Barry Gray has no issue with big spending rivals

There have been fears that the gap in the Danske Bank Premiership between the haves and the have nots would widen given the big sums being spent in the summer transfer window.

But the Warrenpoint Town boss feels it will have little effect on his own side, and he welcomed the investment being made as he feels it will benefit the league in the long term.

“Linfield will always be Linfield and whether they have more money to spend in their budget or not it’s not going to change anything, they will always be challenging for honours,” he said.

“The Glens have always been challenging, does it give them an edge? Yes of course, but they can only put eleven players out on the pitch.

“If you look at last year’s league the split was already there, more money doesn’t change that and it’s not going to affect us at Warrenpoint.

“So let those teams batter away at each other.

“The rest of the teams are still playing for what they have historically played for.

“Obviously every team will have its period to challenge, Coleraine proved it last year going toe-to-toe with the other teams all season.

“It will be good to see if they can keep themselves up there this season, and how Linfield adapt to going full time, and if the Glens and Larne will kick on.

“If you take out the McCartan transfer there hasn’t really been any more spent than last season.

“But I think it’s good for football, because at our level unless there’s finance the league will be in difficulty.

“You can’t complain about money coming into the league as we are the top tier in the country.

“The top tier doesn’t get any better unless the standards are raised.

“The league doing well is what benefits every team in it.

“Sponsors will come in and give more money if the league has a better product to sell.

“You will have more fans through the gates and people watching online too, no-one wants to watch a poor league.

“What makes it more entertaining? Better players and better teams.

“The only challenge is that we don’t want it to turn into that full time league, but that won’t happen overnight if it does even happen.”

‘Point have been busy in the transfer window themselves as they bid to push on up the table, but Gray admitted he was relieved not to have to bring as many players as he has done in recent windows.

“We’re happy enough with our business, but there’s always room for one more, but there’s not a lot of movement,” he said.

“We would dabble in the southern market more than most and it’s the same.

“Because the season has run longer down there, everyone is prepared to sit it out and see what happens after that.

“We don’t need a massive amount, our main business was to keep what we had.

“We have signed 25 players in three windows.

“That was too much but we had to do it.

“We haven’t signed as many in this window, but the big thing is whether the retained panel can help us move another bit forward.”