Ryan Nolan D Larne b.1999

[tommy_c12000]

I don't know what you think I've been banging on about but you seem to think not getting a look-in at Inter is great so fair play. Masterson has played well for the 21s, as has O'Shea who has made a senior debut for West Brom and Scales spent the summer being courted by another decent team at a higher standard than Serie C. Never said he had no substance, just that other players are justifiably ahead of him. He might turn out to be a great player and I hope he does. And, like it or not, the League of Ireland is a higher standard than the Italian youth league.

Masterson has done nothing ever at club level, O’Shea has not played a league game for West Brom, only played league 2, and Scales got done badly by Bristol Rovers, not exactly “courted” by anyone else. Not exactly giving great “context” as why Nolan wasn’t at least included in more of the squads over the years. There have been other players included him as well, just don’t think he’s had a fair crack at the whip.

Anyways, he’s at a crucial juncture of his career. If he stoops to serie C, hopefully it will be a loan deal and have a chance at signing for a decent club when his contract expires next summer. If he goes to serie C permanently then I will bow down and acknowledge the amazing foresight by the Irish underage mgt of not giving him a proper chance over the years. He would need a lot of luck progressing from this. Serie B permanently would be a solid move for him, let hope he can secure it. Clubs may be in the market next week with sept 2 deadline so worth waiting for the right move

[pineapple stu]

Scales was courted by other clubs btw - Fleetwood were one. He chose Bristol, and I think when the deal fell through, the other clubs had signed alternatives

[tommy_c12000]

Scales was courted by other clubs btw - Fleetwood were one. He chose Bristol, and I think when the deal fell through, the other clubs had signed alternatives

Judging by Graham Coughlans comments the interest of other clubs was a fantasy story by the Dublin media (possibly generated by UCD) in an attempt to strengthen Scales hands and drive up any fee. Coughlan used it as an excuse to pull out of the deal. When Rovers pulled out, there were no other clubs interested, so gives creedance to Coughlans claims.

Unfortunately, it backfired leaving a young footballer without an opportunity having turned down a chance to play PL2 with Man City

[Olé Olé]

Judging by Graham Coughlans comments the interest of other clubs was a fantasy story by the Dublin media (possibly generated by UCD) in an attempt to strengthen Scales hands and drive up any fee. Coughlan used it as an excuse to pull out of the deal. When Rovers pulled out, there were no other clubs interested, so gives creedance to Coughlans claims.

Unfortunately, it backfired leaving a young footballer without an opportunity having turned down a chance to play PL2 with Man City

The Gospel according to Graham Coughlan.

[Charlie Darwin]

Not exactly giving great “context” as why Nolan wasn’t at least included in more of the squads over the years.

Have you considered that the manager looked at a bunch of players playing at similar levels and made a judgement call based on their relative abilities? It's notoriously difficult to predict how good a player will be at that age when they're not playing senior football. We came fourth in Toulon so the decision he made seems to have worked out OK.

And as Pineapple Stu said, more clubs were in for Scales - he's well thought-of and his international recognition reflects that.

[pineapple stu]

Judging by Graham Coughlans comments the interest of other clubs was a fantasy story by the Dublin media (possibly generated by UCD) in an attempt to strengthen Scales hands and drive up any fee. Coughlan used it as an excuse to pull out of the deal.

Eh, no. Fleetwood were interested. I wasn't talking to Scales myself about this, but I was talking to a guy I know who had just been talking to Scales about it. I'm quite happy the interest was real.

[liamoo11]

I have never seen him play so I have no opinion but it seems strange that he wasnt prepared to sign for Leeds because they wanted him to go on loan to kilmarnock but would now drop to serie c. Kilmarnock would have been great chance to play senior football with loads of games across a season against Celtic and rangers

[elatedscum]

<Sorry for the essay>


Centre half is probably the position where players develop latest. I think it has something to do with the fact that mistakes (which every young player will makes) are punished much more harshly there than any other outfield position. Out of position, costs a goal, go to ground when you shouldn’t, costs a goal. Etc Etc. Duffy was 24 before he was up to standard for Ireland, Richie Dunne only broke into the Irish team two weeks before his 26th birthday – and they’re probably the two outstanding post-Charlton centre-halves.

Personally I wouldn't see captaining the Inter Primavera team as being any different to captaining Liverpool Under 23s. Corey Whelan did that and now plays his football in the US lower leagues. If Nolan comes good then that's great. However, the likes of Masterson, O'Shea and Scales have all done well for our Under 21s and I haven't seen or heard anything to suggest that Nolan is ahead of those lads.

In fairness, Corey Whelan got that job partly cause he’s a scouser, partly because Liverpool loaned out half of their u23 squad and a few were injured and another few sold and partly cause he was at the club since age 8. Here’s a quote about Curtis Jones getting the captaincy today: "Curtis is obviously a local boy and he has come through the Academy. If possible, we will always try to get somebody to lead the team of that ilk.”


Whelan is a nice composed player who was a regular for our u21s and handled himself well at that level but he was never a guy who had a realistic chance of making it at Liverpool, especially with Trent ahead of him. Saying that, he’s also less than a month away from still being an u21. It’s conceivable that he plays a season or two in the US and then signs for a championship side and he ends up on a Conor Coady type trajectory, although as a player Kevin Foley is perhaps the most similar player I can think of.


An irish lad captaining inter is a little different to that. There’s probably also the fact Italian football has always and continues to produce quality defenders.

You don’t get to be primevera captain of one of the top Italian teams without some substance. And certainly he warranted a better look at over the last couple of years than he has received. For him to not even be in squads and for league of Ireland players to be ahead of him is insulting. It seems to me other players were selected ahead of him on the back of the typical irish begrudgery attitude of you’re not doing it the typical way that we like it, so we don’t like it and we won’t select u.

It’s also worth noting that the 98, 99 class is absolutely loaded with centre backs, it’s probably where that group have the most depth...


He’s gone with Masterson, O’Shea and Scales - I think Masterson and Scales both have a chance of being really good defenders if things break their way.


Corrie Ndaba also made the first squad which was a larger squad than the Toulon squad. He seems to have gone backwards since then. Ipswich’s manager mentioned last season that he would play for them but it never happened and they’ve gone down to league 1 and it still hasn’t happened.


Nolan was on standby for that squad, so at the time he was probably considered 5th centre half. Along with those guys, you’ve got Warren O’Hora (Brighton), Aaron O’Driscoll (Southampton), Thomas O’Connor (Southampton ) who all are different but promising in their own right.


There’s a few LOI lads: Ciaran Kelly of Pats has looked very good every time I’ve seen him play, the same is true of James Finnerty at Bohs. I’ve heard good things about Sam Todd, Conor McCarthy and John Mahon without having seen much of them. And once again, considering the pace of development for centre-halves, playing first choice at a league of Ireland club at 20 certainly wouldn’t be behind playing first choice for a Premier League u23 side.

Then there’s Nathan Collins who is still an u19 in this campaign but there’s obviously a decision to made as whether the U19s need him to anchor their side or he’s better being move up the age groups – or do you do both? U21s in September and October and U19s for their group in November.


Personally, I’d have Ryan Nolan in the squad (I watched a few of his performance for Inter’s u19s in the Youth Champion’s League and he looked like a good footballer) but I think Kenny’s decisions are understandable and justifiable. He’s actually gone out of his way to praise lads who went alternate routes for first team football: Mallon, Power, Ronan - so you couldn’t accuse him of picking players on anything other than merit…

[tommy_c12000]

His move to Arezzo confirmed on their website:
http://www.ssarezzo.it/2019/08/29/ry...ste-lamaranto/
3 year deal, not in squad for tomorrow’s game though. Hopefully will start soon and get a full season of first team football under his belt. I’d imagine he has contract caveats to allow him to move if suitable offer comes in.

For what it’s worth, Arezzo play in Tuscany, capital is Florence. They seem like a reasonably sized club with stadium size 13,100. They play in serie C league A (serie C broken down into 3 divisions) with only one serie B and are one of the stronger teams this year. Probably the equivalent closer to league one than league two in 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿, given they’re one of the top sides in division. They narrowly missed promotion to serie B last year so will be hoping to get promoted this year. I haven’t lost all hope for Ryan just yet, if he can play a regular season and get some exposure with Stephen Kenny’s side, you never know

[Eirambler]

Will be interesting to see how he gets on but the level he has moved to would suggest that he has indeed been vastly overrated by some Irish fans and the response to his being left out of under 21 squads was a bit over the top.

Serie C looks like a bit of a basket case of a league with more teams being demoted through insolvency than actually being relegated - Bury/Bolton type situations seem to occur every season.

Arezzo would appear somewhat similar to a team like maybe Gillingham in England and Nolan is a similar age to someone like Thomas O'Connor so it might be interesting to compare how those two players get on over the next few months following their recent moves.

[tommy_c12000]

Nolan given the number 4 jersey for the season, and starts in today’s friendly game vs AC Sansovino. He should start on Sunday in the league game vs Pergolettese for his first senior league start. Arezzo had been tracking him for some time apparently, so obviously have big plans for him. Hopefully, he can get a number of senior games under his belt in the coming months with Arezzo towards the top of the league. Let’s see how he does.

https://www.twitter.com/ArezzoCalcio...68731394490368

[DeLorean]

Nolan given the number 4 jersey for the season, and starts in today’s friendly game vs AC Sansovino. He should start on Sunday in the league game vs Pergolettese for his first senior league start.

He played 85 minutes of that friendly, which they won 3-0, but he's only on the bench today.

[tetsujin1979]

Came on at the end of the first half for his senior debut

[tommy_c12000]

Here are highlights from the 1-1 draw. Came on for Borghini who was injured at end of 1st half, hopefully he will be out for a while to give Nolan a chance to establish himself.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vkYMyXkVtzY#

Appears to have a good physique for center half and stands at 6 ft 2, wearing number 4. Don’t see much of him so can’t make much of a judgement on ability, apart from celebrating their goal early second half, giving away a very harsh penalty on 77 minutes, and a failed overhead catch attempt after the final whistle. All the hallmarks of a Clare footballer.

Arezzo were clearly the better team, with the usual Italian drama at the end, their keeper with straight red and their forward booked for diving for a penalty. Di Donata wasn’t happy at the end.

[DeLorean]

I was trying to find if it was him who gave away the penalty but couldn't see it anywhere. That's a bit of a nightmare debut but did look an extremely poor decision, from that one angle anyway.

[tetsujin1979]

First start last night against Juventus' second team, Arezzo lost 2-1

[tommy_c12000]

Yes, bad loss. Juve first goal was a clear push in the back and Arezzo also missed a penalty. They will hopefully bounce back at home again Sunday. The pace and standard actually looks good on the highlights. Nolan didn’t do anything wrong for goals, did get lucky with offside decision for a disallowed goal. Also he gets bullied in penalty area by striker allowing him a header at goal; all part of the learning curve but will need to toughen up and get more aggressive quickly. At end of video can see him giving a sloppy enough back pass, looks to have tired legs. But not unexpected having had no preseason and this being his first senior 90 minutes. He will improve every 90 minutes of football he gets. Borghini, the other centre half, is out for a while, so should get a string of games under his belt. This is a good development opportunity for him.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9x-Y9xWX6Ac

[DeLorean]

Had to Google translate the message behind the goals!

The tradition is linked to the history...
The history is linked to the team...
The team binds the history and the fans...
The Juventus B to which cost is ti€d up?

[tommy_c12000]

Had to Google translate the message behind the goals!

Got my friend to translate it:
“Tradition is linked to history, history is linked to the team, the team is linked to the city and the fans. Juventus B connects it all.”

[DeLorean]

Got my friend to translate it:
“Tradition is linked to history, history is linked to the team, the team is linked to the city and the fans. Juventus B connects it all.”

That sounds like a compliment? I presumed it was an insult from the home supporters, saying Juventus B's inclusion was financially driven or something, hence the € sign in the final word.