Graham Cummins: Liam Scales now the hottest property in the League of Ireland

With the current European activity, scouts from the UK will be keen to see how certain players fare against better opposition than they face week-in week-out in the Airtricity League

Liam Scales of Shamrock Rovers following the UEFA Champions League first qualifying round second leg match against Slovan. Picture: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

With the transfer window open in the UK, and League of Ireland players currently getting to demonstrate their talents in European football, we could see the best players in our league depart across the water in the next six weeks.

It’s no secret, because of Covid, that the wealth of clubs both in the UK and Ireland has decreased. But if English clubs do have the resources available to spend money on purchasing players, then our league will be seen as somewhere where they might pick up a bargain.

That mightn’t be the fee they would have to pay, but the whole package included in buying a player. Clubs in England know that players in our league aren’t earning as much as players in England, even those in League One and Two.

If a Championship club wants to buy a player from a League One club, they know that player will demand a significant wage increase. Whereas when recruiting players from our league, mostly the player is just happy to get a move to the UK and won’t demand that much of a pay rise.

With the current European activity, scouts from the UK will be keen to see how certain players fare against better opposition than they face week-in week-out in the league.

No offence to the players in the league at the moment, but clubs from England or Scotland are going to be far more interested in how Liam Scales handles Vladimir Weiss — a player who has recently represented Slovakia in Euro 2020 and has played in the English Premier League — than when Scales comes up against someone who is a part-time footballer.

Of course, it’s not just clubs in the UK that will be sniffing around. There’s the possibility that opponents of the clubs involved in Europe will be tempted to sign a player that they were impressed by, which was the case with one of my old teammates at Rovers, Dan Carr.

When we defeated Apollon Limassol 2-1 in Tallaght, Dan caused their defenders all sorts of problems. Before the second leg, Limassol had already contacted Carr and the deal was all but done. I can’t imagine Limassol would have known much about him before that game apart from watching a few videos of us in previous games, but it shows that one performance can be enough to secure a move.

Rovers could again find themselves in a battle to keep hold of their best players, in particular Scales. The Republic of Ireland U21 international was already grabbing attention for his performances in the league this season and showed against Slovan Bratislava that he is more than capable of playing at a higher level. He was keen on a move to the UK back in 2019 but Bristol Rovers pulled out of the deal.

If the opportunity arose again to go across the water, I’m sure Scales wouldn’t be put off by that experience. At the start of the summer, I spoke to staff at Rovers who admitted that it would be hard to keep hold of Scales. I’ve also had agents onto me wondering what type of person he is because clubs in England know how talented he is, but also want to know about his character. That might be because the move to Bristol fell through. Potential suitors might fear there was a personality issue that halted the transfer but all I’ve heard is glowing reports about a determined, talented young player.

The one question mark about Scales is; can he play in a two-man centre back paring or does it have to be in a three? His versatility and ability to play left-back or left-wing back will also be attractive to potential buyers. For me, his best position is in a back three but that doesn’t mean I don’t think he can play in a two.

The improvement of Scales over the past 18 months since joining Rovers is remarkable. I questioned why Rovers were signing him when they already had Lee Grace, Sean Kavanagh and others that can play the left of the back three. I didn’t think Scales would feature much. When he played with UCD, who admittedly weren’t great at the time, defending wasn’t his strong point and he would always give me a chance. However, we are seeing a different player at Rovers and he has probably been the best defender in the league this year.

He’s always been good on the ball. He’s a very brave player who will take the ball in dangerous areas of the pitch. His speed has improved, which is a crucial attribute to have in modern football, and he is more aware of potential danger.

There are others who could easily make a switch to the UK, but for me, Scales is the hottest property in the league at this time.