STEPHEN KENNY SAYS that his main objective as Irish U21s manager is merely to select the best players available to him, rather than capping foreign-born players to introduce them to the Irish setup.
The U21 setup has been criticised in the past for picking too many players from outside the Irish underage structure, instead choosing Irish-eligible players from other systems with a view to capping them at senior level in the future.
Kenny, however, says that none of his squad selections will be based on where a player is from.
“I make my own decisions. That won’t be one of my main objectives.
Getting players qualified isn’t one of my main objectives. I’ll pick the best players for the campaign, the players I think have the most potential in the future, and try and nurture them and develop them into a cohesive team that wants to play for Ireland, and enjoys playing for Ireland more than anything.
“I’ll promote players that are Irish. That’s the bottom line. I don’t have preconceived prejudices on where I should [pick players from]. For example, there are players going on loan to Holland, there’s a player in Italy and in Germany.
“I don’t have a directive. We’ll pick the best Irish players and the players with the best potential, with a view to being the best team we can and with the wider objective to produce players for the senior team”.
The former Dundalk manager today fulfilled his first media duties since being handed an FAI tracksuit, naming a squad of domestic players for a training camp next month.
The players will gather in Dunboyne on Monday, 4 February for a two-day training camp that will culminate in a game against the Ireland Amateur team at Whitehall Stadium on Wednesday night at 19:45. He thanked the League of Ireland clubs involved for agreeing to release the selected players.
Kenny’s backroom staff was also unveiled, with Irish U18s manager Jim Crawford and former Irish international and U17s coach Keith Andrews confirmed as his assistants.
“It is an advantage as they know a lot of the players. They have been involved with the U17 and U18 international groups. I brought them in as I believe in them as people, their character and their talent as coaches”.
He refused to forecast whether Crawford and Andrews would join him when he assumes the senior job in 2020, instead saying his sole focus is on the U21 squad.
Kenny’s squad will also be taking part in the highly-respected Toulon tournament in June, at which Ireland will be guaranteed at least four games. Given the standard of the competition, along with the fact that Ireland have never qualified for a tournament at this age grade before, Kenny believes it is a good opportunity for the squad to gauge their standard.
These games, along with the seven slated European Championship qualifiers, gives Ireland an “unprecedented” number of U21 games in 2019, making it a “brilliant opportunity for players to come in and stake their claim”.
As fourth seeds, Ireland were handed a difficult qualifying draw for the Euros, but Kenny preached optimism.
We’ve got a tough group with Italy, Sweden and Iceland, Armenia and Luxembourg, but we will be absolutely positive in our approach, and will try to blood the players that we feel deserve an opportunity.
The manager confirmed that he watched Troy Parrott play a small role in a recent U23s clash between Spurs and Liverpool, but said it is too early to say as to whether he or fellow starlet Adam Idah will be fast-tracked into his squad. Parrott is still eligible for the Irish U17s this year.
It’s something that we have to consider. It’s early to make statements as to who will be in the squad. It’s premature to suggest as to who we will pick in the squad at this stage. There’s no doubt that they are players of potential.
Kenny’s first competitive game in charge of the Irish U21s will be the European qualifier against Luxembourg in Tallaght on Sunday, 24 March.
Republic of Ireland U-21 Training squad
Goalkeepers: Conor Kearns (UCD), Ross Treacy (Dundalk)
Defenders: Andy Lyons (Bohemians), Darragh Leahy (Bohemians), Conor McCarthy (Cork City), Trevor Clarke (Shamrock Rovers), Liam Scales (UCD), John Mahon (Sligo Rovers).
Midfielders: Dan Mandriou (Bohemians), Aaron Bolger (Shamrock Rovers), JJ Lunney (Waterford), Jamie Lennon (St. Patrick’s Athletic), Brandon Kavanagh (Shamrock Rovers), Robbie McCourt (Bohemians).
Forwards: Ronan Hale (Crusaders), Neil Farrugia (UCD), Michael O’Connor (Linfield), Will Fitzgerald (Limerick), Zach Elbouzedi (Waterford), Karl O’Sullivan (Limerick).
Originally published at 17.23
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Quality player, very surprised he was dropped.
I’d be very surprised if he was dropped in the first place as he needed match time. He’s better than Jager in all facets that I’ve seen, scrum, maul and as we’ve all seen, in the lose. Jager, just not seeing it with him especially scrum. Am I missing something???
@Noel Lynn: Bealham is certainly well ahead of Jager and all other TH (Furlong apart) in Ireland, but I think Jager is doing a better job than you’re giving credit for. He’s been very good at scrum time for munster, especially when he came up against Porter, and was solid against Wales. His ruck defense was excellent both clearing and counter rucking and his goal line defense was superb. His lineout work wasn’t up to scratch IMO and he still needs to improve his S&C but he’s certainly got a high ceiling and a great addition to our TH stock.
@Noel Lynn: Short answer – yes
Easily the best TH after Furlong, who seems to have recovered some of his previous form. Great to have several options here between Furlong, Bealham, O’Toole and Jager. The order is not important as they are all playing well at the moment.
Literally no one else is suprised.
@Thesaltyurchin: I’m surprised, arguably pushing Furlong for a starting spot
Bealham is a quality player but I think it’s getting a bit clearer that farrell and his coaches are huge fans of jager. To go from the ‘training squad’ to the verge of the 1st choice 23 over a couple of weeks is pretty phenomenonal
@munsterman: jager has plenty to work on to over take Bealham. He may not have over taken TO’T yet, so 1 step at a time.
@Patrick O’Sullivan: well I’ve never seen farrell move so quickly to promote a player in a meaningful match. Even players like Joe Mccarthy and crowley had to put in their time in camp for a year or so. There’s every chance that bealham will be back-up th v England but you wouldn’t bet on it
@munsterman: There’s every chance that Bealham will start and Jager on the bench if Furlong injured.
@Con Cussed: yea that’d be the most likely scenario I’d imagine. It’s quite tough on otoole who’s been very good for Ireland too
@munsterman: Agreed. It just means the pressure is now on all four to keep the momentum up. It’s a tough position and injuries abound so can see them all getting a chance in the future.
This could mean Furlong has an injury concern… I hope not!
Has anyone authoritative said that Bealham was dropped? As far as I recall the mood music before the Welsh game was that Bealham had proved himself across a number of matches to be no great step down from Furlong; and that Farrell was taking advantage of a game we were almost certain to win to have a look at Jäger off the bench.
Depressing stuff
@Kevin Ryan: when have we ever seen farrell use a competitive game to just have a look at a player? The only time he ever changes up his side much is v the most tier2 of tier2 nations in Nov or else gets A games set up
@munsterman: Giving a guy a debut as a bench prop is not really changing the side much, though. And if he didn’t pick this game, he’d have to wait until the Autumn, assuming SA too strong. Anyways, we’ll see what Farrell does with the selection for the England game.
The story around Bealham is a bit of a head scratcher. Why was he dropped? Some say he needed time off as a new dad. Personally I believe the coaches think Jager is a better prop. When your coach uses faint praise to describe your last performance then you are in trouble. I think Farrell described Bealham’s last outing as “decent enough”. In all these scenarios the public never gets a true picture until someone writes a book.
@Tom Reilly: I seem to have missed him saying that about Bealham – was that in a press conference? I checked the post Italy match press conference again to refresh my memory, and Faz was effusive in his praise of the set piece, calling it excellent and top notch, so I’m surprised he would then be naming Finlay as not being a top performer. A lot of media said that Finlay was doing as much as he could possibly do to challenge Furlong for the starting berth on the back of his performance against Italy, so I don’t think I’m the only one who thought he performed excellent in that match.
@Tom Reilly: ah, I heard it now – it was from the pre-Wales match conference. To be honest, the way I hear it, it seemed more so saying that Oli deserved a chance in spite of Bealham having a decent performance. TBH, I think he couldn’t say “Wales’ scrum is poor so this is the best chance to give Oli a tryout in the six nations window”, so has to justify it on the basis of competition for places. If he said Finlay was excellent, then he would effectively be needing to say that Oli is even better, which would be a huge amount of pressure to put on a debutant. So, he kind of has to nearly qualify Bealham’s performance so as not to put down Wales.
@JoeVlogs: As I said earlier it is hard to know what exactly is going on. I think most people think Bealham did not deserve to be dropped from a playing point of view. Maybe something else is going on.
The euphemism that Alex Ferguson developed to replace “dropped” was “rotated.” The image that most of us have of a “dropped” player is of someone so bad in the last match that they had to be replaced. Sometimes it is about building squad depth, other times you were the Lions captain last week and this week not in the 23 – an utterly unexplainable event.
I suspect that Furlong has twinged his hamstring. If Furlong is out, Bealham absolutely starts ahead of Jager – and we all know that.
@PatN: I meant calf not hamstring
Bealham should be pushing Furlong for a starting position not getting dropped
When was the last v good game from Furlong?
@Derek Casserly: Last week!
There is much debate about the word “dropped” concerning Bealham. Was he or wasn’t he dropped. IMO if a player is available for selection, has been selected everytime he is available and then he is not selected, then he is indeed deemed “dropped”.
Let’s stop using the word “dropped”. To play at elite level you need a squad of 35 players and the ability to get game time into all of them. ( let’s not repeat RWC errors from the past). Rotatated is a much better word.