Adam Idah F. Swansea b.2001

[samhaydenjr]

So, basically, this is going to be what's on every Irish football site's comment board for the next eight weeks or so: "Mick should include Lee O'Connor, Dara O'Shea, Nathan Collins, Dan Crowley, Jayson Molumby, Jason Knight, Michael Obafemi, Aaron Connolly, Troy Parrott, Adam Idah, Mark Travers and Caoimhin Kelleher in his starting eleven against Slovakia - but he won't because he's a dinosaur"

Seriously, though, what an achievement for Idah - I've said it before about him here... whatever level he plays at, he just scores. At this point he just needs to move up one more level to be where we want him to be... and he's still only 18. It's beginning to look like the youngsters are trying to one-up each other again - there was a point a little while back where three or four of them scored hat-tricks in quick succession at under-age levels and now they seem to be trying to outdo each other again. And it's great to see.

[Olé Olé]

Good point regarding the healthy competition and it was made on Off The Ball yesterday. If you're Parrott then, whilst you're younger, your competitive instinct must surely be kicking in and resulting in a bit of hunger. Likewise for Afolabi who has seemingly spent 6 months stagnating on the back of a brilliant under 19 tournament (even if reports that he has impressed Lennon at Celtic are to be believed). Connolly, Obafemi and Idah are hopefully now viable options at their clubs (Connolly and Obafemi are established options, yet to be seen if Idah has served to commence this establishment process).

Similar situation now for Coventry when he looks at Molumby and Knight and their impact at Championship level.

Masterson must also be wondering when he will make his senior now with O'Shea and Collins having done so at younger ages.

I would also imagine that advantage will pass to the first of Travers and Kelliher to forge out a successful loan move.

[Olé Olé]

I’ve suggested to the BBC that it’s basically racism and invited them to correct the record

I've noted a similar misstep by someone within the English media. A F365 profile of players at EFL level that could kick on for the PL refers to Eberechi Eze as a "Nigerian forward" even though he was in England's last under 21 squad and there have been no reports of him jumping ship: https://www.football365.com/news/six...ague-transfers

[Fixer82]

Adam Idah is essentially the same as Katie Taylor. Has a foreign born father.
Has anyone ever questioned Katie Taylor’s Irishness?
Very shoddy work from MOTD

[Paddy Garcia]

I’ve suggested to the BBC that it’s basically racism and invited them to correct the record

Though its not if its an accurate quote from Mick!

[Fizzer]

Correct, If the quote is accurate Mick will have to explain it.

[IsMiseSean]

Though its not if its an accurate quote from Mick!

I was watching BT when Mick commented on Idah.
He didn't imply he needed to cap Idah to keep him with Ireland, it was because he scored a hat-trick in a competitive first team game.

[Olé Olé]

Exactly. There was zero inference or implication in relation to his national identity or his Nigerian father.

Honestly, you would wonder if it's a surprise to England that little old Ireland has immigrants like they do.

[Fizzer]

Thanks Sean, I saw the clip from BT but wasn’t sure if there was any further comments from Mick somewhere (I couldn’t find any). The BBC have said that it’s been forwarded to the producers of MOTD and they’ll reply as soon as possible (they say to expect 10 working days). The wording of what I sent them isn’t excessive but I won’t post it here without mods permission. I’ll let you know when a full response is received.
Anyway, after that brilliant display from Idah I hope the loan move doesn’t happen and he gets game time against Man Utd on Saturday. He looks a fantastic prospect.

[pineapple stu]

I’ve suggested to the BBC that it’s basically racism and invited them to correct the record

The word "racism" is probably the most overused word today.

This is another example of throwing it around at something that's not remotely racist.

Given that capping players to keep hold of them has been a big talking point in Irish football the last while, it's not an entirely unreasonable point to have been made. It may be a bit ignorant of the facts, or it may simply be a misinterpretation of something McCarthy actually did say, but that's not quite the same thing as being racist.

People fall over themselves to get offended these days tbh.

[Olé Olé]

https://www.pinkun.com/norwich-city/...tion-1-6450971

Farke seems to be changing his mind on a potential loan for Idah. Doncaster must be sickened.

[Fizzer]

The word "racism" is probably the most overused word today.

This is another example of throwing it around at something that's not remotely racist.

Given that capping players to keep hold of them has been a big talking point in Irish football the last while, it's not an entirely unreasonable point to have been made. It may be a bit ignorant of the facts, or it may simply be a misinterpretation of something McCarthy actually did say, but that's not quite the same thing as being racist.

People fall over themselves to get offended these days tbh.

People can do a bit yeah, but I think it was an unreasonable point to have been made. It wasn’t actually a point at all, it was a misquotation of what McCarthy said. It arose, I would suggest, because of Idah’s ethnicity. MOTD would not have misquoted McCarthy if Idah was white. Obafemi had to field similar nonsense for no reason (Mark Hughes to blame primarily there, ably assisted by Martin O’Neill).
The point you make on the capping issue to keep players is a reasonable one, except that it’s only an issue in the context of players born outside Ireland, some of them with links only through one grandparent. I’ve never heard the ‘capping to keep them’ issue raised in the context of a white player born and raised in Ireland. You can call it something other than racism if you prefer but I think it’s wrong to call into question the loyalty of a young fella from Cork to his country and to suggest that he’s flighty on the basis of nothing other than the colour of his skin.
Idah should not now be expected to have to answer questions from the media surrounding his loyalty when he hasn’t done or said anything to the contrary, nor has McCarthy by all accounts.
The story should have been that another exceptional Irish player has broken through in spectacular fashion and might now be capped (which is the actual story if MOTD hadn’t taken liberties) but the insinuation that McCarthy has to now handcuff him to his own country is ugly, unwarranted and wrong.

[pineapple stu]

Problem for me there is you're basing a fairly serious accusation based on little more than your own presumptions. I don't think it's good enough for someone to have an accusation of racism made to their employer because of stuff you're assuming.

I would say it's entirely possible the presenter didn't know his entire background - he was a fairly unexpected story at short notice, and there's lots of research to be done for a programme like that; it's not all about Idah.

I still think you're overreacting and you should at very least correct your complaint email to give the presenter the benefit of innocent until proven guilty rather than shouting "Racist!" at what could just be a simple mistake

[Diggs246]

People can do a bit yeah, but I think it was an unreasonable point to have been made. It wasn’t actually a point at all, it was a misquotation of what McCarthy said. It arose, I would suggest, because of Idah’s ethnicity. MOTD would not have misquoted McCarthy if Idah was white. Obafemi had to field similar nonsense for no reason (Mark Hughes to blame primarily there, ably assisted by Martin O’Neill).
The point you make on the capping issue to keep players is a reasonable one, except that it’s only an issue in the context of players born outside Ireland, some of them with links only through one grandparent. I’ve never heard the ‘capping to keep them’ issue raised in the context of a white player born and raised in Ireland. You can call it something other than racism if you prefer but I think it’s wrong to call into question the loyalty of a young fella from Cork to his country and to suggest that he’s flighty on the basis of nothing other than the colour of his skin.
Idah should not now be expected to have to answer questions from the media surrounding his loyalty when he hasn’t done or said anything to the contrary, nor has McCarthy by all accounts.
The story should have been that another exceptional Irish player has broken through in spectacular fashion and might now be capped (which is the actual story if MOTD hadn’t taken liberties) but the insinuation that McCarthy has to now handcuff him to his own country is ugly, unwarranted and wrong.

What was her exact quote?

[Eminence Grise]

I’d guess it’s nothing more than another instance of British obliviousness to Ireland and Irish matters generally, coupled with lazy journalism – Idah’d be on the radar of BBC Radio Norfolk’s sports desk, and a quick phone call from an MotD researcher to them or Norwich’s press office would have given them all the background needed.

[pineapple stu]

Far more likely in my view alright.

[Olé Olé]

You could draw some parallels with Declan Rice given that he had as much Irish blood as Idah has Nigerian, albeit perhaps Idah's father was born in Nigerian but Rice's old man was born in England. There were questions asked to Roy about Rice potentially defecting to England.

I would say, however, that Logan or her team would not have even considered assessing if Aaron Connolly, for instance, had any foreign-born parent or grandparent.

I would also query if Logan has ever made a similar statement about one of England's black players. For example, was something similar ever stated regarding capping Abraham or Tomori?

[Olé Olé]

I probably don't feel as strongly about this as others and I'm going too far down the "what if" road with those questions.

[Paddy Garcia]

I was watching BT when Mick commented on Idah.
He didn't imply he needed to cap Idah to keep him with Ireland, it was because he scored a hat-trick in a competitive first team game.

I also saw that interview. And TBF to Logan she has tweeted that it was a quote from Mick.

It may well not have been a comment Mick made to camera, rather in the studio.

I think we are too quick to blame Logan/BBC before exploring the source of the comment.

[Olé Olé]

Are you referring to this Tweet by Gabby? https://twitter.com/GabbyLogan/statu...334209536?s=19
Hardly conclusive.

And how would she know what Mick said in a BT studio (his aired comments were pitchside) when she works for the BBC?