REPUBLIC of Ireland manager Stephen Kenny says he doesn’t have a policy of any kind regarding the recruitment of northern-born players after revealing Belfast man Mark Sykes wanted to play for the south.
Yesterday, Northern Ireland manager Ian Baraclough expressed his surprise and disappointment at losing the Oxford United midfielder to their southern counterparts – but a senior international debut under Kenny is still some way off for the 23-year-old.
Speaking at his first senior squad announcement in Dublin yesterday, Kenny explained that the former Glenavon player “expressed an interest in playing for Ireland”.
“It’s something that’s only in its infancy,” said the Republic of Ireland manager.
“It’s all happened relatively quickly. I don’t want to say too much about it, only that Mark is someone who has expressed an interest in playing for Ireland and obviously he is a fluent Irish speaker and he has obviously had a good season with Oxford, and there’s a capacity for improvement there because it’s his first season in professional football.
“We’ll see how that one progresses. It can take a long time for these things to happen; it can take six months and so he won’t be involved in the immediate squad or in the next few games.”
During their spells in charge of the Republic of Ireland, Brian Kerr and Martin O’Neill both said they wouldn’t aggressively recruit northern-born players.
Kenny added: “I’ve been in the job 18 months and I haven’t actively recruited anyone in terms of the U21 team. I don’t have a policy...
“Mark obviously feels an identity towards Ireland and I respect that. I have great respect for that.”
Sykes represented the north at underage level and made 11 U21 appearances under Ian Baraclough who has since stepped into the senior management role following the departure of Michael O’Neill and was a non-playing member of the Northern Ireland senior squad on three occasions.
The Ormeau Road native follows in the footsteps of James McClean, Marc Wilson, Darron Gibson and Shane Duffy who all declared for the Republic after representing Northern Ireland at underage level.
There are no guarantees Sykes will break into the Republic senior set-up any time soon which indicates his emotional attachment to the south.
“It’s not an easy thing to make that decision,” Kenny said, “but it’s not something that we aggressively, pro-actively tried to get him to do. Far from it.
“He played well against Newcastle in the cup, he scored in the play-off final (against Wycombe Wanderers at Wembley in July) and they were unlucky not to get up but I have respect for Ian Barraclough and for Northern Ireland... It was probably accelerated because of the prospect of him being named in Ian’s squad this week.”
Speaking to the Oxford United official club website, Sykes said: “The Republic of Ireland are the team I have always dreamed of playing for and I have to try my best to achieve that.
"I am proud to have been involved with the Northern Ireland team, and have always given it my all, but I had to make a choice and it had to be now.”
