Martin Russell: 'We fought ever so hard to get to this stage so we're going to try and maximise it'

The optimism surrounding Limerick seems to be infectious at present with the Shannonsiders having returned to the top flight at the first time of asking last season.

Martin Russell’s men also advanced to the final of the 2016 EA Sports Cup and it’s because of those exploits that sees the Super Blues’ season being eagerly anticipated around the city itself.

“We are [looking forward to the new season], everybody has been doing their work with regard to pre-season just now we’re all really looking forward to the big kick-off,” Russell told extratime.ie at Tuesday’s SSE Airtricity League launch.

“We definitively have belief in ourselves but equally we have a lot of respect for the Premier Division because it’s a really tough league and nothing is going to be handed out easy.

“But we will go into each game believing that we can do really well and the home game against Sligo is a great way to start followed by the two away games against Derry and Dundalk.

“We fought ever so hard last year to try and get to this stage so now that we’re here we’re going to try and maximise it.”

Having attracted one of the largest average attendances across the 20 league clubs last season, expectations have risen with supporters witnessing an attacking brand of winning football under Russell.

However, the Dubliner stopped short of setting a target for their upcoming campaign despite proven top-flight quality in Ian Turner, Dean Clarke and Brendan Clarke joining, and re-joining, the club.

“The aim is to do as well as we can I’m not going to set any targets other than for Limerick Football Club to make a really positive impact this year in the Premier Division and to be as much of a force as it can be.

“Ian has come back. Dean Clarke has also returned to the club. We have added Brendan Clarke as a goalkeeper, Dave O’Connor and then a couple of lads from outside of Ireland. Rodrigo Tosi has come in and Bastien Hery has come across from Accrington.

“We added new players to the group from last year and they have been gelling and bonding well in pre-season so we just need to maximise all our efforts for when the league kicks-off.”

The captures of Tosi and Hery have been major talking points in the off-season with the debate about how best to attract players from a foreign market into the Irish domestic scene re-surfacing.

Ultimately, being able to offer such players a living can be a stumbling block but Russell refuses to accept that this is the be-all-and-end-all, instead the Limerick boss feels that getting regular football is what his two newest recruits want.

“Sometimes it can be [difficult to recruit from outside Ireland], but then other times it may not be so because some players may not be playing and just want to play football.

“So although they may not have looked at Ireland as being their first port of call when they delve into it they see for example what Dundalk did last year and they get a feel for the level and can see that they can get a good opportunity.

“The lads that have come in have really bought into what we’re trying to do and we’re trying to make them have an impact this season,” finished Russell.