Has the 2004/05 season been one of the best for young Irish talent making the breakth
In recent years, we’ve seen one or maybe two Irish players breaking through at the top level. In 2001/02 we had John O’Shea who ended up on the shortlist for young player of the year. The following season we had Andy Reid come to prominence. Aside from a few other fringe players that made mimimal appearances for their first team there didn’t appear to be a great deal of talent ready to shine for their first teams.
This season however seems to be producing a flood of young talent that is not only breaking into the first team of their respective clubs, but actually turning into important players with the ability to influence the outcome of matches.
Probably the most high profile of these is 18 year old Scottish born Aiden McGeady at Celtic. We all know about his controversial choice to opt to play for Ireland rather than his country of birth. He broke into the Celtic first team for a handful of matches at the end of last season as numerous young players do once there is nothing more to play for. What has set McGeady apart from all younsters and particular all the other younsters at Parkhead is that this season he has cemented a regular starting spot in the Celtic line-up. While O’Neill has never been afraid to give youngsters a chance, he has rarely entrusted them with a consistent run in the starting line-up as McGeady has had. Comparisons with the skill level of Ronaldinio are more than likely just hype, but he has received the highest level of praise from John Hartson, Magnus Hedman, his manager Martin O’Neill and the sporting press. It will surely be only a matter of time before Kerr is forced to include him from the start.
Another young player that has been grabbing the headlined this season is 21 year old striker Stephen Elliott of Sunderland. Mick McCarthy took what appeared to be a long term gamble in the summer when he purchased him from Man City, but has been repaid handsomely as Elliott has already hit double figures in the goalscoring charts in the League Championship. Elliott was singled out by FIFA’s technical panel at the Under 20 World Cup last year as one of the six players most likely to have an impact at senior level and made his bow for the senior international side at the end of last year. If he keeps scoring at this rate, Sunderland may feature in the Premier League next season and from Ireland’s point of view this can only be good with Sean Thornton and Gary Breen also plying their trade there.
One of the Irish youngsters that Kevin Keegan did hang on to was young right winger Willo Flood. We’ve all read about his potential for the last few years and been waiting for his breakthrough, but his light frame has been quoted as one of the reasons holding him back. In all reality, it may be the fact that he’s attempting to oust the explosive Shaun Wright-Phillips in order to gain a regular starting spot. He managed to get a few starts a month or so ago when Wright-Phillips was deployed as a makeshift striker and scored his first goal in the league cup followed closely by a goal in the Premiership. All the match reports indicate that he played particularly well and in recent weeks has been getting a decent run off the bench. Still only 19, hopefully he will continue to be involved over the remainder of this season.
On loan from Arsenal to Millwall, 22 year old goalkeeper Graham Stack was an ever present until ousted by the experienced Andy Marshall a few weeks ago. Unfortunately his much publicised pending court case is obviously a blight on what was shaping to be a very promising season. Purely from a football point of view it looked like Ireland may have found a long term alternative to Shay Given, however this will all rest upon the outcome of the court case.
Mark Yeates the 20 year old striker at Tottenham made a couple of appearances towards the end of last year for Tottenham’s first team and has once again featured in recent weeks. Spurs manager Martin Jol recently compared him to Paul Gascoigne and we can only hope he was referring to his ability on the football pitch. Hopefully 2005 will see him get his chance regularly for the Spurs first team, however a starting place upfront is the one spot at Tottenham where there is serious competition with Robbie Keane, Jermanine Defoe and Freddie Kanoute fighting it out for two positions.
Other honourable mentions go to central midfielder’s Darren Potter at Liverpool, Glen Whelan at Sheffield Wednesday and Bolton midfielder on loan at Sheffield Wednesday Joey O’Brien, Spurs defender Stephen Kelly and Manchester United centre half Paul McShane who impresed on loan at Wallsall.
