Brendan Hines-Ike at Kortrijk (Belgium)

Cool to see a players rise like this. Good luck Brendan.

 

That's obvious

Edit:
Actually, better make that

 

oh behave now

this guy is making the right opportunistic moves ala Davies and Bedoya. A somewhat unknown moves to the Swedish backwater and then gets the right move. Hopefully this gets him an Irish call-up by the year's end.

 

He's a pretty unusual case if you ask me. (Which you didn't!)

As a '94, he was youngish for his U20 pool, and didn't get a look -- anyway, in mid-2013, when that team was in the Finals, he was yet to play his sophomore year at Creighton following a pretty good freshman campaign.

And then he didn't make his pro debut for another three years. What might he be doing now if he'd left school a year or two early? Maybe something a lot like what he's doing, but perhaps he'd be further along.

In any case, his career looks pretty unlike what might be expected of modern NT contributors for either us or Ireland for that matter. Especially if he makes it at the Belgian league level, he's really beating the odds -- congrats to him.

It doesn't seem crazy that he'd get a MNT cap from someone before another guy from the 2013 U20 pool does, though there are some decent uncapped players still hanging around in that group. (The only 94s from the 2013 pool to get caps so far are Morris and Acosta.)

 

Two thoughts:

-I wouldn't necessarily call him up right now to the USMNT, but if he starts regularly and does well in Belgium, it's difficult to argue against a callup to at least one camp to see what he can do, considering four of our top five CBs born 1993-later are either oft-injured (Brooks), yet to play above the Championship and personally I'm a bit skeptical of (CCV), yet to play above MLS (Parker), and yet to play in the Eredivisie (EPB, though I believe he will prove himself and eventually surpass CCV and Parker).

-I would push back on the idea that Ireland's central defense group is clearly worse than ours or that they would clearly need Hines-Ike more than us. They have established players in the Premier League at Brighton, Burnley, Newcastle, and Declan Rice at West Ham is arguably a more promising CB than any the US has to offer.

 

Pushback on the pushback.

Ciaran Clark (Newcastle) spent the entire second half of last season on the bench, then hurt his knee, and then got knocked the ******** out in a bar fight this summer. He'll be 30 for the next Euros and 33 for the next World Cup.

Kevin Long (Burnley) only has 41 league appearances for his club since 2009, so I'd argue that he's far from established. He turns 28 next month and has played more than 16 league games in a season once...in League Two with Accrington Stanley in 2011-12.

Shane Duffy (Brighton) is a solid defender and relatively young.

Declan Rice (West Ham) is very good and very young.

Beyond that, you've got guys on the wrong side of 30 or who have never established themselves above the Championship. There's a good starting pair in Duffy and Rice going forward, but they're lacking reliable quality after that.

 

Don't you badmouth Kevin Long. In FM11 with Dover Athletic, I signed Long in League One and he went on to be my captain in the EPL.

 

I have extremely fond memories of my (fictional) Maltese striker, Patrick Agius, who I signed at AC Milan for like, $50k from Valletta, and who scored 400 goals for the club en route to 10 Champions Leagues.

Don't tempt me back into that game; I (sort of) have a life now!

 

I'd agree with that. To me, it's plausible that Hines-Ike at some point this season can be good enough to be in the top five CBs or better for either country. Both countries have promise and question marks at the position. Miazga seems to be the only sure thing for us.

 

A lot of our boys passing through Belgium in recent years.

 

When you set a club record for a transfer, you’re going to play

 

Certainly helps that he's in mid-season fitness too.

 

That's true, but so soon after the transfer? Without training with the team? Against Belgium's biggest club? And he's a CB as well (where the consequences of poor communication are at their most lethal). They are seriously, seriously high on him.

 

it was a club record for outgoing transfers from his old team...not incoming for his new team.....big difference.

what matters is if it is a record fee for his new team not his old....pretty sure it is not a record for his new team but maybe it is.....

 

It was both

 

So it is ... and it isn't.

 

Love that movie... there is/was a "making of" documentary on Netflix.. good stuff.

 

you def up'd the dramatic stakes.

 

Well, it could be a fitness crisis at the club. But if it is, for the season opener against the Man U of Belgian footy, you'd expect them to patch things up with one of the well-integrated DMs playing CB and wait until Hines has had a week training with the team for his debut.

 

Starts -- at right back, it seems.

⚽ De opstelling voor KV Kortrijk - RSC Anderlecht ! 🔴⚪💪#COYR #KVKand #KVKStrongerTogether pic.twitter.com/5SlfyswRmy

— KV Kortrijk (@kvkofficieel) July 28, 2018

 

Go get 'em Ireland