Ireland boss Heimir Hallgrimsson looking to expand his playing options in 2025

When the Ireland manager gets back to work, one of his main tasks will be to ascertain if there are any surprises he can pull out of the bag for Ireland’s World Cup campaign. Playing the eligibility rules has always been a significant part of this nation’s football story, but the rules of engagement have become more fluid in recent years, as evidenced by the defection of Declan Rice and the fact players can shop around.

As he reflected on Ireland’s World Cup draw, the Icelander suggested that his winter workload will include an exploration of available options.

“Normally in December and January, I would look at the next layer of players and that is what we are doing now,” he said. “Both the players now we haven’t called up and the players that might be able to play [recruits], and just evaluate. Yeah, we have talked to some.

“It’s individual,” he continued when asked if his approach would be to try and twist arms or wait for the player to make the call.

“It depends on the quality of the player. If it’s a high-profile player that can play for us, maybe we have the first approach. Sometimes it’s the agent, sometimes it’s the player himself, sometimes it’s the mother. I think it’s changing, how people see national teams. You can see that with people migrating between countries, it’s just fluid. Everybody likes to play on the international stage. If they cannot play for this one, they might go for the next one.

“I think if you read books on management styles today, if you hire a person for a job, just expect that same person will leave for another job in one or two years. That’s just this generation, they’re used to this, and they might come back the next year. It’s a little bit different, it’s not the same loyalty as before.

“Life is just more open than it was when we were growing up and you can see that now in the national teams as well. It might not need to be explained to this generation, but it needs to be explained to the older generation.

“To see it from a different angle, we also need to think an Irish youth international player can switch and play for someone else. It goes both ways.”

Hallgrimsson was coy on whether he had any fresh faces that might come into the mix for March’s Nations League play-off with Bulgaria, the first test in a year building towards a World Cup campaign played across September to November with Hungary, Armenia and either Portugal or Denmark providing the opposition.

“It’s not in my hands,” he said, “It might happen. I’m inviting all the questions.”