Irish U-21 international Brian Shelley insisted today that he will only move to Carlisle United this summer if Roddy Collins is re-instated as manager there.
Shelley made it known months ago he would team up with Collins in the English Third Division upon the conclusion of his contract with Bohemians, but the dismissal of Collins last weekend for making "inappropriate comments" has complicated matters.
"Contray to what the papers were saying, I never signed a pre-contract deal with Carlisle," Shelley told ireland.comthis afternoon, "so my move won't be going ahead unless Roddy gets his job back."
Shelley says he's confident that's exactly what will happen
"Roddy spoke to me a few days ago and said he'll be heading back over to England later this week to sort everything out. Apparently, the situation isn't as bad as it looks from the outside, and he'll be back as manager soon."
Even if the transfer is not realised, one thing that seems certain is that the young full-back will not be returning to Dalymount Park any time soon, since he admits to being "very disappointed" at being left out of the Bohemians squad by manager Stephen kenny for the last two months.
"The last game I played in was the League Cup match against St Pats [on January 29th], which we won. I was on the bench for the next game after that, and for the next match I wasn't even in the squad. I don't know why. It's strange."
"The last few months have overshadowed all the good times that went before."
Despite not featuring for his club for so long, Shelley has again been called up by Ireland U-21 manager Don Givens for next Tuesday's friendly against Austria in Kindberg-Styria.
"I'm just glad the manager has been able to see through the situation at Bohs, and has decided to keep faith with me."