That's incorrect; they are owned by Charlotte De Witte's label KTNXT (she's from Ghent and her parents played with Club and Cercle) so they changed the feeder club to Club NXT.Originally Posted by tetsujin1979
They have great rave nights on Sunday nights in the clubs indoor arena.
Here they come! It’s the charge of the “Thanks” Brigade!
Only 2 Dubs in a squad of 21 (16 born in Ireland). More lads from Donegal and Kildare than Dublin. You’d expect 5/16 to be from the capital based purely population size. Ade Solanke is from Newcastle, Co. Dublin - so if you just look at the city, Victor is the only player and you’d expect 4 (or 3.96 to be specific) to come from the city.
Does it mean anything? Simply random variance? Or are we losing the next Johnny Giles, Liam Brady, Wes Hoolahan, Paul McGrath, Damien Duff or Robbie Keane to either to the streets or to other sports or other pursuits?
Probably time to differentiate between Dublin clubs and Dublin kids.
You’d remember a few months ago, Ireland u15s (now 16s) had 17/20 players playing with Dublin clubs. However looking at this squad, players from Longford, Cavan, Kildare, Wexford and Tipperary have all been at Dublin clubs at different points on the way to the u17 World Cup.
It’s interesting how these things seem to work. Brody Lee left Rovers to go to Cork for more game time. The likes of Goodness Ogbonna and Mo Oladiti (who didn’t make the squad) also did the same to UCD and Waterford respectively. Oisin McDonagh went home to Wexford before signing in Italy.
Of the 16 irish born lads, 4 are playing abroad in Italy, Germany, Portugal and France and a fifth player has committed to signing for a team in England 14 months from now.
Looking at the 12 lads at LOI clubs, 7 are in the first division and 5 are in teams in the premier division. Most of the lads in the first division are playing regularly and most in the premier division, except Michael Noonan, are not playing much. Interesting to consider to what extent O’Brien went for lads playing senior football in the first division over lads not yet playing for a team like Pats or Shels or whoever.
Of the lads who were born in 2008, I think there’s probably 7 prem players, 1 first division player (Billy O’Neill) and 3 lads based in England who all felt they would have had a chance to make the squad and then didn’t.
Underage football should be worried in the city in my opinion - in the longer term anyway. Birth rate is dropping. Affordable housing is almost nil. Social housing is slow. The traditional supply lines of football in the city will dry up I believe. I currently live in a 'Corpo' area on the Northside (I feel dirty uttering that) - zero kids play football outside of whatever they do with their clubs.
My kids live in a 'Corpo' area on the Southside (I feel guilty uttering that) - very few kids play football outside of whatever they do with their clubs. I understand this is similar across the city inside the M50.
There's a problem in that teenagers don't like/don't want to be seen kicking football. It's not cool. Kids that are going out anf staying out, it's electric scooters, scramblers, and drugs. that's what I'm seeing and I reckon I see more than most.
Here they come! It’s the charge of the “Thanks” Brigade!
This tournament will be very interesting for us.
So many players with first team experience of playing and training with men. Is being a young player at City or Liverpool better for long term development than being an elite young player at say Rovers and heading over at 18 with certain experiences learned that you certainly wouldn't have got if you went away? At those clubs, it's probably a 1 percent chance that they make it and then they fall down the league pyramid with their confidence ****ed. Yeah, we hope for a Ronnie Whelan but most end up like Joxer or Jack Byrne. The flip side is that lads who have gone at 16 comment on how behind they are physically when they go over to the UK - will being fast tracked to Rovers or Pat's etc resolve this. My mate's nephew played for Liverpool a few years ago and he said that even though he was a strong lad, he was bouncing off lads half his size for a few months. He said tactically he was well behind the other lads, although technically he was one of the best in his team, which may in part be down to natural talent but also the coaching he got.
We have punched above our weight in producing great players up until 20 years ago and it's clear the conveyer belt is well and truly ended, so it will be interesting does this way deliver more results.
I see Cork City's academy had great results in the UK last week. Anyhow, it's clear the raw talent is there, but the government funding needs to be massively increased to help us become a country that regularly qualifies for tournaments rather than hoping we produce one or two top players that drag us up, or we get a really talented English lad that feels more Irish than the others who leg it at the first chance of an England cap.
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