Potentially eligible players thread

[DannyInvincible]

Terry Mancini had an Irish father

Mancini's birth surname was Sealy. Sealy was the surname of his Dublin father, who died when Terry was aged seven. His mother re-married and her son consequently became a Mancini in name along with her.

Cas had an Irish mother, doesn't matter that she was adopted by Cas' grandfather.

A few years ago, the Sunday Independent reported that Cascarino's mother was granted Irish citizenship unbeknownst to her and without her consent: http://www.independent.ie/irish-news...-26257148.html

The Sunday Independent has learned that in 1985, Theresa O'Malley's name was entered in the Foreign Births Register in the Department of Foreign Affairs, Dublin a short time a matter of weeks, if not days before that of her son Tony.

Mr Cascarino's name was also registered in 1985 in advance of the first of his record 88 caps for Ireland.

It is difficult to understand how Theresa Cascarino's name could have been entered in the Foreign Births Register without her prior consent or knowledge. However, yesterday, her son firmly indicated that this was actually the case.

He confessed to being "totally baffled" by the latest development. He said he had checked the situation with his mother and, he maintained, she was "equally baffled". He stressed that she had not initiated any moves to have her name included on the Foreign Births Register.

He said: "This is a very, very funny one. But to be honest with you I don't want to get involved in a tit-for-tat with the FAI. They say one thing, I say another in my book, and I stand by what I say in my book. I just hope the matter rests there."

Mr Cascarino has said that because of "family sensitivities" he is unable to disclose in full detail why he believes he was ineligible to play for Ireland. However, the Sunday Independent understands that the FAI and the Department of Foreign Affairs are aware of those sensitive family details.

Being so aware, the FAI was satisfied to issue a statement last week declaring Mr Cascarino was always eligible to play for Ireland.

However, irrespective of whether Mr Cascarino was indeed eligible, more potentially disturbing questions arise in relation to how his mother's name was included in the Foreign Births Register.

I don't see why, as this article makes out, the name of Theresa O'Malley/Cascarino would have required adding to the Foreign Births Register in order to validate her son's Irish citizenship and eligibility as, although born in England to non-Irish parents, she would surely have become an automatic Irish citizen by virtue of her adoption by a Mayo father. I'm open to correction on that and haven't trawled through the legislation for once, but I'm pretty sure she would have automatically acquired Irish citizenship by virtue of the adoption and that her citizenship would have been formally considered effective from the date of adoption at the latest. As a result, I believe Tony would have been entitled to be included on the Foreign Births Register without his mother's name also requiring addition. She was already an Irish citizen anyway.

Davies has Irish born grandparents who just happened to be born in Ireland while the great grandparents were on a tour of duty or something, his grandparents have no recollection of Ireland.

Whilst original reports suggested Davies had two Irish grandparents, I have a feeling it was just a grandmother of Davies' who happened to be born in Ireland whilst her father was on military duty with the British army. Isn't that what Liam George claimed the other day?

My bad. Somehow I got it into my head that neither Mancini or Cascarino had a blood link.

An admission of fallibility? You've gone soft, TOWK!

[Dunners]

Of course you did TOWK

[geysir]

Whilst original reports suggested Davies had two Irish grandparents, I have a feeling it was just a grandmother of Davies' who happened to be born in Ireland whilst her father was on military duty with the British army.

What kind of weight can we put on a mere feeling, Danny?
It's not even a gut feeling!

[DannyInvincible]

What kind of weight can we put on a mere feeling, Danny?
It's not even a gut feeling!

Ha, you may have missed it up-thread, but I should have added that Liam George explained Davies' eligibility the other day: http://balls.ie/football/fai-wasting...hasing-player/

I spoke to Curtis earlier on today again, because there’s quite a lot of confusion (about his ancestral links). His great-grandfather was in the British military. His Gran was born in Ireland but obviously to English parents and shortly after that, they came back to England. The birth certificate (of his grandmother) is Irish, so he believes he does qualify.

My primary focus happened to be on the United-Bayern game at the time of posting; clicking back/searching for quotes and links to double-check and confirm my mere feeling could wait.

[Stuttgart88]

Curtis Davies in come and get me plea to MON

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/foo...-problems.html

Or maybe I misunderstood.

[TrapAPony]

Curtis Davies in come and get me plea to MON

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/foo...-problems.html

Or maybe I misunderstood.

Seems that he wants a chat with O'Neill & Keane

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

Who in their right mind would want this lad playing for Ireland after some of these comments...

[DannyInvincible]

Who in their right mind would want this lad playing for Ireland after some of these comments...

Well, crucially, "this lad" (Do I sense disdain in that for some reason, as if he's guilty of courting the attention of Irish fans and media?) has never expressed an interest in representing us. He has repeatedly informed the curious media that he doesn't feel Irish, nor did his Ireland-born granny even identify as Irish. He has been completely honest about his intentions and has not disrespected us in any way. He is certainly not to blame for the continual raising of the matter of his eligibility in the media.

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

Well, crucially, "this lad" (Do I sense disdain in that for some reason, as if he's guilty of courting the attention of Irish fans and media?) has never expressed an interest in representing us. He has repeatedly informed the curious media that he doesn't feel Irish, nor did his Ireland-born granny even identify as Irish. He has been completely honest about his intentions and has not disrespected us in any way. He is certainly not to blame for the continual raising of the matter of his eligibility in the media.

I'm not having a go at Curtis. It's just bemusement as to why anyone would want the likes of Davies, Noble or O'Hara to play for Ireland when their heart isn't in it. It's about time O'Neill drew a line under this and showed confidence in the defenders we already have. We have enough grey clouds forming over this Qualifying campaign. We don't need another one over this lad.

[tetsujin1979]

O'Neill and Keane have barely mentioned Davies do far in their reign, but he's constantly being asked about it by the press. He's maintained his stance from the very beginning - while he does qualify, it's a tenuous link(at best), he feels no connection to Ireland, and his dream is to play for England.
There is no story here whatsoever

[Stuttgart88]

I'd be surprised if MON is even aware that the Davies situation is even getting any media or Internet forum coverage, so there's not really anything for him to draw a line under.

I don't think the media focus has been particularly intensive which is unusual for our lot given their propensity to make a fuss over nothing as far as our footy team is concerned.

[DannyInvincible]

I'm not having a go at Curtis. It's just bemusement as to why anyone would want the likes of Davies, Noble or O'Hara to play for Ireland when their heart isn't in it.

There is no campaign to get Davies in the team. As Tets says, it's a non-story perpetuated by the media.

[TrapAPony]

Martin O’Neill will have no problem exploiting FIFA’S rules

Ireland boss has been given a positive reaction by players who could qualify for the country under the so-called ‘granny’ rule

Martin O’Neill says he won’t be afraid to unleash controversial ‘granny rule’ rookies in the middle of the Euro 2016 qualifiers.


The Ireland boss has revealed that he’s been given a positive reaction by players who could qualify for the country under the so-called ‘granny’ rule, and claims if things are organised in time, he would be willing to throw them into action if he deems them good enough.


The four-game end of season schedule has come too early for any potential new players to be involved, but O’Neill is excited by the possibility that some will pull on the green shirt in the next 12 months.


“So far, the people have been really positive, some decent people,” he said.


“It takes a bit of time and a bit of work which we are doing in the background at this minute.


“All of it has been really positive. People I think could help us along the way have not knocked it back.


“I have been encouraged and at this stage they want to look for us to develop it to see where it leads. Of course, by the time we develop it they might have improved that much that some of the ‘normal’ countries would want them to play.


“They have not knocked that.


“Am I happy to bring in during Euro campaign? Absolutely. If we can look at this here and they genuinely want to play and have that *enthusiasm to play, of course.


“And if they’re good enough to play in the side – and some of the people we are looking at would certainly be good enough to play in our squad – I would have no problems bringing them in.


“But it is a process that you have to go through. Sometimes it can be relatively straightforward and other times more complicated.”


There have been a host of names mentioned as possible call-ups, both before and since O’Neill’s appointment, with Tottenham’s Harry Kane the latest.


He joins Kyle Naughton, Nathan Redmond, Curtis Davies and Patrick Bamford on the
‘watch’ list.

Hull defender Davies has made clear his desire to play for England, while Kane spoke only last month of how eager he was to add to his full house of underage caps for England.


But O’Neill insists there are interested parties, and he’s spoken to both players and agents already.


“I would make the initial approach,” he revealed. “I have heard from one or two of the players’ agents for instance that they have done some homework and they’d know that we are aware.


“If they show that enthusiasm to want to continue to do it, that’s great for me.


“If they knocked it at a pass, let’s say I phoned up an agent and he said he has no interest, well, that has not been the case so far.




“The only way you’re really going to find out though is by meeting the player. Of course you would be sceptical [about agents putting names forward] but I’d put that to the side if I thought the player wanted to.


“It’s happened already and there are one or two players that I’ve met who fall into our category and who I think are of decent enough quality for us.”


O’Neill admitted: “The USA trip is too early, but during the course of the qualification I wouldn’t have a problem bringing someone in if I thought they were good enough and wanted to play for us.”


http://www.irishmirror.ie/sport/socc...oiting-3523088

[Metrostars]

There is no campaign to get Davies in the team. As Tets says, it's a non-story perpetuated by the media.

He's also 29. They would hardly look at players over 25.

[DannyInvincible]

Funny little anecdote from work this morn; I take phonecalls from the public and a Lonergan from Preston came through on the line so, to fill the dead air and build a bit of rapport, as they say, I asked him if he was anything to Andy Lonergan, the former Preston North End goalkeeper. I doubted there'd be too many unrelated Lonergans around that neck of the woods. Turned out I was speaking with Andy's younger brother, so I explained I was familiar with Andy as I used to play Football Manager/Championship Manager and used to call him up when I "managed" Ireland due to him, of course, being eligible to play for us. (That was definitely the less weird explanation to rely on rather than me trying to explain my unhealthy fixation with all things Irish eligibility!)

He told me their roots were in Ballybofey (they used to head back a lot and attend Finn Harps games, drink Guinness, go to Mass, the usual... ) and spoke about Andy playing for Brian Kerr at under-16 level with Andy Reid et al. The latter fact had slipped my mind before I mentioned the possible connection. I was dying to ask would Andy seriously consider playing for Ireland now but I already felt I was crossing a bit of a professional boundary and, although the guy was perfectly amicable and friendly, I sensed I might have been coming across as a little inquisitive or intrusive. I also had it in my head that Andy might have expressed disinterest at some point in the past so didn't want to provoke any further unease or awkwardness. So, I just left it at that and wished him a nice day.

Thankfully, I've since been able to check that Andy announced he would be open to an Ireland call-up in 2010, so I've been able to expunge any feelings of guilt or "what might have been?..." knowing I didn't blow my big chance to do a handy bit of recruitment work for the FAI!

[Deckydee]

http://sportsnewsireland.com/soccer/soccer_irish/martin-o-neilla-number-of-players-who-have-declared-more-than-an-interest-in-joining-us/

http://www.herald.ie/sport/soccer/on...-30459510.html

[TrapAPony]

Hope those that O'Neill says are interested are Premiership level players and not journeymen lower Championship level. Anybody know if Harry Maguire who's joining Hull is eligible?

[Olé Olé]

http://www.independent.ie/sport/socc...-30462280.html

In this article he states: “I mean, you are talking about boys who were playing for really good clubs, not Championship clubs. These boys (Aldridge, Houghton, Townsend) were playing top level football. And at the minute I would prefer to be looking at boys who are higher up the leagues." He also states that these players have the quality to get into the squad.

Should be interesting to see what comes to fruition. Very difficult to know who he's been talking to. Kane, Redmond and Bamford are the names which keep popping up but could be the case that there are others we don't know about.

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

Great. Another new campaign, another manager constantly being asked about eligible players as if good ones grow on trees in ready supply and wanting to play for us. They are not the answer to our problems and even with the good ones, it is not worth the multi-year process of demeaning ourselves by calling them up and begging them to play for us.

It says it all in the thread title. Nolan, O'Hara, Noble, Naughton, Ferdinand and myriad others haven't declared and years later they are still being talked about as prospective players. Now it's a new set of players who haven't shown any public interest or enthusiasm in playing for our country. There is no point querying about Redmond, Kane and Bamford. They are all young kids playing at PL level and established in England youth set ups. There is no point reading too much into platitudes from Martin O'Neill.

We don't need this sideshow distracting us from a very serious Qualifying campaign that kicks off in little over a month. O'Neill and Keane have better ways of using their time, focus and energy.

If Grealish takes off at Villa or the Championship and establishes himself first, call him up; don't fast track him into the team on the back of his performances for Notts County in League One, a 1 minute PL cameo or worry about England. The lad isn't naive; he isn't going to play for us just because we give him a token call up or 5 minutes against Georgia.

As for the Granny rule players. It's simple. They should come to us, not the other way around - as much as I slate people with ideas above their station like Richard Stearman.

[paul_oshea]

If he plays for us against georgia the decision is taken out of his hands.

I agree with the overall sentiment but do you not think matt holland would have chosen England over us if he had the choice? of course he would but he gave his all for us and scored some very important goals. Nowadays kids are a lot more fickle even more so patriotically, all I care about is how hard they try if/when selected and their impact. Besides that article never mentioned about oneill begging anyone in fact it said the opposite!