Question: who was the last Irish born player to play and when for Liverpool.

[Tony Baloney]

Arsenal a Club that was really Irish in the late 70' and early '80's have not had an Irish player in a generation!

O'Leary, Stapleton, Jennings, Nelson, ?, Rice, Brady

John Devine? (Googled)

[Boycey]

Arsenal a Club that was really Irish in the late 70' and early '80's have not had an Irish player in a generation!

O'Leary, Stapleton, Jennings, Nelson, ?, Rice, Brady

John Devine..

I've mentioned it on here before, they were all in Arsenal's 12 for the 1980 Cup Final..

[Boycey]

In fairness in the era I grew up in all the top teams were peppered with good Irish players. I saw a stat recently that there were only 13 foreign players in the 1st Premier League season.

[From the Bunker]

In fairness in the era I grew up in all the top teams were peppered with good Irish players. I saw a stat recently that there were only 13 foreign players in the 1st Premier League season.

Yeah, what a wonderful era it was. Loads of Irish (north & South), Scottish, Welsh and English players with the Top teams. There was a real feeling of affinity. An affinity that is nearly non existent anymore!

[laoislad]

In fairness in the era I grew up in all the top teams were peppered with good Irish players. I saw a stat recently that there were only 13 foreign players in the 1st Premier League season.

Yeah, what a wonderful era it was. Loads of Irish (north & South), Scottish, Welsh and English players with the Top teams. There was a real feeling of affinity. An affinity that is nearly non existent anymore!

Liverpool team that beat Everton in '86 to win the double had 3 Irish,4 Scots and 1 Welsh player in the starting 11.

[StGallsGAA]

The guy behind Brady looks a bit like Rooney!

Pat Rice?

That's him.

[StGallsGAA]

In fairness in the era I grew up in all the top teams were peppered with good Irish players. I saw a stat recently that there were only 13 foreign players in the 1st Premier League season.

Yeah, what a wonderful era it was. Loads of Irish (north & South), Scottish, Welsh and English players with the Top teams. There was a real feeling of affinity. An affinity that is nearly non existent anymore!

You sound like a little Englander. Europe has opened up to everyone to the benefit of everyone.

[Boycey]

In fairness in the era I grew up in all the top teams were peppered with good Irish players. I saw a stat recently that there were only 13 foreign players in the 1st Premier League season.

Yeah, what a wonderful era it was. Loads of Irish (north & South), Scottish, Welsh and English players with the Top teams. There was a real feeling of affinity. An affinity that is nearly non existent anymore!

You sound like a little Englander. Europe has opened up to everyone to the benefit of everyone.

I'm with Feom the Bunker my football heroes come almost exclusively from that era..

[T Fearon]

Isn't John Devine's ex wife,Michelle Rocca,married to Van Morrison,or was married to him? That Arsenal team underachieved losing 1978 and 80 FA Cup Finals and ECWC Final in 1980 as well.

The first game I ever was at live in England was Liverpool V Arsenal in the league in May 1979.You had the likes of Dalglish,Souness,Neal,Jennings,Stapleton,O'Leary etc (Brady didn't play that day),All for £1.25,payable at the gate (No club memberships) and I still have the match programme,priced at 20p.Great,nostalgic memories

[StGallsGAA]

In fairness in the era I grew up in all the top teams were peppered with good Irish players. I saw a stat recently that there were only 13 foreign players in the 1st Premier League season.

Yeah, what a wonderful era it was. Loads of Irish (north & South), Scottish, Welsh and English players with the Top teams. There was a real feeling of affinity. An affinity that is nearly non existent anymore!

You sound like a little Englander. Europe has opened up to everyone to the benefit of everyone.

I'm with Feom the Bunker my football heroes come almost exclusively from that era..

Nostalgia is fine but just because PL teams are no longer made up of players from GB and Ireland as in the 70s & 80s means there's no affinity is not true.  As a United fan the affinity to Cantona was as strong as Irwin, Giggs or Scholes.  My son looks up to Herrera and Valencia no different than you or I did to Robbo or McClair. To suggest you feel greater affinity when the player was born closer to home or he's white English/Irish/Scottish is simply a irrational state of mind.  It's doubtful you personally  know any of the 1980s heros you mention any better than my son knows Marcus Rashford who he has a great affinity with!

[rrhf]

I disagree. Regionality must have a huge role to play when trying to emotionally tie in to an increasingly distant club and elitist sporting culture. Just think for a minute. Why would you travel to a ground with people you don't know, to watch players you don't know, from regions you don't know... and sing chants along with the fans etc like you lived there. I certainly see the attachment as important and helping fill the voids in some people's lives. But surely there has to a sense of place attachment or you could have future possibilities like Celtic rangers playing in England arsenal playing out of Dubai or Russia etc. Or a Chelsea team in Asia us as well as europe

[lenny]

I disagree. Regionality must have a huge role to play when trying to emotionally tie in to an increasingly distant club and elitist sporting culture. Just think for a minute. Why would you travel to a ground with people you don't know, to watch players you don't know, from regions you don't know... and sing chants along with the fans etc like you lived there. I certainly see the attachment as important and helping fill the voids in some people's lives. But surely there has to a sense of place attachment or you could have future possibilities like Celtic rangers playing in England arsenal playing out of Dubai or Russia etc. Or a Chelsea team in Asia us as well as europe

Totally agree with this. Most teams in the epl have nearly all foreign players, foreign managers, foreign coaching staff and foreign owners. The only thing local is the supporters.

[rrhf]

If you consider Chelsea's business plan it involves owning the rights to many more footballers than they need and then trading them through loans out and in general trying to increase their value before reselling. It is all about recruiting to the brand.

Soccer in 10 years time: Taking that Brand further. 
Is it unimaginable that in 10 years time that major clubs would buy other local clubs and have intercontinental based sides 2,3 or 4  IE liverpool Asia, Liverpool USA,  Barcelona (China) and that these clubs would actually site locally and share their players.    In that case a typical Liverpool fan form Laois would also have the exotic joys of supporting the Chinese league reds and the USA reds as well as the reds in Merseyside which surely wouldn't be as much fun to travel to as a trip to the states to see the heroes in Red.
Id imagine A liverpool reserves team wouldn't make as much money as a Liverpool Chinese Division 1 team.   Surely for the shareholders it is important that the clubs capitalise as much as they can on their international profile.

 
 

[Boycey]

In fairness in the era I grew up in all the top teams were peppered with good Irish players. I saw a stat recently that there were only 13 foreign players in the 1st Premier League season.

Yeah, what a wonderful era it was. Loads of Irish (north & South), Scottish, Welsh and English players with the Top teams. There was a real feeling of affinity. An affinity that is nearly non existent anymore!

You sound like a little Englander. Europe has opened up to everyone to the benefit of everyone.

I'm with Feom the Bunker my football heroes come almost exclusively from that era..

Nostalgia is fine but just because PL teams are no longer made up of players from GB and Ireland as in the 70s & 80s means there's no affinity is not true.  As a United fan the affinity to Cantona was as strong as Irwin, Giggs or Scholes.  My son looks up to Herrera and Valencia no different than you or I did to Robbo or McClair. To suggest you feel greater affinity when the player was born closer to home or he's white English/Irish/Scottish is simply a irrational state of mind.  It's doubtful you personally  know any of the 1980s heros you mention any better than my son knows Marcus Rashford who he has a great affinity with!

Can I just clarify none of my affinity is down to their whiteness..

[seafoid]

I think that it is no coincidence that the best RoI soccer team coincided with the heyday of Irish representation at the top level of English soccer. The thing about sport is that continued access at the top level brings out the best in players and it doesn't matter what sport is involved. This is why Mayo are better than Tyrone, for example. 
The Premiership was the thing that changed the dynamic. The clubs wanted more money for themselves. The Bosman ruling changed the nature of the club-player relationship. TV money poured in. Economic changes as part of globalisation opened the market to foreign players en masse.
You can see this if you have any involvement in kids soccer. It doesn't matter how good a player in Tullamore or Lurgan is. He is competition with the whole world if he wants to get a place in England or on the Continent.   You can't afford luxuries like an education if you want to be the best in a system like that. The players in the shanty towns don't bother with education.
Irish players are like the Laois footballers. They rarely get any decent run of games because they operate several layers away from the top level. Even with a decent manager the problem is systemic. Most of them are Championship.
It isn't much better for the England team.NI can outperform with an innovative manager maybe but the  system is not designed for local representative soccer.

Chelsea are the epitome of the new system. They won one or 2 titles in the old First Division. After the premier league was founded they were bought by a Russian oligarch. Chelsea is in the heart of West London hedge fund territory. It is not in an economically depressed area such as South Yorkshire or Merseyside. Chelsea is like the Dubs.