'I watched a bit of the Under-21 game. I thought it was very, very poor and a bit depressing. I was sort of horrified.'
That was Eamon Dunphy's summary of the next crop of Irish stars. 'Horrified' may be a tad melodramatic but even if you're not one to usually go along with Dunphy's line of thinking, in this regard, he may have a point. Watching 'a bit of' the 4-1 defeat to the Italian u21s is not enough to write off Irish football for the significant future but that's not to say there's not a bit of truth to Dunphy's fears.
Two defeats for Noel King's u21 side, a 4-1 defeat for the u18s and a 2-0 defeat for the u17s ensured that it was a poor week on the Irish underage front. It's easy to see those defeats in isolation and say it's an example of everything we've been worried about. You need only look at the game against Slovakia tonight to see what may be coming down the tracks. Robbie Keane, Jon Walters and Daryl Murphy are missing and Shane Long is essentially the only forward we have at our disposal.
Get used to it. Those three players are in or are entering the twilight of their careers. By the time the next World Cup rolls around, it's not stretching anyone's imagination to suggest that we'll be relying almost solely on Long in terms of our striking options.
You look to the most recent u21 squad and you'll really be looking on the bright side of life if you can honestly say you can see an international level goalscorer in there. But what of the rest of the squad? For all Dunphy's pessimism, the reality of the situation is that Ireland have never had a decent u21 team.
Never in the history of the competition have we had a team in the European u21 Championship. While Brian Kerr may have been the king of underage European championships in the late 90s, it was the case then, just as it is the case now that, if you get to 19 and it becomes clear you're going to be of use to the senior setup, there's really no need to be floundering in the u21s for the duration of a qualification campaign.
We simply don't have the numbers available to sustain a decent u21 side. You just have to look at the fact that England's captain for tonight's game against the Dutch is James Milner. He earned an absolutely ludicrous 46 u21 caps. Shane Duffy holds Ireland's u21 appearance record with 20.
We don't need quality u21 teams, we need three or four players every year to be able to make the step up and stay there. So, with the 2018 World Cup qualification in mind, which players from the current squad can we be confident will earn a senior call up at some stage in the next 10 to 15 years?
Jack Byrne
The obvious candidate. There's very little to add that hasn't already been said. If the 19 year old Dubliner doesn't manage to make the breakthrough to the senior setup in the next 12 months, something will have gone wrong.
Darragh Lenihan
Meath needs an international footballer and it looks increasingly likely that the Blackburn midfielder might be the one. The Royal county has never produced an Irish international and we'd be willing to bet that, judging by the way he has taken to first team football in the Championship, the 22 year old could be about to bring an end to that unlikely statistic before too long.
Josh Cullen
When you're an Irish youth international and you make your Premier League debut for a top half side at the age of 19, you better believe there's going to be some high hopes coming from this side of the Irish Sea. As tends to happen more than we'd like, there is an asterisk beside Cullen's name. Like Arsenal's Dan Crowley, the West Ham midfielder has played for both Ireland and England at underage levels. Unlike Crowley, he's still sticking with Ireland up to u21 level, judging by his career to date, we can only hope that continues through to senior level.
Alan Browne
Ireland's reigning u21 player of the year has joined an eclectic list of players to take that crown. The former Cork youngster moved to Preston in 2014 and has taken to English football superbly. Under Simon Grayson, Preston have returned to the Championship and are quietly having an excellent season in the second tier.
At just 20, Browne has become a key player for a mid-table Championship side and there's not too many Irish youngsters who have that kind of experience under their belt at such a young age.
Tommie Hoban
If we wanted to put a positive spin on all this, we needed a player that wasn't a central midfielder. Hoban should have been further along the line judging by his exploits for Watford last season. Unfortunately, injury just as Quique Sanchez Flores was beginning to put a shape to his squad at the start of the season and Hoban's career trajectory has suffered a set back.
Nonetheless, he's getting back to fitness now and Ireland's defensive situation is such that the 22 year old defender should be able to get back to first team football and push for a place in the senior squad over the next couple of years.
