Stephen Bradley explains why Shamrock Rovers sold Andy Lyons to Blackpool

The 22-year-old will join the Seasiders in January after the two sides came to an agreement over the full-back’s future.

It’s understood Blackpool paid in the region of £300,000 for the Republic of Ireland Under-21 international, having previously had two bids knocked back.

Bradley had previously stated Lyons wouldn’t be leaving Shamrock, but he now admits it was always going to be impossible to keep hold of their star man.

“Some people have it in their minds that we can hold onto players here forever. It’s not going to happen,” he told the Irish Mirror.

“Unless you want to go into the area of paying players three, four, five, six thousand pound (a week), for me that’s not where you go. This league isn’t ready for that and we certainly won’t go down that road.

“So unless you want to try and compete that way, you have to understand that when you get the value you feel is there for a player, you take it.

“Obviously the option is there to keep him and he walks for nothing next year, but we’ve never done that. We have been really good in the transfer market and we won’t start to do that now.

“Unless you are going to get into the area of offering silly money, we have to understand where we are in the food chain.”