Potentially eligible players thread

**Murph 1** · 22/01/2016, 7:27 PM

Think Tom Carroll is an England U21 so that's more than likely the end of that.

**DannyInvincible** · 24/01/2016, 8:55 PM

Lee Carsley is now working for the FA to ensure no future Jack Grealish-type sagas: http://www.balls.ie/football/lee-carsley-fa/322378

Balls.ie seem to get their info from this article by Paul Rowan in the Sunday Times, although it's behind a pay-wall: http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/...cle1660036.ece

Originally Posted by Balls.ie

Martin O'Neill and Republic of Ireland U-21 manager Noel King have tried to influence a lot of young English born talent in recent seasons, with Jack Grealish being the most notable. The two latest players set to start a tug-of-war between the FAI and the FA are Arsenal's Dan Crowley, and Coventry's James Maddison.

Maddison in particular has been heavily sought after by King for the U-21's, at the same time that Tottenham are looking to bring the 19-year-old to the Premier League. But it now appears that the FA have been alerted, thanks to a former Irish international in their ranks.

The 40-times capped Lee Carsley now works for the FA at the youth level, trying to make sure that fiascos like Jack Grealish don't drag on that long again. For Ireland, it means that the under-the-radar recruitment could be in jeopardy.

Carsley is now playing the role of the Republic of Ireland's biggest adversary when it comes to winning over the hearts of players who have the option of playing for England or the Republic of Ireland.

In the Maddison case, Carsley's experience working with the Coventry development squad and knowledge of Maddison would have been invaluable in securing Maddison's international future. Now it seems that Carsley's influence will keep Maddison with England.

It could have been all so different for the FAI. Three years ago, Carsley and Kevin Kilbane came to the association offering their services in identifying and helping to convince Irish qualified players to choose the Republic of Ireland. But the FAI rejected their offer, failing to find a place for either player in the association.

Unfortunately for Ireland, the FA have been woken up after Ireland were so close to bringing the likes of Grealish, Harry Kane, and Maddison to their set-ups before they broke through - and it seems as though Lee Carsley will be the biggest thorn in their side for the future.

I hadn't been aware that both Carsley and Kilbane had approached the FAI to work on recruiting England-born players with Irish roots, but the FAI turned them away.

**tetsujin1979** · 24/01/2016, 9:47 PM

balls.ie did the same thing with an article last week on Gary Breen's long-rumoured move to Inter Milan. They lifted an entire article wholesale from an Independent article that's behind their paywall. Whether or not the Independent sue them is another story.

**Charlie Darwin** · 24/01/2016, 9:48 PM

Originally Posted by tetsujin1979

balls.ie did the same thing with an article last week on Gary Breen's long-rumoured move to Inter Milan. They lifted an entire article wholesale from an Independent article that's behind their paywall. Whether or not the Independent sue them is another story.

Balls is owned by the Off the Ball team, who are all on DOB's payroll.

**tetsujin1979** · 24/01/2016, 9:58 PM

Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin

Balls is owned by the Off the Ball team, who are all on DOB's payroll.

Actually, I'm wrong there. They took the article from the Sunday Times, same as the article linked by Danny above, not the Independent: http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/...cle1656829.ece

**Murph 1** · 25/01/2016, 7:46 AM

Hi, Think the important point here is how influential someone like Kevin Kilbane could be in outlining the attraction of playing for the Republic to a confused young lad from Coventry who is eligible through either a parent/grandparent. The FAI need to have high profile ex Internationals employed in order to ensure that a young lad such as Maddison is given every opportunity to declare for Ireland. With all due respects to Noel King he is finding it difficult in the face of a very agressive approach being taken by the English FA. Their attitude is get them in and if they don't make it down the road-good riddance. This lack of success in attracting the likes of Patrick Bamford, Daniel Crowley , Jack Grealish and now young Maddisson is going to have serious consequences for the U 21 and Senior teams into the future. The FAI need to invest real money in employing the right people in order to improve the situation- even if it means John Delaney having to take a pay cut.

**Olé Olé** · 25/01/2016, 8:53 AM

Originally Posted by Murph 1

Hi, Think the important point here is how influential someone like Kevin Kilbane could be in outlining the attraction of playing for the Republic to a confused young lad from Coventry who is eligible through either a parent/grandparent. The FAI need to have high profile ex Internationals employed in order to ensure that a young lad such as Maddison is given every opportunity to declare for Ireland. With all due respects to Noel King he is finding it difficult in the face of a very agressive approach being taken by the English FA. Their attitude is get them in and if they don't make it down the road-good riddance. This lack of success in attracting the likes of Patrick Bamford, Daniel Crowley , Jack Grealish and now young Maddisson is going to have serious consequences for the U 21 and Senior teams into the future. The FAI need to invest real money in employing the right people in order to improve the situation- even if it means John Delaney having to take a pay cut.

Very true.

Recent PL players and Irish internationals like Steven Reid and Kevin Kilbane have spoke well in the media in relation to playing for Ireland instead of England. I'm sure that they could translate that to discussions with players.

**Kingdom** · 25/01/2016, 10:07 AM

That's the worrying thing. Carsley and Killer would both have comfortable existences I would expect, and I cannot imagine (certainly in Killer's situation) them asking for stupid money from the FAI, if they asked for money at all.
So how much could this have cost? Would 100k down from Delaney's wages have covered expenses for the pair?

You have to look at the long-term here Mr Delaney. Dan Crowley and Maddison could be the difference between qualifying for Euro 2020 (on home soil) or not. That would bring in a cash bonanza to the FAI coffers, for the sake of a small outlay in the here and now.

**DeLorean** · 25/01/2016, 10:18 AM

Originally Posted by Murph 1

This lack of success in attracting the likes of Patrick Bamford, Daniel Crowley , Jack Grealish and now young Maddisson is going to have serious consequences for the U 21 and Senior teams into the future.

Norwich are odds on to sign Bamford on loan, maybe Brady and Wessi will have a word. Hull are in the running too so Meyler might oblige. The Derby contingent weren't really established when he was there, there's no Irish squad players at Chelsea or Middlesbrough and I hope he wasn't talking to Damien Delaney or Andy Reid at Palace/Forest.

**DannyInvincible** · 25/01/2016, 6:27 PM

Originally Posted by Murph 1

This lack of success in attracting the likes of Patrick Bamford, Daniel Crowley , Jack Grealish and now young Maddisson is going to have serious consequences for the U 21 and Senior teams into the future. The FAI need to invest real money in employing the right people in order to improve the situation- even if it means John Delaney having to take a pay cut.

Whilst I think employing Kilbane would have been beneficial, it's not really the long-term answer to our woes though. The real solution would be ensuring we can develop eligible players ourselves - be they Ireland-born or not - rather than having to worry so much about trying to convince ambivalent or uncertain dual nationals who've come through the FA system or English clubs.

There is an argument as well that if a player chooses England first, he can always still switch to us at some point in the future, so long as he isn't capped for them at senior competitive level, whereas, if he chooses us first and then makes a formal switch to England, he can't switch back. Of course, that's ignoring the question of whether or not we're happy to facilitate what you might describe as mercenaries or players for whom we're no more than a back-up option. Personally, I'm happy to judge each case as it comes. I wouldn't have been too keen on Mark Noble or Jermaine Pennant - they just gave off the wrong signals as far as potential commitment was concerned - whereas I was happy enough to acknowledge the difficulty of Grealish's position and he did make a decision early in his career, to be fair to him. There's something about the honesty of Bamford that makes me think that, even if he was to switch to us at some point down the line after having tried for an England place, it wouldn't rub me up the wrong way. He's been clear that he does have sentiment for Ireland and that he'd be happy to play for us, but that England is his preference at present, which is fair enough seeing as he is English too. No bullsh*t and he's respectfully made his position clear; if we're happy to select him at some point in the future after he's made himself available, we can do so. If not, we don't have to.

**Murph 1** · 26/01/2016, 3:13 PM

Hi- Agree to an extent with DannyInvicible, Yes ideally we would like to develop enough of our own Irish born players to International standard, Some of these players will move across the water at a young age with dreams of all things wonderful, Unfortunately for numerous reasons only a tiny minority will reach the required standard, others such as Seamus Coleman, Shane Long and Kevin Doyle will move at an older age from League of Ireland clubs. Our second avenue is players born in Northern Ireland who for personal reasons will only feel comfortable playing with the Republic, this avenue of approach has given us McLean, Gibson, Duffy, Wilson,O Kane, Liam McAlinden and many more in the recent past, The third option is players with an Irish heritage born outside of Ireland but eligible through a parent/grandparent. This avenue of recruitement has to be given more priority by the FAI as the quality of player slipping through our fingers is going to have serious consequences as we approach the next World Cup qualifying campaign and beyond. The FAI and in particular John Delaney must employ ex internationals such as Kevin Kilbane, Steven Reid ,Steven Hunt to mention but a few.Maybe a conversation with one of these ex internationals would clear up any doubts a young 17/19 year old would have as to their International allegiance.

**DannyInvincible** · 29/01/2016, 2:38 PM

Ideally, we'd be able to sustain a system/league that could develop and host international-standard players - other similarly-sized populations around Europe can manage - but that's a pipe-dream at the present juncture. Viewing ourselves as a sort of inherently-inferior cattle-market for British clubs won't help.

Liam McAlinden is actually from the West Midlands in England, albeit his roots are northern. Plenty of Ireland-supporting northern nationalists are content to play for NI for reasons of pragmatism/career progression rather than as a necessary expression of their national identity. Niall McGinn is one example who was open about his support for Ireland (immediately after a game between NI and ourselves actually) and his reasons for playing for the IFA. He'd have played for Ireland if he'd been offered the opportunity, but perhaps didn't have enough faith in his ability to hold out so accepted the call-up for NI when it came. The IFA youth teams are similarly full of Ireland-supporting players. As NI youth teams line up for "their" anthem pre-game, you might even find a near full row of players with heads down. Indeed, a few of those players you mention - McClean, Duffy and O'Kane, for example - played for the IFA at under-age level. Generally, Ireland was their preference though and they feel more culturally comfortable with Ireland, although O'Kane did assert that his decision to switch was purely for footballing reasons and rejected notions that it might have been for identity reasons. He was possibly trying to relieve the sort of heat and vitriol directed towards the others. If so, it's a sorry state of affairs that a young player might feel ashamed of admitting that he simply wanted to play for the team with whom he more identified culturally.

Stephen Hunt is from Waterford, by the way. Not sure if you were insinuating he was a dual national by mentioning him in the same bracket as Kilbane and Reid.

**Crosby87** · 29/01/2016, 3:02 PM

Instead of every country in Europe having its own "league" that no one cares about, certain countries should get together and combine to make one league. I've planned this out for a while now. Say...Ireland, Switzerland, Czech, Austria, some others. Sweden maybe. Holland. There would be a few existing teams from each country. SO what if you have to fly to road games. There would be more revenue. We would call it "The NEXT League." It would be way more fun. Also there would be playoffs. Top 8 teams every year with a Super Bowl final rotating between countries. It would gradually improve and eventually be on the level with EPL, Serie, Liga and Bundy.
I have a presentation at the ready.

**DannyInvincible** · 29/01/2016, 3:36 PM

An article on Harry Kane's roots in the Connacht Tribune here: http://connachttribune.ie/harry-kane...f-our-own-909/

Originally Posted by Máirtín Ó Catháin

Tottenham Hotspur’s North London fans sing proudly that he’s one of their own – but Harry Kane, one of football’s hottest properties, is really one of ours….because he has his roots deep in the Galway Gaeltacht.

The England international has scores of close relatives in the Letterfrack and Renvyle area – so much so that his father was back to renew acquaintances with them this week.

Harry’s grandfather, Michael John Kane, was born and reared in the townland of Dawros in Letterfrack; he emigrated to England as a young man.

Michael John died in May 2013 and was brought back home to be buried in the local cemetery. Indeed, his grandson – less well known then – was back for the funeral.

Harry’s father, Patrick Kane, who is back on a visit to Letterfrack this week, said that the young star footballer had tentative plans to come to visit family in Connemara last year but that his schedule is extremely tight.

Patrick would like to see him coming to Connemara more often. “It would be a good place for him to get away from it all sometimes,” said his father. However, the intensity of the Premier Division football and his England commitments mean that free time is very limited.

Patrick wouldn’t be drawn on a suggestion that Harry might have a place in the Letterfrack/Renvyle area in the future. “He is a very young man and it’s too early to look down the road,” he said.

There's more in the actual paper itself. I've not got a copy, but Balls.ie have quoted some of it: http://www.balls.ie/football/harry-k...er-days/322865

In March last year, Martin O'Neill disclosed that a relative of Harry Kane had called him to say that the Spurs man was interested in playing for Ireland.

Shortly afterwards, however, O'Neill spotted in a newspaper that Kane had declared his loyalty to England.

As the Connacht Tribune boasts this week, Kane's paternal grandfather - Michael John Keane - is from Connemara. Harry's father Patrick was in Galway this week to visit his relatives in Letterfrack. Harry was last in the area four years back for the funeral of his grandfather.

Patrick told the Connacht Tribune that the Irish football authorities made no attempt to reach him in his younger days. As the paper writes;

"Harry Kane was brought into the Tottenham Hotspur at twelve years of age and he has played at all underage levels for England.

He would have been eligible to play for Ireland but his father said he was never approached by the Irish football authorities in his earlier years."

Last year, Eamon Dunphy told us that Ireland could have gotten Harry Kane had we 'been doing our work properly' in recruiting players from English football.

Dunphy credited Jack Charlton's zeal in seeking out English and Scottish born players of Irish extraction in the late 80s with helping to power much of Ireland's success in the golden era.

"I think Jack did really well to source players like Ray Houghton, John Aldridge, and John Giles before him, in sourcing Mark Lawrenson and getting him to commit to Ireland. If you see, for example, what Harry Kane is doing in England. We could have got Harry Kane had we been doing our work properly over the last three or four years but we're not."

Maybe the FAI could have done more. Who knows? It's easy to talk (and criticise) in hindsight, and, whilst I do think employing the likes of Kilbane could be helpful, there's only so much an association can really do to try and secure the services of a player. If a player, deep-down, ultimately has his eyes set on the bright lights of Wembley, there's probably little the FAI or someone like Kilbane can do to divert his attention. Jack Grealish was engaged with on numerous occasions and given invitations, time and respect, but he still went for the FA. There was little else we could have done besides having issued him an ultimatum to force his hand, but I don't think that would have been an ideal way to go about it.

**DannyInvincible** · 29/01/2016, 3:41 PM

Originally Posted by Crosby87

Instead of every country in Europe having its own "league" that no one cares about, certain countries should get together and combine to make one league. I've planned this out for a while now. Say...Ireland, Switzerland, Czech, Austria, some others. Sweden maybe. Holland. There would be a few existing teams from each country. SO what if you have to fly to road games. There would be more revenue. We would call it "The NEXT League." It would be way more fun. Also there would be playoffs. Top 8 teams every year with a Super Bowl final rotating between countries. It would gradually improve and eventually be on the level with EPL, Serie, Liga and Bundy.
I have a presentation at the ready.

A pan-Celtic league is a suggestion that has been aired in the past. If your specific club is going to suffer as a result, naturally you won't be too keen on it. I'm not sure the bigger Scottish clubs think much of the prospect either given that the various leagues aren't on an equal footing in terms of strength at present.

**IsMiseSean** · 29/01/2016, 6:53 PM

Originally Posted by DannyInvincible

Just saw this on Twitter; Australia-born River Plate (Argentina) player Gavin De Niese possesses an Irish passport, so is presumably eligible to play for us too.

This lad is on the bench for Shamrock Rovers tonight in a pre-season friendly against UCD.

**Charlie Darwin** · 29/01/2016, 10:23 PM

Originally Posted by IsMiseSean

This lad is on the bench for Shamrock Rovers tonight in a pre-season friendly against UCD.

Played the last few minutes and looked comfortable on the ball. Had a good chance to score but ballooned it.

**Crosby87** · 30/01/2016, 1:12 PM

He is teaching local trouble youths to throw a boomerang, according to balls.ie.

**CraftyToePoke** · 30/01/2016, 8:33 PM

Bamford joins Norwich on loan - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/35452629

**tetsujin1979** · 01/02/2016, 10:28 PM

Maddison has signed for Norwich and immediately loaned back to Coventry for the rest of the season: http://www.canaries.co.uk/news/artic...n-2933363.aspx