What if we changed it to Potentially Ineligible Players? Surely that would cover all the bases.
People can discuss specific players' eligibility. Bickering over who's stealing whose players, names and nicknames of national teams, and politics can just **** off to Off Topic or r/ireland or wherever you want. And yes, there have been infractions and posts deleted. Back on topic please.Originally Posted by geysir
You can't spell failure without FAI
Jake Clarke-Salter is being linked with a couple of Premier League teams again.
Highly thought of 16 year old Ireland eligible George Feeney (son of Warren) is signing for Spurs. He represented the north in 2023 and Wales (his place of birth) in 2024. Pretty unlikely to want to represent us, but the Wales choice was also surprising…
No competitive games afaik so no official switch needed if he were so inclined
That is a funny one alright. I assume he just happened to be born there whilst his father was playing in Wales and has no other real connection to Wales? His mother isn't Welsh?
I was trying to figure this out via Wikipedia and there's a bizarre 4 generation connection to Wales. George's grandfather was also born in Wales - whilst his great grandfather was also playing football in Wales. He was playing for Swansea.
Worth noting that Warren, his father(Warren Snr), and grandfather were all capped by Northern Ireland, so George would be the fourth generation to play for them, if he's capped
The grandfather played for Ireland, regardless of which association...
Trust me, there's more chance of me representing ROI.
(Well two of my grandparents were from the south.)
Are you a midfielder ? !Trust me, there's more chance of me representing ROI.
(Well two of my grandparents were from the south.)
Correct, for "Ireland" was the official name of the Irish Football Association team. As it happens, the first footballing Feeney, Jim, was born in Belfast a month after Partition, so never had any real connection with the FAI (or FAIFS as was), even though he played at a time when there were a number of "duals".
And as noted, he was playing for Swansea Town when his son, Warren Sr., was born there.
Warren Sr. was brought up in Belfast (played for Linfield, Glens, briefly for Crues), where Warren Jr. was born.
While Warren Jr. was playing for Cardiff City when George was born.
Meanwhile, young George's mother (i.e. Warren Jr's wife) is English, so he qualifies for them, too.
P.S. Dunno about Jim or George, but Warren Sr. who only ever got one cap, was imo potentially a far better player than Warren Jr. (29 caps), since he was a brilliant natural finisher. But istr he had a dodgy knee, which prevented him from withstanding the rigours of a f-t professional career. This may have become apparent when he had a couple of years at Stoke City v.early in his career? (Never actually played for their first team)
Last edited by EalingGreen; 26/06/2024 at 12:10 PM.
We should add the F***'s Sake back in.
You can't spell failure without FAI
Chelsea the latest club inked with Dewsbury-Hall.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/559...fer-leicester/
Are we making any effort to recruit him? England have a superfluity of midfield talent (several qualified for us), so his chances of carving out an extended career with them must be very limited. I can't help feeling that the managerial position is a serious impediment to recruiting dual nationals. This is one player who could make a massive difference in an area where we are depressingly weak, yet I don't think any serious effort is being made to secure his declaration.
Would actually playing for us make him less attractive to bigger clubs ? !
Also there is a big premium on transfers and wages for English players in England !
He's 26 in September and believe he's never had a call up at any age grade whatsoever for England. Either he's got no interest whatsoever or doesn't qualify.
Now days, being an Irish international means nothing for your career for someone like KDH. Managers would rather these lads stay away from international football unless it's an England call up.
It could actually be said that being an international for a team like Ireland, could be bad for your career at the higher level clubs or even mid-level clubs at this stage.
Harsh but sadly true, in todays soccer at those levels.
Last edited by seanfhear; 28/06/2024 at 12:57 PM.
Yeah I doubt they care one bit and probably see it as a nuisance that this lad will be off playing 10 games extra a year on top of the 40+ games he might play at club level.
I daresay the difficulty of getting into the English set-up might cause some Duals like KDH to consider their "other" country. But as against that, if that other country isn't qualifying regularly for major tournament finals, there's probably less incentive, esp when their managers may be urging them to concentrate on their club football.
If a " smaller " country had a, Gareth Bale / maybe another quality player or two, they you might get some players to take the opportunity alright !
Realistically, getting Dewsbury-Hall in with us underage was our main hope here, assuming he qualifies. He's at a level where he'd be too good for Ireland and perhaps not good enough for England. Compare him to Josh Cullen - we had him in since underage and naturally he graduated to the senior fold. Even if Cullen wasn't with us underage, he'd probably jump at the chance to play senior for us given that he's on the "good enough" point in the spectrum. I'm sure it did him no harm in getting his move to Anderlecht where they referred to his Irish spirit. Would have had less of a bearing on a move to Chelsea...
KDH also qualifies for Malaysia. A player like him would be better off playing with an Asian country over a small European country. Commercially would boost his profile in Asia and likely make him a few quid in sponsorships playing for Malaysia than Ireland.
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