Underage squads: Best Prospects

Left foot wrote: kevin100 wrote: Hotlips_Hoolahan wrote: kevin100 wrote: You would imagine a shoe in for the 21s. Would be no harm for him to go out on loan next year if he can’t be guaranteed minutes for Wolves.  Bit of an exaggeration, no? Anthony Forde, Aaron Doran, Reece Grego-Cox and Michael Harriman went one better and got actual PL game time before settling into being lower-league players - and this is when teams could name less players on the bench. Conor Coventry has made the bench half-a-dozen times for West Ham without laying a glove on the first team; he's made little impression out on loan. I'd wait for him to actually do something at senior level before saying he's a cert to get into a squad where we have plenty of options in his position.   Yes close to a cert for the 21s. Where is the exaggeration. McNamara, Leahy, Scales, Lee and Tom O’Connor full back options all too old for the 21s.  Richards an obvious option to come up to the 21s now.  As for a loan move why not? He may get some minutes between now and the end of the season. He’s 19 now will be 20 in October.  Coventry had played about 10 games for Lincoln and was just settling in before corona stopped games in March. To say he didn’t create much of an impression doesn’t tell much of the story. Also had an injury which kept him out this year.   Coventry is 21 next month and really needs to be looking at first team football. I feel Josh Cullen wasted a lot of time staying with west ham and not looking for a permanent club and first team football

Irish Times reports that Shane Flynn

Just hearing Nathan Collins is gone off with a serious knee injury too looks very bad.

kevin100 wrote: Just hearing Nathan Collins is gone off with a serious knee injury too looks very bad. It can’t be just me but is Irish football absolutely cursed at the moment how many more of our lads are going to pick up serious injuries this season.

Zack Elbouzedi not even in the squad for Bolton this afternoon. I guess we can forget about him as a long-term prospect at this stage. Simon Power seems to be doing well for Harrogate. William Hondermarck hasn't made the match day squads for Harrogate lately. IDK if he's injured or not.

Banjaxed wrote: Hotlips_Hoolahan wrote: Zack Elbouzedi not even in the squad for Bolton this afternoon. I guess we can forget about him as a long-term prospect at this stage. Simon Power seems to be doing well for Harrogate. William Hondermarck hasn't made the match day squads for Harrogate lately. IDK if he's injured or not. I'd pretty much right off anyone as a long term prospect who's 22+ and playing in League 1 or lower. of course you'll always have your John egan's and exceptions to that rule but if you're hedging your bets you'd have to assume everybody in that bracket is not going to be a viable option for Ireland over the next decade.

Banjaxed wrote: Elbouzedi is a really odd one, cause he's always stood out in the under 21's. Mad to think that, while those performances were at underage level, he can't get in to a mid level league 2 team. Always loved his directness and pace. Also had decent final ball too.

Edited by Fozz - 17 Feb 2021 at 5:00pm

For every Stevens and Egan that do make it back up the leagues there are thousands that wont. So definity exception to the rule.

There are many different paths. Egan was always a good player but got unlucky with injuries, Ward had peaks and pits but peaked towards the end of his career, McClean has been remarkably consistent, Doherty has perhaps passed his peak even as he moves to a top club. Fahey and Chris Forrester reached a similar level and profile in the league of Ireland but the more talented of the two has ended up having the worse career. Daryl Murphy, John Aldridge, Phil Babb, Jason McAteer, Liam Miller, Anthony Stokes...