Ryan Johansson

There’s a high probability that he won’t become a regular first team player at Bayern. They are one of the worlds biggest clubs who could drop €70m on someone in his position without batting an eyelid. 

If he continues his current progression then he has a great chance to become a first team regular somewhere decent though. He will certainly be in consideration to play for us at that point unless we have a serious uplift in fortunes by then. 

He has a long way to go but is doing great so far 

Frank Drebin.

Why?

Leave Kenny call him up for the u21's

Would be nice to see Johansson involved then if his form in between justifies it.  I'm sure Kenny will have a long list of lads he is considering at that point including Connolly, Ronan, Mulumby, Idah, Parrott, Coventry, Connell, Collins, O'Shea, Masterson, even Joe Hodge at his rate of development. Get the squad recycled, refreshed and bedded in in the Nations League and then switch on big-time for WC qualification campaign after those games.  

Wales did that in their last Nations League campaign - I think 6 players made their competitive debuts in the 4-0 p1ss-take of us in Cardiff, with 5 of those being under the age of 21.  McCarthy did something similar in 96-98 when he came in after Jack, giving a whole load of unknown young players caps - some made it (Harte, Kilbane, Connolly, later Keane and Duff), some didn't (David Savage, Alan Moore, Keith O'Neill, v unfortunate with injury), but he set the team up for the next few campaigns. 

Kenny's involvement in the underage structure gives him the ideal opportunity - and so far he seems to have the ideal outlook - to do just that.

Kenny’s squad will be interesting but could we actually pick a 36 yo Glenn Whelan over a player in the Bayern team for the euros

Sweet f**king Jesus  

To be clear, the reason Johansson started wasn't because he's on the verge of a senior team break-through.  

Rather, he (and other u19 players) were involved is because the German Reserves League is starting on Saturday, so those players stayed behind; and a number of other senior players have been at international tournaments or rested.  Nonetheless this is fantastic experience and exposure for him. 

In this match, Johansson was one of four u19 players to start.  He played in an advanced midfield role, which surprised me as he has played more as a defensive mid, or even right back before.  Difficult enough, as Arsenal were near full-strength and space was congested. 

He's certainly grown a lot in the last year since I last saw him in a youth champions league group game against AEK Athens. 

He's a very rangy and mobile player, with a lovely first touch and looks to make quick short accurate passes.  He has a languid style, very different to the usual hustle and bustle of most Irish players. Made a few mistakes in mish*t shots early on, but I'd put that down to nerves.  

Could be more aggressive in his tackling and tracking - generally sat well on Xhaka and kept him out of the game, but did let his man go on more than one occasion when play got more dynamic; and dawdled on the ball a few times early on- understandable as he won't have played at this kind of level before.  Had one delicious dink-through-ball that Iniesta would be proud of, but the finish from the team-mate wasn't there. 

On this viewing, he didn't look out of place, and I imagine Kovac will pick him again in pre-season.  I would say he's ready for senior football, not at Bayern (where there won't be room in the squad anyway with players coming back from international tournaments) or even the Bundesliga, as I don't think he has enough bulk yet to be fully competitive at that level.  

However a loan move to a Bundesliga 2 team, or better still Holland (or even Spain), where a technical, but still physically undeveloped, player like him could really improve quickly.  He's certainly an improvement on most of the U19 players on display for most countries in the on-going Euros (his current age-group).  

Really looking forward to see him line out for Kenny's U21s sooner rather than later. He could do very well with some of the high-level players on that team and the new ball-playing approach that now permeates every level of underage Irish football. 

He has some way to go, but is one of what seems to be an unusually wide series of prospects we have at the moment who have a good chance of a successful career with us.