Under-21 Squad

[TheBoss]

Surely Sean Maguire has to be starting?

[gastric]

Lost 3-2 in a dramatic game it seems, the Serbs also got a goal from a penalty. Al ittle info here on our new goalkeeper.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/international-soccer/highly-rated-man-united-goalkeeper-gets-ireland-u21-callup-after-declaring-for-the-boys-in-green-35027280.html

[SkStu]

Lost 3-2 for the record.

Were 2-0 and 3-1 down. Goals from O'Dowda and Maguire and plenty of chances to get the draw apparently.

[Charlie Darwin]

Eligible through his dad's grandparents? Foreign births register at work I assume.

[Olé Olé]

Noticed that too. I assume they meant to say his grandparents or his father's parents and got mixed up. Otherwise, that'll be his only call-up for us as he'd be ineligible surely.

[Dodge]

http://www.fai.ie/ireland/news/manchester-uniteds-kieran-oharas-delight-at-u21-call


The youngster was born in Stretford and often heard the crowds at Old Trafford from his house when he was growing up but with grandparents from Galway he was always aware of his eligibility to play for Ireland.

There's more on his background there but the morale of the story is don't trust the online Indo...

[tetsujin1979]

Sqaud for the qualifier against Serbia on Friday: http://www.fai.ie/ireland/news/king-announces-ireland-u21-squad-for-serbia-clash-at-rsc
Lawlor has since been called into the senior side, according to today's Indo Eric Grimes and Stephen McGuinness have been called up as replacements

[Closed Account]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CuLZmwIWAAAS7y2.jpg:large

Looks a strong team.

2019 U21 champ is for players born after 1/1/1996.

It is the last game for
Eoghan O'Connell
Kevin O'Connor
Darragh Lenihan
Thomas Hoban
Alan Browne
Courtney Duffus
Eric Grimes
Sean Kavanagh
Sean Maguire
Sean Hoare

Players for next campaign
Liam Bossin
Kieran O'Hara
Liam Kinsella
Shaun Donnellan
Kevin Toner
Noe Baba
Daniel Cleary
Bobby Moseley
Jack Byrne
Josh Cullen
Harry Charsley
Connor Dimaio
Jake Mulraney
Olamide Shodipo
Reece Grego-Cox
Josh Barrett
amongst others.

[tetsujin1979]

Live text commentary here: http://www.uefa.com/under21/season=2017/matches/live/index.html?day=48&session=1&match=2016148

[Closed Account]

Goal Duffus

Serbia miss peno

Equaliser

Ah 2-1 Serbia

[Kingdom]

I'd like to see us bid to host the 2019 Championships. We need to start building up a resilience in the underage tournaments again.

[samhaydenjr]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CuLZmwIWAAAS7y2.jpg:large

Looks a strong team.

2019 U21 champ is for players born after 1/1/1996.

It is the last game for
Eoghan O'Connell
Kevin O'Connor
Darragh Lenihan
Thomas Hoban
Alan Browne
Courtney Duffus
Eric Grimes
Sean Kavanagh
Sean Maguire
Sean Hoare

Players for next campaign
Liam Bossin
Kieran O'Hara
Liam Kinsella
Shaun Donnellan
Kevin Toner
Noe Baba
Daniel Cleary
Bobby Moseley
Jack Byrne
Josh Cullen
Harry Charsley
Connor Dimaio
Jake Mulraney
Olamide Shodipo
Reece Grego-Cox
Josh Barrett
amongst others.

I agree with that - looking towards the senior team, I reckon there's four players in that squad who you could reasonably promote to the senior squad immediately based on being fairly well established at Championship level and could do a decent job for us - Hoban, Lenihan, Shodipo and Browne - although I acknowledge they'll probably have to wait to the end of the season at least. O'Connell and Byrne could put themselves into the reckoning over the next couple of the months if they can get more consistent game time at Celtic and Blackburn (I know some might think Byrne in particular should be ahead of the likes of Lenihan and Shodipo but I think he's slipped just behind them for now, anyway).

Cullen, DiMaio, Mulraney, Maguire and Kinsella are all playing a level below where we could look at them as serious contenders for a call-up, but they seem to be fairly well established in their respective divisions so if they continue to do well, they may get an upward move within the next twelve months and become options. And I think Charsley and Duffus are pretty well regarded at Everton and will hopefully get a chance to prove themselves at senior level soon.

Together with the promotion to the squad fringe of Lawlor and O'Dowda, with other youngsters making progress and with the likes of Hourihane, Williams, Cunningham, Judge and Egan pretty much ready to go now, it looks like we will have a squad with greater depth over the next couple of years.

The question is how and when do we blood these players in? This should actually be a major task for the management team (perhaps more important than recruiting new players - oh dear, I've just become TOWK:p) but there's a problem in that we don't have the opportunity to do that. The FAI announced an end-of-season friendly against Uruguay today, but it's scheduled to be only a week before the Austria game and, as a result, will likely be used for fine-tuning and preparation for that vital qualifier). So unless there's a tour next summer, it's going to be very hard to bring more than a couple of these into the fold in a planned, non-injury-or-retirement-crisis manner.

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

Look how long it's taking Conor Hourihane, Matt Doherty and John Egan to get a look in.

Shodipo only has about seven games at senior level.

We are probably one of the oldest - if not the oldest - Intl teams in Europe.

It's going to be ages before any of these lads are blooded.

The average Irish player makes their Intl debut at what, 25?

[tetsujin1979]

Look how long it's taking Conor Hourihane, Matt Doherty and John Egan to get a look in.

Shodipo only has about seven games at senior level.

We are probably one of the oldest - if not the oldest - Intl teams in Europe.

It's going to be ages before any of these lads are blooded.

The average Irish player makes their Intl debut at what, 25?
22, according to the numbers I have

[SkStu]

I agree with that - looking towards the senior team, I reckon there's four players in that squad who you could reasonably promote to the senior squad immediately based on being fairly well established at Championship level and could do a decent job for us - Hoban, Lenihan, Shodipo and Browne - although I acknowledge they'll probably have to wait to the end of the season at least. O'Connell and Byrne could put themselves into the reckoning over the next couple of the months if they can get more consistent game time at Celtic and Blackburn (I know some might think Byrne in particular should be ahead of the likes of Lenihan and Shodipo but I think he's slipped just behind them for now, anyway).

Cullen, DiMaio, Mulraney, Maguire and Kinsella are all playing a level below where we could look at them as serious contenders for a call-up, but they seem to be fairly well established in their respective divisions so if they continue to do well, they may get an upward move within the next twelve months and become options. And I think Charsley and Duffus are pretty well regarded at Everton and will hopefully get a chance to prove themselves at senior level soon.

Together with the promotion to the squad fringe of Lawlor and O'Dowda, with other youngsters making progress and with the likes of Hourihane, Williams, Cunningham, Judge and Egan pretty much ready to go now, it looks like we will have a squad with greater depth over the next couple of years.

The question is how and when do we blood these players in? This should actually be a major task for the management team (perhaps more important than recruiting new players - oh dear, I've just become TOWK:p) but there's a problem in that we don't have the opportunity to do that. The FAI announced an end-of-season friendly against Uruguay today, but it's scheduled to be only a week before the Austria game and, as a result, will likely be used for fine-tuning and preparation for that vital qualifier). So unless there's a tour next summer, it's going to be very hard to bring more than a couple of these into the fold in a planned, non-injury-or-retirement-crisis manner.

Great post Sam. As I've said in a couple of posts at this stage, it should be happening yesterday. I think it should have happened on a small scale at the euros with maybe two or three call ups but I'll accept that such a move would have been unlikely however I can't for the life of me understand why MON and RK didn't overhaul the squad at the beginning of this campaign. They easily could have switched out 5 or 6 old or crap players for young up and comers without damaging our qualification hopes in a material way. Instead we find ourselves in a situation where, to your point, we can't introduce a number of decent players for another two(ish) years. I know we have O'Dowda and Duffy and there's the Arter and Judge efforts but it's not enough for me.

To TOWKs point - and I don't feel as strongly about it as he does - how must it feel to these players to see the management team make public overtures to get Hogan to declare and be called into the squad while they are putting in a similar effort, playing to the same or higher level, are committed to us and just remain on the outside expecting to patiently bide their time for the likes of Pearce, O'Shea, McShane, Wilson, Whelan, Quinn, McGeady, Meyler, Walters and the likes to be dropped when arguably 5 of the 9 there could or should have been dropped two years ago.

We have very good players out there that we need to intentionally start pulling through. We missed a trick at the start of this campaign.

[samhaydenjr]

Look how long it's taking Conor Hourihane, Matt Doherty and John Egan to get a look in.

Shodipo only has about seven games at senior level.

We are probably one of the oldest - if not the oldest - Intl teams in Europe.

It's going to be ages before any of these lads are blooded.

The average Irish player makes their Intl debut at what, 25?

I know it might be a bit debatable putting Shodipo ahead of, say, Jack Byrne, especially as I myself usually like players to have played more at Championship level or have a significant number of games at a lower level under their belt at least before consideration (as Byrne had at Cambuur - I think when you look at the Eredivisie, it's kind of like two or even three divisions squashed into one and Byrne was in the bottom club).

My choice to put Shodipo into the tentative "ready for call up" group is in this case a bit of a gut call, admittedly, based on the endorsement of Hasselbaink, when he said that he was not going to send him out on loan and had immediate plans for him and the fact that, so far at least, Shodipo has held his place, whereas Byrne is not part of the immediate plans of his parent club's plans and seems to have lost his place at Blackburn. I just feel that Shodipo seems to be on an upward trajectory at this moment whereas Byrne has hit a bit of bump in the road in his career path. Of course this situation could change over the next couple of months if Byrne gets back in the Blackburn team and starts to impress.

[liamoo11]

http://www.fai.ie/ireland/news/king-announces-u21-squad-for-double-header. A second duffus brother called up and the keeper from Utd included. City whelan who is gettin very little action in liverpools 23 s included and Declan rice who is an under 18 promoted .

[pineapple stu]

Dylan Watts promoted as well now that he's joined a proper club.

[Charlie Darwin]

He should have joined Dundalk.

[bwagner]

Lads what is with the lack of coverage for the two friendly games ... have the CIA put a media ban on Noel King ?

[SkStu]

Lads what is with the lack of coverage for the two friendly games ... have the CIA put a media ban on Noel King ?

Short answer is yes.

[Dodge]

Lads what is with the lack of coverage for the two friendly games ... have the CIA put a media ban on Noel King ?

was the same 2 years ago for this mini tournament in Spain. We had to rely on updates from the US under 23 twitter account. There has been nothing at all on any FAI platform about this. I know they lost 2-1 to the Czechs and *some* of the player who featured (inc McGrath, Heaney and Curtis)

[tetsujin1979]

Jack Byrne captained the side - https://www.instagram.com/p/BMw3Qqyhg9j/

[Charlie Darwin]

Shodipo scored for us I believe.

[bwagner]

The FAI even took down the squad announcement. Is the second game today ?

[Dodge]

The FAI replied to my query. The games aren't official internationals. There are rolling subs and they're playing 3 x 30 minute periods. Training games only

[tetsujin1979]

U21 boss impressed with Tyreik Wright, Jake O'Brien, and Ethon Varian: https://www.echolive.ie/corksport/arid-40348409.html

[Olé Olé]

McGuinness starting for Cardiff.
Watson starting for Derby. Ebosele and Cashin on the bench.
McNamara starts for Millwall.

[Razors left peg]

Jamie Bowden has moved to to Oldham on loan. Is he still with us? Wasnt in any squads lately

[Olé Olé]

Jamie Bowden has moved to to Oldham on loan. Is he still with us? Wasnt in any squads lately

Why would he be? Kilkenny, Watson, Johansson, Devoy, Connell, Coventry for starters. He surely is still with us. It's not Don Givens in charge.

[Razors left peg]

I dunno, it just feels like he's fallen of the radar completely

[Eirambler]

There was some talk last season that he had stalled in his development at Spurs and they no longer saw him as much of a prospect. A loan down in League 2 would seem to back that up. I'd say he just hasn't been picked recently, there's plenty of competition in midfield. If he does well on loan he'll get in again.

[Demesne Lad]

Not much on this thread lately..... If it's relevant, Paddy McCarthy's Crystal Palace U-21s are out of their Premier League Cup (13 Jan). The team includes Tayo Adaramola and dual qualified Fionn Mooney (England U-17 cap) who scored against West Ham and Everton U-21s last autumn.

[CSAD]

Do we have any indication on who is hosting the u21 euros in 2025?

I ask because according to the latest FAI post we are 19th in Europe, which means if any of the the pot A or B sides hosts the next Euros we scrape into Pot B for the draw.

[elatedscum]

Announced 25th of January

[elatedscum]

Crawford contract extended. Personally disappointed. I blame him for the playoff loss. He talks a good talk but his team selections are incredibly conservative.

Heard through the grapevine that the overall budget for the 21s had been significantly cut. Worrying if true

[ColourfulPeanut]

Did I miss Dan Rose leaving Schalke to go play NCCA soccer with Marshall Thundering Herd? Feel like it wasn't talked about.

Such a bizarre move for a lad who was highly rated not too long ago. To go from playing at Everton and Schalke, to playing in college for free. He's only 18 months younger than Bazunu too

[Jd2793]

Did I miss Dan Rose leaving Schalke to go play NCCA soccer with Marshall Thundering Herd? Feel like it wasn't talked about.

Such a bizarre move for a lad who was highly rated not too long ago. To go from playing at Everton and Schalke, to playing in college for free. He's only 18 months younger than Bazunu too

this might surprise you but the kid just might not be anywhere near good enough? lots of kids are highly rated very few make it. id wager he'd getting a fully paid scholarship over there so its worth it for him.

[JR89]

Fully paid scholarship and being a keeper he could well still have 20 years left in his career. There's also the MLS draft which could see him picked up by a MLS team.

[Kingdom]

Crawford contract extended. Personally disappointed. I blame him for the playoff loss. He talks a good talk but his team selections are incredibly conservative.

Heard through the grapevine that the overall budget for the 21s had been significantly cut. Worrying if true

I like Jim Crawford as a human, he's likely a good coach, but he had his chance and to quote bobby de niro in Copland, "you blewwwwww it!"
I wouldn't have extended his contract, but did wonder if there was budgetary constraints.
And lets call a spade a spade, some of the other underage coaches haven't exactly pulled up trees, one or two notable exceptions aside.

[tetsujin1979]

Friendly against Iceland confirmed for Turners Cross on March 31st
https://www.fai.ie/ireland/news/all-you-need-to-know-ireland-u21-v-iceland-u21

[SkStu]

Another squad to be excited about and great to see Cannon in there. No senior call up for Festy.

1635982075298828289

[Eirambler]

Considering how many centre back and right back options we seem to have in every other squad the Under 21s looks surprisingly light in terms of centre backs and right backs.

[Jd2793]

thank god for the first team options in goal .... because outside of keeley (who remains a big unknown) there isnt anything there atm.

[elatedscum]

Considering how many centre back and right back options we seem to have in every other squad the Under 21s looks surprisingly light in terms of centre backs and right backs.

Yep - probably Festy starting at right back. Abankwah and Curtis are probably the next in line.

Centre back probably isn’t as bad - Lawal is listed as a midfielder, possibly due to the lack of centre midfielders but seems to be playing mostly centre half at club level, Roughan can play in the centre or on the left. Ogungbo would be another option in the centre.

Centre mid looks really bare. You’ve got Hodge and Phillips, Lawal who is probably a centre half, Hayes who is an attacker and Matt Healy who I’ve only seen in person once but I’d be surprised if he’s good enough. Jack Henry-Francis is probably someone that could step up. Kian Leavy maybe. The mystery of John Joe Patrick Finn continues.

Meanwhile in terms of attacking players, it’s the opposite - the number of attacking players who didn’t make the cut is huge: Dara Costelloe, Darragh Burns, Mipo Odubeko, Tony Springett, Aido Emakhu. Real depth for those front three slots.

I’d expect Josh Keeley will be the first keeper. Slightly surprised that Arlo Doherty didn’t make the cut considering he was the 19s first choice keeper last season.

[Jd2793]

burns hasnt played for a while in MK? not too surprised he didnt get in. Finn is playing at a pretty dire level in spain, really hard to judge where hes at if he doesnt get a first team move soon. hasnt registered a lot of game time either this year. Healy has surprised me this year hes done very well for us, big step up though. Corcoran on the other hand isnt related to an international gk, far too small and has no command of his area.
looking forward to going to the game, been years since ive been to a 21s game in TC.

[Razors left peg]

I think looking at the overall quality of the U21s its not as strong as recent years. There are a few stand out players in Ebosele, Hodge, Moran and Cannon. I think there are a few players in the U19s that would be with the 21s if there wasnt qualifiers at that age group.

Will be very interesting to see if there is any withdrawals. Crawford has had fallouts with Ebosele and Oko-Flex in the past and there have been rumors about Cannon not being fully committed.

[JR89]

Matt Healy injured out of the squad for Iceland. Shels Kian Leavy and St Pat's Jay McGrath are both called up.

Sligos Éanna Clancy (2004) and St Pat's Adam Murphy (2005) were training with the U21s this week.

Joe Hodge has been named captain for the U21s but with a bit of luck he's moved on before the years out.

[Razors left peg]

https://twitter.com/SportsOrgPM/status/1639269748620886017?s=20

Joe Hodges dad talking about Joe being made U21 captain.

Will be interesting to see where Hodge is by this time next year, very real possibility that he will have moved onto the senior team. Hes overcome a lot of injuries so far in his short career, I wouldnt bet against him forcing his way back into the team at Wolves.

[Kingdom]

I'd say the fact he's been made captain would signal (when considering Kenny's comments, Coventry & Connell's ineligibilty for the 21s) that he'll see out the entire campaign with the 21s