Irish U21s boss Jim Crawford on working with Heimir, academy investment, and how to retain talents like Zefi

The 42

25-05-2025

I GESTURE TO the newly-released Irish U21s squad displayed on the TV screen above us and ask Jim Crawford whom he is most excited about.
'All of them', he says diplomatically, before rattling through each player, giving at least one line on their characteristics.
This is Crawford's third full cycle in charge of the U21s, having come agonisingly close to qualifying Ireland for a first tournament at that age group across each of the two previous campaigns. For the 2023 tournament they were beaten on penalties in a play-off against Israel, while for this summer's tournament Ireland were unfortunate to finish third in their group and miss out on the play-offs on goal difference.
The next edition of the championships will be held in Albania and Serbia in the summer of 2027, and Ireland's preparations for qualifying begin with a pair of June friendlies against Croatia and Qatar's U23 side.
Ireland will likely be fighting for another play-off in qualifying, having been drawn with Lee Carsley's England. Slovakia, Moldova, Kazakhstan, and Andorra complete the group line-up. The best runner-up qualifies automatically, with the rest of the second-placed sides going to a play-off.
During those near-misses, Crawford has consistently blooded players who have gone on to be capped at senior level. There are 11 in total: Andrew Omobamidele, Will Smallbone, Evan Ferguson, Festy Ebosele, Andrew Moran, Sinclair Armstrong, Tom Cannon, Mark McGuinness, Jake O'Brien, Finn Azaz and Rocco Vata.
Additionally, James Abankwah, David Harrington, Josh Keeley, Joe Hodge, Killian Phillips, Bosun Lawal, and Brian Maher are U21s who have been called up to the senior squad without yet getting capped. (Josh Honohan and John Patrick Finn also feature in the latest senior squad: both have been in Crawford's squad without playing.)
The flow of talent to the senior team occasionally caused some frustration, most notably when Stephen Kenny plucked Moran for a senior debut to play in a friendly against New Zealand, ruling him out of U21 qualifiers against Italy and Norway.
Crawford says works closely with Heimir Hallgrimsson, who has built a database of players into which Crawford can lean if he so wishes.
'He logs everything about every player', says Crawford of the new senior boss. 'I could ask, 'How is Joe Hodge getting on, how's Andy Moran getting on?', and he has the answer right there.
'He will take up players from the U21s, which is fine, but he is open to saying, they are our players, so if they are not going to play meaningful minutes with the senior team, they can represent Ireland at 21s level too. That mindset of Heimir's is appealing for a 21s manager.'
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Crawford with Hallgrimsson at Dalymount Park last year. James Crombie / INPHO James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
Asked whether he sees qualification or player development as his primary job, Crawford says they go 'hand in hand.'
'Our job is to develop players, get them to understand what's required at international football', he says. 'We want to get to finals. It would be nice to measure the development that would come from that experience. Qualifying for a tournament puts you on a stage, and God knows where your career can go from there. I would love the players to be given that opportunity.'
Part of that player development role is acknowledging that any player's progress is not linear. Evan Ferguson has been the latest to learn that brutal fact, as his total minutes played in this season's Premier League has fallen by more than two-thirds on last year.
Crawford says he and his staff give additional attention to any players who are struggling at club level, running through clips of their international games on what they can improve but, crucially, what they already do well.
Crawford sees his job as equipping his players with the tools to deal with 'chaos' on the pitch, and this is another version of that, albeit a kind of chaos with a longer arc.
He is unsurprisingly on message as to the importance of academy investment in Irish football, repeating the need to create a 'football industry' in this country. The FAI are hoping to get a government commitment to funding LOI academies in October's budget, and Crawford talks of 'when' the money comes, not if.
'I'm a positive thinker in that respect', he replies when I point that out.
'I have the luxury of working with Paul McShane and Rene Gilmartin, who are on the grass with Manchester United and Ipswich', he says. 'The game is evolving all the time and they are coming back with ideas that are circulating there. We need that over here. That comes from working and thinking about the game every day, as there's an industry there.
'We certainly need to get money into our academies. It's the foundation of everything.
'There's raw talent there, but can we get more quality contact hours with the players, led by full-time staff? Long-term, you're asking, Can we get a really competitive games programme, as opposed to teams winning too comfortably every week.
'Will you learn from winning 5-0 or 6-0? You'll learn a little bit. But when you go to an academy in England, for example Aston Villa, you have West Brom and other local teams where it's a challenge every week. Things you've worked on, say it's types of crosses out wide, that is being challenged every week. If you're an academy team winning comfortably here every week, are you being challenged defensively?'
The flipside of this is these academies can become stagnating environments, and it at U21 level that the drawbacks of wallowing for too long outside of the cut-throat professional world become apparent.
'There's no one-size fits all', says Crawford. 'I'm certainly not against academies in England, they are great. Some players need it. But how long is that shelf life? I'm not going to name players, but I've seen players still playing U21 football who need to get out, they've become stale.
'That next challenge, where you need points, you need to win; there's jobs at stake and your contract is at stake: they need to tase that, they need to smell that. They need to get in a first-team dressing room where it is about results.'
Crawford looks to the squad list in front of him and picks out the names of Warren Davis and Cathal O'Sullivan, who are among those already doing this in the League of Ireland.
Not included in this latest squad is Kevin Zefi, the Shamrock Rovers academy talent who left for Inter Milan and is now at Roma. Zefi is also eligible to play for Albania, for whom he was called up last year to play an underage friendly match. Zefi wasn't eligible to play as he has not requested a transfer from the FAI, and Crawford says Zefi still hasn't told him he intends to switch. Crawford spoke to Zefi before announcing this squad, again stressing he needed to play regular football to deserve his place.
Managing flight risks is another integral part of Crawford's role. The fight for talent among international teams is more intense than it has ever been, and where the English FA's astonishing laxity on the matter played to Ireland's glorious advantage in the Jack Charlton years, they have long-since changed tack.
Their aggression in this area is summed up by the fact Gary Brazil left a role at Nottingham Forest two years ago to become the FA's head of recruitment and retention. (The FAI belatedly followed suit by hiring Aidan Price as their head of talent ID and recruitment in March.)
When players eligible to represent another country report for U21s duty, Crawford and his staff sit down with the player to talk about what it means to be an Irish footballer. He swerves the history books, instead focusing on the football.
They talk about the player's Irish heritage, and to which country their ancestors belong to, in Crawford's words, 'connect them to their bloodline and make them feel as Irish as they can.'
'Retaining is huge', says Crawford. 'All we can do is to first of all be organised, that when the player comes in that they enjoy it. That they feel Irish. We make them aware of their heritage, and what it means to be an Ireland player.
'So for example when Jacob [Devaney of Manchester United] comes in, we will talk to him about Dublin – his mum's side are from Foxrock – and his Dad's from Mayo. We'll ask him what he does, does he visit his grandparents there often?
'We ask them, how do you view being Irish? And how do opposition view us? They all say 'hard work', but often miss out on the technical quality. I say, 'Hold on, we have technical players here. Let's not forget that.''
Crawford says the sweetest part of any qualification would be the validation and joy it would give to his staff, but he is deserving of the largest slice of credit. Perhaps it's going to be third time lucky.