There’s an awful lot of hype surrounding Jack Byrne but, game by game, it’s translating to substance.
It’s easy to get carried away sitting in Ireland hearing reports of this teenage sensation from Dublin and all of his good news. Every so often, a YouTube clip would emerge of an intricate piece of play from him, maybe even a screamer of a goal or just another accolade like earning a place on the Dutch team of the week.
Very few of us follow the Eredivisie – and certainly not SC Cambuur fixtures – religiously enough to offer any real analytical authority on Byrne’s emergence so, for the most part, those flatteringly-filtered snippets have excited an island and why wouldn’t they?
So when he was called into Ireland training last week and all reports from coaches, players and even the man himself were that he was impressing, it was hard to suppress the clamour for the Manchester City youngster to be given an official international call-up. Aiden McGeady’s been handed 79 opportunities, we already know what David Meyler and Stephen Quinn and the like offer; what was there really to lose from giving a promising wildcard like Jack Byrne a chance?
It never came though. He was sent back to the under-21s and Irish fans were left to look on wistfilly through their social media goggles and wonder what might have been. And, more so, left to wonder what we might have been missing out on.
One man, at least, has watched Byrne play every week. One man has tracked his progress with SC Cambuur throughout his 22 games so far this season where the St. Kevin’s Boys product has played mostly in centre midfield. In a handful of games, he’s been deployed further forward and, for fewer, he’s featured out wide. It hasn’t stopped Kees Elzinga drawing some world class comparisons with Jack Byrne and some of the game’s finest attackers.
The chairman of De Kern van Cambuur, the official supporters club of SC Cambuur, won’t hold back in his praise of the Irish underage star.
“Jack reminds me of the Welsh player Gareth Bale but he could probably learn a lot from Wesley Sneijder,” Elzinga spoke with SportsJOE about Byrne. “He is mostly playing midfield and is able to give long distance passes to his left and right wing teammates. He also tries to get forward and threaten the goal of the opponent and he tries to score with long distance shots.
“Jack is well known in our Premier League; Dutch television (mostly FOX Sport) shows quite a lot of his actions and other teams do their best to keep him out of the play.”
Byrne’s talents have endeared him to Cambuur fans. His move to Leeuwarden, a small city of 100,000 people, has given the Man City man a platform to ply his trade for 90 minutes every week in the Dutch top flight and, whilst his ability is still raw and still improving, it’s the Irish man’s attitude that is appreciated most by the club who are in their third season of trying to keep their head above water in the Eredivisie.
“Jack Byrne is very well liked by our supporters,” Elzinga said. “Jack has showed that he is a hard-working guy on the field and even when things are not going well, he shows a lot of energy and fight ’til the end. This attitude is very well appreciated by his supporters.
“He is a hard-working player, who sometimes is a little off with his accuracy. His passes – mostly the long distance ones – do not always find a teammate.
“But we really would like him to stay for another season at Cambuur,” the supporters club chairman continued. “Jack likes the town, the fanatic fans and the way Cambuur is playing football. The only thing is that Cambuur has to stay in the Premier League, and that will be a hard job. The other thing is that we have hired Jack for just the rest of the season and I think he will go back to Manchester City.”
Cambuur are holding up the rest of the division at present having notched just three victories all season. It’s hardly that surprising that they’re struggling. It’s a small club with a 10,000-seater stadium operating on a modest budget of 7.2 million euro a year.
Their form isn’t reflective of the Irish man’s development but Kees Elzinga wouldn’t be so quick to throw him on a plane to France for Euro 2016 either.
“If Jack can continue playing in the Premier League, Holland or England, I think he will be ready for the Irish team in one or two years. He already showed his skills in the Irish team the whole way through to under-21s and I think he’s doing really well.
“We really love Jack out here. He is a great guy and he deserves a good team so he can develop his football skills.”
Steady on, it seems. The hype is real. Or at least it could be in the near future.
