Those articles about Republic of Ireland players “in desperate need of a move” have become hardy annuals by now. Recent seasons have seen too many of them consigned to bench-warming roles, leaving them in severe need of finding pastures new.
Heimir Hallgrímsson would then, you’d imagine, have been happy to see close to a quarter of the 37 players he has capped for Ireland find new employers during the summer. Fresh opportunities and all that.
With the transfer window open until 7pm on Monday, that figure will probably rise. So, expect no end of frantic ’Arry Redknapp-level activity until then, along with some Sky Sports News hyperventilating when any car with tinted windows arrives at a training ground.
Thursday brought news that Swansea City are hankering after Celtic’s Adam Idah and would very much like him to arrive in the valleys in just such a vehicle, so we’ll see where that goes. Idah was absent from the open part of Celtic’s training session on Friday morning, and he looks set to depart having reportedly travelled to South Wales for a medical after Swansea succeeded with an offer worth up to £7million.
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The 24-year-old was briefly Celtic’s record signing, before the £11million arrival of Arne Engels last summer, after enjoying a fruitful loan spell from Norwich.
Idah hit 20 goals for Celtic last season but struggled to win over a number of fans and failed to score in the early part of this campaign.
Elsewhere, the likes of Alan Browne (Sunderland) and Will Smallbone (Southampton) have been tipped to move for most of the summer, the latter seemingly being wooed by Wrexham.
The gossip columns, meanwhile, have been insisting for an age that Nathan Collins (Brentford), Troy Parrott (AZ Alkmaar) and Jason Knight (Bristol City) are being eyed by assorted large clubs, but there’s no sign of them shifting just yet. Manchester United are reputedly one of Collins’s suitors, so you’d guess he’d prefer to sign for the Dog and Duck.
Few moves this summer are likely to have brought Hallgrímsson more relief than the moves of Caoimhín Kelleher and Evan Ferguson to Brentford and Roma, respectively. With the start of Ireland’s World Cup qualifying campaign just a week away, they’re two players he wants to see playing regularly. That goes for Ferguson in particular, after a couple of seasons of stagnation.
They were the headline moves this summer involving Irish players, with big-money transfers thin on the ground. If performance-related requirements are met, Kelleher would end up costing Brentford around €21 million – which would make him the second most expensive Irish player of all time behind his new clubmate Collins. Brentford paid Wolves €26 million for him two summers ago.
But if Ferguson impresses at Roma this season – and he’s started well – he would probably overtake Collins on that list; Brighton’s price tag for a permanent transfer is reported to be around €35 million.
Finn Azaz and Kasey McAteer, meanwhile, swapped Championship clubs this summer. Azaz moved from Middlesbrough to Southampton for €17 million, while McAteer brought the Irish contingent at Ipswich to five – along with Dara O’Shea, Chiedozie Ogbene, Sammie Szmodics and Jack Taylor – after joining from Leicester in a €14 million deal.
Mark Travers’ fee for his move from Bournemouth to Everton, where he is surely doomed to be Jordan Pickford’s bench-warming backup, is undisclosed, but estimates vary from €4 million to €8 million. Undisclosed too are the fees Strasbourg paid Nottingham Forest to make Andrew Omobamidele’s loan move permanent and the one Robbie Keane-managed Ferencvaros dished out for Cardiff City’s Callum O’Dowda.
[ Irish transfer news: Evan Ferguson to be made available for €33 millionOpens in new window ]
Up in Scotland, Jamie McGrath joined Hibernian after his Aberdeen contract expired, while Killian Phillips made his switch to St Mirren from Crystal Palace permanent.
One of the quirkier moves made by a Hallgrímsson-capped player is Andrew Moran’s loan switch from Brighton to Los Angeles FC until January, the 21-year-old teaming up with Spurs old boys Hugo Lloris and Son Heung-min at the MLS club.
A touch on the unexpected side too was former youth international Corrie Ndaba, now 25, joining Ferguson in Serie A by signing for Lecce from Kilmarnock, while Joe Hodge has also joined the raft of Irish players now with continental clubs, the 22-year-old leaving Wolves for CD Tondela in Portugal’s top flight.
No move this summer would, surely, have been quirkier than Mikey Johnston heading for Rio de Janeiro after Flamengo offered West Brom in the region of €5 million for him. Contrary to chat about a fan backlash scuppering the move, the club’s president insisted that it was the winger’s injury record that prompted him to veto the deal. We’ll see if the final hours of the transfer window produce anything more peculiar.
The window, as they say in the trade, “slams shut” at 7pm on Monday, four hours earlier than usual, the powers-that-be deciding that keeping club officials up half the night while they frantically tried to finalise deals was a bit unkind. So now their work should be done by 9pm at the latest, clubs given two hours to wrap up transfers so long as the paperwork has been submitted before the deadline.
After 9pm, that’s the end of player-purchasing until the window opens again on January 1st, although clubs can still sign free agents after the deadline. Among the former Irish internationals listed in that category are Cyrus Christie, Jeff Hendrick, James McCarthy, Enda Stevens and Ciaran Clark. A funny old game perhaps, but a ruthless one too.
