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Agree with most of that. My worry was that by going out of his way to recruit a wide player who has failed to nail down a place with Celtic or Scotland, he may be yearning for his favoured formation that doesn't suit the squad we have and proved to be largely ineffective. Am I right in thinking he only abandoned it when Barry was in post. If Johnson is a plan B option or an impact sub (if he can make an impact), then ok,
Genuine question - have you ever seen the guy play?Quote:
Originally Posted by irishfan86
(I haven't. But that detailed a post suggests you have. It's just it's odds with Poor Student's view, who I know is fairly knowledgeable about Celtic)
Johnston mcgeady. Kingdom must have an opinion on him soQuote:
Originally Posted by Poor Student
I've seen a few matches but would defer to those who follow Celtic more closely than I do. I just don't see the uproar about welcoming anyone into the fold. If he starts and he's poor, OK, let's deliver criticism then and debate whether he should be involved. But bringing him in, taking a look at him, and giving ourselves another option -- it makes no sense to me that anybody would be upset about this.Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
I don't think anyone's upset by all this.
But there is a tendency to over-hype players because they're Irish, so in that regard you can understand me enquiring about the background to a very positive post like yours as against a fairly negative review from Poor Student (and again, I've never heard of the guy, do I'm relying on the good posters of foot.ie for info here)
Yeah, welcome him in, but (hypothetically) if Kenny is chasing after crap players, that might say something too.
Probably a few others we could do with pursuing. Lads like Cirkin for LB and Egan Riley at Burnley who can play RB and CB. Few more wingers if there's any eligible but definitely some FBs, especially LB to give us the option of switching back to a back four.
Egan-Riley would be a great acquisition I think, lots of promise there even if it hasn’t worked out so far with Burnley. We probably need Cirkin (or more specifically just need a good LB), especially if Manning isn’t going to cut it for Kenny.
Didn't know Egan Riley has went on loan to Hibs and has actually started as a DM in two of the four games and RB in another. Would definitely be great acquisition if he covered those three positions. We need someone that can cover for Cullen.
I remember seeing egan Riley play centre midfield for our under 16s a few years back didn't seem to.me to have the technical ability for it.Quote:
Originally Posted by JR89
If we are bringing in players I'd like to see louie Barry come back to us for this 21s campaign there is a good footballer in there somewhere. Delap hasn't done a whole lot in senior football yet and his physicality was a big factor in what he was doing underage but I'd like to see him in the 21s I'd say his dad would be very proud
Egan-Riley has done very well since going to Hibs. Too early to know whether he'll be senior international quality in future but he'd be a great addition to our Under 21 team in this coming campaign if we could get him in. He's a physical player more than a technical one, maybe surprising that Kompany brought him to Burnley. He'll be back out on loan again next season I'd say.
Louie Barry is probably ours if we want him at this point, but he seems to be falling away into obscurity unfortunately. I don't think he'd make our Under 21 team even.
Tom Cannon is currently outshining Delap at Preston.
All fair points. For me its not all about only bringing lads in if they are better than what we have. I just.love the idea of lads getting a chance to play for their country and.maybe just maybe their country giving them.the chance to kick on a bit in their career. I only saw louie Barry play 3 times for us underage but he worked like a horse on a terrible pitch in rough weather and really looked like it meant something to him even if he was only doing it at the time for his grandparents. I'd love to think ifish involvement might give him a lift even if he never got near our senior side. Similarly for Egan Riley.Quote:
Originally Posted by Eirambler
I never thought we missed out on a future star in Delap he always seemed to me to be overly reliant on physicality in city s academy but I love how his grandfather would surely be so proud to see him follow in Rorys footsteps and pull on a green Jersey even if he never moved up to senior level.
Cirkin to me is a lad who I wouldn't like to see get a call up. He hasn't shown any interest in us up to know and seems to have no significant connection with ireland . Similar to obafemi he was born here and lived here a very short while but unlike obafemi he didn't put himself forward for us when he could have at 16s and 17s.
Unlike Obafemi he was deemed good enough to play underage with England. You think Obafemi would have even thought about Ireland if he was playing for Englands underage. Plus Obafemi didn't join up until the 19s.Quote:
Originally Posted by liamoo11
Obafemi played In the Premier league at 17 of course he was good enough to be involved with England Under 19s either that season or the following season. Cirkin never played in the Premier league for spursQuote:
Originally Posted by JR89
obafemi played 17s and 18s. wikipedia says he didn't but it's wrong.Quote:
Originally Posted by JR89
https://www.irishmirror.ie/sport/soc...roots-27213999
“I played all the way, well, not all the way but from U17s upwards. I didn't (see) the need to change. This is where I was born and where I should stay.”
transfermarkt has him down playing 18s and i have a memory of him in a squad with Glen McAuley early in the 17/18 season, before he was called up to the 19s the following month.
Planned for the U18s in 2018Quote:
Originally Posted by elatedscum
https://www.fai.ie/ireland/news/craw...r-slovakia-cup
I was going off transfermarkt, but they didn't have any game for the U18s listed and thought it was just a training camp.Quote:
Originally Posted by elatedscum
What exactly are you getting at here?Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
I don't really agree with this -
I mean, first off, there's no uproar and no-one's upset; I'm not sure where that came from.Quote:
Originally Posted by irishfan86
So yeah, let's see how he does - but it's a discussion forum. Let's talk about the guy rather than the dismissive "Why don't we see".
My initial reaction was to be a bit underwhelmed tbh. I know Poor Student is quite knowledgeably about Celtic and his post wasn't exactly a ringing endorsement. Johnston is 24 next month, playing at a non-top-three side in Portugal (Pádraig Amond did that too, albeit he never started a league game) and despite being in the Scotland underage setup he's not been called up for the senior side so far as I'm aware. Are we tapping up Scotland cast-offs? That's not great.
The last player who "signed" was I think CJ Hamilton last year. That hasn't really gone anywhere. I just wonder are we we throwing everything at the wall and hoping something sticks? Is our scouting all that effective? Or maybe this is all we can get. I don't know of course.
And obviously I'm not about to boo him if comes off the bench or anything like that.
I think in fairness there's not as much of an emphasis on going after dual players for the seniors as there was in the past, England have done a better job of giving 1 or 2 caps to Premiership level qualified players so we are kinda left with the CJ Hamiltons of the world instead of being able to get a James Madison.
We do still go after players but early and for the vast majority they stay with us. Smallbone, Hodge, Coventry, Obafemi etc. We've also done a good job of keeping dual players who could play for an African country up to this point. I'm sure there'll come a day when someone born in Ireland will play for Nigeria or something and he'll be a big loss.
My point is that my reaction to Johnson was meh, but he was an exciting player at Celtic before he had major injuries so we'll see, but the days of getting a team like Jack did are long gone, our scouting and recruiting are done at much younger age
For me, it just gives us another interesting and high potential player to watch out for who could make a difference for us if he reaches the potential that a lot saw in him a few years ago. Hard to argue he deserves a call up and cap already.
Worrying enough that Kenny’s comments seem to suggest he sees him playing a large role in the upcoming campaign. His argument was he’s a player with qualities we don’t have but need. I’m not sold if he’s sticking with a 3-5-2. Maybe a bench option.