In terms of current ability I'd go:
1. Ferguson
2. Szmodics
3. Cannon (underrated relative to Idah and Parrott because he's not Irish born/didn't play much underage for us)
4. Idah
5. Robinson
6. Parrott (sorry I'm still not convinced by him)
7. Connolly (could jump up the list quickly if he finally gets his head down and stays fit)
8. Armstrong (great player, just not a great scorer)
9. Vata
10. Barry (if he wanted to come on board)
11. Obafemi (I've pretty much given up on him)
12. Emakhu
Jacob Slater - English born, Irish U21 international is on the bench for B&HA this evening. Played for us earlier in November. Left Back...
I like high energy football. A little bit rock and roll. Many finishes instead of waiting for the perfect one.
Weird, random addition to this thread. I was looking through European scores on the BBC to see how any Irish players abroad might have performed. For some reason, I keep thinking that Conor Noß plays for LASK instead of Blau-Weiß Linz. So when I went into the line-ups from their game against Austria Vienna, I didn't find his name (He actually did come on as a sub for Linz in a game against Rapid Vienna). I was about to leave the LASK V Austria Vienna page when I noticed that there was a player for Vienna called M. Malone. Thinking initially that a famous fishmonger had risen from the dead and was blazing a trail for women footballers, I looked up Austria Vienna's squad list on Wikipedia and found a German underage player called Maurice Malone. Wikipedia noted that he is of American descent... it also claimed that, not only is he also eligible for the Republic of Ireland, but that "Hallgrímsson is on the verge of calling him up for the Irish national football team". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Malone
I know you have to be careful about what you read on Wikipedia because anybody can change things in there, but has anybody heard anything about his qualification or potential interest from Halgrimsson?
Last edited by tetsujin1979; 02/12/2024 at 10:05 AM. Reason: Corrected Wikipedia link
Let's hope M Malone doesn't turn out to be a catfishmonger...
Hello, hello? What's going on? What's all this shouting, we'll have no trouble here!
- E Tattsyrup.
The first person to mention Conor Sammon gets a life ban.
Well what sort of chance does that give me?!
Might as well add Gary Bream to the list while we're at it
Folding my way into the big money!!!
Or Paddy Roche.
Many of you on here are clowns fishing for thanks!
Aston Villa looking to recall Louie Barry from Stockport and send him out to a Championship club in the New Year - Leeds among those interested. Well, it looks like it's now or never for an approach:https://www.teamtalk.com/leeds-unite...allow-big-exit
Ireland boss Heimir Hallgrimsson looking to expand his playing options in 2025
https://www.independent.ie/sport/soc...505874004.html
Good to see HH doing this, some managers can be really poor at exploring squad options. Who are the realistic eligible players at the moment that we know of who are 1) realistic and 2) actually good enough that they might improve us?
Cirkin seems the most obvious one, since he's a left back. Not the quickest so I'd say he'll never get a look in with England. We haven't had a genuinely defensively good left back in a long time.
Clarke Salter is injury prone but has been good for QPR when he has played. But he's a centre back and we already have the likes of Cashin, Dunne and McNally who aren't getting a look in. He's left footed, which might give him something to make him of interest, but then so is Cashin (and obviously Scales).
Key seems like a possible one given we're not overstocked at full back. He's keeping Cyrus Christie out of the Swansea team. But reports on his form/level from Swansea fans are mixed at best. Might not be good enough.
There's talk of Louie Barry getting a Championship loan move in January and if that goes well his name will come up quite a lot I think. He's only a few months younger than Cannon though and has a far less impressive CV. But anyone scoring goals in the Championship is worthy of consideration, particularly a 21 year old.
Delap I'd imagine is not realistic at the moment and probably never will be.
In terms of players potentially going the other way I think Vata will be a serious flight risk until we cap-tie him. He's still got another under 21 campaign to come but if his form is good I wouldn't hesitate to get him involved in the seniors - we need to be proactive, especially when a lad is eligible for four countries.
Anyone else I'm forgetting? Obviously there could be players we're not aware of also.
Read in various places Morgan Rodgers at Villa qualified, think England tidied that up in the NL. Alex Scott at Bournemouth, currently injured was also mentioned. Both embedded in their own FA's pathway anyway. Kieran Dewsbury Hall isn't having much EPL game time at Chelsea but playing plenty in Europe. Hasn't been interested previously though.
Louie Barry is definitely worth a call (if not sounded out already). It might be the right time to do it too because it will test how keen or otherwise he is to play for us. He's well off the England radar but is upwardly mobile and retains a chance of senior caps for them in the future. If he reaches his ceiling and identifies he isn't good enough - which he can't have done yet - then we might get that call and I hate that call. Remember the Scott Hogan stall?
Dewsbury-Hall you don't mention but he might not be realistic. He would fall into the following bucket for sure: "If it’s a high-profile player that can play for us, maybe we have the first approach."
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