Idah a work in progress but star is rising with Ireland

Success stories for Ireland stars at Celtic are rare enough — just ask Liam Brady and Tony Cascarino, who felt the heat when they were manager and centre forward there respectively in the early 1990s. Along with everything else, Adam Idah has a trend to reverse, having finally signed for the Parkhead club last week for nearly £10 million.
Brendan Rodgers was encouraged to go the extra mile to get Idah on board after a successful loan spell from Norwich City, during which he scored nine goals in the second half of last season, including the winner in the 90th minute of the Scottish Cup final against Rangers. That goal meant that Idah was mobbed whenever he was near Celtic fans on his return to his native Cork over the summer, but some well-respected voices are yet to be fully convinced — chief among them the former Celtic manager Gordon Strachan.
“Idah performed well last season,” he said. “He’s got talent; he’s got strength. But then he’s got to say to himself, ‘Am I happy with that or can I do more?’ Do I want to become a top, top player?’ That’s where his career is now. It’s decision time.”
The fact that Strachan’s son Gavin is a first-team coach at Celtic gives those comments an added spice. Questions about Idah also arose at Norwich earlier this month when he failed to turn up for the club’s flight to their pre-season training camp in Austria and was facing disciplinary proceedings. He insisted that this was a genuine mistake and he wasn’t trying to force a move from the club he joined as a teenager straight from Cork side College Corinthians. Idah struggled to secure a place in the starting line-up at Norwich and his goal tally was ordinary before his loan move to Celtic at the end of January, leading Gordon Strachan to lay down a challenge. “He needs to look at the question marks and eradicate them,” he said. “It’s easy to pick up a label as a player. Sometimes they are right; sometimes they are wrong. Your ability will be questioned throughout your career; mentally, physical, technical ability. Celtic Football Club will test all of those things.”
At least the curve is decidedly up for Idah, in contrast to the three other Ireland strikers from roughly the same age group who featured in the 2019-2020 Premier League season.
Michael Obafemi and Aaron Connolly have both faded so much that it is difficult to see their Premier League careers as anything other than fleeting. Troy Parrott continues to show promise, even if he has accepted that he won’t make it as a Tottenham player, and signed for AZ Alkmaar in the Eredivisie after a successful loan spell there last season at Excelsior.
The Parrott-Obafemi combination that tore Scotland apart at Lansdowne Road in a 3-0 victory in June 2022 was touted as the future, at a time when Idah was struggling to make an impression coming off the bench at Norwich.
All four were then spectacularly overtaken by the teenager Evan Ferguson, who was scoring all sorts of goals for Brighton and bullying defenders even before he had come of age. However, after a difficult second season for Ferguson in the first-team squad and a painfully slow recovery from an ankle injury that meant he missed the end of last season and the beginning of this one, now is Idah’s chance to shine at the age of 23. Sammie Szmodics signing for Ipswich Town should also excite Ireland fans, even if he were to score around half of the 27 goals he managed in the Championship with Blackburn Rovers last season.
Idah is now the one most likely to demand the attention of the Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrimsson as the Uefa Nations League fixture against England looms. If he does settle back in well at Celtic, Hallgrimsson will be looking at ways he can get both Idah and Ferguson in the starting line-up for Ireland, but should he be pragmatic, then Idah is at the top of the pecking order.
His Ireland career has yet to really take off, even though it was back in September 2020 that Shane Long reluctantly handed over his No 9 shirt in what turned out to be a botched attempt at team bonding. Long had fought hard to win that shirt for Ireland and thought he shouldn’t be handing it over to an uncapped player. It was an embarrassing moment for all concerned.
Idah at first struggled to justify Stephen Kenny’s faith in him, but increasingly there are some promising signs. Having failed to score in his first 16 international games he has struck four in his past ten appearances for Ireland. His overall game has improved immensely since he started getting a good run of games at Celtic under Rodgers, who will be looking to get Idah more game time alongside Kyogo Furuhashi rather than springing him off the bench.
“Idah’s destiny is in his own hands,” Gordon Strachan says. “If you’re looking for a player that has made the most of the opportunities that he’s been given and worked tirelessly, then Matt O’Riley is your man. He came to Celtic from MK Dons and grabbed the opportunity. He came as an unknown player, and over the last few years he’s developed into an unbelievable player. That’s the path that I would like to see Idah follow.”
Finding a role model in today’s Ireland team isn’t so easy. Perhaps Idah is ready to become one himself.