ROY KEANE’S LATEST scouting mission took him to Barnsley’s Oakwell yesterday.
The League One club were 4-1 winners over Swindon, with former Ireland U21 international Conor Hourihane earning man-of-the-match after scoring one and setting up two more.
A fellow Corkman, Keane knows the 24-year-old well as he took him from Sunderland to Ipswich Town back in 2010.
Here are the highlights from that game (Hourihane is wearing number eight):
Unfortunately for Keane, Hourihane’s team-mate Daniel Crowley, who has made eight appearances for the Tykes since joining on loan from Arsenal at the start of the season, missed out through injury.
The 18-year-old Coventry native, eligible to play for Ireland through his Waterford grandparents, is the latest player in the middle of an international tug-of-war.
Like Jack Grealish, Crowley is a product of Aston Villa’s youth system. However, in 2013, he opted to switch to Arsenal and signed his first professional contract a day after his 17th birthday.
Highly-rated by the Gunners, the midfielder’s style of play has been likened to Jack Wilshere. Crowley, who has a GAA background with St Finnbars in Coventry, has represented both Ireland and England at underage level but most recently lined out for the Three Lions’ U17s side.
According to a report in The Irish Times, however, the FAI are confident that he will commit his long term international future to Ireland and link up with Noel King’s U21s team.
What he said
Last year: “I don’t really know – I’m going to see what happens. My grandparents are Irish. I played for Ireland and when I was U16 I went for trials with England and got in. I’m still young and I’d never rule anything out because you just don’t know what’s round the corner.”
What has been said about him
Arsenal midfielder Mikel Arteta: “He has impressed me for two reasons. The first is of course his talent, but also he is gaining maturity too, and if he keeps doing that then he can be a very good player.
“He’s definitely got the talent, and if you put that together with mental strength and the willingness to work hard, then you’ve got a great chance. That’s what he needs to do.”
Barnsley boss Lee Johnson: ”He is an exceptional and exciting talent who is very highly thought of at Arsenal. Dan has genuine, top-level skill and quality.”
Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere: “Everybody follow @danielcrowley24 trust me when I say this kid is a player! Big future.”
Highlights reel
His goal against Everton in the Capital One Cup last month.
A free-kick for Arsenal’s U21s.
https://vine.co/v/OdlrjHi5HBV
Showing off his shooting ability in training.
https://vine.co/v/ML6ih1p16tP
And here’s a short documentary that Arsenal made about the youngster:
Would represent some much needed good news for Ireland in relation to player recruitment! Don’t care what anyone says losing Grealish is a massive loss.
as he scores a cracker for villa.
England will do everything in their power to keep this lad, Roy Hodgson was even in contact with him 2 years ago. Would be a massive coup if he switched to ireland.
Isn’t it a bit odd that Roy Hodgson is so focused on meeting up with English players who are eligible for Ireland? are you seeing a trend here?
To be fair theirs a reason for that! If Paul mcshane had been born in Coventry I’d say Roy would let him switch to us handy enough!
Roy apparently wanted Pilkington to play for England… more like he did NOT want Ireland to have him.
Short term solution for a much deeper problem.
I’m not against lads that are born outside of Ireland representing Ireland at all. However I do feel that chasing guys whom have never had an Irish influence in their upbringing and only when the FAI discover that they can represent us through a granny etc isn’t the way to build our senior team.
Grealish obviously has a strong Irish heritage in his family (no hard feelings if he’s now deemed good enough to play for the country of his birth which is also the country of his parents.) but other recently capped players have come on board because of the experience and financial benefit it represents to play for us.
Not putting McCarthy in that bracket but he’s has never performed in an Irish jersey and we’ve got to ask why? Perhaps he chose to play for us when he was too young to make the proper choice. If that’s the case I believe we need to reconsider if capping players because of the granny rule is to our advantage.
We need to hone and develop boys in Ireland at a young age and manage them along properly. Grassroots is the way forward, plenty of small countries have shown this in the past. While soccer is a much bigger game on the world stage the FAI should look at how the IRFU and Irish boxing have turned out winners on a world level.
This lad has had an Irish upbringing to some degree though. He played Gaelic football with a club in Coventry
We would have some midfield in the future with Grealish, Crowley and jack byrne for man city, also reece grego cox for qpr and cullen for west ham already getting game time in the premier league at 18/19 years of age. An up in coming striker and we would be sorted but its been 14 years since robbie broke through onto the scene and there hasnt been a sign of another robbie coming through as of yet.
Whatever about Crowley but Hourihane was one of the top scorers in League 1 last season.Not bad for a midfielder.Deserves a call up to see can he cut the mustard.
He is a good league one player but who would u drop for him in our midfield places for him?
can we not just drop someone from the squad? He doesn’t have to play
Bring as a water boy or ball boy?
Surely there’s something wrong when you can refer to an international team as “chasing” someone?
Be great to see an Arsenal player put on the green Jersey
Not going to happen. Very talented and his intention is to play with England.