"since he was 12" - in any other industry that would be considered child exploitation.
Not putting the chap down and I hope he has a fantastic future. But sending kids over the water at 12 so some Irish based scouts can line their pockets is simply immoral.
The experience this man has is some asset for any club to gain the advantage of. He always struck me as what a LoI player should be. Absolutely unfazed by facing top foreign players. You can't put a price on a winning psychology like this.
You can see how the Celtic plundering of Rovers has already started. What they are calling an 'investment' is actually a smash and grab sale. Something really dark is going on with this 'Celtic Interest in Rovers' and it will be a nightmare for Shamrock Rovers and their supporters. Anyone who supports this carry on thinking that it's great for Rovers and the League is completely delusional.
It will destroy Rovers and their history and self-identity like it destroyed Shels and Home Farm. No one wants to support a 'feeder club' as the concept is synonymous with failure and hopelessness. Fans can not feel any connection to a club that is a division of a British corporation like Celtic FC. If I was a Rovers fan I would be very concerned indeed. It would be like the 20 homeless years on steroids. Adios Rovers if this happens.
Home Farm Everton here we go again. Rovers will be in the Lenister League in 5 years...
Even so, it is good that this conversation - albeit tired - is really picking up in momentum now. I meet more and more people supportive of the idea and you don't meet as many 'Luague o' Urland is sh**e' troglodytes that one did even 5 years back.
This will take a cultural change as much as anything else. The League has to be sold as a patriotic product something the FAI would never do. So maybe a new corporate structure that understands marketing and PR running the league and not the blazers.
BTW it is not imossible. Go to Sligo, Dundalk or Cork and see the number of locals in the local club jersey. This needs to be taken to a national level.
The situation demonstrates why John Delaney has managed to hold power for so long. He is actually a cute fox and strategist. The more I look at the situation the more I like it. Kenny will have a team of young players who will be molded into a new style of Irish national team that will return to the pre-Charlton style of keeping the ball down on the pitch with a dominant midfield. McCarthy's job is essentially to run down the last vestiges of the Charlton hoofing style. A kind of transitional caretaker. To allow the Charlton style to finally die off and the Kenny style to come it.
Yes, it is unusual in soccer, but not in other sports such as rugby. Also, why is it a problem? Perhaps Ireland is being innovative in soccer for once? The reaction is some quarters demonstrate the paralyzing conservatism of 'Jack Gave Us the Craic! Ole Ole' faction which by the time O'Neill came and went had gone from an infection to rigor mortis.
Let's wait two years and put away the XXXL Leprecaurn outfits. We are going back to what we are meant to be as a footballing nation pre-Stuttgart 88.
Dundalk FC - their style of play and management unleashed a silent revolution that eventually tore the national side's management/coaching asunder. Reminding people in Ireland how Irish teams can play quality soccer.
The guy is entitled to go where he wants and best of luck to him. But I often wonder when these players see their old teammates playing the Europa League while the new team coach is pulling into to some dump like Accrington on a rainy Wednesday night to they miss the opportunities of the LoI?
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