Coleraine's Ambitious Squad Reshuffle: McMenamin, Thomson, and Brooks
Ruaidhri Higgins had barely finished posing with his Manager of the Month award when he was asked about the deal that stunned the Irish Premiership – and he didn’t flinch.
Conor McMenamin, the marquee summer arrival from St Mirren, gone after just 10 weeks. To Glentoran, no less. A winger with international pedigree swapping one title contender for another in the blink of an eye.
Higgins’ verdict was blunt, but not bitter.
“Sometimes in football and just life in general, things don't go as expected or according to plan,” he said. “It's certainly not a personal issue with Conor at all.”
McMenamin had already framed it in similar terms. “It wasn't meant to be” at Coleraine, he told BBC Sport after sealing his move to the Oval. Higgins, reading the same situation from the other dugout, agreed.
The reasons were not tactical. They were geographical and deeply personal. The 31-year-old never relocated from Downpatrick to the north coast, and the daily grind began to bite. Around 75 miles each way. Roughly an hour and a half in the car, every day, there and back. Higgins called it what it was: “not sustainable”.
The two men spoke repeatedly in recent weeks. Not a bust-up, but a slow, honest realisation.
“Conor and I had regular conversations over the last couple of weeks actually,” Higgins explained. “We've come to this conclusion and I think it's best for everyone.”
Best for McMenamin, who stays closer to home. Best for Coleraine, who did not simply lose a winger; they reshaped their squad.
Because this wasn’t a one-way exit. It was a swap with real edge.
Thomson returns to Higgins’ engine room
Heading in the opposite direction, from Glentoran to the Showgrounds, came Joe Thomson. A midfielder Higgins knows as well as anyone from their time together at Derry City.
Coleraine needed him. Injuries to Mark Coyle and Rowan McDonald had left them light in the middle of the park, forced to lean heavily on the likes of Will Patching and Dylan Boyle. The spine needed reinforcement. Thomson arrives to provide it.
“Joe is so different to the players that we have. He plays with an edge and he has a goal in him,” Higgins said. “He's very much box-to-box and all-action, and I've worked with him before so I know what I'm getting.”
That familiarity matters. Higgins is not guessing with Thomson. He is plugging in a player he trusts, one who can drive from penalty area to penalty area and set a tone in games Coleraine now expect to dominate.
Deadline day, though, did not stop there.
Brooks the “investment” with a Robbie Keane streak
While the McMenamin–Thomson switch grabbed the headlines, Coleraine slipped in another significant move, prising Adam Brooks from Crusaders.
Brooks spent much of last season shunted wide at Seaview, but still found a way to shine. This term he had already burst out of the blocks, including a hat-trick in a 3-2 win over Portadown. A former Celtic striker at 22, he has the profile of a player who could grow quickly beyond the league if he hits his ceiling.
Higgins has been watching him for a while.
He likes what he sees.
“For not the biggest lad in the world he scores good headed goals, with his right foot, left foot, he can score from distance and inside the six yard box,” the Coleraine boss said. “He's got good awareness and so much to his game. I think if he was six foot two he would have never played in this league because he would be somewhere else.”
That line tells you everything about how Coleraine view this deal. This is not a short-term patch. It is a project.
“We see it as an investment and someone we can develop, and I've no doubt that Adam can kick on and once he establishes himself here, it wouldn't surprise me if he went on to another level in the coming years.”
Higgins’ conviction dates back to a specific afternoon.
He watched Brooks for Crusaders at Portadown last season and was immediately hooked. “Straight away I really liked what I was seeing,” he recalled.
The admiration runs deep. The comparison is eye-catching.
“I know he's a brilliant boy and he played out of position a lot last year, but there's no doubt in my mind that he's a top, top centre forward. He's very like a Robbie Keane sort of mould and that type of centre forward, and there's a lot I like about him.”
If Brooks lives up to even a fraction of that billing, Coleraine’s forward line will look very different very quickly.
Title talk and centenary pressure
All of this sits against a backdrop of rising expectation at the Showgrounds.
Last season Coleraine finished just three points behind eventual champions Larne after a powerful late surge. The club has invested heavily, moved to full-time football and is no longer a plucky outsider. They are now mentioned among the favourites for the Gibson Cup.
This is not a club weighed down by a long roll of honours. Coleraine’s only league title came in 1974. One championship. Half a century ago.
The timing of their current push adds another layer. The centenary year is looming. The chance to deliver only the second title in the club’s history, just as it turns 100, is a powerful motivator.
“To me it's trying to win the second league title in the club's history, and it would be extra-special if you could do it in the centenary year,” Higgins said.
He does not shy away from the demands that brings.
“On a daily basis, I put myself under massive pressure and that's why we are here. We want to be part of a successful, ambitious club.”
That ambition is not theoretical. It is there in the decision to go full-time. It is there in the willingness to let a big-name signing leave quickly because the fit was wrong. It is there in the recruitment of Thomson and Brooks, players chosen for specific roles in a side that expects to challenge.
Higgins, for his part, sounds exactly where he wants to be.
He describes himself as “very lucky” and says he is “loving” life at Coleraine. The early evidence backs that up: three wins and a draw from their opening four league games, including a point against champions Larne, and three clean sheets in that run.
“We're obviously really happy with the start, and we're particularly happy with the three clean sheets out of four, and we're scoring goals again which is pleasing,” he said. Then the reset. “We're four games in, so we'll not get too excited, but the players have been fantastic and it's a joy to work with them and the staff on a daily basis.”
Next up is a trip to Crusaders on Saturday evening, a quick reunion for Brooks with his former club and a sharper test of Coleraine’s early momentum.
The squad looks different now. The commute that never really worked for McMenamin is over. In his place, a driving midfielder returns to a familiar manager and a young striker arrives with a Robbie Keane comparison and a point to prove.
Coleraine have nailed their colours to the mast. The question is no longer whether they are contenders. It is whether this reshaped, full-time, ambitious club can turn a strong start into the kind of season that finally adds a second league title to that lonely triumph of 1974.
