I was looking at their 2024 euros squad. Maybe…maybe…you could make a case for Nathan Collins over Lewis Dunk (Lewis Dunk played a grand total of zero minutes in the tournament)
Other than that you are going a long way down the DEPTH CHART before you’d put an Irish player into their squad
Funny thing is the Irish Underage Squads have never been more competitive I would say,
Despite most of them being nice tidy players to an extent, there’s absolutely no ruthlessness to any of them though.
There’s a yawning chasm between being a good underage player and being a professional player. Being good isn’t enough. You see it in how the gap between underage and senior has widened in the GAA.
Like all sports it’s trending towards bigger fellas too. I heard a few online giving out that United’s latest signing is only 6 feet tall.
You’d wonder have we too many fellas going through the Brighton Academy playing nice tippy tappy stuff that’s not much use to our psyche. They are developing footballers and we need men.
Evan Ferguson, Andrew Moran, Jayson Molumby, Aaron Connolly, James Furlong, Dessie Hutchinson etc all went there and we’ve got nothing out of any of them.
Don’t do me like that bro, wtf am I supposed to do with 1500 Vintage Evan Madrid jerseys in the garage?
Its almost like England overhauled their underage set ups a few years ago and now have a shitload of players coming through.
While we had gross mismanagement of our system by a man who was intent on bleeding the association dry for his own greed.
Molumby over Bellingham?
I think Molumby’s nickname should be Molumbo as he always requires just one more touch.
In Cricketing terms a lot of our lads are like batsmen who have got in and got out.
Connolly, Obafemi, Omobomodele and Parrott all should be way, way better than what they are.
It’s now three years and two days since Andrew Omobamidele burst onto the scene with an Irish Player Of The Match award against Serbia.
I don’t think I’ve seen him play since.
To paraphrase Eamon Dunphy, everybody hears about him but nobody sees him.
What was that Dunphy said about James McCarthy - ‘a talking horse, does it on the gallops but not the track’.
What’s that he said about Ronaldo?
Three years.
Bloody hell.
‘I don’t care if he scores a thousand goals, this fella Ronaldo is a cod’.
Big Ron has definitely seen the video and is on a one man crusade to spite him. Currently on 901 career goals i think.
The gap between Andrew Omobamidele playing for Ireland against Serbia in 2021 and today is the exact same gap in days as that between the day Definitely Maybe was released and the day Princess Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris.
Now that’s a proper entry for the bored thread.
I chose that one, just, over the gap in days between Princess Diana being killed in a car crash in Paris and the day Ireland drew 2-2 in Amsterdam with Robbie Keane and Jason McAteer scoring.
Which is also the exact same gap in days - 1,098.
And it’s an even bigger tragedy that Andrew has yet to play in midfield for his country…
Would you prefer him or Collins as the converted centre half?
If Big Jack was still around both of them would have played in there by now.
I could be wrong but I think Jeff Kenna and Steve Staunton played centre mid against Portugal in Lisbon in 1995 when we lost 3-0. That was the Portugal midfield of Figo, Rui Costa and Paulo Sousa!
Why not have the two:grinning:
If he could play in any position that would be a start.
This idea of playing a defender in midfield worked once for us with Paul McGrath but the idea it will work again is a cod I think. You need a David Alaba level player to do that. I mean Trent Alexander Arnold will never be a midfielder and as a footballer he’s light years ahead of Collins or Omobamidele.
I recall Jimmy Magee opining on what Ireland’s midfield two should be, shortly after Brian Kerr took over. “John O’Shea and Colin Healy. Ahhh, now you’re talkin’”.
There was a fierce bang of the Kenny’s Kids Twitter account off it.