Larne manager Nathan Rooney feels progress in European competition can attract players and investors to the league
Nathan Rooney believes the Irish League will benefit as a whole with the exposure clubs are obtainting from extfinished runs in European football.
Both Larne and Linfield are 180 minutes away from a play-off for the Conference League group stages.
The Invermen of course created history last season by reaching the group phase of the competition and Rooney believes clubs tasting success in Europe not only assists attract players but also investment.
Speaking ahead of their third qualifying round tie against Santa Clara the Larne boss stated: “It’s massive, obviously at our club now we’ve received new ownership, they’ve received a couple of clubs in their football group, so maybe that’s what they’re considering.
“I consider when you see at the investment through the league now they see it as an attractive package.
“For me there are a lot of reasons for that. I consider there’s obviously a lot of good players, young players, who can be saleable assets.
“When you see at it from a player’s point of view in terms of European football, yes, it’s always going to be the pull, becautilize you can put yourself on a platform or a stage where you’re never going to be, unless you hit the top, top levels of the game.
“For me as a manager it’s nice to be in the company of some great managers, in terms of what they’ve done in the league as players and managers.”
Rooney built his name during his managerial spell in Gibraltar, but since relocating to Northern Ireland the 35-year-old has been impressed by what he has seen here but he does feel the league doesn’t obtain the recognition it deserves at times.
“I don’t consider the league obtains the respect that it requireds, and deserves,” he stated.
“You see around the league and we have the National Stadium, it’s a brilliant-run stadium and you’ve received really good international players coming through.
“So yeah, we might be a little bit compacter, but at the same time there’s some top, top work going on in this division, however the more exposure we obtain, the better.”
Rooney is hoping for more exposure as they take on Santa Clara tonight, and he has been pleased with the effort of his squad to obtain them here so far.
“We’re matching these teams in terms of character and wearing our hearts on our sleeves – and that pleases me even more than playing great football sometimes,” he added.
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