Players eligible for Ireland

Bob Hoskins wrote: I'm under a similar impression Nvidic and it wasn't something I read on here recently, I suppose when the youth systems aren't producing enough godd players best to check out as many Irish abroad as possible

Exactly, think it was 9 of 11 players in a recent starting team underage weren't Irish born? I'll beat the fai with every stick I can but this ain't one of them, albeit it would be preferable to provide them ourselves.

grannyrule wrote: nvidic wrote: Have the fai not been extremely proactive finding players and tracing their roots etc to find new players? Read an article lately mentioning it, thought it was here. I'd be surprised if he wasn't rang. “I haven’t had contact with him but if someone is showing an inclination – and their career with another country is well down the list – then it is certainly something I would consider. We don’t have a direct replacement for Murph so I wouldn’t discount it.” - MON Seems MON has never contacted Bamford before. I think that is a bit ridiculous really. He seems to rely on this wait until they come to us sort of thing which certainly doesn't work with the modern player. He should be going all out to get us the best squad we can get - IMO

Forgive me if I'm wrong but surely it'd be someone else ringing him and sounding out in first instance?

I don't think anyone is disputing that the FAI was aware of Bamford; clearly they were, sure he played underage for us....

The point is that MON never contacted him before his recent excellent form, which would seem to be confirmed by the comment "I haven't had any contact with him".

Again, whether that's an indictment of MON or not is another issue. On one hand you could say that he should be able to spot potential without waiting form a spell of great form to confirm it; on the other hand you could say that there's no point in approaching players who are out of form. It's simply a matter of opinion.

Agree. Bamford, Robinson, Maguire, hogan, long, Walters and maybe keane would provide us with competation upfront that we badily need. Hope he comes on board

dubstep wrote: Walters is finished id be surprised if he dosent retire.

People were saying exactly the same thing before the Austria game... Being injured (and thus out of sight), isn't the same as being finished. There is a tendency to conflate the two however, particularly when it comes to older players. I wouldn't write him off just yet.

mandrake wrote: John Wick wrote: dubstep wrote: Walters is finished id be surprised if he dosent retire. Yeah....cant see him being around for the next campaign. Great guy...legs gone injuries taking there toll now.. Thanks for the memories.   yeah do people want our players to retire.... he's probably still better than some of our other options......they said that about McGrath, would you have retired him too

dubstep wrote: Walters will want to prolong his career at club level, his worst year for injuries and he will be 36 nearly 37 by the time next Euros come around, ill eat my owm micky if he stays around.

An Hors d’oeuvre so

Paul Smyth of QPR only wants to play for Northern Ireland.

..iv been saying this for a long time...we are losing potential top players because of our naivety