Less than a month to the squad and with about half of our players off for the season, might as well make a thread for it.
Goalkeepers -
Kelleher
Travers
O’Leary
Unless there’s an injury/withdrawal, that trio picks itself, especially with Bazunu injured. Keeley and Harrington are probably next in line if there’s an injury. Would be good to see O’Leary make his debut. I’d play Kelleher against Senegal and give Travers and O’Leary 45 each against Luxembourg
Right back -
Doherty
Coleman
Doherty is guaranteed, the other slot is a question mark. Coleman is fit but not playing at the moment. In the past, we’ve played centre-halves there (O’Shea, Omobamidele, Dunne, O’Brien), so you could envisage playing one of them there. If you’re looking for an orthodox right back, you’re gonna have to look outside the box. Josh Key played in 45 of Swansea’s 46 league games, starting 39. Might be worth a look and this is as probably as good a time as any. Jon Gallagher is still plugging away in MLS. I do think we’ve probably got to be better and taking a look at lads playing over there. Sides better than ourselves have plenty of mainstays playing there and we
Centre backs -
Collins
O’Shea
O’Brien
Omobamidele
Scales
You probably have 4 or 5 call-ups, depends a bit if there’s any chance we’ll play a back 5 at any point. All of Collins, O’Shea and O’Brien are lock-ins. Beyond that, you’ve got a lot of players pushing for 1-2 slots. For me, Omobamidele is worth including given the fact he’s playing in a decent league and his age, footballing ability, physical attributes and versatility. Scales has played every game since returning from the broken cheekbone and I think it’s also useful to have a left footed centre-back in the group. In terms of alternatives, Shane Duffy seems to have had an excellent season at Norwich. Jimmy Dunne did well making his debut against Bulgaria, Mark McGuinness did pretty well against England earlier in the season, James Abankwah received his first call up in March. In terms of the uncapped, two left footers are probably just outside selection: Anselmo Garcia McNulty who recently met with HH and Eiran Cashin who made his premier league debut for Brighton but probably hasn’t done enough to get a call-up. John Egan is back playing for Hull as well.
Left backs -
Brady
Manning
To me, Brady is playing well enough that he makes the squad. Manning is playing for Southampton and did well against Bulgaria when called upon, that they’re the obvious choices. Callum O’Dowda is another option. Josh Honahan is probably next in line. Don’t really see any viable options after that - all of Joel Bagan, Will Ferry, Sean Roughan, Tayo Adamarola - none of them are ready as far as I can tell.
Midfielders -
Cullen
Knight
Azaz
Taylor
Molumby
Smallbone
Knight, Cullen, Azaz and Molumby all had good seasons in the championship. Will Smallbone had another injury hit season but hard to look past him. Jamie McGrath is injured with a shoulder injury. Lawal hasn’t had the season we would have expected him, mostly due to injuries. John Joe Patrick Finn has had a good season but you’d imagine he’s also on the outside looking in. Luca Connell still probably needs a championship move to earn a call-up - I think he’s good enough. Alan Browne is back fit - curious to see how he looks in the playoffs. Andy Moran has had another forgettable season despite looking good off the bench against England.
Wingers -
Szmodics
Johnston
Ebosele
McAteer
There’s a real lack of options here. Ogbene is injured. Adding Szmodics here because of a lack of options and he can play wide left. Ebosele is just back from injury and hasn’t played much but serious lack of options. McAteer is playing premier league football and doing well. Johnston is a guarantee as well due to a lack of options. Sykes is injured. Vata and Callum Robinson are probably the viable alternatives. Beyond that, maybe Marcus Harness.
Strikers -
Parrott
Idah
Ferguson
Cannon
Troy has had the best season and premier league teams are sniffing around. Idah has had a mixed season but he’s still scored 18 goals and did score an important goal for us against Bulgaria. Not the time to lose faith in Evan. Last spot, Cannon is the best player - but hasn’t fully adapted to his move to Sheffield United (I blame Wilder). Alli is a realistic alternative. Armstrong and Emakhu are probably next down the line. Obafemi and Connolly are very much forgotten for obvious reasons despite their talent.
Anyone I've missed? Probably need to cull 3 from the squad given the fact since HH has taken over, we've always had max 23 players in a squad
I think I read that he is looking at limiting the number of call-ups for Championship players for these friendlies given the length and intensity of the season so a few of those names above may be off the list. Don't think his comments also apply to PL players but suggestions are that it will be a camp with some a few new recruits and/or underage call-ups and possibly a couple of LOI players too. We'll see.
I like high energy football. A little bit rock and roll. Many finishes instead of waiting for the perfect one.
I think we'll see a new name or two. Possibly Louie Barry, though he's still working his way back from injury, or possibly Key. AGM is another possibility. Or Finn, but I don't think he's really ready. Perhaps there will be a surprise name that we're not expecting. It seems like an ideal opportunity for HH to court favour with the support by calling in a domestic based player. Honohan would be my guess on that front.
He's presumably going to have to call up at least some Championship players, as our squad would be fairly thin looking without them.
The obvious one to miss out would be Knight and maybe Cullen too. Here's a list of the minutes played this season including internationals. The * refer to the number of games they've got left this season. Just did the 26 lads I mentioned but could also dive deeper:Originally Posted by Eirambler
Knight 4861*
Cullen 4336
O’Leary 4320*
Collins 4085***
Azaz 3861
O’Shea 3743***
Parrott 3685***
Molumby 3020
Scales 2876****
Cannon 2710**
Doherty 2598***
Kelleher 2520***
Brady 2366
Johnston 2364
Idah 2296****
Travers 1980
Manning 1957***
O’Brien 1883***
Szmodics 1611***
Omobamidele** 1414
Taylor*** 1097
Ebosele**** 1028
Ferguson*** 935
McAteer*** 859
Smallbone*** 836
Coleman*** 320
If included, Knight will end up with over 5,000 minutes when you include Monday night and at least 45 minutes across the international break. That's a lot. It's so so much.
I remember a stat popping up on screen towards the end of the 2022/23 season when city played arsenal, Odegaard had planned a thousand more minutes than de Bruyne, and was barely able to play above walking speed, de Bruyne was running past him
James McCarthy was another midfielder that played an awful lot of first team football in the earlier part of his career, and he was basically finished by 30. Though he did start playing first team at 16, so that was a couple of years earlier than Knight.
Knight isn't exactly stationary in those games either. His stamina is a big part of his game.
You can't spell failure without FAI
“I don’t think any Leicester players have had a better day than McAteer” whoever the co-commentator is on the game.
McAteer making his case for inclusion. Been very good defensively, has won some free kicks, and had a few nice attacking moments. Encouraging in a team who have been second best for most the game
Yes, watched the second half and he was popping up all over the pitch, put in a big shift. Should have been played in by Vardy for a clear shot at goal. Given there may be some Championship players rested I'd expect him to be in the squad.
https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2025...-ups-possible/
I think the above was the most interesting thing said about this upcoming window so far, he wanted a very different format to it than it will end up being. If you look back over his time in charge so far, he's had very little time to work with our players, to implement anything beyond basics, and come September it will be three pressure cooker windows again before years end with a qualification campaign and expectations we are further improved and competitive into its latter stages.
What he wanted, some time with his core group, to work on them without having to prep for a competitive game and then having time to look at the next in lines & the emerging possibilities was spot on IMO and you have to wonder, could the FAI not have made sure he got that ? It wasn't so much to ask, and an opponent should have been found.
What he will get instead will probably be a load of his core group not being in this camp, sifting through the others and still be expected to deliver in September.
That was mentioned on RTE the start of last week in relation to League of Ireland coverage (rather than MNT coverage) and like you, I was interested in it - but for me also because it didn't quite make sense/I couldn't understand the logistics of it/perhaps didn't quite believe it was accurate.
If the camp and friendlies were held in "early May" it couldn't feature any player in a 'top' league as they are still ongoing, and it would be outside FIFA's international window, so the choice of opponent would have been extremely limited I would imagine. This would align with his championship comments - looking to bring a group of Championship & League 1/2 players to somewhere like the Gulf or the Caribbean and play some middling teams where the gaze would be less intense than normal - but I'm not sure how that would have worked with the LOI; clubs couldn't just lose players at the whim of a MNT manager without there being some kick-back in terms of postponements etc, and how would that work with the European games and breaks coming up relatively soon after these camps anyway?
There's no reason the camp couldn't have been mid-late May.
All that being said above, the core point about 'asks' and then 'required objectives' is very fair.
Here they come! Its the charge of the Thanks Brigade!
Yeah, I don't see how he can say "We wanted and planned to have two games in early May" - that's a very strange comment. And I don't see as Crafty suggests that the FAI could have made sure he got it for the reasons Kingdom notes. If anything it seems two games in May would have been a complete waste of time and money.
Squad announcement tomorrow.
https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2025...ireland-squad/
honohan makes it in. nothing too surprising on first glance.
Not a bad squad considering most of the Championship players have been left out. No new names in terms of eligibility though. Barry was the one I had heard was maybe joining us but he's injured.
No Jamie McGrath maybe a slight surprise given other SPL players are in. Ditto Garcia MacNulty I guess.
Main thing that jumps out is how removing the Championship players does devalue the window a fair bit (and obviously June windows are often devalued anyway). Going off wiki, I think we've left out (or not considered) Travers, Dunne, Abankwah, O'Dowda, McGuinness, Duffy, Stevens, Lawal, Cullen, Azaz, Sykes, Moran, Molumby, Browne, Armstrong, Johnston, Vata, Cannon, Robinson and Obafemi. Not all of those would have been called up of course, but you imagine you'd be wanting to get the likes of Vata and Azaz more involved, maybe even get Molumby back into the squad (limited player, but we're not exactly overflowing with options) or give Cannon another look - that sort of thing.
Having Keeley, Honohan, Phillips and even Coleman in there instead just doesn't seem worth it. The midfield of Knight, Smallbone, Phillips, Finn and Taylor must be about the worst we've ever selected. The fact we couldn't leave Brady out despite being a Championship player shows how desperate we are in that position (and you could say the same about Knight in midfield actually)
Happy to take it as an experimental squad and see how guys do, but Luxembourg looks a bit more of a banana skin now, and I have to wonder again why HH was so set on a May window given he'd surely have had a weaker squad to work with.
Last edited by pineapple stu; 14/05/2025 at 11:32 AM.
Why do RTE have Ryan Manning as a forward??
Tom Cannon not getting called up says a lot about where he's at in the pecking order given that those in the championship playoffs were only being considered for call ups.
Szmodics got called up ahead of him even though he's unlikely to be fit for the games. Plus Parrott is still yet to come back from injury and Ferguson isn't playing.
That's where he was named in the squad
https://www.fai.ie/latest/hallgrimss...nd-luxembourg/
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