Purplebricks co-founder wants to bring 'Champions League music' to Larne

His online estate agency has shaken up the UK property market and expanded globally since its launch six years ago.

Now, Kenny Bruce is determined to make a similar impact on the football landscape as he oversees a massive rebuilding project at his boyhood club.

The takeover of Larne FC in September 2017 by Purplebricks co-founder Bruce, a native of the harbour town and lifelong fan of the club, is on course to be one of the biggest game-changers in Northern Ireland football in decades.

Languishing around the bottom of the Irish League's second tier and playing in front of an average crowd of just 50 at the time of the takeover, the club now boasts a number of seasoned Irish Premiership title winners and train on a full-time basis.

They are currently four points clear at the top of the Championship and attracting 1,000-strong attendances to their revamped stadium as they bid for promotion to the top flight.

With £2 million invested to date, the project is still a work in progress - but the Portsmouth-based businessman is clear about his ambitions.

"I would like Larne to have the Champions League music played at Inver Park one day," he declared.

Larne have a new artificial surface at their Inver Park stadium

That's a long, long way off for a club that has only ever won two senior trophies - the Ulster Cup in 1950 and 1988 - and spent a significant period of their history in junior football. So, just how much is the owner willing to invest to realise his dream - is there a blank cheque?

"Potentially, yes," continued Bruce, who entered the Sunday Times Irish Rich List in March along with his older brother Michael, with whom he formed Purplebricks in 2012.

"We will do whatever it takes financially to make sure this club has the best facilities possible, gets promoted and is challenging for honours in the Premier League.

"I'm a lifelong fan and I think a football club in a town like Larne has a real opportunity to inspire and bring the generations along.

"I learnt an awful lot growing up in this town, it has great people and they have been fantastic since we came into the club."

The 'statement' signing that made fans take notice

The £2m investment has helped re-lay a new artificial pitch as well as considerably improve the stadium, which was recently purchased from the local council - with construction work on a new stand about to get under way.

A Rangers XI visited earlier this month to officially mark the stadium development and attracted a crowd of over 2,000.

The playing pool has been significantly expanded, recruited largely from the Cliftonville squad that won back-to-back titles in 2013 and 2014.

However, it was the signing of one of the league's most coveted strikers from under the noses of then-Irish Premiership holders Linfield that really caught fans' attention.

Former Reds forward David McDaid was believed to have agreed a move from Waterford to Windsor Park in January, but instead shocked the league by dropping to the Championship to join Larne.

Former Cliftonville stars David McDaid and Martin Donnelly are now at Larne

Their history does not suggest a club likely to qualify for the Champions League, with their high point of recent years being an Irish Cup final appearance in 2005.

It had been a mostly downward spiral since then, with a low point coming a few weeks before the new owners arrived when the local council temporarily closed Inver Park because the ground was deemed 'unsafe'.

The 'pinch yourself moments' keep coming every day

While the new owners have ushered in many changes at Inver Park, they have retained the services of manager Tiernan Lynch.

Having experienced life at Larne before and after the investment, he is fully aware of just how drastic the changes have been.

"It was really tough times before Kenny came in but he changed it overnight," Lynch said.

"He's a top man and it's not just his money, he's very much interested the players. I speak to him almost every day and he's always asking about training and how we are getting on.

"Every day is a pinch yourself moment, really. We have 18 full-time professionals and we are out on the training pitch every day working hard."

Tiernan Lynch's side are four points clear at the top of the Championship table

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the former Cliftonville and Glentoran coach is somewhat more guarded about what Larne can achieve.

"We want to achieve as much as we can," he insisted.

"On the pitch we are taking it one game at a time but off the pitch we're already starting to hit our goals in terms of the crowds we are attracting."

'The local kids have ditched their Linfield tops'

A key member of Lynch's coaching team is Tim McCann, one of the Irish League's best wingers of the last 25 years, who won title medals with the Glens and the Reds.

The Belfast-born McCann has been struck by how the 'buzz' being created by the club has caught the imagination of young people in the area.

"The kids in Larne used to be wearing Linfield, Glentoran or Crusaders tops," he commented.

"But they have ditched them and now you see them running around the town wearing their Larne tops. It shows how infectious it has become.

"The people have really bought into what we are trying to do and that's a credit to Kenny and Tiernan."

'His eyes were filling up - Larne FC is his baby'

Larne defeated the Rangers XI 2-1 in the match held to mark the redevelopment of Inver Park

The notion of a successful businessman ploughing money into his hometown football club in a bid to help regenerate the local area is a tradition much less common than it used to be across the UK.

But, according to former Northern Ireland captain and West Ham striker Iain Dowie, that is what Bruce is doing.

"Kenny was watching on as his mum opened a plaque in a lounge at the stadium and his eyes were filling up," said Dowie, a personal friend of Bruce who has provided advice to Lynch and was at the Rangers match.

"He is steeped in Larne, the club is his baby and this was a chance for him to put something back into the community.

"Kenny's ultimate aim is to get Larne into Europe. That's a long way off but he believes it can happen."