Stephen Bradley reckons the ‘tea lady’ could pick Dundalk’s team for tomorrow’s President’s Cup clash.
The Shamrock Rovers boss insists he couldn’t care less about the Lilywhites curious managerial reshuffle.
But he accused Dundalk’s Pat Hoban of feeling ‘insecure’ after their star striker rubbished the Hoops title win last season.
Tallaght Stadium hosts the curtain-raiser for the new season when league champions Rovers face FAI Cup holders Dundalk.
And while it is a pre-season game ahead of next week’s opening league matches, Bradley reckons there will be an edge.
The spotlight is on whether Filippo Giovagnoli or Shane Keegan calls the shots at Dundalk but Bradley has no interest in who his opposite number will be.
“I don't really care. It’s the last thing I’d be looking at,” he said today.
“I’ve more things to worry about here than to be worried about who is picking their team. The tea lady could pick the team up there and it would be a good team.
“It's a squad full of internationals.
“They were on record last year as saying they expect to have the best players because they pay the best money. So anyone could pick a decent team out of it.”
But Bradley has dismissed Hoban’s barbed comments about Rovers’ title win last season.
In an interview on Dundalk’s official website last month, Hoban said: “You’re telling me that winning the league after 18 games is winning a league?
“It’s not. It’s like being top of the table in June and saying ‘we won’.”
Quizzed on that today, Hoops boss Bradley said: “That shows where Pat is in his head more than anything. Probably a bit insecure to be fair.
“The players know, everybody knows, what we were, what we did, I don’t think that is up for debate.
“If we win it by a point, it’s up for discussion but I don’t know what we were ahead in the end (11 points). It wasn’t a couple of points.
“We’re probably in their heads more than we know. But look, that’s not our issue, that’s for them to deal with.
“We’ll concentrate on what we do, improving what we do and making sure that we’re better than we were last year.”
Bradley added: “There are a lot of changes at Dundalk, but you’d imagine there’s a really strong group and they’re going to be right there again.
“There’s a cup to be won tomorrow and it’s going to be nice having all those eyes on us, people wanting to beat us, people talking about us - that’s what you want.
“It means you’re doing something right. But we know we have to work hard and that’s going to be difficult as there’s going to be a few teams right in there this year.”
Rovers are without Neil Farrugia, Sean Kavanagh and Lee Grace for tomorrow’s game.
