Limerick chairman Pat O’Sullivan has revealed how the film Shirley Valentine has inspired his pursuit of Greek players to rescue them from the bottom of the SSE Airtricity Premier Division.
The Munster side look almost certain for relegation after a winless run of 19 games so far this season.
They trail 11th place Derry City by ten points with 14 games remaining in the division.
On the lookout for new players, O’Sullivan has seen an opportunity in Greek football because of the financial troubles in the country and is on the verge of bringing players from their Super League to Ireland.
"I'm watching Shirley Valentine the other night with my wife Helen and I'm saying the Greeks are technically very good at football"
He told RTÉ Sport: “I need to bring in quality players now to help us get out of where we are at. I don't see them in Ireland, so I am looking around. We can't get them from England, I would love to see the English windows match in Ireland because there is an awful lot of young players that come free in England at the end of their season and we can't sign them until July.
“And then the English season is open again so then we lose that chance generally.
“So what do we do? I'm sitting at home, I'm watching Shirley Valentine the other night with my wife Helen and I'm saying the Greeks are technically very good at football, austerity has to [have] had [an effect] and football must be suffering. So why not look at that?
“They are Europeans so why not look at them as regards looking at any other country. So, what we did was I got my daughter Pam to Google and find the players union in Greece and emailed them and told them what we were looking for. They have sent us details of certain players.
“We have spoken to the individual players and the terms and conditions we have agreed. Now we have to look at bringing them for trials when we are ready to do that which has to be done and in place by the end of this month. If I can find players do a job for me in Limerick, particularly in the short-term and possibly in the long-term, the Irish go to England and different countries so why can't the Greeks come here.”
O’Sullivan revealed the players are of a high calibre with some having international experience, and said that if manager Martin Russell is satisfied, the players will be signing.
“They have to be a quality of a player that will give us what we need in our team and that the manager has to be happy with.”
