Episode 91 - Has the road already ended?

It's taken myself, Mark, and Philip this long to calm down enough after the two qualifiers against Hungary and Armenia to be able to record our thoughts on the games. After taking one point from the opening fixtures of the qualifying campaign, is it already over? Did any players come out of the games well? And what affect will our next fixture, the hardest fixture of the qualifiers away against Portugal in Lisbon, have on the home crowd for the return game against Armenia three days later?

Episode 78 - Not quite a moral victory

I'm joined again by Mark Kennedy of Hawkeye Sidekick and Philip Flanagan of The Bottomless Pit of Football to discuss the Republic of Ireland's two Nations League games in October. What did we make of the changes to the side and how the players reacted to going behind, and what does it mean for the final two League B games in November?

Going into their final two qualifiers for the 2025 UEFA U21 Championship, the Under 21 side knew what was needed, but still fell short of qualification. What players from the squad can look forward to promotion to the senior side, and what does another campaign that finished in disappointment mean for coach Jim Crawford?

Also, Sideshow Bob's rakes and I do a live countdown math problem!

Episode 71 - Qualifiers, the process, and promotions

I'm joined again by Mark Kennedy of Hawkeye Sidekick to discuss the women's national side's qualifiers against France and England in April, the neverending quest for a new manager, and, with the season in England reaching its conclusion, we congratulate the players who have won promotion with their sides across the leagues

Episode 66 - The Year That Was 2023 In Irish Men's Football

I'm joined by Mark Kennedy of Hawkeye Sidekick and Philip Flanagan of The Bottomless Pit of Football to review the performances of the Republic of Ireland Senior Men's team in 2023, from the opening friendly against Latvia in March, through the qualification campaign for Euro 2024, to the final game of Stephen Kenny's time in charge against New Zealand in November. What were the highs and lows, and that, if anything, was learned from each game?

How to calculate average age?

When the FAI announced the starting XI against Latvia, the average age of the starting XI was stated as being 23.6, but in the announcement from the @irish_abroad account stated the average age was 24, see below

STARTING XI | Ireland v Latvia Evan Ferguson makes his first senior international start as Caoimhin Kelleher starts in goal in young, exciting starting line-up🧤 Average age of the side: 23.6 💚 pic.twitter.com/axVsxKuYlx — Ireland Football ⚽️🇮🇪 (@IrelandFootball) March 22, 2023

📋 Starting XI Stats 🎂 Average Age: 24 🧢 Total Caps: 151 🧢 Average Caps: 14.73 ⚽ Total Goals: 9 ⚽ Average Goals: 0.82#COYBIG #IRLLAThttps://t.co/4YfyHGMIIc pic.twitter.com/j2EMe16jWr — Irish Abroad (@irish_abroad) March 22, 2023

Why is there a discrepancy? The team running the FAI social media channels calculated the age using each player's years of age, e.g. Alan Browne is 27, but this is inaccurate. Browne is 27 years and 11 months old.

When calculating average age, it's better to use the days between each person's date of birth and the current date - Browne was 10,203 days old on Wednesday, 22nd March 2023. Calculating the age in days for the rest of the team that started against Latvia gives the following table

Player	Date of birth	Age(y)	Age(days)
Caoimhin Kelleher	Monday, 23 November 1998	24	8,885
Andrew Omobamidele	Sunday, 23 June 2002	20	7,577
Matt Doherty	Thursday, 16 January 1992	31	11,388
Alan Browne	Saturday, 15 April 1995	27	10,203
Dara O'Shea	Thursday, 4 March 1999	24	8,784
Jay Molumby	Friday, 6 August 1999	23	8,629
Michael Obafemi	Thursday, 6 July 2000	22	8,294
Will Smallbone	Monday, 21 February 2000	23	8,430
Callum O'Dowda	Sunday, 23 April 1995	27	10,195
Nathan Collins	Monday, 30 April 2001	21	7,996
Evan Ferguson	Tuesday, 19 October 2004	18	6,728
	Total	260	97,109
	Average	23.64	8,828.09

To convert the average age in days to years, divide by the number of days in a year, including a quarter for leap years, i.e. 365.25.

This gives a more accurate average age of 24.17 days.

Episode 51 - 2022, A Year In Football, Part One

Join myself, Mark Kennedy of Hawkeye Sidekick, and Philip Flanagan of The Bottomless Pit of Football as we review the highs* and lows of the Republic of Ireland mens team in 2022

*yes, there were highs

Episode 49 - Gareth Maher, Away Days, and Scoring Goals In The Dark

Myself and Mark Kennedy are joined by Gareth Maher, author of Away Days - Thirty Years of Irish Footballers in the Premier League and Claire Shine's Scoring Goals In the Dark to discuss the history of Irish players in the Premier League, and Claire Shine's recovery from addiction and mental health issues

Why John Egan's 30th Birthday Is A Watershed Moment In Irish Football

John Egan is 30 years old today, and not only is it a landmark day for the player, it is also a watershed moment for Irish football as a whole. For the first time since former international midfield player John Sheridan turned 30 in October 1994, there are no active Irish footballers under the age of 30 with 50, or more, appearances in the Premier League*

According to the database that powers the Irish Abroad website, there are 86 Irish players with 50, or more, appearances in the top division in England in total. Of these, 71 had reached the half century before their 30th birthday.

The graph below shows how many of these 71 players had reached 50 appearances on the 30th birthday of each player, starting with Sheridan's 30th birthday in 1994 on the left and ending on Egan's birthday today.

For example, on Kevin Kilbane's 30th birthday, in February 2007, there were 10 Irish players under 30 with 50, or more, Premier League appearances - Ian Harte(29, 213 apps), Andy O'Brien(27, 206), Damien Duff(27, 208), Clinton Morrison(27, 88), Richard Dunne(27, 230), Robbie Keane(26, 227), Gary Doherty(27, 84), Stephen McPhail(27, 78), Steven Reid(25, 81), and John O'Shea(25, 152).

The peak about two thirds across the graph is Daryl Murphy's 30th birthday in March 2013, when there were 17 players under 30 with 50 Premier League appearances. Since then, there has been a constant decline in the number of Irish players who meet the criteria. 

Of the current players, 27 year old Callum Robinson and 22 year old Aaron Connolly are the two Irish players under 30 with the most Premier League appearances, with 48 and 45 appearances respectively, but with Robinson currently in the Championship with Cardiff, and Connolly on loan in Italy with Venezia, both players will have to wait until the 2023/24 season kicks off next August, at the earliest, before they can reach 50 appearances. 

Of the current Irish players in the Premier League, Wolverhampton Wanderers defender Nathan Collins(21) has 27 Premier League appearances, and with 27 games remaining in Wolves' season, he is the player best positioned to be the next Irish player under 30 to reach 50 appearances in the competition.

*Note that there were Irish footballers under the age of 30 with more than 50 combined Premier League and old First Division appearances before Sheridan's 30th birthday, but we do not have appearance data for players before the start of the Premier League in 1992, so we're treating that as the starting point for this research

Thanks to the foot.ie forum member Eirambler for the post that inspired the research behind this article

Repeat XIs

 A recent post on twitter asked which game did this Ireland lineup photo come from?

Your Choice #Eire #Tiger 1978-08-26 pic.twitter.com/MyzdtD8LxQ

— Scottish Footy Cards (@ScotsFootyCards) February 13, 2022

It's from a friendly against Denmark in May 1978 that ended 3-3, with the goals coming from Frank Stapleton, Tony Grealish, and Gerry Daly. This was the only time these eleven players would start together. This is not uncommon for the national side, in the 587 games played by the Republic, there have been 453 unique selections for the the starting XI. 

But what of the repeated selections? What collection of starting players has been selected more than any other for the Boys in Green?

On Friday, 2nd September 2011, Giovanni Trapattoni selected Shay Given, John O'Shea, Stephen Ward, Sean St Ledger, Richard Dunne, Glen Whelan, Keith Andrews, Aidan McGeady, Damien Duff, Kevin Doyle, and captain Robbie Keane to face Slovakia at home in a qualifier for Euro 2012 that finished 0-0.

Ireland Team: Given, O'Shea, Dunne, St. Ledger, Ward, Duff, Andrews, Whelan, McGeady, Keane, Doyle #IreSlo

— FAIreland ⚽️🇮🇪 (@FAIreland) September 2, 2011

The same starting XI would go on to be selected against Hungary the following June in a pre-tournament friendly, then faced Croatia in Euro 2012 six days later, before being named for the fourth, and final, time to face Italy in the final game of the group - the most the same starting XI has played together for Ireland.

The most recent repeat selection came in June 2019, when Mick McCarthy named Darren Randolph, Seamus Coleman, Enda Stevens, Shane Duffy, Conor Hourihane, Richard Keogh, Robert Brady, Jeff Hendrick, Glen Whelan, David McGoldrick, and James McClean in the starting XI to face Denmark, the same team named by the manager to face Georgia the previous March.

Episode 37 - 2021: A Year In Football

I'm joined by Mark Kennedy of Hawkeye Sidekick and Philip Flanagan of The Bottomless Pit of Football, in one of our longest episodes to date, to review the highs and lows of Irish international football in 2021, including the worst home result of our lifetimes, the worst moment of Stephen Kenny's reign, and how, in the final seven games of the year, the manager has gotten the team to play the football he wants them to play, and we want to see.

Episode 30 - A Mountain Top Rescue

In the final episode of the international season, I'm joined by Mark Kennedy of Hawkeye Sidekick to review the friendlies against Andorra and Hungary, Troy Parrot's first strikes at international level, and what the performances of the three new caps could mean for the three World Cup qualifiers in September.

Episode 24 - 2020, The Year That Forgot Time

When the Euro 2020 Play Offs were postponed, due to the global pandemic, earlier this year, Stephen Kenny was promoted to manager of the Ireland senior men's international side ahead of schedule. I'm joined by Philip Flanagan of The Bottomless Pit of Football, and special guest James Carew of pogmogoal.com to review the new manager's first year in charge, looking at the players, the results, the performances, and what the manager has learned before the qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup start in March.

Episode 22 - Unwanted Records

I'm joined again by Mark Kennedy of Hawkeye Sidekick and Philip Flanagan of The Bottomless Pit Of Football to review the three games played by the Republic of Ireland senior men's team in November, the U21's final two qualifiers for the 2021 UEFA U21 Championship and preview the senior Women's qualifier against Germany in December.

Stephen Kenny's Second Squad

Stephen Kenny has named his second squad. The Republic of Ireland manager has called up 25 players to face Slovakia in a Euro 2020 play off, followed by two Nations League games against Wales and Finland. I'm joined by Mark Kennedy of Hawkeye Sidekick and Philip Flanagan of The Bottomless Pit Of Football to discuss the players, the omissions, and what we can expect from the Slovakian players in Bratislava

A New Kid In Town

Stephen Kenny announced his first senior Ireland squad earlier this week, as did his successor in charge of the U21s, Jim Crawford. I'm joined by Mark Kennedy of Hawkeye Sidekick and Philip Flanagan of The Bottomless Pit Of Football to discuss the makeup of both squads, and Irish players on the move so far in the Summer 2020 Transfer Window. 

 

The End Of The Italian Affair

While the performance at Euro 2012 had left a lot to be desired, qualification for the tournament had raised the spirits of Ireland fans, and the draw for the 2014 World Cup was not seen as insurmountable, despite the presence of perennial qualifiers Germany. In the last of the three episodes on Giovanni Trapattoni's reign, I'm joined again by Mark Kennedy of Hawkeye Sidekick and Philip Flanagan of The Bottomless Pit Of Football to discuss the qualifying campaign for Brazil

An Italian Gentleman

In February 2008, Giovanni Trapattoni was announced as Stephen Staunton's successor as manager of the Republic of Ireland national team. In this episode, I'm joined again by Mark Kennedy of Hawkeye Sidekick and Philip Flanagan of The Bottomless Pit Of Football to discuss the first qualifying campaign of the new manager, and its infamous ending.

Steve Staunton - The Wrong Man At The Wrong Time

Following the failure to qualify for the 2006 World Cup, the FAI announced that Brian Kerr’s contract would not be renewed, and they would look for a new senior international manager.

At the time, a three man panel led by John Delaney promised a “world class management team”. Almost three years after Brian Kerr was appointed Ireland manager, on Friday, 13th January 2006, Steve Staunton was announced as the new manager of the national side, with Bobby Robson as his consultant, and Kevin McDonald as his assistant.

I'm joined by Mark Kennedy of Hawkeye Sidekick and Philip Flanagan of The Bottomless Pit Of Football to discuss the the two years of his reign, including the worst result in living memory.

Brian Kerr - The Right Man At The Wrong Time

In the next podcast in our series on Irish football between 2000 and 2009, I'm joined by Mark Kennedy and Our Man In Stockholm Philip O'Connor to discuss Brian Kerr's reign from January 2003 until October 2005 - while some of his stats are impressive, was he the right man for the job?

Passing the torch to Stephen Kenny

Following the announcement that Mick McCarthy will step aside as manager of the Republic of Ireland team, and Stephen Kenny will be taking the reigns of the national side, myself, Mark Kennedy of Hawkeye Sidekick and Philip Flanagan of The Bottomless Pit Of Football take a brief look at McCarthy's second reign and discuss what to expect from the new management team