Ruaidhri Higgins makes Linfield title assertion as Coleraine prepare for season opener

Coleraine boss believes reigning champions are ‘overwhelming favourites’ to regain the Gibson Cup

Ruaidhri Higgins insists the major financial investment put into Coleraine over the past 12 months does not guarantee success.

As Higgins begins his first full season in charge of the Bannsiders he finds his side being talked about as potential title winners given the recruitment at The Showgrounds.

The likes of Joel Cooper, Stephen Fallon and Kodi Lyons-Foster have joined an already impressive squad but Higgins believes anyone looking beyond Linfield for the Gibson Cup needs to give themselves “a wee check”.

“I suppose the best example of a team investment is Larne, you’ve seen that you didn’t just click a switch and it happens,” he said.

“Even when they were expected to win the league, it still took them a few years to get over the line in that respect.

“We want to be successful quickly but there also has to be an element of realism. We finished a ridiculous amount of points behind Linfield last year.

“They are overwhelming favourites and anybody who thinks differently needs to have a wee check of themselves to be honest.

“They know how to get it done, their manager knows how to get it done, it’s just a club that is used to winning. History is history and they’re steeped in it and they’re overwhelming favourites for a reason and rightly so.

“It’s the same every year. People say they have a chance and they have a chance, but Linfield are the team to beat. There’s no getting away from that.

“Has anyone outside of Linfield and Larne won it in the last few years? Crusaders were probably the last team outside of them to, under Stephen Baxter.

“Obviously going by the bookies are the two that are the top two and it’s up to the rest of us to try and break into that bracket.

“You look at Larne, they’re going to want to be in the mix. Glentoran have gone under the radar lovely with the signings they have made.

“Then you look at ourselves and Cliftonville always competing for trophies, Dungannon and what they’ve done. In fairness to those two clubs, they don’t do the resources that the other four do.

“There’s other clubs who are out signing players as well. It’s one of those leagues where you look at the teams within the league and you’re going where’s the handy three points coming from there and there isn’t any. That’s a credit to all the clubs in fairness.

“We want to be successful and we’re not shying away from that but there also has to be a small element of can you go from that to that in the space of 12 months.

“It’s very difficult to do and we’ll try and win every game but there’s no guarantees. We’re also clear that when we came into the job this was a process and we want to build a brilliant team that the supporters can be proud of.

“We have a lot of hungry players who want to do well, staff that want to do well and we’re looking forward to getting going.”