CORK CITY MANAGER John Caulfield has moved to allay the concerns of supporters regarding the future of Greg Bolger.
The midfielder, City’s stand-in captain in the absence of Johnny Dunleavy, has been a revelation in his first season on Leeside, having joined from St Patrick’s Athletic.
Speaking in Belgium after Thursday evening’s 1-0 first-leg defeat to KRC Genk in the Europa League, Caulfield said that BK Hacken — the Swedish Cup holders, who his side defeated in the previous round — “want to sign” Bolger.
However, the City boss told Cork’s RedFM yesterday that Bolger isn’t on the market. Caulfield also explained that, contrary to what was previously understood to be the case, the 27-year-old is contracted for another year beyond this current season.
“I can assure City fans that Greg is going nowhere,” said Caulfield. “He’s a vital part of our team and our squad. That’s what happens; you get teams who send out feelers or, as I said, they throw in sprats that they’re interested in people.
“But at the end of the day, there’s been no offer made in terms of a financial offer. But the only thing from our point of view and my point of view is that he’s with us until the end of the season, he’s signed again for next season and I look forward to having him.”
In a separate interview this evening on RedFM’s Big Red Bench ahead of next Thursday evening’s return fixture with Genk at Turner’s Cross, Caulfield elaborated on his comments last Thursday and the situation regarding one of his most valuable assets.
“It was more tongue-in-cheek,” he said. “There’s always going to be speculation about players. In the modern era there’s always lots of talk and stuff like that, but the most important thing is that we’re a tight-knit group, fantastic bunch of players, everyone’s really focused on Thursday night, and I suppose in the bigger picture, you’ll always have that speculation.
“But most of our squad are signed up for the next two seasons. I suppose behind the scenes we’re doing a lot of work on that, so I can assure our fans that we’re all looking forward to Thursday night and the most important thing for us is that not only are we in Europe, but we have a massive league campaign to go to challenge Dundalk and our focus is obviously on trying to win trophies before this season is out.”
Click here to listen to Caulfield’s extended interview from RedFM’s Big Red Bench.
