Stephen Bradley: Short contracts detrimental for SSE Airtricity League clubs

Shamrock Rovers manager Stephen Bradley says that SSE Airtricity League clubs are going to struggle to get higher fees for players until they offer them longer contracts.

The off season has seen some big names move away from the League of Ireland, with Scotland proving a popular destination.

Daniel Cleary and Daniel O'Reilly have gone to St Johnstone and Hamilton respectively, after their contracts with Dundalk and Drogheda United ran out.

Meanwhile Sligo Rovers lost John Mahon to St Johnstone and Johnny Kenny to Celtic after the Scottish clubs triggered the pair's release clauses. In December, Ross Tierney moved from Bohemians to Motherwell for an undisclosed fee.

Speaking after winning the Soccer Writers' Dan McCaffrey Personality of the Year award, Bradley said that Irish clubs will continue see players leaving below their market value until the situation is addressed.

"You can't demand certain fees if you're giving part-time contracts, one-year deals, 38 weeks, and then you expect to get half a million for a player," he began.

"It's not going to happen. If you want the respect of teams outside of this country then you have to respect your contracts and what you're giving the players. It's quite simple.

"If half the players that leave here were in Scandinavia, would they be worth half a million? Of course they would, but that is because of the way they run their clubs and the length of contract. Teams respect that and you have to build it up over a period of time.

"We have been trying to do that for a number of years and we've done quite well in that regard. I think we have to be very careful. Do we feel that certain players are worth a lot more money? Of course we do.

"Ross Tierney goes away and he's obviously a very, very