Sammie Szmodics declares for Ireland. Has anyone heard of this player before?

Important player in Peterboroughs L1 promotion season, a key signing having had him on loan the season before, an assists man with the odd goal in him, played top of a diamond or as a 10. Didn't get in at Bristol City had to drop a level but promoted again now. 

Himself and Taylor gives us proper Irish interest next season as far as Peterborough goes. I strongly fancy Peterborough to stay up and even establish themselves in the Championship. 

Christy Pym is there too and Flynn Clarke a 17yo attacking midfielder as well. Can play for us, Scotland or England. FAI were sorting his passport late last year.

Deserves a chance do 

Yeah, the Hungarian blood like the Irish blood is from a grandparent. Fair to say he's a fancy sounding English guy. 

I was aware of both but I have seen zilch myself bar rumours so don’t want to get my hopes up. Even Joel Bagan I have seen his mother on Twitter basically indicate he was declaring for us. 

Your right though potentially savage Irish interest over a number of years as they are all young enough still. That lad Flynn Clarke looks a decent prospect from what little I have seen of him was a lovely surprise to here the rumour he was sorting his passport for us.

I genuinely do think they will stay up mind with or without the Irish interest think they are well placed to establish themselves real good club.

One thing is not knowing he's eligible but the fact that a lot of irish fans had to hit the Google machine.

Manager doesn’t fancy him? Seems to have every excuse in the book for not playing him. I’d have him well ahead of Parrott myself personally nothing against Parrott. Obafemi is older and more psychically the finished article Parrott better placed in the 21s to my mind for this summer at least. A boy in a mans game last year.

Tbh it’s not the end of the world Obafemi or even Connolly missing this they are friendlies and both have had injury issues. Get some proper pre season base fitness built up by the start of the season for both get loan moves where they will play regularly and try and kick on. 

His tattoo game is on point.

Ironically, his emergence may impede Jack Taylor's path to the first team.

Hopefully he gets a few minutes against Andorra anyway. 

Would be interesting to see if they have any others applying for passports 

Aye he’s Irish!

Jack Taylor plays a bit deeper then this lad by the looks of it. I highly doubt it will too much. 

Played together all season though.

From the clips I have seen of him he has Wes like qualities. No harm having another option at number 10. 

Watching him here tonight against West Brom, been excellent.

Missed the first few games with injury / birth of his child but looks to have hit the ground running now.

Be interesting to see how he gets on throughout the season.

Wouldn't really be competing with any of them for a place in the team, well, maybe Hourihane. Hes an AM / No 10 ...would be more similar to Jamie McGrath.

Should have, have.

McLoughlin can't get into a poor Hull side shipping goals left, right and center. 25 now. Badly needs first team football, and soon. He's barely played over the last eighteen months.

and an assist for the second

He hit a bit of form at the end of last season so maybe he was finding his feet in the championship then, he actually scored against Blackburn around then so he must have caught the eye.

Always good from a Ireland prospective to have more options playing in the Championship, especially in the attacking midfielder roles. 

First off lovely move for Szmodics. Solid side where he can do quite raise his profile at a higher level in a position we need players. Smallbone and Ronan potentially having breakthrough seasons too in that position. 

As for Knight Derby are looking for at least 4/5 million which to be quite frank most Championship clubs outside 4/5 can't even afford. Don't think it's as wild as one assumes. I do think Knight will end up at Burnely myself still. Rumours of interest recently.

John Nice wrote: Szcores and asszists!

Szenszational!

Yes he blows hot and cold in the Championship but so are most of the current ROI squad playing in the Championship/SPL/League One.

Personally I think call up as many as possible in an extended squad to have a look at them for the upcoming campaign, especially in central /attacking midfield areas as well as RWB. It is a good in-depth squad that will get you qualified to tournaments as it is rare to have your first starting eleven team available, mostly due to injuries, not playing for their clubs or suspensions. Plus you never know which new or fringe player will hit a good vein of form or move up a level within the next year during the campaign.

I know Kenny said he might not do too much experimentation in this window but that was before he knew he had another friendly match opportunity in the first match day of the qualifying campaign due to not having a competitive match then.

Also there are a few injuries in the squad coming into this window with Knight, Parrott, Ogbene, Omobamidele, Idah still out. Potentially another one or two injuries, knowing our luck with them, between now and the November friendlies. Kenny might be forced to call up more new or fringe players than he expected.

Was szhite for Blackburn last night apparently.

I watched the first half of the Coventry V Blackburn. Going by the first half he wasn't "sh*te" more a mixed bag from him. 

He had some good moments like a two good defence splitting passes up to Brereton to put him through on goal,  but for poor finishing on Brereton's part or Coventry's defence recovering well neither were goals. He also put in a few crosses into the Coventry box and at one stage,  found himself on the ball at the edge of the Coventry box, the better option would have been to have a shot but he opted to pass.

He tried to play a few cross field balls to switch the play but they did not come off and  badly gave possession straight to Coventry.

He worked hard defensively and got back covering his own box when needed.

I don't know how he played the second half as I watched a few other matches with Irish players playing.

I think he is as consistent or inconsistent as our other midfield options in the Championship or League One. Hendrick, Smallbone, Browne, Molumby & Knight have all blown hot and cold sofar this season, yet he has more goal contributions (3 goals and 1 assist) than the lot of them together and he was a month out injured in September too. He is playing for a team currently second in the Championship and starting regularly for them when available.

I think he is worth a look at.

Doesn't sound like he could add much to us in that case. We need someone not lacking in the technical department. 

Watched him a lot at Peterborough, he's streaky, always gets back in the side, impresses but doesn't sustain it. Tends to narrowly miss the target when shooting instead of making sure he works the keeper & one on one he's not a safe bet, seen him miss a lot when through on goal. Think it's telling how the Peterborough fans weren't bothered he moved on, they got tired of watching him whinge & wave his arms around as they got relegated.

All that said, he got his move, he's getting minutes at the top end of the Championship so he must have something, he just doesn't have it every week

Yes he's a hard worker 

He's an honest player but not particularly gifted

He's definitely getting better

He's 28 in a few months. 

At 27, is he past his expiration date?  Over the years we've had a number of players who've made their debuts in their mid-twenties and have gone on to have productive international careers. My point was, that he offers something different.

Haven't said that at all. He may bloom late or he may continue to be inconsistent & regularly miss chances that have to go in. But at 27, what he is not, is a prospect any longer. 

Whether he is or not, prospect has absolutely zero to do with age.

I would say it's the amount of attacking talent coming through that is more relevant that Szmodics age. At 27, he still has plenty of years left - but the likes of Ferguson, Obafemi, Connolly, Idah etc will probably put paid to his chances of playing much for us anyway.

To be fair to Szmodics, he is an attacking midfielder (#10) rather than a forward. I'm not sure he is good enough for a call up tbh (he struggles to consistently hold down a first team place at Blackburn), but his age absolutely shouldnt be a barrier. We have had plenty of players whose best performances for Ireland have come in their late 20s/30s.

Jonathan Walters made his senior Ireland debut at 27yo.

Enda Stevens made his debut at 27yo.

Keith Andrews made his debut a 28yo.

They are just a few examples of players who made their senior debuts later in their career and there are plenty of others down through the decades. All of them did a job for Ireland, some more than others no matter how people rated them.

The three above made their way up through the lower leagues and got playing in the Premier League and with Ireland. Ireland has a history of late developers from the mid twenties on.

You just never know how a players careers can go, either up or down. Some players get lucky or unlucky with injuries, joining the right team at the right time or thing click for them late in their career.

I don't bother righting off players anymore, just wait and see how their career pans out. There are always surprise and players that come out of left field layer in the careers to be an option for us.

Szmodics  could will find himself in the Premier league  with Blackburn in the next season or two, or he could go on a goal scoring run in the Championship, then we would all be calling for his inclusion into the Irish Squad. Or he might not. 

Other than Cullen, who will be in the Premier League next season,  I don't think most of our midfield options are knocking it out of the park in the Championship or are playing in League One. All have shown bits of form like Molumby lately. So I wouldn't right off Szmodics just yet.

Agree with all of this, Wes, Didzy and Daryl Murphy are other lads who really only got going in their mid to late 20s. I think we all tend to look at the young lads in the hope they develop quickly and become PL quality in their early 20s, but there's plenty of evidence of players really only emerging on to the international stage much later and not just for Ireland either.