HEIMIR HALLGRIMSSON believes people will have to get used to the changing nature of international football.
With a four-month break in matches, the Ireland boss has a chance to assess his options for both the Nations League play-off and the World Cup qualifiers.
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That means not only potentially promoting players from the Under-21s but also looking at others who qualify through the ancestry rule to commit.
Hallgrimsson admitted such players are on his radar but was coy on names.
Ipswich Town’s England Under-21 striker Liam Delap — son of ex-Ireland international Rory — would be eligible if an anticipated rule change goes ahead.
Hallgrimsson said: “Normally in December and January I would look at the next layer of players and that is what we are doing now, both the players now we haven’t called up and the players that might be able to play, and just evaluate. We have talked to some.”
Asked if he wanted a player to approach him or if he was willing to try to sell the idea of Ireland, he said: “It’s individual.
“It depends on the quality of the player, etc. If it’s a high-profile player that can play for us, maybe we have the first approach.
“Sometimes it’s the agent, sometimes it’s the player himself, sometimes it’s the mother.
“And it’s down to the level of the player. Is it an Under-16 player? Is it an Under-18 player?”
The idea of having to convince any player to represent a national side would trigger some fans but Hallgrimsson says supporters have to move with the times.
He added: “I think it’s changing, how people see national teams. You can see with people migrating between countries, it’s just fluid.
“Everybody likes to play on the international stage. If they cannot play for this one, they might go for the next one.
“I think if you read books on management styles today, if you hire a person for a job, you just expect that same person will leave for another job in one or two years.
“That’s just this generation, they’re used to this and they might come back the next year.
“I’ve read a lot, there’s a lot of good books about this. If you’ve read Atomic Habits for example, it’s a really good book on how you should be as a leader.
“It’s not football, it’s just in general. Things are changing in this world, different management styles, etc.
“It’s different now, there’s not the same loyalty as it was before in everything for this generation. Life is just more open than it was when we were growing up and you can see that now in the national teams as well.
“It might not need to be explained to this generation but it needs to be explained to the older generation
“I feel like this is kind of changing and you need to know this when you’re a manager, you have to adapt to how things are today.”
Hallgrimsson suggested he was hopeful that at least one player who might fall into that category could be on board for the Nations League play-off against Bulgaria in three months’ time.
He said: “We’ll have to wait and see that. It’s not in my hands.”
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But, while Ireland have long since used the diaspora to strengthen international squads, Hallgrimsson believes people have to be prepared for the possibility of losing players the other way.
To date, the only Irish-born-and/or-reared players to line out for other countries were people not in contention for the Ireland team at the time, such as Cape Verde’s Roberto Lopes, Eamon Zayed of Libya and Tunisia’s Aymen Ben Mohamed.
But Hallgrimsson said: “We also need to think an Irish youth international player can switch and play for someone else. It goes both ways.
“It’s not like just we are trying to recruit. We might have a good player who maybe has a grandmother from somewhere else and is approached by that nation.”
At one stage, English media were speculating that Evan Ferguson — who qualifies through his mother — might line out for them.
That was never on the cards and his fortunes have ebbed since, leading to reports — since denied by his club — that the striker (right) could be allowed to leave Brighton on loan in January.
A fellow key man for Ireland, Caoimhín Kelleher, has found himself back out of the Liverpool team for their last two games against Girona and Fulham as Alisson returned between the posts after a long spell out.
Hallgrimsson is relaxed about the club situations of his star forward and goalkeeper. He added: “As a national team coach, you would always like to see your players playing.
“Whether it’s Evan or someone else, we would like our players to play.
“The same with Caoimhín, we don’t know if he’s going to play games for Liverpool even though he’s done brilliantly. Should he go and try to play somewhere else?
“It applies to everyone. It depends on many things. Is he in a good mind? Is he being developed at the club? He’s playing now with good players playing really good football.
“Is it more beneficial to be in that environment than maybe going somewhere of lower quality and play some matches?
“It depends on who we are talking about, the club we are talking about, it’s an open question. There’s never one answer for everyone.”
The new year brings the play-off with Bulgaria in March and friendlies in June, before a quick-fire World Cup qualifying campaign in the autumn in a group with either Portugal or Denmark plus Hungary and Armenia.
With that in mind, although Hallgrimsson is spending Christmas in Iceland, he plans to go to games in England and meet with some of his players alongside John O’Shea in January, if not before.