Republic of Ireland Team 2023/24 [old thread]

Maybe Knight is just overrated here. I mean he's a fairly neat and tidy player but he has never been the stand out player when I've seen him at Derby. I keep waiting for him to go up a gear but it hasn't happened yet.

Okay so maybe he is overrated by a lot of media.

Or maybe he's just underrated by you?

You can't have a view or opinion like that though. I'd tend to agree a little. A player will find his level and Knight has been around a while now. He is probably available cheapo enough so it speaks volumes that clubs aren't willing to spend a small enough fee.

That won't be a popular thing to say around here but it is what it is.

He clearly isn't rated very highly by those actually in the game. Even at his own basket case club he wasn't really a guaranteed starter last season and with a new manager he's playing right back.

But yeah, he's just underrated by me, his managers to date, all the scouts and countless clubs who are crying out for young, available, talented players.

Ya I read an interview with Kevin Higgins the guy who set it up originally and he said it just wasn't sustainable financially to do it on his own anymore. I hate Pundit Arena too but the account is still top notch in fairness

Rep of Ireland Player Tracker was another good page and similar the lad behind that, Tim Graham, stopped doing it for the same reasons.

Irish Abroad is another good page to follow on Twitter to keep up with how players are doing and imo are better than Kenny's Kids.

Good page to follow if you want to keep up with players stats and it's probably where Pundit Arena take the stats they post on Kenny's Kids from. He posts on Footie.ie and YBIG too, tetsujin1979, and must have a ton of info stored up because often throws up valuable info about when the last time certain things happened, how many Irish players played in certain leagues in certain seasons etc etc. I'd say you name it and he'll have some info about it. Have a handy website too.

His last manager made him club captain..

McGrath on his way back to Scotland.

Not entirely unexpected. If he wasn't getting games in League 1, that was hardly going to change with Wigan getting promoted. With the likes of Sykes, Ronan, and Szmodics all on an upward curve, it's going to be hard for him to make the Ireland squad while playing with Dundee United.

Bit of a head scratcher that they paid money for him and then just never selected him for match squads more or less. And I don't think he was injured all the time because I believe some local report said it wasn't injury related.

Mad to think less than a year ago he made his debut away to Portugal with others injured and had a good performance.

His agent is probably still laughing that they actually gave him a four year contract.

Must have the same agent as Hendrick who got him a pay increase and a four year contract with Newcastle. Must have been those "links" to AC Milan that had Newcastle throw such a good deal at him 😂

Ronan might end up staying at Wolves this summer. With Wolves lack of signings and squad size there's the possibility he remains with the squad as back up. Wouldn't be surprised if it hadn't and then reassess his options in Jan.

Matt Doherty’s nickname at spurs according to the athletic. He has a great life but no situation is perfect

Ouch. Disappointing if we're honest. I thought he had all the attributes needed to be successful in the championship. Hasn't really gone well for him since he joined Wigan. Back to the safety net of the SPL.

Absolutely. I think is level is going to be League One or SPL by the look of it. He'll carve out a decent career for himself to be fair. Hopefully a late developer.

Neto would be paid waaay too much to be a Bournemouth back up. He wouldn't be short of good offers from bigger clubs to be a back up so Bournemouth must be paying pretty big and guaranteed him first choice, otherwise can't see why he would join.

Yeah while he's been back up most his career it was back up to Buffon and Ter Stegen. Their squad is poor and can see them doing worse than Norwich in the PL and keeper was the one position they didn't need to waste money on.

They have 3 centerbacks of questionable ability, the new right back (Fredericks) is apparently already injured, their one left back (Zemura) is incredibly raw.

Adding a new keeper behind them is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Doesnt address their actual issue in the slightest.

Yeh that's true. Travers should start playing hard ball with them now. They won't want to lose him which could be the issue as he is a solid number 2. It could be back to the championship for him now.

I don't think anyone thought he'd be guaranteed to start to begin with - but I'd guess he'll be starting within a few months. He's just the better keeper, and the one they've invested in for the long term.

As far as not having a starting keeper... it's the one position where it doesn't seem to matter as much. At club and country we constantly see keepers who haven't played for a while step in and be great. Amongst our own lads, we had years of Randolph never playing for his club, and then being great for us. Kelleher never looks off it when he comes in for either Ireland or Liverpool either. And elsewhere, Danny Ward's been putting in top notch performances for years for his country while being firmly number 2 with his club. Just seems to be a totally different situation compared to outfielders who need time to get up to speed (unsurprisingly, given it's practically a different sport).

Sergio Romero was almost exclusively a back up at club level yet clocked near 100 caps as Argentina's 1st choice.

If Bazunu doesn't start this weekend I wouldn't be overly concerned at all. The outlay they spent on him was significant for a club like Southampton so if not this weekend I expect he will be number one in the near future. Southampton will probably be hoping to sell him on for a monster fee in a few years all going to plan.