Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
Republic Of Ireland Manager Martin O’Neill has named a large provisional squad for this Summer’s European Championship. 35 Players in all have made the first phase of selection with O’Neill now set to run the rule over his enlarged squad and cut it down to the final 23
You could accuse O’Neill of calling up every active Irish international, as I can’t think of any obvious omissions from these 35 names. The question now is whether he goes with experience over some of the younger talents
Shay Given is 40 year old and has only had a handful of games at Stoke recently after being out injured but will his experience be enough to earn a run out in one last major tournament. There’s no surprise that talisman Robbie Keane is in the squad and with only 5 strikers in the squad you would imagine a lot of the cuts will come from a competitive Midfield selection.
Whoever makes the final cut they will look to make sure the Irish have a better campaign then their 2012 offering in Poland and Ukraine when they finished bottom of the group and came home without a solitary point. Here is the provisional squad in full below
Goalkeepers: Shay Given (Stoke), Darren Randolph (West Ham), David Forde (Millwall), Keiren Westwood (Sheffield Wednesday).
Defenders: Seamus Coleman (Everton), Cyrus Christie (Derby), Paul McShane (Reading), Ciaran Clark (Aston Villa), Richard Keogh (Derby), John O’Shea (Sunderland), Alex Pearce (Bristol City), Shane Duffy (Blackburn), Marc Wilson (Stoke), Stephen Ward (Burnley).
Midfielders: Aiden McGeady (Sheffield Wednesday), James McClean (West Brom), Glenn Whelan (Stoke), James McCarthy (Everton), Jeff Hendrick (Derby), David Meyler (Hull), Stephen Quinn (Reading), Darron Gibson (Everton), Harry Arter (Bournemouth), Wes Hoolahan (Norwich), Eunan O’Kane (Bournemouth), Anthony Pilkington (Cardiff), Robbie Brady (Norwich), Jonathan Walters (Stoke), Jonathan Hayes (Aberdeen), Callum O’Dowda (Oxford).
Forwards: Robbie Keane (LA Galaxy), Shane Long (Southampton), David McGoldrick (Ipswich), Kevin Doyle (Colorado Rapids), Daryl Murphy (Ipswich).
