Delaneys 20-25

In his interviews after the announcement, John Delaney stated that we had 20 -25 players who Trappa would need to keep an eye on. Now I'm not certain, but didn't something in the region of 38-40 players line out under Stan? Has there been that many retirees recently? Or is Delaney saying that we only have about twenty five players worthy of playing for Ireland?

Does anyone else not think that a new manager should be looking at the most promising 100 or 200 players, and not just the established 20 or so who a have played more than twice and not retired yet?

Can you imagine if JD wrote up the contract with a clause saying "You are expected to attend those matches when potential senior players are in action. Don't worry though, its only twenty players to take care of".....

Do we have 100 players available? No

Will Trap be taking advice from Delaney on how to do things? No

We should have nearly 100 players already in the system, between Senior, U-21, U-19, and even U-17 squads. We also have the Ireland A's or whatever they're called now, and that's not even beginning to look at those who are in the Eircom league, SPL and the other european leagues where we might have other useful players who haven't been found yet, or who were ignored in the past.

I think an international manager should know about every prospect we have, even if they're a few years away from the first team, they should stll be getting tracked at some level.

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Originally Posted by Quickfire

I think an international manager should know about every prospect we have, even if they're a few years away from the first team, they should stll be getting tracked at some level.

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Isn't that what underage managers are for? Do you really think it's best for our manager to be looking at everyone in our Under 15 set up when they could be 5-10 years away from getting a cap and most of them won't even make it in the lower divisions?

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Originally Posted by jmurphyc

Isn't that what underage managers are for? Do you really think it's best for our manager to be looking at everyone in our Under 15 set up when they could be 5-10 years away from getting a cap and most of them won't even make it in the lower divisions?

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Wayne Rooney played for England at 17.And while he was obviously exceptional, thats the type of case I mean. It would obviously make perfect sense for the international manager to be looking at some of his games. So yeas the underage managers should be finding them and recommending them, but on occasion its still good for the senior coach to have a look around too.

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Originally Posted by Quickfire

Wayne Rooney played for England at 17.And while he was obviously exceptional, thats the type of case I mean. It would obviously make perfect sense for the international manager to be looking at some of his games. So yeas the underage managers should be finding them and recommending them, but on occasion its still good for the senior coach to have a look around too.

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Wayne Rooney was playing first team football at a top division club for around 6 months before he played for England. If an Irish player does that then he should be looked at by the senior team management, not if he's playing for his club's under age set up. Anway, Delaney has no experience in football management, and I wouldn't pay too much attention to that remark.