2025 UEFA European Under-21 Championship

[Razors left peg]

Umeh probably should have been in squad

[Olé Olé]

Joe Hodge and Andy Moran will join up with the seniors after the San Marino game. Disappointed not to see others being called up after the San Marino.

Also if Lawal actually gets named at CB Crawford should be handed his P45 there and then.
Hodge and Lawal would be a serious engine room.

[Olé Olé]

Emakhu and Goodrham excluded or unavailable due to injury or other? Be surprised if either or both were excluded. Strong squad but there is room in that list of forwards for both.

[JR89]

Hodge and Lawal would be a serious engine room.

Yeah both players are workhorses but can actually play a bit of ball. Emakhu is surely injured as I think he was our best performing player back in November. We beat Norway imo if he's not taken off early as both strikers were causing the Norway defence issues with their pressing.

[tetsujin1979]

Dylan Duffy called into the squad to replace Ollie O'Neill
1769665057384792407

[JR89]

Would have preferred to see Crawford call up someone that's gonna be involved in 2027 U21s championship like Franco Umeh for example. Think the experience of being in camp benefits one of the younger players rather than Duffy.

[elatedscum]

Just thought this was an interesting point to highlight the lack of an u20 squad. With the u19s being knocked out in the qualifiers in November, it means there’s no games for the 2005 group till they reach 21s which will probably be September 2025, so 18 months from now and 22 months in total. And if the same thing were to happen to the 2006 kids next year, then they’d be left with 34 months without a game (qualification for the 2029 u21s). The 2004 kids are gonna have a 30 month wait.

Obviously there’ll always be players pushed up and this camp has 4 players (Wogan, Curtis, Vata, O’Mahony) along with 2 2004 players (Alex Murphy, Grehan). But sometimes we have the choice of moving a player up early at the expense of a more experienced player. Last campaign, we perhaps moved up guys like Darragh Burns, Ollie O’Neill, Armstrong Okoflex at the expense of Jack Moylan and Promise Omochere etc.

In this instance, I’ve never really seen Dylan Duffy look like a player and beyond Dara Costelloe who seems the obvious choice, you’re then looking at having someone like Umeh, Zefi, Kone Doherty, Sean Moore, O’Brien-Whitmarsh etc involved. Haven’t really kept tracks on how Glory Nzingo is doing at Swansea or Dara McGuinness at Stoke - but you’d imagine one of those 7 lads would be ahead of Duffy, especially against weak opponents.

[Razors left peg]

Just thought this was an interesting point to highlight the lack of an u20 squad. With the u19s being knocked out in the qualifiers in November, it means there’s no games for the 2005 group till they reach 21s which will probably be September 2025, so 18 months from now and 22 months in total. And if the same thing were to happen to the 2006 kids next year, then they’d be left with 34 months without a game (qualification for the 2029 u21s). The 2004 kids are gonna have a 30 month wait.

Obviously there’ll always be players pushed up and this camp has 4 players (Wogan, Curtis, Vata, O’Mahony) along with 2 2004 players (Alex Murphy, Grehan). But sometimes we have the choice of moving a player up early at the expense of a more experienced player. Last campaign, we perhaps moved up guys like Darragh Burns, Ollie O’Neill, Armstrong Okoflex at the expense of Jack Moylan and Promise Omochere etc.

In this instance, I’ve never really seen Dylan Duffy look like a player and beyond Dara Costelloe who seems the obvious choice, you’re then looking at having someone like Umeh, Zefi, Kone Doherty, Sean Moore, O’Brien-Whitmarsh etc involved. Haven’t really kept tracks on how Glory Nzingo is doing at Swansea or Dara McGuinness at Stoke - but you’d imagine one of those 7 lads would be ahead of Duffy, especially against weak opponents.

You're expecting Jim Crawford to have a level of cop on there that hes never shown. He was linked with the Bohs job last week and I was praying that would happen

[Eirambler]

Saw a headline this morning saying Ireland Under 21 coach set to be appointed Bohemians manager and momentarily got excited. Sadly, as ever with Irish football these days, my hopes turned out to be misplaced.

[Eirambler]

Crawford still sees Lawal as a centre back then. In fairness to Crawford, he'd be ideal for a youth development role at Celtic if a job ever comes up...

[Razors left peg]

Crawford still sees Lawal as a centre back then. In fairness to Crawford, he'd be ideal for a youth development role at Celtic if a job ever comes up...

He'd drive you mad. Be one thing if he didnt have good defenders in the squad, but leaves O'Riordan on the bench.

[JR89]

1770762864707457435

Crawford was talking about Lawal earlier this week.

[Razors left peg]

Nice to get so many goals against a bad team.

[JR89]

Nice to get so many goals against a bad team.

After only two games Vata finds himself with five goals at U21 level. Fair enough they were both against San Marino but the record for most goals at this level are 7 with Robbie Brady and Kevin Doyle.

[Razors left peg]

After only two games Vata finds himself with five goals at U21 level. Fair enough they were both against San Marino but the record for most goals at this level are 7 with Robbie Brady and Kevin Doyle.

How many is Sinclair Armstrong on. He seems to score every game he plays

[JR89]

How many is Sinclair Armstrong on. He seems to score every game he plays

Wiki says five goals in six games.

[pineapple stu]

Also 5

[Razors left peg]

I really like Armstrong, he looks dangerous every time I watch him play. Needs more refinement but there's a player in him

[Eirambler]

They should maybe consider calling Vata into the seniors as well alongside Hodge and Moran for a look, although a cap wouldn't make any real difference in terms of commiting him to Ireland. But he's the kind of player that could move club this summer and kick on very quickly.

[JR89]

I really like Armstrong, he looks dangerous every time I watch him play. Needs more refinement but there's a player in him

Both himself and Emakhu caused issues with their constant pressuring of the defence back in November.


They should maybe consider calling Vata into the seniors as well alongside Hodge and Moran for a look, although a cap wouldn't make any real difference in terms of commiting him to Ireland. But he's the kind of player that could move club this summer and kick on very quickly.

Would be calling up Armstrong too.

[tetsujin1979]

Vata currently top scorer in the group, according to Wikipedia

[elatedscum]

How many is Sinclair Armstrong on. He seems to score every game he plays

I think uefa have taken 2 of those away from him. They called the San Marino home one where he bundled it in an OG. And the one on Friday that he didn’t really celebrate an OG, which would make it 3

[tetsujin1979]

Big result for the U21s in Italy, with the Azzuri drawing with Turkey after a last minute equaliser from Kilicsoy
https://www.uefa.com/under21/match/2037260/

That leaves Italy two points ahead of Ireland, with Ireland having a game in hand. We're playing Turkey away and Latvia at home in September.

[ifk101]

Huge opportunity to win the group now so expect we won't.

[CSAD]

Winning of the group is back in our hands but the worry here is Turkey are now well back in the race, especially if they beat us next round. They dont have to play Itay again and still have SM away.

[elatedscum]

I just noticed that Josh Seary came off the bench for Preston yesterday and upon looking deeper see that he made his championship debut back in February. Probably worth a call up to the 21s considering how few right backs we have coming through.

We basically just had one called up in the last window cause Abankwah didn’t make it.

[JR89]

U21s will play Croatia U21s and England U20s in June. Players will join up on June 4th for camp with games on June 7th and June 11th. Hope England's U21s were already busy and that they didn't pick the U20s instead to avoid Carsley.

[Eirambler]

Rumours coming from Albania of Zefi switching to them. They can offer him a place in their Under 21 squad, realistically he's not in the frame for ours at the moment. Would likely have to wait until the next campaign at best.

Being honest I think it's looking less and less likely that he'll make it at a high enough level to ever play at senior level for us. I know it's a bit early to draw that conclusion on him at 19, but he doesn't seem to have kicked on at all, and there have been rumours about his professionalism etc. The worry for me would be that it could encourage Vata, who now looks a much brighter prospect, to make the same move.

[JR89]

News this morning that Nathan Fraser has rejected another call up for the U21s.

[CSAD]

News this morning that Nathan Fraser has rejected another call up for the U21s.

Good, gives us an excuse to fast track Mason Melia.

[Eirambler]

Have to say I haven't seen anything yet in Fraser to suggest that he's worth spending a huge amount of effort on. As I understand it he basically got in the Wolves team for a few games because they had no other fit strikers. But he wasn't doing anything so they dropped him again even though they still didn't have any fit strikers. As things stand Cannon would be the much more promising dual eligible striker of the two to get to commit to us if we can manage it.

[JR89]

Doubt he'd want the extra week at the beach if it was England calling him up.

[tetsujin1979]

Squad to be announced on Monday

[JR89]

1797578951180599460

[elatedscum]

Haven’t really seen enough of Noonan or any of O’Brien to judge their call ups.

All of Wogan, Grehan, Adaramola, Phillips, Gilsenen and Fraser ruled out - so no real controversial picks in the squad. I’d have had Henry-Francis and Goodrham (assuming he’s commited). I know Henry-Francis is only playing 21s football for Arsenal but it’s great to see him fit and getting an extended run of games for the first time in ages…

[sidewayspasser]

No Bohs or Shels players in the squad, so why has the Bohs v Shels match been postponed?

[elatedscum]

Bohs have 2 players called up to the Estonia squad

[Olé Olé]

Connor O'Brien plays fairly regularly for Accrington Stanley at right back in League Two and aged 19. FAI saying his dad is from Drogheda so that connection is strong as the name implies.

[Razors left peg]

Does anyone know if these 2 game will be televised anywhere? The FAI website just says TBC for TV

[JR89]

Can't see them being on TV especially tomorrow's game as it's election day so RTE will likely be talking about that all day tomorrow on the news channel. I'd say our best bet will be that Croatia and England stream the games.

[Crosby87]

Its not listed on Live-footballontv.com but you CAN watch Costa Rica battle St Kitts if you have CONCACAF Youtube, which you obviously do

[Razors left peg]

Its not listed on Live-footballontv.com but you CAN watch Costa Rica battle St Kitts if you have CONCACAF Youtube, which you obviously do

Definitely not missing that one!!!

[JR89]

FAI tweeted that they'll be providing live updates online so doubt there's gonna be any stream for tonight's game.

[JR89]

Would be typical that the one game that isn't being shown live that Lawal starts in midfield.

.....................Keeley
Abankwah O’Riordan MacNulty
Curtis Lawal Moran Hodge Roughan
............Emakhu Armstrong

[tetsujin1979]

Could be in defence in a 4-4-2?
1799092926825275788

[pateen]

Any stream ?

[tetsujin1979]

Any stream ?
Apparently not, although there may be legal alternatives, accessed legally. Legal.
1799074359749042201

[JR89]

Could be in defence in a 4-4-2?
1799092926825275788

I'd say there's more chance of it being a 6-4-0 than 4-4-2.

[zero]

Whatever the set up is it seems to be working this evening with the u21s 2-0 inside 15 mins, Moran and Armstrong.

[pateen]

Great stuff