[No Link] James McClean

Celtic join race to sign Derry City ace James McClean

CELTIC manager Neil Lennon is keeping tabs on highly-rated Derry City kid James McClean - but he faces a fight for the youngster's signature.
The Northern Ireland Under-21 playmaker has emerged as a key figure in the League of Ireland club's title bid this term.
But the Hoops face a potential transfer tug-of-war with West Ham and Everton if they decide to step up their interest in the £250,000-rated ace.
The 22-year-old midfielder was a stand-out in Derry's crucial 1-0 home triumph over title rivals Shamrock Rovers on Friday night.

From the Record, no quotes or anything so could be bull, anyone who follows the Irish League know if he's any good?

 

Agent Gery, nail McGinn and stokes agent said he's the best player in Ireland.

 

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QmeTHxCWps[/YOUTUBE]

He's the number 11.

 

really good player for derry .. and the transition from the league of ireland to the spl isnt a big step , as seen already with mccourt , mcginn, connor sammon all doing well .

But the competition for places in the first team at celtic is huge , i can see him been a squad player though. You can only get better playing alongside better players.

 

This guy a central midfielder?

 

Article says 'playmaker' but he looks like he plays left wing

 

Ok cheers.

 

hes no better than niall mcginn, as a LoI fan i can say this years standard of football has been the worst in along time, and we shouldnt be looking here for talent.

 

Aslong as he isn't a dirty player...

 

I watch him all the time. Good wee player on his day but can be very inconsistent. Not good enough for Celtic and would just be another McGinn imo.

 

Shocking statement. There is talent in this league they just need to take it to the next level and they will do that by playing/training with a better class of player.

McClean is a good player and would be worth the punt (a steal at that price) to rasie his game to the next level. If anything we would get our money back.

Also thre is a young cb here who has just broke into the derry team called Ryan McBride (21). he was playing saturday morning league 6months ago and he was spotted. some m.o.t.m performances worth watching and keeping an eye on this boy, may also make the step up under the right conditions.

Good talent to be found here if you know what your looking at.

 

don,t know were your watching him , do you go to the games this lad bring brillant all year , host of english teams looking him , yet you say very inconsistent , lol , were you watching him again ,

 

i watch loi football every week on mns and go to cork city games true there is a lack of quality this year compered to other years but that dosen't mean there isn't quality in it and i must say i wouldn't go as far to say he is the best player in the league but he is young and will improve and is a really good talent and has to be said when i saw mcginn with derry he didn't really stand out tbh thought he was a good winger for the loi but mclean imo is a much better talent

 

I think this has just came from the celtic undergrounds podcast, sounds like lazy journalism to me.

Havent seen him at all so cant say how good he is, but from what Gerry said on the podcast is he is one to watch.

 

Although I am not in the 'everthing Irish must be great' school of thought of many tims, I do think the League of Ireland is a very good source of cheap decent players. I am not sure if many are quite up to Celtic standard but if I was an SPL manager of any team outside the OF I would be constantly scouting in Ireland. Remember guys like Niall McGinn would walk into most SPL sides. The Irish players also tend to be tough which is useful in a league like the SPL. Basically I think the top League of Ireland players are up to the standard of decent Hibs/Dundee United SPL sides and the odd one just might be good enough for us although that remains to be proven.

 

agreed gunt, until the players brought over to see if the can make the step to the next level. If they cant, then surely we could get our money back or try to make something on him on a resale ie. McGinn.
The players are seriously cheaper so the risk is virturly nile. Unlike others i.e. Murphy

 

lol is that it? He can be the worst player on the planet but as long as he's a clean player we should sign him

 

no thanks... we've got enough irish deadwood on our books thanks very much.

 

No doubt the lad has talent. At the start of the season he was a bit off, then he picked it up and has been great the last few weeks but is prone to the odd game where he plays *. Just like last friday night when the scouts from England and Scotland were down watching him and he failed to shine. Not ready imo for a club like Celtic but would be decent for another SPL team.

 

He scored 10 goals in the Airtricity Prem, and now hes good enough for Celtic, if thats all it takes we would have been linked Eion Doyle, Danny North or Karl Sheppard all as good as Mclean but still not going to improve our squad. Come to think of it were Glen Crowe, Jason Byrne or Liam Coyle ever good enough for celtic.