This is worrying, but not surprising.
It’s obvious to anyone with even a passing interest in Irish football that there aren’t as many Irish players in the English top flight as there were 20 or 30 years.
This is especially the case with the top Premier League teams, and while one could blame the forces of globalisation, and the influx of foreign players into the division, the problem is arguably closer to home.
According to Niall Quinn, the top English clubs aren’t particularly interested in young Irish players because they can’t trust the Irish system to adequately develop them.
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.
Made in the league of Ireland | Eight former Loi players at #EURO2016 Doing the LOI Proud. @LOIDOTIE @league_ireland pic.twitter.com/rnliFbB4Db
— LOI Designs (@Loi_Design) June 23, 2016
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.
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