Limerick FC is the sick man of the Premier Division. The Markets Field outfit are ten points adrift of 11th placed Derry City.
They need solutions. And their chairman Pat O'Sullivan has hit on an ingenious one. With the help of the sick man of Europe.
Naturally, he drew inspiration from a late 1980s English romantic comedy. 'Shirley Valentine' is about a bored Liverpudlian housewife who jets off to Greece with a few of her wilder friends and falls in love with one of the locals.
O'Sullivan revealed to Morning Ireland how the thunderbolt came to him.
I'm sitting at home, I'm watching 'Shirley Valentine' the other night with my wife Helen and I'm saying the Greeks are technically very good at football, austerity has to [have] had [an effect] and football must be suffering. So why not look at that?
They are Europeans so why not look at them as regards looking at any other country. So, what we did was I got my daughter Pam to Google and find the players union in Greece and emailed them and told them what we were looking for. They have sent us details of certain players.
O'Sullivan says the offer has managed to attract the interest of a number of players with international experience. He has spoken to the players and terms and conditions have been agreed. If Martin Russell, Limerick's manager, agrees then the players will join the squad.
Here's the trailer for the all-important film, Shirley Valentine.
