Potentially eligible players thread

[Olé Olé]

A reference to Rob Brennan's twitter feed in another thread made me go have a look. Always the odd nugget inside there.

Apparently, Olamide Shodipo's father is still living in Dublin. I had been under the impression that his links with Ireland extended no further than being born here and the few years he lived here prior to moving to London. It's positive to hear that he still has a tangible link here and, hopefully, remains in contact and visits his father.

Also, we can expect to see 20 year-old Marcus Harness in upcoming under 21 squads, per Brennan. He's in and about the first team at Burton Albion, plays in midfield and his mother is from Cork. He served to stoke the fire by retweeting a tweet from an Irishman regarding whether the FAI had been in touch with him: https://twitter.com/E_Diddy/status/763451203250454528. Of course, he'd have to be from Coventry!

[Wangball]

Funny story, that tweet that Harness retweeted was mine! I'm not sure why I haven't shared the background on that story but a while back Cyrus Christie - upwards of 9 months ago - tweeted a pic of himself in the Green and looking through the replies I saw Harness replied saying something like "I hope I get a shot" or something to that effect so I messaged him and asked if he qualified, he said yes, I lashed an email off to the FAI address (found in this thread!) and forgot about it, then saw Burton got promoted and thought I wonder if that was ever chased up on so tweeted the above to see if he got a call! Evidently he has!

[Olé Olé]

Funny story, that tweet that Harness retweeted was mine! I'm not sure why I haven't shared the background on that story but a while back Cyrus Christie - upwards of 9 months ago - tweeted a pic of himself in the Green and looking through the replies I saw Harness replied saying something like "I hope I get a shot" or something to that effect so I messaged him and asked if he qualified, he said yes, I lashed an email off to the FAI address (found in this thread!) and forgot about it, then saw Burton got promoted and thought I wonder if that was ever chased up on so tweeted the above to see if he got a call! Evidently he has!

Haha. Good work. Have you seen him play by any chance? Has racked up a good number of appearances for a coming side and at a young age.

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

He's 20 or 22 years old depending on which source you read.

5 League One appearances last season and none so far this season.

Any prior experience seems to be in League Two.

People talk about LOI players having the talent but not being given the opportunities, talking about how they should stay at home for an extra few years and harness their talent rather than rush through a move to England, and you see caps handed out like confetti to any player who is eligible.

I'm genuinely not making an attempt to sound like a muppet here but if any player playing above National League level was found eligible for Ireland there would be calls for them to be selected for one of our Intl teams.

Has anyone even seen this lad play?

[Wangball]

Harness might get 1 cap or he may get 100 caps, the point is his name is now in the conversation. The more names in the conversation the stronger we are.

[CraftyToePoke]

Not sure where to put this as he is definitely eligible, but Joe Gormley came off the bench the other night against Millwall for Peterborough. He lost all of last season to injury immediately following his move there in June '15. Scored 41 & 37 goals for Cliftonville in the prior two seasons to earn that move. Twenty seven soon so needs to get on with it now it it's in him but good luck to the man, nice to see him fit again and a very warm welcome back from the home fans when he came on. With a better square ball would have scored also, made the run perfectly but the ball didn't arrive.

[liamoo11]

Aiden o neill 18 yo Brisbane lad made debut for burnley today. Possibly eligible

[CraftyToePoke]

From the Burnley site ''His long awaited international clearance was finally granted in the summer of 2015, following a frustrating spell training and playing with the Development Squad''

[liamoo11]

From the Burnley site ''His long awaited international clearance was finally granted in the summer of 2015, following a frustrating spell training and playing with the Development Squad''

o. Yeah looking at it seems burnley had 5 or 6 Aussies in their youth team must b somewhere they r concentrating on. Brisbanians in my experience have no interest in their heritage so doubt he wil play for us

[Stuttgart88]

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/irela...rish-1.2763651

I thought I'd put this here for discussion. As good a place as any...

[paul_oshea]

Finally offaly adding something to the country

[Stuttgart88]

Ah come on. Seamus Darby.

[paul_oshea]

Jees Stutts I'd be shamed for that one. I meant non gaelic sports obvioulsy, and golf while I'm at it.

Is he a descendant of henry darby i wonder.

Anyway on the article the Germans are a step ahead as usual, and even the british fast tracking all these athletes in. How difficult would it be to add an extra question on the form "are you into sports?"

[CraftyToePoke]

How difficult would it be to add an extra question on the form "are you into sports?"

Or just make them race each other ? Winners in, medal placings favourably looked upon, losers sent on to Britain.

[Stuttgart88]

Potm!

[livehead1]

Aiden O'Neill made second appearance for Burnley last night, Australian born, wonder whether FAI have made enquiries as to eligibility...

[paul_oshea]

get onto them there lads.

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

Here's his Twitter page for anyone who wants to ask him if he's interested/even eligible to play for Ireland.

https://twitter.com/aidenoneill98

Michael Duffy is one of two players given a first senior call up for Northern Ireland BTW.

[samhaydenjr]

Technically still eligible for us, Will Keane has moved to Hull - http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/37217074 - I hope you can all contain your excitement (watch now, he'll score 15 to help Hull secure a top-4 position)

[Olé Olé]

I’ve been really impressed with Kevin Kilbane on Newstalk of late. He’s a good skin, enjoyable to listen to and really insightful. Dan O’Donnell couldn’t make an assertion on the Irish camp last night without adding the caveat of “but, I don’t know” to the end of his sentences, seemingly mindful of Kilbane’s presence and obvious knowledge. Joe Molloy struck up a discussion on Andre Gray’s, admittedly despicable, tweets. As a presenter, a bit of context on Gray’s background would be within Molloy’s duty to provide. However, it took Kilbane to refer to his stabbing, involvement in gang activity and tough upbringing. He didn’t do it to excuse Gray but just to provide some context.

Anyway, John Cross of the Mirror was on to discuss Jack Wilshere last night and Kilbane couldn’t let him go without asking him what he thought of Sam Allardyce’s willingness to bring in naturalized citizens into the England squad (discussions having been recently held with Steven N’Zonzi). I thought it was really adding value to the show by Kilbane to ask this question of a well-placed English journalist.

After Cross was gone Kilbane struck gold again for the listeners. He discussed how the practice didn’t sit right with him. Most intriguingly, he said that there have been discussions in the England underage set-up whereby young players have been told to cut their teeth at international level in the underage set-ups of other countries, like Ireland, and if it works out they’d be brought into the England set-up. He also stated that England are really going after as many underage players as they can at the moment to hold such discussions or. Otherwise, to get them to switch across. Obviously, Grealish was name-checked in this but the likes of Agyei-Tabi, Crowley and others have began their international career with us before moving across to England also. A worrying practice if they’re doing this on the back of advice from someone like Gareth Southgate, who Kilbane did mention too.