Potentially eligible players thread

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Originally Posted by Olé Olé

Realistically, getting Dewsbury-Hall in with us underage was our main hope here, assuming he qualifies. He's at a level where he'd be too good for Ireland and perhaps not good enough for England. Compare him to Josh Cullen - we had him in since underage and naturally he graduated to the senior fold. Even if Cullen wasn't with us underage, he'd probably jump at the chance to play senior for us given that he's on the "good enough" point in the spectrum. I'm sure it did him no harm in getting his move to Anderlecht where they referred to his Irish spirit. Would have had less of a bearing on a move to Chelsea...

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Generally very fatalistic views here about our chances of persuading dual nationals who are ‘too good’ for us. Bit of a catch 22, as we would be good enough for these guys if they were playing for us, but probably won’t be good enough until we supplement our talent pool with a few better players.

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Originally Posted by third policeman

Generally very fatalistic views here about our chances of persuading dual nationals who are ‘too good’ for us. Bit of a catch 22, as we would be good enough for these guys if they were playing for us, but probably won’t be good enough until we supplement our talent pool with a few better players.

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Chicken or Egg ! !

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Originally Posted by seanfhear

Chicken or Egg ! !

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Maybe a chicken farmer - a manager who could instill direction and confidence that is sadly lacking, and could persuade dual nationals that declaring for us might just be an adventure.

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Originally Posted by third policeman

Generally very fatalistic views here about our chances of persuading dual nationals who are ‘too good’ for us. Bit of a catch 22, as we would be good enough for these guys if they were playing for us, but probably won’t be good enough until we supplement our talent pool with a few better players.

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I'm generally a little more positive about topics like this but tell me what evidence you have to support your assertion that our chances of persuading dual nationals are any better?

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Originally Posted by third policeman

Maybe a chicken farmer - a manager who could instill direction and confidence that is sadly lacking, and could persuade dual nationals that declaring for us might just be an adventure.

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We are definitely scrambled at the moment anyway !

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Originally Posted by third policeman

Generally very fatalistic views here about our chances of persuading dual nationals who are ‘too good’ for us. Bit of a catch 22, as we would be good enough for these guys if they were playing for us, but probably won’t be good enough until we supplement our talent pool with a few better players.

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Originally Posted by seanfhear

Chicken or Egg ! !

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Or we could look at it/present it this way: We now have decent talent in a few areas but we have a couple of gaps that cost us in tight games against middling teams that we need to win, and a middling Premier League midfielder might just fill one of those gaps well enough to turn some games (along with a middling Premier League left-back). Unfortunately we need a decent manager also and the FAI seems hell-bent on not having that.

It’s not always logical. Szmodics logical choice was to declare for Hungary and play in the euros…

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Originally Posted by elatedscum

It’s not always logical. Szmodics logical choice was to declare for Hungary and play in the euros…

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You'd have thought that would be a good tempter alright !

Especially if you had an interest in playing international football as he has. Maybe we were more patient with him or something like that ? !

We've been historically very good at poaching players

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Originally Posted by punkrocket

We've been historically very good at poaching players

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I would say that international football for teams at Ireland's level is not nearly as attractive as it once was ~ ~ Sad, but that is the way it is.

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Originally Posted by elatedscum

It’s not always logical. Szmodics logical choice was to declare for Hungary and play in the euros…

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Not being able to speak the language and having no cultural similarites would have been tough.

Us being English speaking and being so similar the English culturlally makes it easier for players to commit to us and mesh into the squad. See Ben Brererton Diaz initially being left out of Chile's Copa squad due to not learning Spanish.

Dropped into the squad, to play a tournament in Germany, with people you don't know, that speak a different language to you, and probably dislike you because you already declared for another country, that you weren't even born in.

I dunno... Feels a bit of an alien experience to me.

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Originally Posted by ColourfulPeanut

Not being able to speak the language and having no cultural similarites would have been tough.

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I read somewhere that the language of the Hungarian dressing room is English. I think also this Hungarian team is very much a diaspora team (I'm open to correction) including a Barnsley lad Callum Styles, and the fans sing a soft rock anthem about greater Hungary and its lost people. Ken Early had a great piece on CEE/Balkan ethno-nationalism last week.

Had a look on wiki and only 5 of the Euro 2026 squad were born outside Hungary, and that includes Loic Nego, who has no connection with Hungary at all other than that he played in the league for eight years.

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Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

Ken Early had a great piece on CEE/Balkan ethno-nationalism last week.

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Thanks for that - Irredentism, eh? :wink:

Meanwhile, I shall return the compliment with this BBC piece, which digs down a little deeper into Hungary's recent footballing revival:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football...s/cekk4zp5rg8o

This is probably a waste of the internet in terms of how relevant it will be to us, but KDH has signed for Chelsea for 30M

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Originally Posted by SkStu

This is probably a waste of the internet in terms of how relevant it will be to us, but KDH has signed for Chelsea for 30M

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Haha
Yep another one bites the dust due to success...it's a cruel game football

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Originally Posted by SkStu

This is probably a waste of the internet in terms of how relevant it will be to us, but KDH has signed for Chelsea for 30M

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Golding going from Chelsea to Leicester has played under 16s for us and hos brother has played under 19s

Speaking of Dewsbury-Hall, I see Michael Golding has gone the other way for £5m. He's the young brother of recent Ireland under 19s player, James.

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