Republic of Ireland General Discussion Thread 2026

Not sure how it works exactly but if his father has an Irish passport wouldn't that make him 2nd generation?

Presume knight will be in midfield beside molumby. Just reading in the indo today about scales and Johnson missing. Think we're OK defensively.

Bit worrying ogbene not playing lately. Azaz and manning are on form with Southampton atm. Jamie mcgrath having a great season with hibs so he'll surely be in the squad.

As long as no major mishaps in next few weeks I think we're in a decent spot going to czechia . Know very few czech players apart from soucek and schick who is a quality operator

Preferably it would be good he's playing but I think as long as he's fit for selection that's good. Can't see him playing for Sheffield United going forward as they're not playing with wingers. Lately they've been playing with four CMs and two strikers or five CMs with one as a ten to support the CF.

He plays a good role for us in attack so just having him available is a big plus and same with Coleman in defence. I think he's played more for us than he has Everton this season.

Not sure how we could start either Ogbene or Festy, with neither being in match day squads so getting zero game time

Katie McCabe. What a player.

Very surprised we’ve been so much on top. Might be hard to keep that up.

Possibly but two players went to CAS and fought that ruling I believe and won. But Delap played at the U21 Euros at 22 so could be different than those two players.

Nedim Bajrami and Maarten Paes até the players.

Both played competitive international Under 21 football after their 21st birthdays (Bajrami for Switzerland and Paes for Netherlands).

Both then sought to switch nations, despite not formally holding the nationality of the country they were switching to previously (basically both are granny rulers, Bajrami wanted to switch to Albania and Paes to Indonesia).

Both requests were turned down by FIFA but those decisions were overturned by our old friends at CAS. The detail of the Paes one is yet to be released, but the Bajrami one has been and is very interesting from an Irish perspective. The CAS ruling is that not having gone through a paperwork exercise to formally gain citizenship is not enough of a reason to deny a switch, provided the appropriate lineage can be shown. Basically, the player doesn't need to have had citizenship, they just need to have had a grandparent born in the country they want to represent.

Long story short, it looks like CAS have bombed out the issue raised initially by the Luxembourg FA which caused all the problems for Ryan Johansson, and was thought to potentially create problems for any future Louie Barry/Liam Delap switch. My reading of it now is that, following the CAS decision for Bajrami, Barry and Delap will remain Ireland eligible until such time as England cap them in a competitive game for their senior team.

Smallbone played 45mins for Millwall's U21s yesterday since he did his hamstring back in October. Mightn't play much between now and Prague but will be good to have him available again.

I think Jack Taylor should take the spot you marked "X" and start midfield. He was very good v Portugal and has been playing (somewhat) regularly. With Knight and Coventry on the bench.

If Coleman doesn't start, then I'd imagine O'Brien shifts to the right and John Egan comes in. Is it even fair to ask Coleman to start if he hasn't played in so long ?

yeah we need him, we’ve never not needed him and when he’s gone it’s unclear who will be right back. It’s shouldnt be Jake Obrien anyway.

Jaysis, Osula’s Danish. That’s a nasty surprise. Never played senior for them.