BRIAN LENIHAN TODAY received his first call-up to the Ireland senior squad and it is wonderful news for the lad.
Just last month, I spoke in this column about my belief that he can one day be an asset at international level — but I wasn’t expecting him to get the chance so soon.
Let’s be honest, the chances are he won’t get a run-out against Gibraltar on Saturday but it is a huge opportunity and one which he can use to benefit his own profile.
The likelihood is Lenihan’s club mate David Meyler will play in place of the injured Seamus Coleman at right full back and I was impressed with him there recently in the friendly against Oman.
After that, you’re looking for where the cover might be and it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that he will be on the bench.
With the move from Cork City to Hull City in August and now this, it all seems to have happened very quickly for the 20-year-old. And that can be a good thing. He has just got to get in there and do the best he can, get settled and comfortable around the players.
His stock will go up as soon as he becomes an Irish international which in turn will help him at club level.
We’ve seen a lot of players who have gone over to England after getting the dream move from the League of Ireland. If that bit of luck doesn’t got for you, you could find yourself out of the team and going on loan somewhere else and it’s a difficult situation to get yourself back from there. Enda Stevens comes to mind but there are plenty of others.
For Lenihan, he is only with Hull a couple of weeks and now he is in the international set-up. Sometimes it is that luck that makes all the difference.
It’s another case of a player having to move away from the League of Ireland before getting international recognition after the likes of Keith Fahey and Kevin Doyle. Are you telling me he has improved so much in the past six weeks that he has suddenly become an Irish international?
I like Lenihan as a player and he has got great potential but by no means was he the best player in the league. There are plenty of others that I would put ahead in terms or development and progression. That’s no disrespect to him at all and I hope he take the opportunity with both hands but there is a lot more talent here.
The reality is the quality is here and the players are good enough. They are just not being given the stage to perform on and they are being let down by the people who run this league. John Delaney has to put his hand up and accept the fact that he has done virtually nothing to improve the league.
The cracks are covered over by a couple of players going over to England and in a few weeks we will have the FAI Cup final with 20,000 at the Aviva Stadium so they can say: “Haven’t we got a great league!”
We’ve got a shambles of a league and something needs to change.
