Recent reports in the Irish Independent (or independent.ie to give it the title on the paper's website masthead) have suggested that Arsenal winger Daniel Crowley may be about to switch his allegiance from England to Ireland following talks with manager Martin O'Neill.
However, today's article "Martin O'Neill to hold a second meeting with highly-rated Danny Crowley" contains a number of factual errors.
"As the Coventry-born midfielder represented England’s Under-19s last year, he wouldn’t be eligible to play in the games [the upcoming friendlies against Holland and Belarus]". His participation in the England U19 qualifiers is irrelevant to the senior international setup, players play for a new international side after switching allegiances all the time, regardless of their most recent appearance at underage level. It does mean, however, that he cannot turn out for the Ireland U19s until the qualifiers for the 2017 U19 Championships to be held in Albania in October.
"At that point [after representing Ireland at U17 level], he was bizarrely cut from their squad for the UEFA elite qualifiers, hastening his switch to the England for their UEFA U-19 campaign last October." While it's true that Crowley did appear for England in their U19 qualifiers last October (starting two of their three games), the article makes no mention that Crowley had not appeared for Ireland in a competitive game at U17 level (which would have tied him to the Republic at that level), only appearing in two friendlies against Croatia in 2013 before going on to represent England's U17s in their qualifiers a month later against Portugal, Russia and Slovenia. I found the mention of "elite qualifiers" here to be slightly misleading. While it does refer to the next qualifiers for the Ireland U17s, the England qualifiers played in October were in the Qualifying round, not the elite level.
"It was around that time [last October] O’Neill picked up the telephone and rang the Crowley family to make clear his interest in possibly fast-tracking him into the Irish fold." According to reports from that time, O'Neill first spoke to Crowley's family before naming the provisional squad for the qualifiers against Germany and Portugal on 17th September. England played their U19 qualifiers on the 8th, 10th, and 13th of October, three weeks later.
While there's no mention of this in the article from the Independent, it might be relevant that Crowley was not named in the England U19 squad for their elite qualifiers in March, despite appearing for Arsenal U21s against his former side Aston Villa earlier in the month.
Finally, and possibly most damning of all, the Independent themselves published an article on Crowley's switch to England at the time in 2013, from the same author John Fallon! Far from being cut from the squad, manager Tom Mohan was reported as saying that "he respected the decision and did not consider Crowley for inclusion in his squad for their forthcoming European Championship qualifiers."
Further Reading
Revealed: Martin O'Neill to hold a second meeting with highly-rated Danny Crowley - independent.ie
U17 head coach Tom Mohan names squad to face Croatia - fai.ie
Ireland U17s defeated by strong Croatian side - fai.ie
Ireland U17s lose out again to Croatia - fai.ie
U-21s: Aston Villa 1-0 Arsenal - arsenal.com
Aston Villa star Crowley opts to play for England- independent.ie
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