Keith Treacy believes Leicester City's Kasey McAteer will be a decent addition to the Republic of Ireland player pool should he commit to the Boys in Green but he is not "buying into" suggestions that the growing prominence of wingers will prove transformative.
After last Monday's 4-0 win over Gibraltar in Faro, Ireland manager Stephen Kenny expressed delight with the players who started on the flank, Mikey Johnston and Chiedozie Ogbene, and added that, "I love wingers. I adore wing play."
He also suggested that "we have one more (player) coming on stream" and subsequently, the Irish Independent reported that the individual was Leicester's McAteer, who is in the process of committing his international future to Ireland and increasing the depth on the wing.
The Northampton-born 21-year-old is currently sidelined with a hamstring injury sustained against Blackburn Rovers in early October but had been in excellent form prior to that with five goals in nine games in the Championship and Carabao Cup.
A product of the Leicester academy, McAteer made one Premier League appearance in 2021 before loan spells at Forest Green Rovers and AFC Wimbledon but it's this season when he has hit the ground running.
Speaking on the RTÉ Soccer Podcast, ex-Ireland, Blackburn and Burnley winger Treacy welcomed the potential arrival of McAteer to the Irish fold but does not expect the youngster to be a solution to the core tactical issues within the team.
"He seems a very decent young player. Is he the answer to Ireland's problems? In a word, no," he said.
"But I don't think anybody is. I think you could drop Lionel Messi into that Irish team and it's not going to fill the problems that we need to be filled.
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"But I don't buy into Stephen Kenny saying, 'I finally have the wingers I've wanted'. For 90% of his tenure, he's played five at the back or he's played 4-3-3 which doesn't allow wingers to be on the pitch, so it's a little bit contradictory what he's saying and to say that Kasey McAteer is coming in and all of a sudden we're going to be playing with two wingers up the pitch and be this brilliant attacking team.
"We have Callum Robinson, we have (Michael) Obafemi, Ogbene has been one of the shining lights, so you'd imagine Ogbene would be a definite starter on the wing.
"Evan Ferguson is going to start up front and then there's only one wide berth left and if that's going to be Kasey McAteer then the bar is fairly low to get into this Irish team and there will be people like Mikey Johnston who's played well for Ireland but not playing for his club that will think, 'I deserve to be in there'.
"I think it's another decent player coming into the squad. It's hard to get too over-excited about it. He looks very good.
"But I'm not buying into Stephen Kenny getting the wingers and now all of a sudden everything is going to be okay because we've had wingers but we just haven't used them."
Treacy did reserve praise for the career trajectory of ex-Cork City and Limerick forward Ogbene who scored his first Premier League goal for Luton with a strike against Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
"It's a real Roy of the Rovers story going from quite a low level to now playing in the Premier League with Luton," he said.
"And even when he got that move, a lot of people were saying to me on the face of it that it looks a great move for Ogbene and I thought it could turn out being a bad move if he doesn't play the football he needs to play.
"But he started the last three games for them, scored his first Premier League goal and even when Luton are beaten I'm hearing murmurs that the Luton fans are quite happy with how he's playing and how he's going about his business.
"He's going from strength to strength. In a struggling Irish team, he's that one shining light in that he will do his defensive duties and he can pick the ball up deep in our half and go and get us deep in the opposition half.
"He has that running power and you saw against the French, against (Theo) Hernandez, it was just a physical battle that Hernandez didn't really want to get involved in.
"Ogbene's been really good. His goal (against Forest) was well taken. He actually slashes across it and how many times have you heard a commentator say, 'He's hit it too well' and it goes straight at the goalkeeper.
"It's a brilliant turn and the finish, it's all about making contact when you're swivelling like that, so fair play to Ogbene and I've been to nearly every Irish game the last couple of years and he's the one shining light.
"He's the one player that you think, 'at least Ogbene's playing and he might get me on the edge of my seat.'"
Watch Republic of Ireland v Albania in UEFA Nations League on Friday from 5.15pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, follow a live blog on RTÉ.ie/Sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to live radio commentary on 2fm's Game On from 5.40pm
Watch St Patrick's Athletic v Shamrock Rovers in the League of Ireland on Friday on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player from 7.45pm, follow a live blog on RTÉ.ie/Sport and the RTÉ News app
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