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Ireland U21s - 2025 Campaign |
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John Nice 
Jack Charlton 
Joined: 10 Sep 2021 Location: Wexford Status: Offline Points: 5137 |
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 Posted: 02 Feb 2023 at 1:53pm |
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Given Connolly's start at Hull, I wouldnt be at all surprised to see him included at Troy's expense if he can maintain that form. Despite all the crap on here, he dropped down to the U21s at the management's behest and has now got himself a move which will allow direct comparison with the other eligible attacking players. IMO Parrott will have to at the very least get back to starting regularly at PNE to merit inclusion. Leaving Connolly aside, Idah is back fit again and like it or not Hogan and Keane are still the two best performing eligible strikers in the Championship.
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Idah Dream!
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Fozz
Liam Brady
Joined: 08 Oct 2019 Location: Dublin Status: Online Points: 2142 |
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Posted: 02 Feb 2023 at 1:53pm |
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If the list is accurate, then the 21's would be picking strikers from Cannon, Odubeko & Armstrong, all of whom have Championshiop/L1 appearances under their belts.
Then you have Kenny, who will be right back in the frame if he recovers the form from before the Celtic jaunt. Kavanagh has just sealed another L2 loan and could build on the first one to play well enough in that league to stake a claim. Emakhu not in the picture as things stand. Tack on the wide-attackers like Costelloe, O'Neill (a squad favourite), OkoFlex and Springett and there's too many players and not enough squad-spaces so some will be left out (I suspect OkoFlex for one). So plenty of options before coinsidering anyone dropping back from the seniors. |
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tetsujin1979
Ray Houghton
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Posted: 02 Feb 2023 at 2:00pm |
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compiled this list of eligible players for the championship, all born on or after 1st January 2002 |
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kevin100
Ray Houghton
Joined: 01 Jul 2020 Location: Mallow Status: Online Points: 3239 |
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Posted: 02 Feb 2023 at 2:02pm |
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Don’t disagree with the playing regularly part but for me if Troy is playing regularly he will maintain his place in the squad. It’s what I think Kenny will do anyways. Wouldn’t be shocked if he added Connolly as a 6th attacker rather then not bring the 5 I mentioned above if Connolly goes on a decent run. Ogbene can always be utilised as a wing back option if stuck. One or two players bound to be injured and there is no guarantee Ferguson will make it yet.
Edited by kevin100 - 02 Feb 2023 at 2:02pm |
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Territorial
Jack Charlton
Joined: 25 Nov 2014 Status: Offline Points: 5817 |
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Posted: 02 Feb 2023 at 10:00pm |
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Ya think? I'd take it over this group: England Serbia Ukraine Azerbaijan Luxembourg N.Ireland
Ian Baraclough from NI's U-21's too. Though he wasn't terrible (imo), he wasn't up to it, either.
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giveittochristie
Kevin Kilbane 
Joined: 21 Oct 2015 Status: Online Points: 298 |
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Posted: 02 Feb 2023 at 10:16pm |
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Well in that group we’d replace Serbia so the group doesn’t look too bad then. Wales and Northern Ireland must be the two teams in Europe with the biggest gap between their senior and u21 rankings? A function of v small player pools I guess, but pretty worrying for the future for both. |
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You Tell Me
Jack Charlton
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Posted: 02 Feb 2023 at 10:28pm |
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As second seeds that group would have been considerably better than ours overall, likely a straight shootout with Serbia for second place and plenty of points to be picked up from the three lower ranked seeds, so if we did finish second then a good chance of an automatic qualification place.
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Greenie50
Liam Brady
Joined: 06 Sep 2021 Status: Offline Points: 1126 |
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Posted: 03 Feb 2023 at 9:13pm |
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That friction seemed to arise from Crawford skipping over Ebosele (playing regularly in the Championship) in favour of lads playing in League 2 (O'Connor, Ferry, Wright, Gilbert. None of them pulling up trees, O'Connor playing as a DM for Tranmere). So it seems it's less "will Festy want to play", and more "will Crawford actually play him".
You've got it the wrong way around. It's Cannon that has done nothing in senior football. Parrott,
for Ireland, has 4 goals & 2 assists in 8.2 games. Himself &
Obafemi were our best forwards by a distance in the Nations League (for last year,
& actually you can throw in the 2018 & 2020 iterations too). 1 goal, 1 assist & an all around solid performance in our biggest home win of the last 7 years (3-0 vs Scotland). Cannon hasn't even played for our U21s yet, he'll need some impressive rise to jump to the senior squad ahead of Parrott. They're both 2002 born, Parrott is miles ahead.
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PaddyMaddenIsCounty!
Kevin Kilbane
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Posted: 03 Feb 2023 at 9:32pm |
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Was miles ahead, by end of season Cannon will have done more in championship than Parrot will
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Greenie50
Liam Brady
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Posted: 14 Feb 2023 at 4:35pm |
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I
don't think we'll see Zefi join the U21s this campaign. There's so much
attacking competition already and he's only playing U18/U19 for Inter. Similar with Vata, he would have to get playing regular senior football
to push in ahead of the others. |
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John Nice
Jack Charlton
Joined: 10 Sep 2021 Location: Wexford Status: Offline Points: 5137 |
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Posted: 15 Feb 2023 at 6:37pm |
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Agree re Vata, Zefi, even Ferrizaj - there are just too many attacking options in the 2002 and 2003 age groups, several of whom are playing senior football already. Best to leave them with the U19s and let them develop in their own time, the 2004 crop looks pretty strong also, so they should have a good U19 campaign ahead of them. 2002 - Burns, Odubeko, Cannon, Sotona, Springett, Costelloe, Duffy, Everitt, Parrott, Okoflex, Ebosele 2003 - Armstrong, Moran, Kenny, Emakhu, Harkin, Kavanagh, Hayes, O'Neill That's 19 attacking players born in 02 or 03 with a pretty defensive coach overseeing the campaign, there will be a lot of disappointed lads, it's just important that Crawford makes sure he doesnt disillusion the best of them, particularly the dual nationals.
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Idah Dream!
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J89
Ray Houghton
Joined: 25 Mar 2018 Status: Offline Points: 3318 |
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Posted: 16 Feb 2023 at 3:01pm |
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Dates announced for the upcoming campaign.
September 8, 2023 | Ireland U21 v Türkiye U21 September 12, 2023 | Ireland U21 v San Marino U21 October 13, 2023 | Latvia U21 v Ireland U21 November 17, 2023 | Norway U21 v Ireland U21 November 21, 2023 | Ireland U21 v Italy U21 September 6, 2024 | Türkiye U21 v Ireland U21 September 10, 2024 | Ireland U21 v Latvia U21 October 11, 2024 | Ireland U21 v Norway U21 October 15, 2024 | Italy U21 v Ireland U21 |
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You Tell Me
Jack Charlton
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Posted: 16 Feb 2023 at 3:06pm |
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Think there's a game against San Marino missing from that list. Hopefully it's sometime between November 2023 and September 2024 because otherwise there's a 10 month gap between games half way through the group. At Under 21 level you could have a very different team in September 24 compared to November 23.
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J89
Ray Houghton
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Posted: 16 Feb 2023 at 3:15pm |
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They've updated it and that missing game is March 2024.
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You Tell Me
Jack Charlton
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Posted: 16 Feb 2023 at 3:23pm |
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Very much a group of two parts, even allowing for that San Marino game in March. We'd probably want to have about 10 points on the board from the five games this autumn, plus three more from San Marino in March. It's a tough looking run in then in late 2024, I could definitely see the team looking a bit different by then with a few of the 2005 group involved at that stage and some of the 2002s (who would be 22 by then) having either moved up to the seniors or fallen down the order by that point.
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John Nice
Jack Charlton
Joined: 10 Sep 2021 Location: Wexford Status: Offline Points: 5137 |
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Posted: 16 Feb 2023 at 3:48pm |
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I think it's highly unlikely we will see any of the 2005 group moved up during the campaign given the sheer quantity of eligible 2002 & 2003 players, particularly in forward areas. We are oddly light at RB/RWB, particularly if Festy doesnt commit, and we are also light enough at CB, so we may see call ups for a couple of the 2004 defenders like Abankwah, Grehan and Alex Murphy. Unlike RB/RWBWe have a plethora of LB/LWB in the 2002/2003 groups - Adaramola, Furlong, Adedokun, Greenwood, Ogungbo and Roughan. Maybe some of these are versatile enough to switch across or play at CB.
We are not madly well stocked in the deeper midfield positions either, will Hodge stay with the U21s at least for the initial 6 months? Killian Phillips and Jack Henry-Francis may be the 2. We have huge depth in terms of wide players, attacking midfielders and strikers in the 02/03 age groups as outlined in previous emails, so much so that the likes of Okoflex, Burns, Kavanagh, Kenny may struggle to make squads let alone the team itself. Amazing when you think Ferguson, Parrott and Ebosele are also eligible (as are Bazunu and Omobamidele). Anyone care to make a stab at a starting XI?
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Idah Dream!
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You Tell Me
Jack Charlton
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Posted: 16 Feb 2023 at 4:03pm |
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I'd say the team is near impossible to call at this point, there are so many options in some positions and so few in others so it's hard to know. All the same I'd say any of the 05s that kick on at club level could be involved later in the campaign. The likes of Zefi, Vata and Ferizaj will all be 19 by the time the last four games come around and will be fully finished at Under 19 level. Curtis will be 18, so will TKD (who was born in 2006). Some of those might never make that level but some probably will. While there's a lot of players in front of them at the moment, it doesn't take much to jump ahead of loads of them at this age group. While someone like Darragh Burns is a decent player and may be in the team at the start of the group, if a Zefi or a Vata broke through at their clubs they could overtake him in the space of a few weeks with a run of club games. We've seen Parrott and Ferguson play at this age group at 17 so every chance we'll see some 19 year olds from the 2005s I'd say. |
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John Nice
Jack Charlton
Joined: 10 Sep 2021 Location: Wexford Status: Offline Points: 5137 |
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Posted: 16 Feb 2023 at 4:24pm |
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I'll have a stab for the craic
1) Keeley 2003 2) Ebosele 2002 3) Adaramola 2003 4) Mac Nulty 2003 5) Lawal 2003 6) Hodge 2002 8) Phillips 2002 10) Moran 2003 7) Armstrong 2003 9) Cannon 2002 11) O'Neill 2003 That's leaving out lads playing regular mens football like Roughan, Furlong. Odubeko, Burns, Costelloe, Kavanagh, Hayes and Springett leaving aside promising lads at PL and Ch clubs like Okoflex, Mooney, Emakhu, Greenwood and Henry-Francis. I'm assuming none of Bazunu, Omobamidele, Parrott and Ferguson will be made available.
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Idah Dream!
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PaddyMaddenIsCounty! wrote: