With Stephen Kenny not continuing in his role as Republic of Ireland manager, it will be interesting to see what sort of shape the squad will take under whoever succeeds him in the role.
The former Dundalk boss conducted a major overhaul of the personnel in the Irish setup, promoting a huge number of youth players to the senior ranks. He would also begin to trust those players more as time went on, making it difficult at times for newcomers to break into the squad.
Sammie Szmodics is one player who certainly could have been given more playing time over the last couple of years, with the Blackburn Rovers man yet to be given an international debut. He has been in the squad on a couple of occasions but has had to pull out both times.
The 28-year old has been in sensational form this season, sitting top of the Championship goalscoring charts with 11 goals and two assists in 17 appearances.
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Blackburn Rovers manager heaps praise on Sammie Szmodics
Having been a late addition to the window, Sammie Szmodics was forced to pull out of the Ireland squad for the October internationals due to personal reasons. That same issue would also rule him out for selection in November.
Fans will be hopeful that he will be available for selection by the time the games in March come around, with the player having signed a new contract with Blackburn Rovers this week.
After that deal was announced, his club manager gave a summary of what the player offers to the team. It sounded like he would be a valuable addition to the Ireland squad when he eventually does make his debut.
Speaking after the contract was signed, John Dahl Tomasson summed up the qualities Sammie Szmodics brings to a team and hailed his development in recent years.
He is a pleasure to be around in the dressing room, he is always in a good mood. He is a funny person and, of course, he is one of the senior players as well.
I think his development has been really good over time. When you come to a new club, you need to get used to things and it took him maybe half a year. After that, he hasn’t looked back and he’s been doing really great...
He is scoring goals and he is an important player. With this young group, he is one who knows exactly what to do.
One of the things Sam can do is the ‘concrete’ things during games. A top, top player does it nine or 10 times out of 10, and he is doing it seven times which is really good at this level. I am really pleased with Sammie and his performances.
I always try to push my players and have high demands. I will keep on pushing Sammie to become even better, that is always the mindset you should have.
Capable of playing in an attacking midfield role or in a forward position, Sammie Szmodics would certainly be an asset in the Ireland squad.
He has linked up brilliantly with recent debutant Andy Moran at Blackburn this season, so it would be interesting to see if they could reproduce that form at international level.
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