Dundalk FC :: News

26 JULY 2008: “It will either be quality or it will be nothing” - Gill

Dundalk manager John Gill has admitted that he has missed out on yet another striker. However, he refused to concede defeat in the race to sign a hitman before the July transfer window closes next Thursday night - though he has stressed that quality will not be sacrificed for quantity. Gill has now lost out on up to eight players, with the latest being an unnamed Premier Division striker. The news came following the Lilywhites’ latest win, as they easily overcame the challenge of Monaghan United by 3-0 at Oriel Park.

“I won’t mention names, but I thought I had a deal done yesterday,” Gill revealed to dundalkfc.com after the match. “A deal was done, a deal was agreed, but, unfortunately, a player that the other manager was chasing fell through, and it’s like a domino effect. The whole deal was on the proviso that another deal would be done somewhere else. That’s what sometimes happens in football with transfers, but I’ve probably got as near as I have in the window this week, and I’m not going to panic.

“As I’ve said, if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. I’m not prepared to sacrifice quality for quantity. I’m not just going to go out and bring in somebody to appease everybody else. It will only be somebody that will add to the squad and who is better than what we already have. I think that would only be fair on the squad itself, and I think it’s only fair on the Board and the supporters here. We deserve to bring quality players in here. It will either be quality or it will be nothing.

“It’s not from a lack of trying. I’ve chased seven or eight players now, who the Board know about. Some of them, we thought were more than a possibility. Some of them, in fairness, were straight, straight away when I spoke to them. They wanted to stay in the Premier Division. You’re hoping with a win like tonight, and people see that we have a really, really good chance of winning this league, you might get somebody that will take a gamble.

“The player that I spoke to in the last couple of days was prepared to do that. He knows the potential here, he knows it’s a massive club and he wanted to come. Everything was done and dusted, but, unfortunately, sometimes things are out of my control, and the club that holds his contract has a right to hold on to him.”

On the match itself, which saw Dundalk maintain their two-point lead at the top of the First Division standings, Gill admitted: “I’m very pleased with the performance. I thought we were excellent from the first whistle. It helps when you get an early goal - it settles you down a little bit. I thought it was an emphatic 3-0 win, and I thought we were fitter and stronger, and technically very good. When you do the simple things well and you do what you work on well, you get your rewards.

“Again, you’ll have a lot of people saying that they’re very, very poor, but they’ve taken points off everybody in the league this year, including ourselves. You can only beat what is in front of you. We imposed our game on them tonight and we didn’t worry about what they did. When we play like that and we play with the right tempo and pass it, we’ll get our rewards and it will take a good team to beat us. I thought tonight that everybody went about their work in the right way.”