Pretty sure Okofklex doesn’t qualify for England. He was born in Ireland and didn’t live in England long enough before moving to Celtic.Lot of reports today that England are trying to get Celtic youngster Armstrong Okoflex to switch from Ireland to England .
Rice and Grealish were bad enough but now they chasing players born in Ireland too
Republic Of Ireland Football Thread
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) is joined by CEO Duncan Drasdo and Financial Director Andy Green from the Manchester United Supporters Trust for a special episode on all things behind the scenes at Old Trafford including a brief history of MUST and their aims today, views on INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe so far, and the Old Trafford regeneration.
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Don't get how you can possibly moan about England trying to steal an Irish player when half the Irish team is always English, let alone complain about England "stealing" Grealish or Rice. There's no justification for it and anyone who thinks there is is just biased.
He does qualify for England, he's already represented than at youth level. As per his father “To be honest, he was first called up and played with England before Ireland even called him. He already played for England, then Ireland called him up. He is still playing with the two.”
I’m pretty sure it subsequently transpired he wasn’t actually eligible after playing those games. The last few international call ups have been with Ireland.
You don't need to be eligible to play in youth friendlies so that means nothing.
We're going through our own shit with eligibility of Johansson and Crowley who have player for our youths too.
so anyone can play for any country at youth friendly level , not so sure about that. He did go with England squad to the 2018 UEFA development tournaments in Montaigu, France. His situation is different than Johansson in that Oko-flex moved with his family to England and actually lived there. I'm assuming he must have access to a British passport. It looks like he's flipped back and forth between countries. He was in recent u19 ireland squad v Denmark. He also qualifies for Nigeria but I don't see that happening. Hopefully he chooses Ireland.
England have loads of players in their setup currently that its a bit of a mystery if they can represent us in official tournaments. Okoflex was one of those. Think you can call up anyone that might be able to qualify through residency in the future to play in friendlies and minor tournaments.
So the FAI asked for a bailout from the government last night
I’ve seen some reports of an audit of the FAI but tbh haven’t been following it much.
Can you summarise the issues?
Can you summarise the issues?
For those interested, here’s a long thread of tweets showing how utterly buggered we are.
We’ve lost Ryan Johansson over FIFAs bullshit. Unlikely to get Dan Crowley either. Absolute non-sense.
But at least Niall Quinn is back
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Seems a very strange rule.
He needed to have had the Irish passport before playing underage for Luxembourg?
Pity he can't just be in charge full time.
Hopefully he puts that shitshow in order.
Mother Theresa is at the Wheel.
No child would be safe.
Apparently, despite us having players like Robinson who most definitely didn’t register for citizenship before playing for England.
Basically Luxembourg has fecked us over by reporting it to FIFA. Then they've got nothing out of it because Ryan has told them to get fecked and he’s playing for Sweden because he really wants to play for Ireland but he isn’t allowed to now.
All because his Irish mother happened to be born outside Ireland so he wasn’t automatically a citizen but rather had to just register his name on the foreign born registry. A completely arbitrary thing which FIFA have now decided to base the ruling off of despite him being in every way Irish.
For all the talk of who’d be the manager given the current circumstances, I always felt the bigger issue would be that the FAI wouldn’t be able to cover Mick’s salary, together with the loyalty bonus, beyond this summer. Right decision, probably, for difficult and unexpected reasons.
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I said at the time it was a weird move for Mccarthy to take this job knowing that this was coming down the line. If he did poorly we were stuck with him for 2 years, if he did well we were getting rid of him after the Euros for Kenny. No one could have forseen this happening or course, and even though I'm not his biggest fan he should have been at least been able to see through the qualifying for the tournament, and if we make it through playoffs then he should have been in charge next year too. Kenny could wait. He'll have his time. Strange situation.
I would have preferred to see him finish what he started
Wow. Strange one. Money related? Kenny will be cheaper
It is a bit strange.
I’d looked up Kenny’s record before and it looked ok, but not brilliant.
What’s the consensus on him? Is he expected to be a big improvement or is it that he’s home grown and a yes man for the FAI suits?
Kenny was promised the job after 2 years of Mick so makes sense to give it to him now . He is a better manager in my opinion and Ireland have some very promising young players which Kenny is the better choice to bring them into the senior squad .
I doubt Mick would gave qualified anyway he wouldn't have given any young players a chance and his football is just dire to watch
It's that he generally doesn't play dogshite football every match and then proceed to make excuses that a squad full of PL/Championship players can't be expected to actually attempt to play football against football powerhouses such as Georgia.
He also has history and experience with the young players and won't be looking to field a squad with an average of 30+ and constantly talking about bringing Stephen Ward out of retirement.
He's definitely not a yes man.
He's thought to be a very good progressive manager who did brilliantly with Dundalk and had some European success playing a style of football that's easy on the eye.
Keeping McCarthy untill the Euros whenever they eventually happen was never a runner imo.
Fantastic news
He was excellent at Derry & Dundalk, in Derry’s run in Europe Derry drew 0-0 at home to PSG and lost on aggregate 2-0. He has a great record with development of young players so expect to see a load of young lads that he knows getting moved up
It is interesting that this could be the start of a lot of changes happening now before their time .
By that i mean players and managers contracts who will come to an end before we find out what is going to happen with the football season
By that i mean players and managers contracts who will come to an end before we find out what is going to happen with the football season
Kenny has a (sort of) free hit in the playoffs, but how he handles it is another matter. Does he bring up a few of the 21s immediately and see what they can do, or does he stick with the guys with experience at this level?
Kenny absolutely deserves a chance whether money related or not. The FAI were banking on a huge windfall from the Slovakia game and hosting Euros games to dig them out of the giant hole Delaney left everyone in, but that money is not coming for a long time, so they are utterly screwed.
McCarthy improved the morale tenfold. He can step down with his head held high even if he was too overcautious away from home to underdog teams.
Expect to see more of Matt Doherty, Molumby and Aaron Connolly in our next games. Maybe less of Glenn Whelan.
McCarthy improved the morale tenfold. He can step down with his head held high even if he was too overcautious away from home to underdog teams.
Expect to see more of Matt Doherty, Molumby and Aaron Connolly in our next games. Maybe less of Glenn Whelan.
Keano must be laughing
First sensible move from the FAI in years(ever?). Kenny will be a successful manager. Just let him at it. We have some proper talent coming through, exciting few years ahead.
This is the possible Ireland XI under Kenny predicted by balls.ie. Have to say it would be great to at least see how it works out. I'm not so sure Jack Byrne could handle International football right now but great if he could. Nice to see the back of Glenn Whelan too, and would be nice to see McClean on the bench for a change, and possibly Hendrick also.
The way things are going, Kenny will be playing the Slovakia games on his PS4.
Footie will be back on by September I'd say. Wild guess based on virus expert predictions.
The main thing I see with that side is there’s no great record of goals, particularly in the front 3. Of course, they might go on to score loads but as it stands, it looks heavy on hard work and quick, sharp movement, but maybe a little short on one or two players to get on the end of things. I’m not suggesting I have a better plan, but Kenny likely might not find it easy to change us from the sort of team that doesn’t put 5 or 6 past Gibraltar.
This is the possible Ireland XI under Kenny predicted by balls.ie. Have to say it would be great to at least see how it works out. I'm not so sure Jack Byrne could handle International football right now but great if he could. Nice to see the back of Glenn Whelan too, and would be nice to see McClean on the bench for a change, and possibly Hendrick also.
Would agree but there's no one else on the panel who has a record of consistently scoring goals at this level. Robinson is still a huge prospect and is still young and is still quite new to the squad. Aaron Connoly was the stand out talent in the U21's along with Molumby. As he get more experience he should start scoring. McGoldrick has been the star of this campaign, has a goal and an assist to his name, and in most games has come very close to scoring. There's more goals in him for sure. Seanie Maguire and Shane Long will be pushing those 3 hard for a first XI spot. Brady looks like he needs a move to ressurect his career.
From midfield Alan Browne seems to be the only one with a goal in him at this level, so he might be a better bet than Jack Byrne. Anyways looking forward to seeing us under a manager who promotes youth and who plays nice football.
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