Youths View: Stephen Rice of the FAI Future Developers Squad

The first Republic of Ireland team to play on the opening day of the Macron Galway Cup was an intriguing one as the Future Developers took on the Kildrum Tigers in the Club 2001 category. They were one of the few teams not to be affected by the wind as they kept it on the ground and attacked in numbers to score three goals and have many more chances narrowly missed.

Stephen Rice watched on from the dugout at his team’s performance and Extratime.ie later caught up with the midfielder, who last played for Glentoran, at halftime when the other Rep. of Ireland team under Paul Osam played Ipswich Town later in the day.

Happy with his side’s preparations, accommodation and travel, Stephen felt the result was “a good start as tournament football is always about starting well,” but he added that, “more importantly than anything was the performance that the boys put in, the manner in which they played and they showed the good footballers that they are.”

The Future Developers has been running for several years, seven to be exact, and Stephen explained the premise behind with him saying the selection for the squad “looks at those who wouldn’t be the strongest, wouldn’t have the strength that the boys have on the pitch at the moment [those in Osam’s Rep. of Ireland on the field against Ipswich) with it being based basically on their BMI.

“So their body BMI has to be nineteen or under, so you would probably find a lot of our lads are very, very small or tall and really thin and they haven’t really hit their growth spurt yet. So while they are all astute technically, they’re physically not ready for that next step so the idea of this is that we keep them in and around the international system, and the elite system, so that if one of them does develop over the next few months, that it’s not too much of a big transition to jump into Paul’s group should they come good.”

“So if we get one player who’s still in the system when Paul picks him, it’s not totally new for him and he also hasn’t been forgotten about, where as in the past, he’s too small, he’s too young, very good player but how many times do you hear he’s too small. So we’re delighted that this squad is taking away from that whole mentality.”

With his current crop of players currently u15, when asked if he expected many of them to move into League of Ireland clubs or their associated development clubs, Stephen responded that he would say that “over the next eighteen months a lot of these boys need to move into the League of Ireland” and while some of them may play a year at u16s at a different club, they need “to make that step up to the Airtricity League absolutely”.

Keeping up my trend during the other interviews, I asked his opinion of the possible introduction of an u15 League of Ireland and what his hopes would be for it. The former Longford Town and Shamrock Rovers captain felt that “if it’s along the lines of seventeens and is ran as well by the clubs and by the association as it has been, it can only be a positive.”

He seemed excited at the prospect of the fifteens, “and can we go even further down”, as he felt the benefits of the nineteens and seventeens league was there for everyone to see and “hopefully when the fifteens league comes in, it’ll be a lot better for our youth players.”

I finished off by asking Stephen what he felt of the split in League of Ireland fan opinion of Dundalk’s progress in the Champions League and the financial reward that brings. Would this better the league or just give Dundalk the advantage?

Having been a key part of the Shamrock Rovers team in the group stages of the Europa League in the 2011/12 campaign, Stephen said, “Any positive publicity for the league is good, any progress for any team in the league is good.”

“Dundalk’s progress is fantastic to see and, okay yes, people are saying financially they get away from other teams and they may dominate but if it means they raise the bar, everyone else has to raise the bar too but that mightn’t be spending money is the way to go to do that in terms of the other clubs.

“It goes back to what we are talking about with the fifteens, seventeens and nineteens. They need to find players at a younger age so that it’s not about finances as much, which it will always be at a senior level, finances will play a huge part there.

“Okay, Dundalk go to the next level. Great because it’s what we need but certainly from the opposition point of view, it’s up to clubs to say can we look financially or can we create the best youth structures so when the players are coming through, we keep them in the league.”