Think Danny McNamara deserves his own thread after his progress in the last year or so.
Was recalled from a loan spell at Newport County this time last year after impressing in League 2 but didn't succeed in breaking into the first team. This season he went back out on loan to St. Johnstone and it's no exaggeration to say that he has been one of the stand out right backs/right wing backs in the Scottish Premier this season.
He has been recalled from loan by Millwall for the second season running and seems to have a decent chance of breaking into their first team for the second half of the championship season.
It's interesting that he was a clear number two to Lee O'Connor at Under 21 level for Ireland but seems to be adapting much better to men's football so far (he is 18 months older than O'Connor to be fair). He's too old for all of our underage squads from now on but if he breaks through at Millwall he might be an option for the senior squad before too long - there isn't a huge amount of depth in the right back position at the moment once you look below the obvious picks of Doherty and the now 32 year old Coleman.
Is this dark horse now in the race for a senior call up?
Possibly ready to challenge Cyrus Christie to be our third pick at right back. Then if either Coleman or Doherty drop out of a squad he could be in.
Kenny had McNamara in his 21s squad so I assume he'll be keeping an eye.
I'm not sure Dara O'Shea is an international quality right back though - I'd leave him for centre half unless we have some kind of availability crisis.
McNamara can play right midfield but we don't really play right midfielders anymore. He can also play left back at a stretch.
Is a similar player to Doherty in a lot of ways, but at a much earlier stage of his development.
New contract for McNamara at Millwall: https://www.millwallfc.co.uk/news/20...term-contract/
I have a season ticket at Millwall as they're my local club here in London (I'm a Limerick City native - come on the Treaty!)
Danny Mc has been one of the standouts in the Millwall team since his debut in January and the fans love him. He won young player of the season and has looked excellent in attack and defence, so much so that he is already considered the first choice right back.
I can't understand why he's not knocking on the door of the senior Ireland squad.
He is very very unlucky to have 3 premier players ahead of him. Coleman, Doherty and o'shea plays there.
He is almost certainly a far better play then Christe
Yeah, he's only just broken into the team at Millwall - made his debut in January after various loan spells - and in the one position where we're fairly stacked. That said, he's starting in the Championship, and much younger than any of them barring O'Shea, who as you say is mainly a centre half. He should probably get looked at in the next year or so if he continues to play well. Wikipedia says he has two caps for the U21s since 2019, so he's known to the FAI and to Kenny specifically.
You can't spell failure without FAI
He's played both for West Brom and right back for Ireland.
With O'Shea, McNamara and likely Christie all playing in the Championship next year, you'd imagine they'll all have an equal chance to make their case.
I've been very impressed with what I've seen of Mcnamara, he really was excellent at St Johnstone. Haven't seen him play since he went back to Millwall, but if McGrath was called up based on his SPL form there was definitely a case to do the same with McNamara. Probably been more so given he went on to a Championship first team in the second half of the season.
If he continues his firm next season he'll hopefully get a call up sooner rather than later.
McNamara has edged ahead of Christie now by my reckoning.
Being linked with a move to QPR. He's in the final year of his contract.
https://www.westlondonsport.com/qpr/...lwall-defender
Would be a bit of a sideways move going to QPR. If he's going to move this summer it would want to be to one of the main promotion challengers, maybe Watford if he wants to stay local to London. Otherwise he'd be as well running down his contract and seeing what's on offer in a year's time.
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