David Graham admits Kyle Lafferty was 'right signing at wrong time' for Linfield - but insists his opinion 'more than legitimate'

Lafferty made headlines this week after labelling Linfield as “the worst run club I’ve ever seen in my life” and branded them as “a shambles”.

The Northern Ireland striker spent three months with the Blues, making eight Premiership appearances for former team-mate David Healy’s side and didn’t register a goal.

Former Rangers Director of Communications Graham was in his General Manager role with Linfield at the time of Lafferty’s high-profile arrival.

Lafferty had won three consecutive Premiership titles with Rangers and played in the Premier League for Norwich City, but couldn’t help drive Linfield to glory with Larne proceeding to collect a maiden Gibson Cup crown.

A Linfield club spokesperson said the club “totally refute the allegations made by our former player with regards to his short time at the club”.

While Graham feels Lafferty needed to have stronger evidence than pointing to an example of chicken curry being served to players, he also insists his underwhelming spell shouldn’t mean comments of a professional should be disregarded as irrelevant.

“Knowing Kyle like I do, Kyle has tried to in a nutshell say is 'David Healy has done a superb job, he has never got the credit he deserves because of the resources he's working with',” Graham told the News Letter. “Somewhat naively, Kyle has shifted the narrative to where we're all now talking about chicken curry.

"If you're going to make a statement of that strength in relation to Linfield, you need to be able to cite better reasons than the quality of the chicken curry.

"Linfield are saying 'look how poor Kyle was in his brief time with us' - that's not up for debate, but it doesn't take away the fact Kyle Lafferty played in the Premier League, played for Rangers, and one of the big advantages of playing at so many clubs is he seen and experienced so many different environments so his opinion is more than legitimate, setting aside his goalscoring record for Linfield.

"Where I think Kyle is exactly right, and what not only former, but current players will tell you, is that when Linfield have gone "full-time"...this isn't exclusive to Linfield because I have spoken to people around Larne, Glentoran and Coleraine, full-time professional football isn't just training in the morning.

"There has to be a lot more to it than that, it has to come down to analysis, nutrition, medical provision, there's so many aspects.

"I had brought up a number of suggestions to the club, initiated a number of reviews, but the one thing I found at Linfield is it's a very large board of 17 members.

"It's one where some have more power and influence than others, and particularly those with a lot of power and influence know that if certain changes are made and other people are given control, they lose what I call the power of the blazer."

Lafferty signing for Linfield in February 2023 caused shock across the Irish League – the experienced striker amassed 89 caps for Northern Ireland and sits behind only Healy on the country’s all-time goalscoring charts.

While neither party was necessarily pushing for the move with Lafferty a free agent after leaving Kilmarnock, Graham claims some at the club felt he could be the key piece in helping them retain their Premiership title.

"I can't speak on behalf of David Healy, but David and I were very clear in terms of not being opposed to signing Kyle, but we weren't pushing it either,” he added. “Kyle was happy to sign but wasn't overly keen either...he was out of a club at the time and it probably suited both sides.

"There were some within the club structure who were pushing to sign him and I feel paid him more than they needed to to get him there.

"The deal David and I had offered him was different to what he eventually got.

"What I would say is Kyle had a really good career, played almost 100 times for Northern Ireland, scored some big goals, played for Rangers, won them a league with his goals at the end of the 2010/11 season, but it would be remiss of us to say that Kyle's time at Linfield was good.

"He didn't score goals, he didn't contribute enough, and bluntly, those who pushed to sign Kyle thought he would be the final piece to win Linfield the league. He wasn't, and Kyle will reflect on that. He was the right signing at the wrong time."

Something which Lafferty and Graham are in complete agreement about is their high praise for manager Healy, who has won six league titles across a decade in charge of Linfield.

“I have seen, lived and breathed the environment David is working in on a daily basis,” he said. “David Healy will never get the credit he deserves for what he has done at Linfield.

"He has had some really good players, he has had some young players like Trai Hume who he made and is now playing in the Premier League, and he has had some players he has got more than the best out of based on their ability.

"He is a leader, has some really good staff around him...Willie McKeown and Ross Oliver will never get the credit they deserve.

"David has made an impact in the last 10 years in terms of full-time football as a manager proportionally as much as anyone in Europe. I don't say that lightly. I would go as far as to say he has never had the biggest budget for player wages in the league.

"He's facing a number of challenges in terms of traditional opposition to change within the blazers and ties, and yet here he is winning the league by 22 points and still in it this season.

"I hope David Healy at some point, and I think it will be the same as David Jeffrey when he left, a lot of Linfield fans and members didn't realise what they had until it was gone."