Ireland U17s thread

Great result if we can hang on to the 3 goal margin here, would give us a great chance of topping the group.

Both the U17s and U19s are ranked in the Top 10 in Europe - U19s are ranked #8, u17s are ranked #9. 

Even the U21s are ranked #19, not bad when you consider how many players were lost to the senior squad over the last couple of campaigns. Certainly bodes well for the future.

I think it's just a bit of patience at this point, we have a really deep crop of talented young lads 17-23yo. Give it a couple of years and I think we will start to climb the rankings at senior level. I'd be very disappointed if we dont at least establish ourselves as a proper consistent 2nd seed team in Europe over the next few years. That will give us the platform to qualify for big tournaments again - this campaign, especially given the brutal draw, is probably just too early.

We will have to support the LOI and academies much better to do that but very possible.

Especially with the delay on players going to the UK until they're 18. We absolutely have to have the facilities in place to cater for them here. Our domestic underage setup is almost more important than the actual senior LoI in that respect, though obviously the better players will play in the senior league between 15 and 18 also.

I'm not a fan of 16 year olds being shipped out to Italy or wherever. Too much of a culture change at that age and it's bound to lead to some casualties.

Yeah it's incumbent now on the FAI in conjunction with the clubs to put the facilities/structures in place to support these lads properly. If they do it right, there'll be the added bonus of getting decent money for young lads when they do move on. It's no harm for the better 17/18yos to be playing senior football here either - they likely wouldnt be getting that chance across the water plus the mammies will be happy if they can get their LCs done and dusted.