Shamrock Rovers put entire squad on the market

Shamrock Rovers troubled season took a turn for the worse this afternoon when the club was forced to put all their players up for sale ahead of the July transfer window.

Speaking to ireland.comthis afternoon manager Roddy Collins said that the decision was made for the best of the club.

"The examiner has said that the budget that we need to exist on has been exceeded, so we said we've got to get rid of players," said Collins. "I have until July 15th to get the budget down. Whatever happens between now and then will be to get the budget right.

"At the end of the day, its not about me, how I feel, if I’m disappointed, or about anyone else.  Its about the name of Shamrock Rovers being saved, and the only way to do it, from a financial point of view, is put the whole squad up for sale."

The news has been greeted enthusiastically by prospective suitors, according to Collins, but the manager is treading a fine line having had only 12 senior players available for training this morning.

"The phone is ringing now, there is a lot of interest in a lot of players," said Collins.  "I will work the best I can to keep the best players available to us and that will hopefully see us through the rest of the season.

"Then hopefully we can nick a few cheapies off teams looking for players off me, and I can maybe do a swap with money and a player. I have to wheel and deal to get 11 players on the pitch on July 15th until the end of the season."

The move could see Rovers starting against Longford Town on Saturday with up to three youth players, according to Collins.

"We could lose maybe four players between today and tomorrow with the phone calls I am getting," said Collins.  "So if that happens, you could safely say we’ll probably start against Longford with maybe three young players."

Midfielders Paddy McCourt, Mark Rutherford and centre back Brian McGovern are attracting the most interest.

"Everbody’s going to want Paddy McCourt," added Collins.

The news comes at the end of a tough week for Rovers in which they saw the front-runners in the race to take over the club, withdraw their interest.

The club is currently in a period of examinership until July 19th, and is in talks with a number of other interested parties, according to Hughes.

Brian Quigley and Brooks Mileson, the north of England-based businessmen who were instrumental in the resurrection of Scottish league side Gretna, last week pulled out of the move because of disagreements with South Dublin County Council over ownership of the club’s new ground in Tallaght.

Rovers were deducted eight points earlier in the season because of irregularities in financial accounts submitted by the club to Merrion Square in November when applying for a licence for the current season.

They are currently last in the eircom Premier League, five points behind Finn Harps.