Potentially eligible players thread

[tetsujin1979]

Darren has been seen supporting Mayo in Croke Park before. Any interest they have had in Irish support is shrouded in disappointment.
Harry Kane supports them too, he has family in that part of the country

[Olé Olé]

Harry Kane supports them too, he has family in that part of the country

I think his father's family was from Galway. Family must have crossed that border...

Kevin Kilbane is an actual Irish international and Mayo supporter!

[Buckett]

Harry Kane supports them too, he has family in that part of the country

I think you getting confused by the memes. Harry in a Mayo jersey because he keeps missing out on trophies. His family are Galway originally

[Eirambler]

Yes Kane is Galway I think. Kilbane and Fletcher are Mayo, as is Cascarino. Kilbane particularly so though.

[tetsujin1979]

I think you getting confused by the memes. Harry in a Mayo jersey because he keeps missing out on trophies. His family are Galway originally
No confusion about this photo
https://i2-prod.galwaybeo.ie/incoming/article7854725.ece/ALTERNATES/s1200e/0_Screenshot-2022-11-23-at-130713.png

[MylesNotMiley]

Kane's family is from Renvyle, he has cousins living in the area.

I'm guessing that picture was taken by some Mayo lad decked head to toe in Mayo GAA gear who hounded Kane for a picture. We all know what they're like....

I doubt Kane even knows what GAA is tbh.

[seanfhear]

Kane's family is from Renvyle, he has cousins living in the area.

I'm guessing that picture was taken by some Mayo lad decked head to toe in Mayo GAA gear who hounded Kane for a picture. We all know what they're like....

I doubt Kane even knows what GAA is tbh.
When he was playing for Spurs ~ ~ Its a bit like being the Mayo of GAA !

[Eirambler]

When he was playing for Spurs ~ ~ Its a bit like being the Mayo of GAA !

Surely Mayo are the Mayo of GAA??!!

[Fixer82]

Mayo are the Spurs of the GAA

[Olé Olé]

Probably a bit obsessive over Liam Delap at this point but was thinking about two things there.

His dad was on the coaching ticket for Robbie Keane in Israel. I wonder if he's close to Robbie and whether Robbie has facilitated or blocked any discussion with FAI. It shouldn't matter a whole pile I guess if the lad actually had any interest.

I didn't realise that his younger brother (one of the two sons that Rory said he'd be pushing to play for Ireland...) is also a professional footballer. Finn is 19 and on the books at Burton Albion. I'd say he's overage for 19s and not at the level for 21s which is normal given that he's 19 - he did play first team a couple of times last season in League One but he's mostly been knocking around National League and National League North on loan. Would be interesting if he ever came on board for us given that he's unlikely to be on the England radar given where he is. For all I know, he has reached out already and hasn't been picked. As I said, he's not necessarily a compelling options when looked at in terms of levels and appearances.

[seanfhear]

No confusion about this photo
https://i2-prod.galwaybeo.ie/incoming/article7854725.ece/ALTERNATES/s1200e/0_Screenshot-2022-11-23-at-130713.png
Great Jersey.

[Eirambler]

Delap clearly sees England as his first choice and as an English born person to English born parents (albeit one played a few times for Ireland) that's not a huge surprise. His direction of travel in the last year or so suggests that he'll win England caps - it might be a low number or he might become a regular for them, but either way the likelihood of him playing for us has greatly reduced. He'll only play for us if his career takes a downturn. But that would then take him to a level at which we have plenty of strikers of a similar quality and age anyway. So I don't think we need to spend too much time overthinking Delap.

[samhaydenjr]

A brace for Louie Barry yesterday - clear at the top of the League One scoring charts - if he declared for us, where would he sit in our striker rankings?: https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/live/cnvjp54d99pt

[elatedscum]

1. Ferguson
2. Szmodzics
3. Idah
4. Parrott
5. Cannon
6. Obafemi
7. Connolly
8. Barry

[Olé Olé]

1. Ferguson
2. Szmodzics
3. Idah
4. Parrott
5. Cannon
6. Obafemi
7. Connolly
8. Barry

This is accurate right now (maybe Obafemi is debatable on form in my eye view). But Barry has pedigree and is doing it for fun. He might have more medium term upside than some of those guys.

[pineapple stu]

I'd have Parrott ahead of Idah - starting in a stronger league, has outscored Idah since January (when Idah moved to Celtic) and chips in with more assists too.

Cannon wouldn't be far off overtaking him either at this stage. Idah too often doesn't impress when starting - either at Norwich or Celtic - and coming on late to score for a dominant side against tiring defences isn't the same as four-goal hauls in stronger divisions.

Obafemi has dropped off the radar entirely and yeah, I don't know whether he or Connolly are lower at this stage, albeit that Connolly is showing green shoots for now. Neither has any guarantee of a Championship contract next season.

[Jolly Red Giant]

Obafemi has dropped off the radar entirely
Obafemi started and played for 80 minutes for Plymouth against Watford on Friday.

[pineapple stu]

He's dropped off the radar in that he's made feck all impact for them this season; generally been very poor in terms of return (2 goals, no assists) and general performance (6.17 average on whoscored (https://www.whoscored.com/Players/351355/Show/Michael-Obafemi) for the season for example)

Not exactly making a case to make his loan move permanent. Or to be recalled to the squad.

Robinson would be ahead of him and Connolly on that list actually.

[nigel-harps1954]

1. Ferguson
2. Szmodzics
3. Idah
4. Parrott
5. Cannon
6. Obafemi
7. Connolly
8. Barry

What about Delap? :cool:

[seanfhear]

What about Delap? :cool:
A long throw / shot !

[Eirambler]

In terms of current ability I'd go:

1. Ferguson
2. Szmodics
3. Cannon (underrated relative to Idah and Parrott because he's not Irish born/didn't play much underage for us)
4. Idah
5. Robinson
6. Parrott (sorry I'm still not convinced by him)
7. Connolly (could jump up the list quickly if he finally gets his head down and stays fit)
8. Armstrong (great player, just not a great scorer)
9. Vata
10. Barry (if he wanted to come on board)
11. Obafemi (I've pretty much given up on him)
12. Emakhu

[samhaydenjr]

In terms of current ability I'd go:

1. Ferguson
2. Szmodics
3. Cannon (underrated relative to Idah and Parrott because he's not Irish born/didn't play much underage for us)
4. Idah
5. Robinson
6. Parrott (sorry I'm still not convinced by him)
7. Connolly (could jump up the list quickly if he finally gets his head down and stays fit)
8. Armstrong (great player, just not a great scorer)
9. Vata
10. Barry (if he wanted to come on board)
11. Obafemi (I've pretty much given up on him)
12. Emakhu

That's a really good list, particularly if things go as they are for the next month, with Cannon's form starting to make him a serious option.

[Buckett]

A little reminder that this is a thread for discussing eligible players, and not whether or not Northern Ireland is resplendant/a kip/etc. Ye can do that in off topic if ye want.

Apologies John and EalingGreen

[SkStu]

Jacob Slater - English born, Irish U21 international is on the bench for B&HA this evening. Played for us earlier in November. Left Back...

[samhaydenjr]

Weird, random addition to this thread. I was looking through European scores on the BBC to see how any Irish players abroad might have performed. For some reason, I keep thinking that Conor Noß plays for LASK instead of Blau-Weiß Linz. So when I went into the line-ups from their game against Austria Vienna, I didn't find his name (He actually did come on as a sub for Linz in a game against Rapid Vienna). I was about to leave the LASK V Austria Vienna page when I noticed that there was a player for Vienna called M. Malone. Thinking initially that a famous fishmonger had risen from the dead and was blazing a trail for women footballers, I looked up Austria Vienna's squad list on Wikipedia and found a German underage player called Maurice Malone. Wikipedia noted that he is of American descent... it also claimed that, not only is he also eligible for the Republic of Ireland, but that "Hallgrímsson is on the verge of calling him up for the Irish national football team". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Malone
I know you have to be careful about what you read on Wikipedia because anybody can change things in there, but has anybody heard anything about his qualification or potential interest from Halgrimsson?

[tetsujin1979]

He's on Instagram, I've send him a message. Let's see what happens.

[Eminence Grise]

Let's hope M Malone doesn't turn out to be a catfishmonger...

[third policeman]

The first person to mention Conor Sammon gets a life ban.

[pineapple stu]

Well what sort of chance does that give me?!

[texidub]

The first person to mention Conor Sammon gets a life ban.

Might need to add Scales to that list just in case.

[zero]

Might need to add Scales to that list just in case.

yes i think best to add scales, for balance.

[Fixer82]

Might as well add Gary Bream to the list while we're at it

[third policeman]

Or Paddy Roche.

[gastric]

Many of you on here are clowns fishing for thanks!

[samhaydenjr]

Aston Villa looking to recall Louie Barry from Stockport and send him out to a Championship club in the New Year - Leeds among those interested. Well, it looks like it's now or never for an approach:https://www.teamtalk.com/leeds-united/whites-join-race-electric-aston-villa-forward-emery-prepares-allow-big-exit

[osarusan]

Aston Villa looking to recall Louie Barry from Stockport and send him out to a Championship club in the New Year - Leeds among those interested. Well, it looks like it's now or never for an approach:https://www.teamtalk.com/leeds-united/whites-join-race-electric-aston-villa-forward-emery-prepares-allow-big-exit
Most subtle one yet.

[tetsujin1979]

Ireland boss Heimir Hallgrimsson looking to expand his playing options in 2025
https://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/international-soccer/ireland-boss-heimir-hallgrimsson-looking-to-expand-his-playing-options-in-2025/a505874004.html

[Eirambler]

Good to see HH doing this, some managers can be really poor at exploring squad options. Who are the realistic eligible players at the moment that we know of who are 1) realistic and 2) actually good enough that they might improve us?

Cirkin seems the most obvious one, since he's a left back. Not the quickest so I'd say he'll never get a look in with England. We haven't had a genuinely defensively good left back in a long time.

Clarke Salter is injury prone but has been good for QPR when he has played. But he's a centre back and we already have the likes of Cashin, Dunne and McNally who aren't getting a look in. He's left footed, which might give him something to make him of interest, but then so is Cashin (and obviously Scales).

Key seems like a possible one given we're not overstocked at full back. He's keeping Cyrus Christie out of the Swansea team. But reports on his form/level from Swansea fans are mixed at best. Might not be good enough.

There's talk of Louie Barry getting a Championship loan move in January and if that goes well his name will come up quite a lot I think. He's only a few months younger than Cannon though and has a far less impressive CV. But anyone scoring goals in the Championship is worthy of consideration, particularly a 21 year old.

Delap I'd imagine is not realistic at the moment and probably never will be.

In terms of players potentially going the other way I think Vata will be a serious flight risk until we cap-tie him. He's still got another under 21 campaign to come but if his form is good I wouldn't hesitate to get him involved in the seniors - we need to be proactive, especially when a lad is eligible for four countries.

Anyone else I'm forgetting? Obviously there could be players we're not aware of also.

[CraftyToePoke]

Read in various places Morgan Rodgers at Villa qualified, think England tidied that up in the NL. Alex Scott at Bournemouth, currently injured was also mentioned. Both embedded in their own FA's pathway anyway. Kieran Dewsbury Hall isn't having much EPL game time at Chelsea but playing plenty in Europe. Hasn't been interested previously though.

[Olé Olé]

Good to see HH doing this, some managers can be really poor at exploring squad options. Who are the realistic eligible players at the moment that we know of who are 1) realistic and 2) actually good enough that they might improve us?

Cirkin seems the most obvious one, since he's a left back. Not the quickest so I'd say he'll never get a look in with England. We haven't had a genuinely defensively good left back in a long time.

Clarke Salter is injury prone but has been good for QPR when he has played. But he's a centre back and we already have the likes of Cashin, Dunne and McNally who aren't getting a look in. He's left footed, which might give him something to make him of interest, but then so is Cashin (and obviously Scales).

Key seems like a possible one given we're not overstocked at full back. He's keeping Cyrus Christie out of the Swansea team. But reports on his form/level from Swansea fans are mixed at best. Might not be good enough.

There's talk of Louie Barry getting a Championship loan move in January and if that goes well his name will come up quite a lot I think. He's only a few months younger than Cannon though and has a far less impressive CV. But anyone scoring goals in the Championship is worthy of consideration, particularly a 21 year old.

Delap I'd imagine is not realistic at the moment and probably never will be.

In terms of players potentially going the other way I think Vata will be a serious flight risk until we cap-tie him. He's still got another under 21 campaign to come but if his form is good I wouldn't hesitate to get him involved in the seniors - we need to be proactive, especially when a lad is eligible for four countries.

Anyone else I'm forgetting? Obviously there could be players we're not aware of also.

Louie Barry is definitely worth a call (if not sounded out already). It might be the right time to do it too because it will test how keen or otherwise he is to play for us. He's well off the England radar but is upwardly mobile and retains a chance of senior caps for them in the future. If he reaches his ceiling and identifies he isn't good enough - which he can't have done yet - then we might get that call and I hate that call. Remember the Scott Hogan stall?

Dewsbury-Hall you don't mention but he might not be realistic. He would fall into the following bucket for sure: "If it’s a high-profile player that can play for us, maybe we have the first approach."

[liamoo11]

Read in various places Morgan Rodgers at Villa qualified, think England tidied that up in the NL. Alex Scott at Bournemouth, currently injured was also mentioned. Both embedded in their own FA's pathway anyway. Kieran Dewsbury Hall isn't having much EPL game time at Chelsea but playing plenty in Europe. Hasn't been interested previously though.

Egan rliey burnley and Michael golding from.leicester maybe

[elatedscum]

Watched the last two games for Liverpool u18s and Joe Bradshaw scored 4 across the two games (2 against Wolves and 2 against Everton), along with one assist. Means he's scored 10 so far this season and is their top scorer - and done it all from right midfield (or right wing). Didn't realise he had played for Ireland u15 in our current u17 group. He'd be a very good addition. Also played for one game for England at u15 level - but hasn't played for either nation since then.

Ireland eligible Braiden Graham stood out for Everton as well - scored 1 and missed 2 or 3 sitters - but looked very lively throughout. He's a NI u19, having signed from Linfield in the summer. Luke O'Donnell also played for Wolves in the other game, few nice passes but Wolves tended to play down the wings, so was less involved than you'd expect and didn't have the opportunity to show his running power.

It is interesting, Premier League sides are now targeting NI kids given brexit and the lack of options across Europe. 25 of their 32 callups at u19 level are based in England or Scotland compared to us. We'd have 20/38 call-ups based in Ireland. It's a realtime Sample A/B on home development vs sending kids abroad at 16.

Homebased percentage

Ireland u17 72%
Ireland u18 86%
Ireland u19 53%
Ireland u21 10%

NI u17 70% (lots of u16s in this squad - only half of the 70% are old enough to leave so 30% abroad, 35% home based, 35% too young to travel)
NI u18 18%
NI u19 22%
NI u21 22%

[liamoo11]

Watched the last two games for Liverpool u18s and Joe Bradshaw scored 4 across the two games (2 against Wolves and 2 against Everton), along with one assist. Means he's scored 10 so far this season and is their top scorer - and done it all from right midfield (or right wing). Didn't realise he had played for Ireland u15 in our current u17 group. He'd be a very good addition. Also played for one game for England at u15 level - but hasn't played for either nation since then.

Ireland eligible Braiden Graham stood out for Everton as well - scored 1 and missed 2 or 3 sitters - but looked very lively throughout. He's a NI u19, having signed from Linfield in the summer. Luke O'Donnell also played for Wolves in the other game, few nice passes but Wolves tended to play down the wings, so was less involved than you'd expect and didn't have the opportunity to show his running power.

It is interesting, Premier League sides are now targeting NI kids given brexit and the lack of options across Europe. 25 of their 32 callups at u19 level are based in England or Scotland compared to us. We'd have 20/38 call-ups based in Ireland. It's a realtime Sample A/B on home development vs sending kids abroad at 16.

Homebased percentage

Ireland u17 72%
Ireland u18 86%
Ireland u19 53%
Ireland u21 10%

NI u17 70% (lots of u16s in this squad - only half of the 70% are old enough to leave so 30% abroad, 35% home based, 35% too young to travel)
NI u18 18%
NI u19 22%
NI u21 22%

I wonder what kieran Morrisons connection is to the North? Having excellent season for Liverpool 18s and 21s. Him and Doherty scored for the 21s against Crystal palace. An absolutely shocking standard from the extended highlights I wstched . Poor Tom Hill is still.playing at that level at 22 must be utterly soul destroying

[elatedscum]

I wonder what kieran Morrisons connection is to the North?

Grandmother from Newry

[elatedscum]

With Conor Bradley and Justin Devenny both good enough to get in our team right now, from the recently expired u21s class - along with Shea Charles, Tray Hume, Isaac Price and Ross McCausland - that would be a good crop by our standards.

You could certainly argue that the following group is almost as promising as anything we could list (and there's plenty of lads who I don't know in their underage set-up):



Ruari McConville (Brighton)
Callum Marshall (West Ham)
Braiden Graham (Everton)
Kieran Morrison (Liverpool)
Francis Turley (Celtic)
Ceadach O’Neill (Arsenal)
George Feeney (Spurs)


All goes back to our wider points about identifying eligible players who are good enough and want to play for Ireland early, probably by age 13 (they generally give out u16 caps age 14 or 15, so you'd want to have identified potential u15s for us a year or two in advance).

It's difficult now. If you try convince Morrison or O'Neill at this age to switch, then they can be left in the netherworld where they can't play international football at all (see Darragh Burns, Marcus McGuane) - but if we don't approach them to switch at underage level, they're capped within minutes, often before they've even played senior football (Ruari McConville most recent example) and the longer they stick, the less likely they are to switch. At least when they don't make it for us, they can switch and still be internationals if they're good enough (Ronan Hale a prime example, Stephen Mallon will be if he is good enough)

[Eirambler]

Watched the last two games for Liverpool u18s and Joe Bradshaw scored 4 across the two games (2 against Wolves and 2 against Everton), along with one assist. Means he's scored 10 so far this season and is their top scorer - and done it all from right midfield (or right wing). Didn't realise he had played for Ireland u15 in our current u17 group. He'd be a very good addition. Also played for one game for England at u15 level - but hasn't played for either nation since then.

Ireland eligible Braiden Graham stood out for Everton as well - scored 1 and missed 2 or 3 sitters - but looked very lively throughout. He's a NI u19, having signed from Linfield in the summer. Luke O'Donnell also played for Wolves in the other game, few nice passes but Wolves tended to play down the wings, so was less involved than you'd expect and didn't have the opportunity to show his running power.

It is interesting, Premier League sides are now targeting NI kids given brexit and the lack of options across Europe. 25 of their 32 callups at u19 level are based in England or Scotland compared to us. We'd have 20/38 call-ups based in Ireland. It's a realtime Sample A/B on home development vs sending kids abroad at 16.

Homebased percentage

Ireland u17 72%
Ireland u18 86%
Ireland u19 53%
Ireland u21 10%

NI u17 70% (lots of u16s in this squad - only half of the 70% are old enough to leave so 30% abroad, 35% home based, 35% too young to travel)
NI u18 18%
NI u19 22%
NI u21 22%

I think this will hurt us as well. I read an interview with Jimmy Dunne last week where he was saying how far behind he felt he was going over at 16. It's going to be even worse for the lads now going over at 18. I think there's a reason why so many of our lads peak late in their careers, they spend years playing catch up on the contact hours and skills they've missed out on at a younger age.

[CraftyToePoke]

Mikey Moore was mentioned on YBIG.
No idea if its accurate & probably isn't. Breakout season at Spurs & embedded in his own FA structures anyhow. Irish Independent article on him in October didn't mention eligibility either.

[Eirambler]

Mikey Moore was mentioned on YBIG.


He's almost certainly ineligible then.

[Olé Olé]

I don't know what to make of the noise on Twitter surrounding Oisin Smyth and Caolan Boyd Munce scoring goals to beat Rangers. They represent or have represented Northern Ireland.

[Eirambler]

Well both are 24 now and would be nowhere near our squad if they were with us, so I don't think we need to concern ourselves about it too much either way.