pitch.

"That’s what we’re doing really well. I know other clubs have sold players but I can’t talk in detail about that.

“But what we have done we have continually throughout the years sold players and reinvested that in the club in whatever capacity.

“That is really important going forward to help with the business model.

"Obviously success on the pitch is important but there is so much more that goes into it than just that.”

It has the Hoops in a good place as they can go top tonight with a win having won five of their last six games following what is now their traditional slow start.

Rovers drew three and lost one of their opening four games — last year they were winless in the opening six and they lost two of their first four in 2022 — but the manager was never worried.

He said: “It’s not a disaster for us in here as you understand the process and what we are doing, but outside, yeah.

“You’ve to take a bit of pride, as you’ve built it to a standard where people expect us to win.

"You’ve to be very careful as you’ve no divine right to win any game.

“You can’t become arrogant with that as a team or a club, you need to stay focused.

“I understand the reaction outside to our results as people react to results and if it’s bad, it’s doomsday and if it’s good, it’s high.

“The result is important but if you just keep looking at that then you will forget everything else and that usually wears off pretty quickly.

“If we win, we are top, but what is it, April?

"If we stay fourth until early November and then go first, that means we are going to win the league, so it doesn’t bother me.”