[quote=“caoimhaoin”]Is it fair to say that we are not that badly off player wise at all, and have alot of lads doing well, and a nice bit of potential coming through.
I realise we haven’t many stars cominbg through that i know of yet, but Iirish players seem to be doing very well in general across the water.
I honestly wouldn’t have the watched as much or have the same in-depth knowledge of alot of ye guys, just wondering what the story from an “experts” point of view.
[/quote]
We have absolutely nothing coming through. O’Dea and Sheridan from Shelltic are predictably useless, other lads at Championship clubs seem to be doing alright - Nolan, Garvan, Judge but the standard is pathetic. Daryl Murphy is a useless footballer. McCarthy the SPL wordbeater who AC Milan etc were supposed to be after cant get a game at Wigan. Strachan ranks Gary Caldwell better than St.Ledger. Long is probably heading to a lower league club in Jan. A cursory look at underage results in recent times would confirm that the future is pretty bleak.
On the other hand, Kevin Nolan seems back to his goalscoring best while Jamie O’Hara will be a good squad option.
[quote=“KIB man”]We have absolutely nothing coming through. O’Dea and Sheridan from Shelltic are predictably useless, other lads at Championship clubs seem to be doing alright - Nolan, Garvan, Judge but the standard is pathetic. Daryl Murphy is a useless footballer. McCarthy the SPL wordbeater who AC Milan etc were supposed to be after cant get a game at Wigan. Strachan ranks Gary Caldwell better than St.Ledger. Long is probably heading to a lower league club in Jan. A cursory look at underage results in recent times would confirm that the future is pretty bleak.
On the other hand, Kevin Nolan seems back to his goalscoring best while Jamie O’Hara will be a good squad option.[/quote]
Are you sure about these three? I thought Nolan was spending a lot of time on the Preston bench. Keane, the utter cunt, seems to be using Garvan again recently after previously stating that he’d never play for Ipswich again but he only came on yesterday. Judge scoring yesterday was the first time I’ve noticed him this season but Plymouth have been down at the bottom for the entire campaign and I wasn’t aware that he was doing anything of note. Agreed generally though, there’s not much coming through.
[quote=“caoimhaoin”]Is it fair to say that we are not that badly off player wise at all, and have alot of lads doing well, and a nice bit of potential coming through.
I realise we haven’t many stars cominbg through that i know of yet, but Iirish players seem to be doing very well in general across the water.
I honestly wouldn’t have the watched as much or have the same in-depth knowledge of alot of ye guys, just wondering what the story from an “experts” point of view.
that counts you out KIB.[/quote]
Few interesting prospects anyway Kev. Conor Clifford at Chelsea has been impressing for the reserves, Gibson at Man Utd finally seems to be breaking through, James McCarthy it must be remembered is just 18, Terry Dixon at West Ham is scoring plenty for the reserves after coming back from career-threatening injury. At Wolves, Foley and Ward have taken to the Prem very well, if they stay up they’re only going to get better.
A couple of years ago I think we had just 9 or 10 guys playing every week in the Prem so things have definitely improved in that respect.
Also, Seamus Coleman at Everton, Jay O’Shea and Keith Fahey at Brum, a young lad called Connolly at Bolton. Simon Cox at West Brom is available for us too. It’s not looking bad imo.
Ya he fucked Garvan to the reserves at the start of the season but since they couldnt win a game for months he had to bring him back in. They have improved a bit since and from the reports Ive read Garvan has been central to it.
Pretty sure Judge has scored a few for Plymouth this season. Sky says he has got 5.
Once St.Ledger left for Boro, Nolan got back in. Now St.Ledger is back and the manager has gone so who knows. Few times Ive seen Nolan I think he is decent enough but you would want to be making the Preston team in fairness if you had anything about you.
Left back is a problem position so Ward’s one to keep an eye on. I’ve watched a bit of the U-21 side mainly to follow O’Dea’s progress and Nolan has never impressed me - either as a right back or a right footed left back. Garvan, Coleman and O’Dea himself have been the main stand outs. I’d still need to see much more from Gibson - a couple of long range goals showed good shooting ability but I think it’s too early to assess whether he’s definitely capable of dominating a midfield at a high level.
Coleman supposedly came on a few weeks ago for Everton and was superb. Earlier in the season when he started he was shocking. I’d have huge reservations about any player that couldn’t get in ahead of Tony Hibbert to be honest.
Forget about O’Dea. A left footed Paul McShane is what he is.
[quote=“KIB man”]Coleman supposedly came on a few weeks ago for Everton and was superb. Earlier in the season when he started he was shocking. I’d have huge reservations about any player that couldn’t get in ahead of Tony Hibbert to be honest.
Forget about O’Dea. A left footed Paul McShane is what he is.[/quote]
Coleman had a nightmare in a Europa League away game where he was deployed at left back. The game where he drew plaudits was in his natural right back position. I think he was involved in both goals when they came back from 2-0 down to draw with Spurs. They’ve been riddled with injury so Moyes is perhaps wary of throwing a youngster into a struggling side. More of their experienced players are coming back now so he might get more opportunities in the second half of the season.
O’Dea still needs a run of games with someone before he can be properly judged. Not sure what went on down at Reading.
[quote=“KIB man”]We have absolutely nothing coming through. O’Dea and Sheridan from Shelltic are predictably useless, other lads at Championship clubs seem to be doing alright - Nolan, Garvan, Judge but the standard is pathetic. Daryl Murphy is a useless footballer. McCarthy the SPL wordbeater who AC Milan etc were supposed to be after cant get a game at Wigan. Strachan ranks Gary Caldwell better than St.Ledger. Long is probably heading to a lower league club in Jan. A cursory look at underage results in recent times would confirm that the future is pretty bleak.
On the other hand, Kevin Nolan seems back to his goalscoring best while Jamie O’Hara will be a good squad option.[/quote]
That is irrelevant really. Who cares what Strachan thinks? And it is not a major issue that he has left Middlesboro for another Division 1 team.
St Ledger has proven himself for Ireland now at the very highest level.
Also worth mentioning young Wilson at Portsmouth, he’s played a heap of games this season and seems capable of playing centre midfield, central defender or right back.
Bottom line is that all these lads need games. But I’m fairly confident that by the time the Euro qualifiers start we’ll have excellent competition for places. Not with world-class players, true, but with decent EPL players.
[quote=“Thrawneen”]Also worth mentioning young Wilson at Portsmouth, he’s played a heap of games this season and seems capable of playing centre midfield, central defender or right back.
Bottom line is that all these lads need games. But I’m fairly confident that by the time the Euro qualifiers start we’ll have excellent competition for places. Not with world-class players, true, but with decent EPL players.[/quote]
Yeah we’re not flying but there’s young lads getting games with Championship clubs and a few with Premiership clubs and it’s ages since that happened. There used to be a clamour for Delap to get recalled when he was at Southampton because he was playing in the EPL so how could we possibly ignore him. Thankfully we’re now able to extend the criteria a bit and there’s plenty of guys getting regular top flight football in England who aren’t deemed good enough yet.
I’d have hopes for Ward and maybe Coleman as full backs. Think we’re a bit short at centre back where O’Dea just isn’t good enough (yet anyway but he’s young for a centre half). We do have a partership there though in Dunne and St Leger that should be the solid for a while injuries permitting.
[quote=“Rocko”]
I’d have hopes for Ward and maybe Coleman as full backs. Think we’re a bit short at centre back where O’Dea just isn’t good enough (yet anyway but he’s young for a centre half). We do have a partership there though in Dunne and St Leger that should be the solid for a while injuries permitting.[/quote]
O’Shea can cover in there as well. Did really well during the Qualifiers in there I thought.
Yeah he can of course. Just think we’ve had so much tinkering with that area that it’d be good to have a partnership and O’Shea is needed elsewhere at the moment. We’re a little reliant on O’Shea covering all 4 positions at the back at the moment because he can play all of them and anytime there’s an injury or suspension he’s suggested for moving. Good to have but I think that sort of messing around delayed his career development no end and while he’s more capable of moving about now I think we do need other depth in defence.
Ward had Aaron Lennon in his pocket in their game a couple of weeks ago.
I wonder will Joey O’Brien come back from injury. He’s the makings of a decent player if he does and is another option for centre-half cover.
[quote=“Thrawneen”]Ward had Aaron Lennon in his pocket in their game a couple of weeks ago.
I wonder will Joey O’Brien come back from injury. He’s the makings of a decent player if he does and is another option for centre-half cover.[/quote]
Think he got the boot around the same time as Andy Reid, trapp wasn’t a fan of his attitide, doesn’t get mentioned much because he got injured soon enough after it…
Young Wilson has played the majority of Pompeys matces this season and looks to have potential, he gave away a soft enough penalty against Chelsea the other week and was dropped…In saying that Jason Gavin was getting his game in the EPL at one stage and disappeared fairly quickly
Even though he comes across as a bit of a wannabe wide-boy Jamie O’Hara has been very good in a struggling Pompey team and would be a very good player for Ireland if he was interested…Far better than either Whelan or Andrews and has a decent left foot on him as well