Republic of Ireland Team 2023/24 [old thread]

I don't think anyone has an issue with a player wanting to play for their home country. The issue has been these foreign players playing for us at underage level (and senior), taking caps away from Irish or foreign born players who actually want to play for us, and then when they hit a purple patch of form suddenly decide they're no longer interested.

I know what you mean, but I wouldn't like to see that rule change. If you have an Irish grandparent, you are eligible for Irish citizenship... I'd hate to see a situation where certain Irish citizens, with Irish passports, are not allowed to represent Ireland. Feels a bit 'second class citizen', which seems a dodgy path to start going down.

Is it out of the way though. As said in Kenny's press conference the lad is supposedly on standby for the seniors. Now to me it's probably all waffle covering for the player but this will drag out till September when the U21s campaign kicks off.

the study the fai commissioned into Irish national football facilitate is out.

It’s never good when your own national association puts “national training centre” in quotation marks…

what’s going on with the no changing rooms? Can anyone expand on this?

Ok, yes that makes sense, I didn’t realize it was a bit of a kip.

Whatever about getting money from the government to improve Irish football as a whole they definitely need to be all over UEFA like a fly on **** to get funds through their Elite Youth Academy Programme to develop a national academy.

Northern Ireland saw themselves qualify for the elite stage of the U17 and U19 for the first time ever last season. That's a big step for a country that were one of the worst.

Israel though have had a great 2022 and 2023 so far. Runners up at the 2022 U19 Euros which qualifed them for the U20s WC were they play Uruguay tonight in the semis after beating Brazil 3-2 in the QF. Plus they unfortunately qualifed ahead of us for the U21s.

Yes, but against a very, very low bar.

Given their history (and I know there have been changes since the JD days) they need to demonstrate their house is in order before getting more government finding (IMHO)

What I can't understand is how they haven't been able to sign a new sponsor of the senior men's team? Are they asking too much and not taking into account the decline in quality of the team(and thus profile/prestige) ...seems like low hanging fruit to pick as a revenue stream

Shane Duffy signs for Norwich on a three year contract.

Looks like a good move for him with regular football and a decent possibility of PL football after a year.

It would be a great move for Travers if he went to Luton as their number 1. Can't see why they wouldn't sign Horvath instead.

It is surprising it has gone on this long. Even if they felt they should be getting more then currently offers are maybe sign something more short term to at least bring in some revenue.

Cheerio

On the Cannon situation, hopefully he decides to stick with us but best of luck to him if he goes for England. It would be disappointing but them is the rules and we've benefitted from them ourselves.

After reading everything that I could find it seems that he won't be an option in the future. Best of luck to him in his career.

Probably not even - I could more understand him choosing to leave now if the senior team were interested, but they're only looking for him to join up with the U-21s, and if he plays a competitive game for them even underage then he can't switch back to us. Most likely situation if he goes is he gets a few England U21 games, and that's the end of his international career. I'd still reckon if, as the article states, they all have a chat after this international window and Kenny tells him he's interested in him for the seniors, that he may stick around.

We should just put an end to recruiting players for our underage teams if they are born overseas. There's no benefit whatsoever towards our senior international side.

There is a benefit though, suppose Josh Cullen was told by the fai that when he declared for Ireland at under 19; “thanks but no thanks”. Would he be interested in coming into the senior side setup years later. Probably but he might be like “ah forget it”.

likewise would we have been able to steal McGeady and McCarthy off Scotland if we didn’t offer them youth international caps when the scots were asleep? Definitely not.

youre right in saying if we don’t want to get embarrassed like this we shouldn’t call up dual nationality players at underage but saying it offers no benefit to us is demonstrably incorrect.

Is there a financial angle for players to declare as "English" or not?

I'm thinking of future transfers and the like.

England looking a bit light on strikers for the forthcoming under 21 campaign.

Good chance Cannon would be a starter for them based on form. It's not looking good for us to retain him.

Does this make us cannon fodder for the English? (I'll get my coat!!)

He'll likely go straight in as their starting forward for the U21s unless they show faith by sticking with Dane Scarlett as their number one. England's options for the next U21s campaign are extremely meh.

Dane Scarlett's first loan at Portsmouth was very meh but at least he's actually 16 months younger than Cannon so has an excuse for his first senior loan. But will likely be playing League One again next season.

Jebbison and Delap are six and three months younger than Cannon and have looked poor in the championship. Cannon did more in his short time at Preston than both players combined have done at championship level.