Kevin Palmer: Three players hold the key to Ireland’s World Cup qualification hopes

With international football battling to find gaps in an increasingly compacted global calendar, Ireland’s efforts to reach next year’s finals in America will be squeezed into 71 days, starting with the potentially make-or-break clash against Hungary in Dublin on September 6.

By then, Hallgrimsson needs to have all of his star men firing at club level, with Caoimhín Kelleher, Finn Azaz and Evan Ferguson among those set to start new chapters in their careers this summer.

Change brings opportunity and uncertainty for any player, so the Ireland boss is playing a waiting game to see where some of his key players will land.

Hallgrimsson has already succeeded in his first mission of shaking the gloom that had descended on the Ireland team amid a torturous reign for Stephen Kenny, which drained the enthusiasm of the most devoted of supporters.

His biggest test is now looming large on the horizon. If finishing top of Group F is too much to ask for Hallgrimsson and his team, a second-place finish that would secure a play-off berth should be within reach in a battle against a Hungary team currently sitting at No 37 in the Fifa rankings.

In the pursuit of optimism, we will overlook the reality that Ireland are now down to a lowly 60th place in those rankings, just behind Saudi Arabia and Iraq, but there is a sense that a corner has been turned under Hallgrimsson heading into what will be the defining period of his reign as Ireland boss.

Yet one of the primary flaws that has undermined the efforts of his predecessors for the last decade and more remains a concern for the latest manager charged with solving a serious goal-scoring problem.

For Ireland to sustain qualification ambitions in a group likely to be topped by a Portugal team led by the ageless Cristiano Ronaldo, Hallgrimsson needs to end a goal-scoring issue that has lingered for more than a decade, since the departure of Robbie Keane.

We will soon mark the ninth anniversary of Keane’s last match in an Ireland jersey. But the Dubliner’s effectiveness at the highest level of the game ended long before he hung up his goal-laden boots.

Replacing a striker of Keane’s calibre was never going to be easy, but we dared to believe a solution was incoming as a ‘Golden Generation’ of strikers emerged at the start of this decade.

Aaron Connolly, Troy Parrott and Adam Idah were the big hopes for Ireland as Kenny named his first squad in August 2020, but the trio have failed to flourish into the superstars we were looking for.

Connolly’s move to League One side Leyton Orient last week came after a troubled few years for the Galway-born striker. His well-documented personal issues off the field have damaged his ambitions on it.

After a few false dawns at Tottenham, Parrott has belatedly found a home for his talents in the Dutch Eredivisie at AZ Alkmaar, while Idah winning over his doubters at Celtic by scoring crucial goals that have helped to ensure the trophies have continued to roll in for Brendan Rodgers’ side.

Then we come to the most crucial piece of Hallgrimsson’s Ireland jigsaw, who remains a major headache heading into the World Cup push.

Evan Ferguson’s days at Brighton have been numbered for some time, with their decision to sanction a loan move to West Ham in the second half of last season evidence that he was no longer part of the plans of manager Fabian Hurzeler.

He has been linked with a loan move to Italian side Roma in recent days and a change of that magnitude may be needed to breathe life into a career that has fallen off the rails alarmingly.

Ireland’s friendlies against Senegal and Luxembourg last month did little to bolster Hallgrimsson’s understanding of his players, but they highlighted the collapse in form and confidence affecting the player who needs to be Ireland’s first-choice striker.

Ferguson has not found his form since undergoing ankle surgery in April 2024, with his confidence drained by his rapid fall from grace.

This is a striker who appeared to be on course to become Ireland’s first £100m player not so long ago but now is in danger of looking like yesterday’s man at the tender age of 20.

So if Hallgrimsson could have one wish in the opening month of the new season, it would be to see Ferguson recapturing the form that saw him emerge as one of the most talked about players in the game and that player could change the balance of power in what will be a tight World Cup qualifying Group F battle.

Ireland are now playing a brand of football that could give them a chance to grind out the results they need to challenge for a top two spot and with Kelleher set to play regular Premier League football behind his compatriot Nathan Collins after his move to Brentford, the bedrock of a competitive defensive line-up is in place.

Midfield creativity remains a concern, so the return from injury of Chiedozie Ogbene offers hope of a fresh attacking dimension, while Azaz could also offer a significant attacking spark amid rumours linking him with a move away from Middlesbrough to one of the newly-promoted Premier League clubs.

The final and most crucial part of this story needs to be completed by the strikers, with Ferguson, Parrott and Idah the trio who need to find the goals that could fire Ireland to a first World Cup finals since that memorable and infamous Saipan summer of 2002.