Quote Originally Posted by Ronnie Whelan
Former Republic of Ireland international Ronnie Whelan feels that any new manager must go down the road of attracting foreign-born players of recent Irish descent to declare for Ireland – because the quality of the current national side is below the necessary standard.

Jack Charlton famously nurtured a policy of seeking UK-born players with Irish parentage, with John Aldridge, Ray Houghton, Andy Townsend, Terry Phelan, Jason McAteer, Tony Cascarino and John Sheridan all becoming big favourites with the Green Army.

Although there were notable failures amongst the recruits, such as Eddie McGoldrick and Bernie Slaven, Whelan feels that the policy must be re-enacted in order to bump Ireland back up the world ladder.

He said: “At the moment we have four or five very good players in the likes of Shay Given, Damien Duff and Robbie Keane, but there is not much beyond them. The rest of the squad is much of a muchness.

“It means we will probably have to go down the route Jack Charlton did when he was in charge and find players of Irish descent, like Ray Houghton, John Aldridge, Andy Townsend.

“We will have to trawl places to try and find them. It’s legal, so why not do it? If you do it and they are good enough, so be it.”
Fantastic. Just what we need