Coleraine CEO clear 'we're not going to throw bucketloads of cash' at transfer market - and provides stadium updates

The Bannsiders made several significant moves 12 months ago as they secured the services of Joel Cooper, who was the reigning Player of the Year after firing Linfield to Premiership glory, Kodi Lyons-Foster and Will Patching – his initial loan became permanent in January – amongst others.

Ruaidhri Higgins was able to further bolster his squad in January with Mark Connolly, Mark Coyle, Ben Wylie and James Akintunde arriving at The Showgrounds.

A large majority of Higgins’ signings made an immediate impact – Cooper scored 21 Premiership goals and also netted in their Irish Cup final win over Dungannon Swifts while Patching was named in NIFWA’s Team of the Year.

Having finished second last term – just three points behind champions Larne – Coleraine are looking to take that next step to claim a first Gibson Cup crown since 1974, but Pryde-MacDonald is clear the club want to adopt a sustainable approach to recruitment.

"It's always a hard question because you don't know what lies ahead,” he told the club’s media channel when asked about the transfer window. “Similar to the January window just passed, a lot of pre-work has gone into this window.

"We have had a few things on the back burner we're working very hard on, but again, you don't know what's around the corner.

"The one thing I will say is Ruaidhri has done a fantastic job since he came to the club, along with his staff, of following through that transition to make it their own squad.

"When you look at where we are now, we have built the core spine of a team which will be here for the next two, three, four years, which is one of the key aspects Ruaidhri and I discussed not long after I came in.

"I'm really proud of the recruitment work because we haven't really hit the post or bar with the signings we've made, we have strengthened and we want to continue to strengthen, but we have to do it pragmatically and in a way we get value for money.

"We're not going to throw bucketloads of cash at it, we can't do that, it's not sustainable.

"What we will do is make sure we go after the right people and that's key - we need to make sure it's the right people coming into the building, not just footballers.

"That's where we're really aligned and we enjoy the process of identifying how we can make the club stronger and players the fans want to get behind.”

While Coleraine continue to chase success on the pitch, the Co Londonderry club are also looking to make improvements off it with upgrading their stadium amongst the priorities.

The Bannsiders are set to make their European return this summer, entering Conference League qualifying at the second round stage after Irish Cup glory, but have nominated Windsor Park as their home ground with The Showgrounds failing a stringent FIFA pitch test.

Coleraine have hosted an array of youth international football matches in recent months and will once again stage the SuperCupNI this summer.

Having missed out on crucial finances in the Northern Ireland Football Fund, Pryde-MacDonald has outlined how the club will need to explore different avenues – but key work has already started.

"We have an iconic stadium, a fantastic stadium, but she's an old lady and she needs a bit of TLC,” he added. “We're right now in the process of getting the beams in the main stand sandblasted which has been thrown upon us - that's £181,000 so that has to come from somewhere, it doesn't just magically appear in our lap.

"We have a surface which needs taken up and relaid which will be circa £300,000 or £350,000.

"We can't just go out and do that straight away, we need to find the money and funding to do that.

"It's well-documented that we didn’t get money in the Northern Ireland Football Fund so what other avenues can we explore?

"Although we have an ageing stadium, we have a very popular stadium. There's a reason the IFA and UEFA want to use this place.

"There's so much usage of the stadium that we need the support and investment to fund that.

"We are working on a plan to open up the full side of the uncovered terrace, which ideally we would like to have in place for the start of next season.

"A lot of hard work has gone into that...hopefully we can get that moving."