Could Ireland's call make Liam Delap a Lions bolter?

RTÉ News​

a day ago

Heimir Hallgrimsson remains hopeful that Liam Delap will follow in the footsteps of his father and represent the Republic of Ireland at senior international level.
The in-demand Ipswich striker, who is expected to land a big-money move during the summer with Chelsea appearing the most likely destination, is Irish qualified, however, he is currently embedded in the England Under-21 set-up.
Delap, son of Rory, who played 11 times for Ireland between 1998 and 2004, came through the ranks at Manchester City and following loan moves to Preston, Stoke and Hull, he signed a permanent deal with the newly-promoted Premier League side in the summer of 2024.
Thirty-seven top-flight appearances and 12 Premier League goals later, Delap's impressive season was not enough to save Ipswich from relegation, however, it has cemented opinion about the quality and potential of the emerging frontman.
Delap has represented the land of his birth at every international age group from U-16 to U-21 level, and will travel with the highly fancied England squad to Slovakia for next month's European Championships.
A futile exercise, perhaps, for Ireland to still harbour hopes of attracting a player of Delap's quality into a squad that has not played at a major tournament since 2016, when the lure of being involved at the latter stages of the Euros and World Cups a veritable possibility if selected for the England senior side.
In the meantime, as long as the player remains eligible to declare for the Republic, it would appear that the door remains firmly open with the manager admitting that talks had taken place with the young striker.
"Liam has good qualities, everybody knows that," said Hallgrimsson, speaking to the media in Dublin on Thursday.
"His father played for the Republic. Obviously, we are always hoping the good players will join us. He is now in the England U-21 squad in the [Euros] finals.
"That is his focus at the moment. What will happen after that we will have to wait and see.
"We have sat with him yeah," added the manager. "Just told him we would love to have him in our camp. But, like I said, the focus in the [England] U-21s."
Hallgrimsson was then asked whether the young striker showed any interest in playing for Ireland.
"Well, he didn't say f*** off," laughed the Icelander.
But in reality, Hallgrimsson said that despite his admiration for the player and aware of the quality that he would bring to his Republic unit, he accepts that it all comes down to the player as to where allegiances lie.
"I feel so, yeah. Probably you feel the same as well?" said Hallgrimsson, when asked if he thought players who have such a strong link should be playing for the national team.
"We want the best players available, always playing for us. Others might have other opinions.
"It is up to him. These questions you need to ask the player himself, not me. We always want the best players."
So moving on from the hypotheticals, Hallgrimsson's focus was brought back to the here and now, and the fact that Ireland have to play two games in the upcoming summer international window.
Ireland have failed to fire at this time of year in recent years with many players idle having finished their respective club seasons up to six weeks before the fixtures.
Senegal are first up, at Aviva Stadium on Friday, 6 June, followed by an away game in Luxembourg four days later.
But thankfully for Hallgrimsson, they are of the rarely spotted friendly variety, which has allowed the manager to use the window to look at some players, a situation that has proved difficult in a competitive environment.
"I answer that with a yes," said the manager, when asked if he was relieved that these games were not part of the qualifying campaign.
"We couldn't have done what we did, given them an extended holiday and off season so they will be fit in September so they will be rested when it comes to the new season.
"And that's because the June window has not been successful for Ireland in the past, it's been a tricky window, not playing for a month and then coming in to the national team camp for a game that's maybe on a higher level than you play on a regular basis.
"You are never 100% physically fit or mentally focussed after a holiday period, so yes, I am happy we are not playing World Cup group stage at this time."
And Hallgrimsson is trying to focus on the positives of playing two games of little significance ahead of such an important run of matches, and coming off the back of consecutive victories against Bulgaria in March.
"So this is one of, maybe, the negative sides in that we are breaking up partnerships that we have been trying to build, but it gives new faces the chance to prove a point, which is for us, playing only five camps a year, there is not many options to give them a chance.
"There are always positives to every negative that you have in life so definitely pros and cons."
Qualifying for next year's World Cup is the ultimate goal for this Ireland manager, and while the obvious benefits are showcased throughout a month-long football festival, which can lift the mood and often bring the nation to a standstill, Hallgrimsson offered his thoughts about what other benefits a team can gain from qualifying.
"It is not only to qualify, but it is this two months of being together, which would continue to grow the team," he explained.
"That is not much spoken of, but I think that is one of the reasons why it is always the same teams qualifying, because they spend this valuable time together that other national teams don't get.
"So that is the value of time for national teams to be in camp for finals and that is something that we really need at this moment, I would say."
Hallgrimsson was also asked whether he had the raw materials to work with to achieve that goal of taking his team to the USA, Canada and Mexico next summer.
"I think we have the material to qualify, sure," he said.
"I think I have, from experience, qualified with less talent than we have here."