Originally Posted by
Jicked
I posted this a page ago:
He's still a boy for god's sake, far too early to call him a bust. It does show how ridiculous arguments for him to have been included in Irish squads on the back of people seeing that he got a game with Hamilton was though. He is only 18, if we was a regular in a Premier League team then he'd be one of the best players in the world, up there with the likes of Rooney and Fabregas. Instead it will probably take him until he's 20/21 to break through like most other extremely talented youngsters, and he'll go on to have a great career. He might not be a Rooney or Fabregas but he will still surely be a very good player for us in the future despite that.
He's 18/19, we don't need constant updates about him not being in the team, not making a bench, scoring for reserves. He's a bloody child. In 3/4 years time you can start worrying about his development, Frank Lampard didn't become a first team regular until he was 21, why exactly do people think McCarthy would be in a Premiership team already??
He also doesn't desperately need to go on loan to a Championship team to get game time at his age. He's coming along just fine if he's in Premier League squads aged 18 and highly rated by numerous coaches.
He won't be an issue for the Irish squad until we start worrying about qualifying for Brazil 2014. In the meantime let's worry about whether he'll melt in that heat/humidity ala Steve Staunton, rather than questioning if he'll be Wigan's lynchpin against Fabregas when they meet later this season.