He's not a player I know a lot about - is he seen as a genuine top level prospect or is it just that he's benefitting from a combination of the Tierney injury and Arsenal having a small enough first team squad?
He hasn't been making the Ireland Under 21 squad, don't think he even started that Under 20 game, which maybe suggests that he's not too highly rated in the Ireland setup?
Probably a little of both. He'd been training with the first team squad during the international break, and played in a friendly against Brentford's B team
He was born in October 2002, so still young for the U21 squad. From the last squad against Sweden - https://www.fai.ie/ireland/news/u21-...eden-qualifier - only Mipo Odubeko and Dan Rose are younger than him. Odubeko is actually only a day younger!
I think he'll still be qualified for the U21s for the next UEFA Under 21 Championship. Players born on or after 1st January 2000 are eligible for the 2023 tournament, so it should be players born on or after 1st January 2002 that will be eligible for the next one
He was in the U19 squad that was knocked out of the 2020 Under 19 Championship in the qualifying round, in a strong group, and didn't play any international football again for nearly two years due to the pandemic
https://www.fai.ie/ireland/news/moha...ers-in-austria
Again, he'd have been one of the younger members of that squad, Conor Noss was in that squad and is almost two years older than him (born January 2000)
It looks like he is highly rated in the FAI - only a little over a year before that U19 squad was announced, in May 2018, he was named in the Under 16 squad for a tournament in Sweden - https://www.fai.ie/ireland/news/irel...ish-tournament - and it looks like he skipped the U17 age group entirely
Seems this lad could be in line for a loan move this season. The Arsenal U23s took over as Crawley Town manager last week and brought the U18s manager as his assistant. Finished 12th in League Two and could be a good starting ground in senior football for the lad and working with coaches that already know him.
that was such a weird squad for the home tournament. first including 3 goalkeepers was bizzare, it's just not done with a 20 man tournament squad. corcoran was suspended for game 1, either risk it for game 1 or pick halwax and leave corcoran behind, either way bazunu should be your keeper.
including sean mcevoy, sean kennedy, roland idowu and to a lesser extent luke turner and ronan mckinley seemed really weird at the time, and it still seems weird. i think everyone expected odubeko, ogungbo and sotona to be part of the squad. looking back now, guys like killian phillips, kian leavy, dara costelloe, tony springett and tom cannon were alternatives (with caveats like when did we realise cannon was eligible, was phillips a late bloomer etc) ...
Interview for Crawley:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5pK0Q4zqio
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