Republic of Ireland Team 2023/24 [old thread]

Swansea made an official approach for MK Dons manager. You really hope that Spurs and Parrott knew about this before going on loan.

Wouldn't be the worst move for him in terms of the level but you'd think the Posh would be battling against relegation this season.

You hope all parties knew this was going to happen before the loan happened. The biggest positive about the loan was Russell Martin's style of play. They're currently losing to Bournemouth with Gavin Kilkenny having a good game and got himself involved in the first goal with the assist.

Long got an assist for Southampton.

Kilkenny was MOTM for Bournemouth, Travers got a clean sheet in the same game. Should hopefully boost his confidence.

No Irish lads in the Celtic squad for the league opener, time for them to get onto their agents I reckon.

Cullen starting for Anderlecht.

Anderlecht drew 1-1. A better display from the team and Cullen tonight, they controlled the game and had the lions share of the possession and passing, but created very few chances. Cullen was on the ball a lot more than the previous game and was able to initiate a few decent bits of attacking play that led to half chances. Very solid display, didn't do much wrong. Unfortunately the fans won't be happy with the team getting only a single point from two games. Pressure is going to increase on Kompany, next few games could be vital.

Similar to Ronan last season we could see him deployed as a deep lying playmaker. I can't see it happening but would be more beneficial if the 21s switched formations like the seniors to get the best out of everyone rather than pushing lads out wide or into full back for the sake of it.

While it was only a post season camp Duffy did look a lot more confident and even against Hungary he wasn't hoofing for the sake of hoofing but was playing some good long balls forward especially into space out wide. If the introduction of David Forde into the coaching team has had a positive effect on Duffy then fair play to Kenny for the appointment.

Big thing for Duffy is how the wing backs are performing as that will decide where Dan Burn and Joel Veltman mostly play next season.

While it's Alan Nixen and the sun, Obafemi is once again being linked with Blackburn and they're reporting that Southampton have put a 6m price tag on Obafemi who has a year left on his contract.

Nice pre-season goal for Curtis. I know he's not done it for Ireland, but I don't think he should be written off just yet.

https://twitter.com/RepTracker/status/1421559152501997573

Celtic apparently back in for McCarthy after their poor start to the season.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-9850293/Celtic-considering-former-Crystal-Palace-midfielder-James-McCarthy.html

Afolabi on season loan to Ayr, hopefully he can use it to kick-start his career.

https://twitter.com/AyrUnitedFC/status/1422218271592488960

Agreed. I just do not see Afolabi or Coffey or for that matter Connell making the break through at Celtic. Time for them to look elsewhere most likely. O'Connor probably will join that list but I think there is maybe some hope for him still. Although he needs a good loan deal for now.

Ya it's hard to argue with that. If he feels he's going to drop down the leagues in future or come home then he's wise to just stay in contract and make as much as he can while he can.

The Allsvenskan is a good stepping stone into some of Europe's bigger leagues so a good season and a half or two there and he could earn a decent move.

James McCarthy signs for Celtic. Good move for him as the schedule will be lighter.

Edit:

Didn't see that it is a four year contract. Probably the main reason he moved. Hope they got him on pay as play or a low weekly salary with fees to make up the rest when he plays.

Happy enough with Celtic for McCarthy. A few less games a season, the intensity should drop a little, hopefully he see less issues with his fitness this season. If he can stay fit, the big question is whether he is still motivated to play for Ireland. I guess we will know that next month.

Will Ferry joins Crawley Town on loan after signing a two year extension to his contract that had 12 months remaining.

Idah in the goals again tonight. Norwich don't look to be in any rush to bring in offensive reinforcements.

Fantastic result last night for Bohs with Irish U21 players Andy Lyons, Dawson Devoy, and Ross Tierney all starting in the 2-1. Yet Irish TV didn't feel the need to show last night's games, or any games so far.

i’m unaware of any other generation of Irish players that were lauded as youngsters in Ireland other than the Keane Duff generation.

And if the generation of players that came through in the late 90s were Connolly and Idah's age again they'd struggle.

We really only changed up how we do things at schoolboy level about 8 years ago, and even then most schoolboy leagues just continued to do whatever they wanted.

You can't produce another top class player while your way of doing things still screams early 2000s, and countries we class as minnows have better structures in place for young players to reach their potential.

Robbie Keane would probably have gotten his first taste of professional training when he moved to England, the same can be said for Connolly, Idah, and Parrott.

What? Less games than he has actually being playing in recent seasons? 🙄

SPL has already kicked off and will probably finish mid may, the championship will kick off this weekend and will finish first weekend in may. And no disrespect but overall the SPL is a weaker league and let's Celtic manage him better than teams in England would have done.

Also don't believe he would have gotten higher wages elsewhere. Pre covid yeah, but what team is gonna give good wages to a lad that's played the equivalent of 42 games for his club(s) since Euro 2016. Even Newcastle who gave Hendrick a pay rise and a long term contract weren't even linked with McCarthy.

If Celtic offered a two year contract they'd have probably still been his best option IMO.

The spfl have played 1 game prior to McCarthy's arrival hardly a big difference. Celtic play more games then epl teams easily and at least as many if not more then championship sides. No question the spfl is a lower level standard wise but less games depends on how they rotate Soro in the holding spot. Hopefully Soro does well enough to get 20 or so starts over the season that would leave McCarthy getting getting 35 odd starts. In that scenario it would be less games but time will tell.

As for wages sure covid has dampened teams finances but still the gap between what a club like Celtic can pay and even many Championship sides is crazy given the difference in TV income and an epl team its not even up for discussion. As an example when Tierney left Celtic for Arsenal he quadrupled his weekly wages. Wages were the stumbling block for Celtic trying to resign Forster from Southampton hardly a big epl side but the wages gap was enormous. Hart who did just sign has had to take a more then 100% wage cut to make the deal work for him to sign with Celtic for 15k week.