Stephen Bradley, the man the Imps were reported to be close to capturing as head coach 18 months ago, has spoken out about the current vacancy.
The current Shamrock Rovers boss is chasing a fourth League of Ireland title with his current club, with just a handful of matches remaining. Whilst his future after that is uncertain, he has quickly distanced himself from speculation around the Imps post.
Speaking to the Irish Independent, Bradley has said he didn’t know Mark Kennedy had left the club, and nothing would shake his focus from the upcoming fixtures for the Hoops.
“Honestly, there’s absolutely nothing that would take me away from here in the next few weeks,” Bradley said.
“We’ve got a full focus on winning this league. We’ve worked incredibly hard in the last few years, all season, to get to this point. My focus is on nowhere else other than how we’re going to beat Drogheda, recover, how we’re going to beat Cork, recover, and how we’re going to beat Pat’s.”
It’s believed that an approach was made for Bradley last summer and that he opted to remain in Ireland and focus on a European assault with Rovers. However, his future is very much up in the air after he refused to commit himself to the club next season, but it seems that in this case, two and two are adding up to five, as there’s seemingly no current connection between him and us.
“There is nothing else I will speak about or that come into my thought process other than winning these games. Then, we will sit down with the club at the end of the year and review everything like we always do with the staff and the club, and we move forward. But right now, I didn’t know that (MK’s sacking), but there’s nothing other than Drogheda in my mind.”
Of course, that doesn’t explicitly rule him out of taking the Imps job, but it does suggest that if we are to make an approach or try to talk to him, it will have to happen after their final game of the season, currently scheduled for November 3rd.
Bradley is currently the favourite with the bookies, followed by Danny Cowley. After that, they clearly have no idea, as Steve Cotterill and Karl Robinson sit on either side of Shelbourne manager Damien Duff.