Shamrock Rovers CEO Denis Donohoe: Add-on transfer deals best approach until upfront fees rise

Longer-term contracts strengthen Shamrock Rovers’ bargaining power, as exemplified by the Liam Scales transfer fee, but new CEO Donohoe believes the League of Ireland’s reputation continues to be a factor

Manchester City paid Shamrock Rovers €500,000 in 2018 for Gavin Bazunu but will shell out the same again in add-ons for his international progress. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

Shamrock Rovers believe the incremental deal that banks them €1m from Manchester City for Gavin Bazunu will remain the template until League of Ireland players command better upfront fees.

City paid Rovers €500,000 in 2018 for the young goalkeeper but will shell out the same again in add-ons for his international progress.

Each of the stopper’s four appearances in Ireland’s World Cup qualification campaign earned Rovers a six-figure sum. The bonuses will be capped once he retains his place for next month’s trip to Azerbaijan. Rovers grossed an Irish transfer record of €600,000 from fellow Hooped outfit Celtic for Liam Scales last month too but the domestic product still lags behind similarly-sized nations when it comes to realising value for personnel assets.

For example, Everton snapped up Ireland captain Séamus Coleman from Sligo Rovers for €80,000, the same price Wolves paid Bohemians for Matt Doherty. Rovers lost the league’s Player of the Year Jack Byrne to Cypriot club APOEL in January.

A policy of granting longer-term contracts strengthens Rovers’ bargaining power in the market, as exemplified by the Scales fee, but their new chief executive believes the league’s reputation continues to be a factor.

“There are too many good, talented lads who have gone to the UK or elsewhere for frankly derisory transfer fees because that’s what people think League of Ireland players are worth,” said Denis Donohoe, the supremo who began his role in June.

“Until we get to the situation where clubs are going: ‘Oh there’s a really good player in the League of Ireland’ and the starting negotiating point for a top-quality League of Ireland player is €1m, €1.5m or €2m, the only way is slowly growing the basic transfer fee and put in as many add-ons as you possibly can.

“If we can get to a point where players are more highly valued and more highly priced, then that becomes less important.

“But, certainly at the moment, I’d say it will continue to be a big feature of League of Ireland dealings for us and other clubs.” 

Referring to the clause in Doherty’s contract, which last year earned Bohs a €1.5m cut of his transfer fee to Tottenham, Donohoe reiterated his point. “We’re not the only ones who have benefitted recently from sell-on clauses and appearance-linked clauses.”

Despite their windfall from Bazunu and Scales, plus European prize money of €1.5m, Rovers won’t be handing head coach Stephen Bradley a war-chest to compete with Dundalk’s financial firepower. The Lilywhites have spent heavily again this season, mainly on foreign imports, but are more consumed in avoiding relegation than challenging Rovers for the title they relinquished last year.

“Dundalk had a big budget this year but we have seen that doesn’t automatically equate to performances on the pitch,” Donohoe observed.

“We have seen smaller teams with smaller budgets such as Bohemians outperform them.

“We’re not going to try and get involved in any kind of an auction, as in ‘if you spend this much, we’ll spend more’,” he added. “We have seen how that ends in the League of Ireland in the past.”

Unite the Union, Shamrock Rovers and Sphero yesterday launched an exciting STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) education programme for the local community.

As part of the sponsorship of the Unite the Union Champions Cup, Shamrock Rovers will work with Unite the Union to implement the exciting educational resource developed by Sphero Sports. The equipment was on show at Tallaght Stadium with children from neighbouring schools learning and showcasing their skills at the launch event.