I wasn't aware we had approached Hogan, I would have guessed some comms must have happened though. Seen the twitter stuff with Redmonds mother aye, proud Irish woman no doubt. All three would be great, but up to them. Realistically do not see any future for any of them with England, ok, any could earn a few caps perhaps, but no long term careers there for them unless things change drastically.
I remember when you did.
I'm a bloke,I'm an ocker
And I really love your knockers,I'm a labourer by day,
I **** up all me pay,Watching footy on TV,
Just feed me more VB,Just pour my beer,And get my smokes, And go away
He does? Someone else is after saying it's his mother/extended family that identifies with his roots. Either way it's irrelevant. The player has shown no interest in declaring and nothing he has accomplished over the last two years makes him worth pursuing.
There are probably people more in tune with their roots than him who have shown little to no interest in declaring for us.
Scott Hogan currently. Jamie O'Hara spoke positively of his roots but (paraphrasing) said he felt English and didn't want to take an opportunity from someone who feels Irish.
I've said this before but there is no point pining for Hogan, Bamford, Crowley, Davies, Noble etc, etc.
History shows that eligible players who end up declaring for us do so under the radar (Christie) or without a need to chase their signature.
Why would he play for our U-18's if he doesn't identify with his Irish roots?
He was interested enough to play for our U-18's and interested enough to state that he wouldn't rule out the option of declaring in the future. Other than actually declare and say goodbye to his first preference, what more evidence are you looking for to show he could be interested? He also said it was a tough decision to switch to England, why bother even saying that if he doesn't identify with Ireland at all?
Last edited by DeLorean; 17/01/2017 at 10:11 PM.
- Hogan has had "The Chat" with Martin O'Neill and we're waiting for an answer. TOWK believes that the delay in willingness to commit since he became a serious prospect last Spring/Summer is an indication of lack of interest and may well be right. On the other hand Hogan has said that he wanted time to think it over as he was returning from a serious injury so I guess it would be reasonable to give him a bit more time and we can hold out hope up to the next international break. Beyond that, I think we can move on.
- What Bamford actually has said was that he has Irish relatives who are encouraging him to switch but added "I feel English, or at least I think so"
- No real sign of Redmond coming on board
As regards other potential players, Lukas Jutkiewiecz has started to score regularly this season for Birmingham, in his late 20s. Martin O'Neill has mentioned him as a potential recruit.
Former Manchester United and England youth striker Will Keane, after a few underwhelming loans, made a permanent move to Hull, went straight into their first team, issued a come and get me plea to Martin O'Neill, and promptly picked up a season-ending injury. He's just turned 24 so it might be worth following his progress next season
Actually one of the most important things for the management team to do is pay close attention to a number of youth players who are breaking through but could yet jump ship - the likes of Connor Ronan, Olamide Shodipo, Corey O'Keeffe, Tom Field , Josh Cullen and Josh Barrett
Don't know if this is verified but Callum Robinson was mentioned on YBIG tonight as eligible, the lad on the end of Horgans assist at the weekend. Ex Villa player, now surrounded by Irish at Preston.
I wonder if that's the case. Looked to have serious potential against Arsenal.
Only thing is, the time there was the original fuss about Grealish, there was another young Villa player that had a couple of caps with us, Jordan Graham. They'd both have been in the same youth squad and have played similar positions as Robinson and I remember mixing Robinson up for Graham before. Slight possibility that's the case.
Graham is at Wolves now and has done little at Wolves since he went there from Villa, by the way.
No harm to keep an eye but in the case of the majority of those players, I don't think there's much to worry about. Ronan chose us. Shodipo re-affirmed how much it means to him playing for us. Cullen switched from England. Barrett has always been with us and his parents are Irish-born.
I agree with your point though. Can never be too safe since the Grealish incident but the names I've mentioned don't provide me with any doubts.
And what do you do with them anyway? What does "pay close attention to" mean? I think we all agree that underage selection has been baffling down the years but other than picking the right players on merit and communicating well with them there's nothing else to do, is there?
Just as you said - if they are making a breakthrough, just have management go and watch them, have a chat and let them know that there is a clear path to the National Squad if they continue to progress and then use friendlies to blood players in. And communication is important - Cyrus Christie has said that having Martin O'Neill show the respect of speaking to him personally (as opposed to the English FA sending him a letter) was a major factor in his decision to represent us. Now as Ole Ole noted, the chances of them switching may be low, but giving some younger players game-time early in their senior career serves a second purpose (even if there are other players currently ahead of them on merit): by the time the next qualifying campaign rolls around, a youngster with only a dozen senior games under his belt currently, might be a fully fledged Championship star - so it'd be good if he had a couple of caps under his belt in advance of that. So I reckon MON and Keano should be looking at giving a few uncapped players a run-out against Iceland and looking at summer friendlies to give the opportunity to more. Luckily it seems like they are thinking along those lines - picking Callum O'Dowda for the games against Belarus and Oman would have given Martin O'Neill the confidence to put him on for his competitive debut against Moldova, where he played a role in the build-up to one of our goals.
Now by my reckoning, there are currently well over twenty uncapped players or players with only a few caps who could justifiably be included in the squad for Iceland. Of course, if you put too many of them in the team, it may become a pointless exercise, as you do want to see how they fit in with the current squad. So closer to the date I plan to put a list up of those with a potential claim to a place, so everybody can debate who should get a place when compared to the others (rather than promoting their favourite LOI/SPL/League One player without consideration to three or four Championship players who could stake a claim for the same position)
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