As the summer transfer window slammed shut at 6pm on Tuesday, a number of current Irish international players were left in doubt regarding their immediate club future.
Some of the players who are in the squad for our upcoming games against Gibraltar and Georgia have fallen out of favour at their current clubs, and thus could have benefited from a new team coming in for them and offering them more regular playing time.
We've had a look at the squad and picked out five players that could have done with a move, and will likely not feature much in the coming months of the football season.
Aiden McGeady - Everton
As Everton brought Gerard Deulofeu back to Goodison Park on a free transfer, and then signed Aaron Lennon on deadline day too, it's perfectly clear that Aiden McGeady does not feature in Roberto Martinez's plans. Keep in mind that Kevin Mirallas, Bryan Oviedo, and even Steven Pienaar are still at the club, and it doesn't look good for Aido in terms of playing time.
Jon Walters - Stoke City
After handing in a transfer request on deadline day, Jon Walters felt his time at Stoke City had come to an end, and despite interest from Norwich City and rumours of a Leicester City bid, nothing materialised and Walters was left to ponder over what might have been. At least he saw the funny side of things:
Helicopter away for the year ? sorry LVG it's not happening ?
— Jonathan walters (@JonWalters19) September 1, 2015
David Forde - Millwall
Forde had a very consistent spell in the Ireland team while Shay Given was temporarily retired from late 2012 until the early stages of 2015, but he had been playing Championship football during that spell. Following Millwall's relegation and Kieron Westwood's appearance in the Championship team of the season, the Galway shot-stopper has slipped to third in the pecking order for Ireland's #1 shirt. His loyalty to Millwall is admirable, but as Irish fans we would want to see him playing at a higher level.
Anthony Stokes - Celtic
Despite Celtic manager Ronny Deila dropping Anthony Stokes, signing a number of new strikers, and even publicly stating that Stokes has no future at the club, the former Sunderland striker remains at the Scottish champions. It was strange to see no club come in for him, as Stokes has enjoyed some fruitful goal-scoring runs of form in his career, and it's almost certain that we won't see him feature much for Celtic barring some sort of injury crisis.
Marc Wilson - Stoke City
The unusually symmetrical hair-line of Marc Wilson made regular appearances at The Britannia Stadium in recent seasons, but due to the new sexy revolution at Stoke City, it seems that Wilson, like Walters, has been deemed not sexy enough for the Stoke team of 2015/16, having only played 28 minutes of football this season as a substitute. The signing of Glen Johnson has directly impacted his playing time, and surely there were a number of clubs in the Premier League who could have utilised his versatility, but it looks like the bench beckons for Marc. Thankfully Glen Whelan has managed to survive the sexy revolution, playing 90 minutes in all four of Stoke's games so far.
