
Share
26th September 2016
04:55pm BST

The former Republic of Ireland striker explains how he was told by someone from a "big Premier League" club that they aren't interested in signing Irish youngsters beyond the age of 12.
"I was speaking to somebody recently from a big Premier League club in England and I asked had they any young Irish players on their radar," Quinn writes in his column for JOE.ie.
"The answer was a bit crushing. He said that they weren’t really interested in Irish players unless they could get them to commit from the age of twelve years. "Why? They are happy that they could identify the talent in our kids of ten, eleven or twelve years of age but they didn’t think they could trust our system to nurture that talent. "It was one of those occasions when you want to argue but you realise that the better option is just to go away and think about it. "We produce a lot of good coaches in Ireland. We produce a lot of good kids who can really play football. We seem to have trouble connecting the two groups, though."Quinn acknowledges that the problem of being able to adequately develop young players isn't exclusive to Ireland, as there is also a lack of UEFA qualified coaches in England compared to Spain and Germany. The qualifications are expensive and take a lot of time. https://twitter.com/Loi_Design/status/746049343828934657 It could be argued that there are already signs of the policy outlined to Quinn. Ireland internationals Seamus Coleman, Shane Long James McClean and Wes Hoolahan were all overlooked by clubs across the water until they were in their late teens or early twenties. Catch up on the first episode of Football Friday Live...
Explore more on these topics: