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Stephen Kenny, Irish U21 boss interview


weekevie04

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Only just seen this interview now (it's from January) but its an interesting interview, and I think Kenny's thoughts are somewhat similar to a few on this board about capping players who are not from the country. 

It's a complex issue, and nationality/identity are becoming less clear as the world's population moves along. I certainly won't be telling someone who has a Scottish grandparent but has never lived here that they aren't Scottish.

I wasn't a fan of McLeish getting the gig, at first but he won the group and certainly deserves this campaign and I have been impressed with his squads (on the balance of it all) that thumping 4-0 win over Albania, every single player that started was Scottish, yes Steven Fletcher and Calum Paterson are Scottish - having been raised here and a lot of SPFL players involved in the set up. 

A common sense selection policy surely is needed. There's no doubt that many players who have represented us from a young age and outwith Scotland are loyal and committed to Scotland, but Kenny is right IMO, when referring to picking English players just in case England call them up or someone who was never on the radar yet out of nowhere puts in a handful of performances for a EPL team and there's a mad dash to call him up before England or even Ireland.

I'm roaning on a bit, so over and oot :)

www.the42.ie/stephen-kenny-2-4457020-Jan2019/

Edited by weekevie04
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For me it doesn’t matter where you are born or even where your parents were born it’s whether you consider yourself Scottish or not. 

Some of our best players (Andy Goram and Stuart McCall off the top of my head) were born in England but were as Scottish as anyone who has pulled on a Scotland jersey. 

I’m not a big fan of the Englishmen, who grew up feeling English, who have possibly never set foot in Scotland and are looking to boost their CVs by becoming an international footballer as I don’t believe they necessarily have the passion that’s required for us to compete with the top nations. 

Trouble is it can be difficult to tell if a player considers themselves Scottish or not. We just need to take their word for it. It’s not as if we can give them a Scottishness test or something. 

Of course the other side of the coin is the people who were born and bred up here who don’t give a shit about playing for Scotland. There have been a fair few of those over the years. 

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