More Mason Melia magic but how will Spurs pathway impact him?

RTÉ News​

27-05-2025

From the way Mason Melia took his goals on Friday night, it's easy to forget that he's still only 17.
The St Patrick's Athletic striker took his brace against Waterford with aplomb, with similarly composed right-footed finishes although his efforts did not prove enough for Stephen Kenny's side who conceded a late equaliser at Richmond Park.
Melia is now up to six goals for the season in what, incredibly, is already his third campaign within Pat's first-team.
But Saints supporters will know they won't have too many more opportunities to watch the talented youngster in action given he will be at Tottenham Hotspur in January after his big-money move was announced earlier this year.
While the Republic of Ireland Under-21 international has thrived playing men's football at such a tender age where results are paramount, how a switch to a Premier League giant affects him will be intriguing given that he will almost certainly play Under-23s football initially where it's not as competitive nor as intense as what he's been used to.
It was a topic former Ireland Under-17, Drogheda United and Longford Town defender Graham Gartland pondered on this week's RTÉ Soccer Podcast as he and ex-Shamrock Rovers and Dundalk midfielder Richie Towell discussed Melia and more matters from the League of Ireland weekend.
"It's an interesting one because he'll go probably 23s' and then (Spurs) will look at maybe a loan and trying to up the level he's playing at, seeing how he adapts," said Gartland, who first saw Melia in action when he was around 14 and later coached against him with Shamrock Rovers' youth teams.
"I think where he's got better is with his back to goal. But I also think there's massive improvements when I'm watching him and I'm watching him from a centre-back (perspective)," Gartland added, pointing to how Melia can build on his natural ability to eat up yards of space by fashioning those opportunities for himself more regularly in the first place.
"I think all them things he'll add to his game as he goes. He's not going to be the finished article.
"He's been playing senior football since he was 16, so I think where his development might go is he might go into a 23s environment and it's not as hostile and it's not as win-at-all-costs as it obviously is at the moment where he's playing at Pat's.
"But it might just allow him to work and develop his movement and really hone in on the cleverness of it and the consistency of it, of the, 'I need to be here at certain times, I need to make this run and I need to make a run all the time' and no matter how many times you don't get the ball, you still need to do it.
"So I think maybe coming out of that environment where it's win-at-all-costs and he has to perform every week to a learning environment where he can develop these other things might help him a little bit.
"But he will stand out for the fact that he has been in a competitive environment (before) he goes over there to the 23s."
Ireland Under-21 head coach Jim Crawford discussed Melia's development after again naming him in his squad for a pair of June friendlies:
The reason Melia will stand out in an Under-23s Premier League environment at Tottenham is due to how comparatively lacking in aggression and ultra-competitiveness aspects of the academy systems can seem to be in the UK, from Gartland's own experience.
"I'm not saying one way is right over the other but I think Mason's going from this ultra-competitive environment to going into 23s where it will be about his development. But he has to keep that edge that he has and that's what got him over there in the first place."