Ireland miss out on United star

[sean04]

saw this on www.a2zsoccer.com

The Republic of Ireland missed out on highly rated Manchester United youngster Darren Fletcher who made his debut for Manchester United on Wednesday night.
Fletcher, who qualifies for Ireland through his Achill born mother, was one of the few highlights for United in their 1-1 champions league draw at home to Basle.

The 19-year-old was born in Scotland but made regular visits to the west of Ireland during summer breaks.

However, the midfielder ended up declaring for the Tartan Army and has represented them at under-15, U-16 and U-21 level.

A2zsoccer has learnt that relatives of the player made the FAI aware of Fletcher while he was a schoolboy but they failed to act promptly and have now lost a real star of the future to Scotland.

Meanwhile, United boss Sir Alex Ferguson believes the midfielder can be the latest talent to emerge from the club’s excellent youth set-up.

"Darren has a chance," said Ferguson. "He is a year older than Kieran and that probably helped him last night," said Ferguson. "He has had a difficult start to his career at the club, suffering a broken foot which fractured again when he came back too soon, then missing 10 weeks with an ankle injury.

"He was also physically very immature. He is still skin and bone really but he has very good ability and there is a lot of common sense about his play."

[joe]

Originally posted by sean04


The 19-year-old was born in Scotland but made regular visits to the west of Ireland during summer breaks.

does he own an irish wolfhound as well?

[pete]

Originally posted by joe
does he own an irish wolfhound as well?

Bet he has an aran sweater though...

[sean04]

It's good to see ye guys take things seriously.

[patsh]

Originally posted by sean04
It's good to see ye guys take things seriously.

Hmmmmm....maybe you should get a life??

[colster]

Jaysus, we're not still into looking for players outside of Ireland are we.
That must be soul destroying for the lads we have coming up to here this rubbish.
This player plays one game for Man U and suddenly he's a better option than Richie Partridge or Andy Reid or Sean Thornton or the many other good up and coming player that Ireland have.
Why oh why do we still look for these foreigners to play for Ireland when we have some very good young players ourselves.

[fonzi]

of course we are.
we always have and we probaly will for a very long time to come.
take a bow, F..A.I.

[Shed End John]

Originally posted by colster
Sean Thornton or the many other good up and coming player that Ireland have.
Why oh why do we still look for these foreigners to play for Ireland when we have some very good young players ourselves.

Totally agree with you there, colster. I've only seen Thornton live once, Ireland U-19 v Holland U-19 at the Cross, and was very impressed by him. On a night when a half-decent striker would have put the Dutch through by 5 or 6 goals, Thornton seemed to be the only Irishman able to match Holland technically.