Republic of Ireland Team 2023/24 [old thread]

Ross Tierney got a lovely goal for Motherwell last night.

Sykes will be in ireland squad?

Thats 8 league 1 players then. Wow.

Imperative that James McCarthy and Hendrick can get a run of games in. They are going to be key players for the next two years with the serious lack of a viable alternative.

I why would look a bit closer to home - Scotland . Scotland can nearly field eleven prem players

Peaks and troughs though in reality. They have had a "stronger" league than us for years yet hadn't qualified for a major tournament since 98. 23 years.

Proper governance at all level is where Irish football really falls down. It's hard to know where to start and a lot of it is chicken and egg kind of stuff. Even with some of the structures gone in now it's hard to tell if they will be successful .It's also very hard to tell if in the long run Brexit will be a blessing in disguise or a disaster.

Scotland are a decent example to look at squad wise and even more so because we've to play them this year. You look at their recent squad they had 8 PL players, with Scott McTomminay and Grant Hanley out injured and Ryan Fraser not called up.

When you look at their PL players the average age is 27 when rounded up though drops a year when you include Patterson whose moved to Everton and could be Colemans long term replacement.

Their three oldest players are only a couple of months older than Duff, Hendrick, and Doherty who turned 30 last month. Hendrick has now dropped a level and after him it's lads that you're hoping can make the cut at that level.

O'Shea, Molumby or Aaron Connolly would have only started at schoolboy level when changes were starting to happen to underage football here, even if they were minimal compared to where they should be. In 7/8 years when these lads hit 30 we'll have hopefully developed a core group of players to build our squad around. Though knowing our luck they'll all be defensive players 😂

We've got a couple of lads in around that 27 age mark who've been decent for us this year in Robinson and Cullen. Our issue is we're stuck trying to build a team around them when they're top 6 Championship players.

Darragh Lenihan a potential target for New York Red Bulls. Out of contract in the summer and not sure what kind of money they'd offer him but would have a few offers in England possibly. Doubt any potential move would be decided until the summer as he'll likely sign a new contract if Blackburn get promoted.

If he was going to sign a contract, I'd say he'd already have done it by now. I reckon he's off, and he'd crazy to stay at Blackburn anyway. He's going 28, he's in the prime and form of his career, he's available on a free, and not to mention he's spent 10 years at Blackburn earning a pittance. He'll get offers of double or even triple what Blackburn can offer and probably get a nice long term contract to set him up for the rest of his career. Would prefer to see him stay in England rather than go to America, but certainly wouldn't begrudge him a big pay day.

Why sign a new contract now and make the same mistake as Ronan Curtis did when you can wait and see what happens. Two figures for the wages he's on are 12k and 14k. Blackburn go up they could afford to pay him the wage he's looking.

If Blackburn don't get promoted, and can't afford to pay him what he feels he's worth then he's gone. He's got two young kids and probably well settled in the Manchester area so can't see him moving far. Would probably have to be a very generous offer for him to move abroad and not sure if a MLS team would offer those wages to him.

Id be surprised if McCarthy plays many more games for Ireland, letalone be a key figure for us.

Blackburn have no money though and if this Premier League interest does materialise, there's not a hope they can compete financially to retain him. I guess we will find out, but I suspect this is going to be Lenihan's best chance of a big pay day given his age, and he'd be crazy not to take advantage of his out of contract status to secure a lucrative deal.

Roy Keane linked strong with a return to Sunderland. Hopefully they've still been filming Sunderland till I die because this part would be well worth watching if it happened.

Yeh I'd agree. But when you look beyond that and see what the cover is like it's alarming.

Would anyone know how many tickets are available for groups/teams to attend matches ?

Tried looking it up, but cant seem to find answer...

Coventry Kilkenny and Smallbone are unproven and not starting regularly. Coventry is a league 1 player. Molumby is by no means a starter for WBA. All the lads are hitting 22-23 now so it's vital for us and them that they push on. I think for the short term 18-24 months we'd be better served with the likes of Hourihane and McCarthy in the squad. I mean Conor Coventry lads? He's played less than 30 senior games for club.

I think the same lads pushing players out and looking for unproven players to be in there instead were the same lads deriding Glen Whelan.

But there's no evidence that "blooding" players has improved their development though. The two examples you cite didn't need any development, they just walked into the senior team and were a success instantly because they played well at club level.

Bazunu got his debut because he was the only one who was fit, playing regularly and was highly regarded despite the fact that he had a rubbish Rochdale defence in front of him. As you pointed out, Omobamidele got a string of games in a team that ended up getting promoted while getting rave reviews. None of these lads needed to be developed within the international team. They showed something at club level, got given a chance at international level and came good instantly on their first game. Sticking on a green jersey and getting 2 or 3 training sessions under Kenny didn't transform them. They took advantage of the opportunity presented by others getting injured, but were there because they had some sort of club form to back it up.

I do not know why the current panel of players that we have available to us is so poor, but I am fairly sure it's not because they haven't been given enough minutes. Mick gave Connolly and Parrott their debuts back in 2019 for example. Both players has gotten plenty of games since, but neither have developed as we had hoped. Kenny gave debuts to the likes of Idah, Knight, and Molumby. Again, I don't see how senior caps have helped them progress. Molumby has probably went backwards. Knight and Idah have probably stayed about the same.

Brendan Rodgers was asked a few years back why Irish players were struggling to make a name in the Premier League. He said that the academy structure that's in place for 11-16 year olds in England is far superior to what we have. I think he's probably onto something there. When you look at the strength in depth England have compared to us, it's abundantly clear that whatever they're doing is right, and whatever we're doing is wrong.

I think this idea that we can "blood" 19-20 year old players to play up to an international level is just completely wrong.

Duffer and O'Shea were premier league footballers getting plenty of game time so again that's an illogical comparison to Coventry and Ogbene for example who are League 1. Kilkenny isn't playing regularly either. Horgan is league 1 also. I'm saying we can't really afford to write off McCarthy and Hourihane just yet. In midfield we justdon't have the options. Defence is totally different as are the keepers.

Cullen, Molumby and Coventry have all probably played more than McCarthy has the last few years.

Not shocked, but it would have to be the team we're playing next FFS 😂

Tuchel called him the best set piece coach he's ever seen. When you look at how good we have gotten at set pieces since he joined, I think it's fair to say he's had a very positive impact. Even though he's leaving, hopefully someone can take over the mantle.

Well we can and we have to. Same can be said about Hendrick. Coventry has played feck all games and all at league one or below. Kilkenny isnt doing enough in championship. Sykes is in league 1 too. Browne is decent but like McCarthy, Hendrick and hourihane rarely plays well for Ireland.

Midfield is a cause to be really concerned about our short term and long term success.

Didn't know Clement had joined Everton, and probably brought in by Lampard after Barry turned down him down. Hasn't worked out for Clement as a manager but has been Carlo Ancelotti's assistant at Chelsea, PSG, Madrid, and Bayern so comes with big experience as a coach.

Hopefully the FAI push the boat out again and look at a good coach to come in and don't cheap out on it. Had to laugh at this tweet earlier and sums up the **** show of the FAI.