Tiernan Lynch's stock in the game continues to rise after leading Larne to back-to-back Irish Premiership titles.

Cracking the group stages in Europe is also high up on the to-do list for Lynch as he prepares to leas the Invermen into their Champions League first round qualifier against RFS on Wednesday. The 44-year-old is an ambitious man, and managing at the highest level possible is something which appeals to him.

Lynch offered up a candid response when quizzed about his long-term ambitions, even if he did joke about being retired on a beach somewhere in Spain in the next ten years! The former Glentoran coach has been up front and honest with the Larne hierarchy about his personal goals, but he pointed out he is still enjoying life at Inver Park.

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“Listen, I make no bones about it, and I’m no different from any other manager in the Irish League," said Lynch. “I look at it as being very simple; if an opportunity came along, would it be something I would be interested in doing, depending on the club and the opportunity? Yes, 100 per cent.

“You work hard every day, you put the hours in, you make the sacrifices that you make...if an opportunity ever came along, you’d be stupid not to look at it, depending on the opportunity.

“I’ve never lied to Kenny (Bruce, club owner) about that, I’ve never played that down. If it doesn’t happen, Larne is certainly not the worst place to be. I think this is as professional as it gets, the ambition the club has and the people connected to the club, I think you see that on a daily basis."

Lynch's main focus at present is Larne's assault on Europe. It has been a learning process for the Invermen over the last three years but progress is being made.

Bring the first Irish League club to reach the group stages of a European competition is a big goal. Lynch said getting to that stage of the competition is discussed within the club and it's something they embrace.

“We are a hugely ambitious club, and I’m a hugely ambitious manager," he said. “It’s definitely something that we talk about, it’s definitely something that we think about.

“We don’t shy away from it, we don’t put it in a closet and pretend nobody’s talking about it. We very much use it in our team meetings and analysis and all that goes with it, it’s something we would love to do.

“No different from what David (Healy) wants to do at Linfield, Stephen (Baxter) at Crusaders and Jim (Magilton) at Cliftonville, that’s the ambition for all Irish League clubs.

“Can we put our League on the map and can people start taking us a little bit more seriously, because we have good players and we have good managers. We are professionalising ourselves all the time, we all have big ambitions so, yeah, by all means. It’s not something I’m going to shy away from.”

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