Recruiting talent from Ireland's diaspora the key to progress

Irish Times

18-05-2025

For 14 years I had two weeks' holidays, always in late June, squeezed in between commitments to club and country.
The lack of recovery time has a lot to do with the serious back issues I've suffered in my 40s. That and rushing back from surgery. And playing on when my body was screaming for me to stop.
It catches up with you.
Nowadays, the modern footballer knows how to prepare his or her body for each season. It is more scientific. They know when to rest and when to keep the blood flowing.
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But there is only one way to recover from a 46-game EFL Championship campaign and it has nothing to do with playing June friendlies against Senegal and Luxembourg.
Allowing Irish players at Championship clubs to take the summer off is sensible management by Heimir Hallgrímsson. I know Burnley and Middlesbrough will benefit from refreshed versions of Josh Cullen and Finn Azaz showing up for preseason in July.
A full club season, summer football, into World Cup qualifiers in September, October and November are unsustainable. It's usually around the Christmas glut of games that you are either managing injuries or mentally frazzled.
Usually both.
Before your head stops spinning, you are back in the
Republic of Ireland
camp, back in preseason, back grinding away for your club. The years fly by.
Instructing the likes of Cullen and Azaz to rest and recuperate gives Hallgrímsson a better chance at fielding the strongest possible line-up when Hungary come to Dublin on September 6th.
Ireland cannot afford to lose another opening qualifier or drop points in Armenia three days later. Not if the manager's unwavering belief that we will qualify for North America 2026 is to be proved correct.
Josh Cullen of Burnley and Republic of Ireland is set to play in the Premier League next season after his club secured promotion. Photograph: Mike Morese/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Robbie Brady is a special case having only started 18 matches for Preston North End this season. And he is Ireland's only established left back. And he takes the frees. And he is Robbie Brady.
Brady is the very person John Joe Patrick Finn should be rubbing shoulders with next month. We don't know how good Finn is. Like everyone else, I only see snippets of Irish qualified players on social media.
The Ireland manager
flew to France to meet the 21-year-old and to see if this big defensive midfielder could slot in beside Cullen. 'He's exciting, but is he good enough now for this level?' wondered Hallgrímsson this week. 'We'll have to wait and see.'
Irish training sessions used to sort out the men from the boys.
There is a line of succession from Jack Charlton's squad to the current group that makes the presence of Brady so important to introducing Finn, a youngster from Madrid with a Mayo Dad, to the standards expected of a Republic of Ireland player. At training. In games. Away from camp. You learn through osmosis how to be an international footballer.
My first interaction with the senior players was intimidating. In 1997, Andy Townsend, Tony Cascarino, John Aldridge and Ray Houghton were my heroes. That mindset was quickly dispelled, particularly by Ray demanding the ball. 'I'm not running into the corner lad – give it into feet!'
Being exposed to their standards was a steep learning curve.
I know there are stories of Ireland camps turning into big drinking sessions. But that first Sunday night, when you'd rush to catch a flight to Dublin, was run out of your legs on the Monday and Tuesday before a Wednesday international.
Coming from Preston's first team into a group of legends that played at the World Cup, along with Steve Staunton from Liverpool and Roy Keane at Manchester United, was a shock to the system.
Coming from Stade Reims to Ireland could prove a similar experience for Finn.
I struggled with the intensity of the sessions. There are exceptions, like a 17-year-old Robbie Keane who was fearless and technically ready. He even nutmegged the gaffer, Mick McCarthy.
I remember, years later, Brian Kerr would bring League of Ireland players into camp like the Bohemians goal machine Glen Crowe. I always admired Glen's quality but the pace of training tended to catch out other lads not playing regularly at a higher level.
Josh Honohan of Shamrock Rovers should not be intimidated by Republic of Ireland training sessions. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho
Nowadays, Shamrock Rovers defender Josh Honohan and Finn, coming from Ligue 1, should not be intimidated by the Ireland sessions. They should be up to speed. But they must show they belong. You need to earn the respect of senior internationals in camp before they trust you in a game.
Besides Crowe, Staunton and Keane, all the names mentioned above were born in England or Scotland. Recruiting from the diaspora has never been so important to our progress as a football nation, because we lack the numbers, facilities and professional coaching at home. We also lack the spread of club academies to cater for the 16- 18-year-olds blocked by Brexit from moving to a UK club.
There are talented second and third generation Irish players dotted across the MLS and North America leagues that I see working for Canadian television. Connecting with a player like Finn, a Spanish-born, French-based professional with Mayo blood should be the next frontier for Irish football.
I know the FAI have recruited Aidan Price from Rovers to be their head of talent identification. Besides Heimir, there are few more important roles in Irish football in the years ahead.