Cathal Dervan, Editor
Israel will be the main topic for discussion when Heimir Hallgrimsson sits down with the Irish football media for the first time this season today and rightly so. The moral compass will and should demand another examination of the outrageous decision to play football not once but twice in the coming weeks against a nation engaging in genocide and Heimir can expect many questions on the topic when he names his squad for said games.
What he can also expect are questions about a young man by the name of JJ Gabriel who visited these shores only a few short weeks ago when Manchester United defeated Leeds United on penalties in the Boylesports Cup final at Croke Park.
Young JJ, still only 15, was in the United squad but didn’t get a run on the hallowed GAA turf that night and right now it looks like he might never get another run in a United shirt at all.
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Need for speed…
As well documented elsewhere, JJ and his family want to end his association with Manchester United before it has really begun. The club, naturally, don’t want to lose the best 15-year-old in Europe as he has been labelled this week but Real Madrid, PSG and Barcelona are all, reportedly, waiting in the wings.
So what, you might ask, has all this got to do with Heimir Hallgrimsson? Well JJ Gabriel was born Joseph Junior Andreou O Cearruill a mere 15 years ago in the London suburb of Enfield.
His dad is Joe O Cearruill, a former Arsenal reserve who played for St Patrick’s Athletic at one stage and won two Ireland caps on the 2007 tour of America when Steve Staunton’s makeshift side played against Bolivia and Ecuador.
Joe was, and I suspect I am one of the few people who saw him play for Pats and Ireland, a bit of a journeyman footballer who never quite made the grade as a pro in England as he wandered from one non-league side to another.
The same cannot be said of his son who is already the most wanted young footballer in Europe with a talent that his dad, the one who calls the shots, clearly believes belongs on a stage bigger even than Old Trafford.
The fact that JJ’s dad played for Ireland and that his grandmother is Irish makes JJ eligible for the squad that Heimir will name today for the upcoming games against Kosovo, Israel and Austria but JJ won’t be involved.
It’s already been made clear to the FAI that JJ wants nothing to do with an Ireland call-up so those asking the question today will be wasting their time.
The reality, as the Declan Rice story proves, is that the best young players in England will be told by their advisors and agents that an England career is worth a whole lot more than throwing your lot in with the likes of the Republic or Michael O’Neill’s Northern Ireland.
That’s just the way of the world and while it makes a good story to link JJ Gabriel with Ireland, there is no fear of it ever happening. We can, and will, jump on the bandwagon but this story will be nothing more than a sideshow today when Heimir meets the media for the first time since the summer tour to Canada.
As distractions go, it will be a welcome one for the Irish boss in all probability given the nature of the Israel issue but we can’t expect to see Europe’s best 15-year-old in a green shirt. More’s the pity - but that’s life.
Don’t look back in anger - it’s time to talk Premier League football once again and our Merseyside based commentator Kevin Bannon joins editor Cathal Dervan for a brief review of the Manchester derby, VAR et al. It’s a short and sweet episode this week as Steven Spielberg would have been proud of his Gremlins who managed to curtail the conversation!
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