"I think it was a combination of reasons. It was impossible to manage."
Those are the words of former Bray Wanderers manager Martin Russell, after he resigned from the club, following the club's recent payments crisis.
Players and staff had not been paid for seven weeks, with players serving strike notice on the club, before finally being paid last Thursday- a day before their 6-0 defeat to Bohemians at Dalymount Park.
Russell joined Jamie Moore on Now That's What I Call Sport on Sunday morning. You can listen to the interview in full below:
The players decided to train with the PFAI, while awaiting payment- something Russell disagreed with- "I had the utmost sympathy for the players", he insisted.
"As I said, we worked with the PFAI by agreeing to release players that had offers elsewhere.
"I didn't want to stand in anybody's way, when we knew money going forward wasn't guaranteed, so I think we worked fairly with the PFAI.
"But I did think the decision to go off and train separately was a poor one, as was the help we sought and weren't given by the FAI to bring in new recruits, because we released players."
It wasn't just players that were affected by the payments issue at the club- Russell added.
"We also have staff members, physios and coaches that are also down financially and it was the case we stick together and we still prepare together.
"It's happened with other clubs I've been involved in that have had financial problems but we managed to stick together.
"But it hasn't happened in this case"
Also on today's show, we heard from Dublin manager Jim Gavin and Dubs legend Charlie Redmond, who discussed Dublin's narrow win over Tyrone in the Super 8s. We also had our League Of Ireland roundup, with St Patrick's Athletic midfielder Conan Byrne, Shamrock Rovers defender Roberto Lopes, Bohemians manager Keith Long and Dundalk manager Stephen Kenny, while Premier League legend Harry Redknapp joined us to discuss managing a gaelic football team, understanding the Cork accent and if he'll ever manage in the Premier League again!
Listen to the full show below:
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