THE opening of the transfer window in a week’s time should whet the appetite of those who have been eyeing the current crop of young Irish strikers in the belief that the traditional dearth of Irish goalscorers might be coming to an end.

There is of course the case of Anthony Stokes, the 18-year-old Dubliner who has set Scottish football alight with 13 goals in 15 games for Falkirk, making him the top scorer in the SPL. The Falkirk boss John Hughes has joked that even his wife knows who Stokes is, so frequently does his name come up on the Sky Sports charts, though Hughes was less flippant last week when he signalled that an answer from Arsenal about extending Stokes’ loan period would be forthcoming over the next few days.

There are three options open to Arsenal; Stokes’ loan period at Falkirk could be extended till the end of the season, he could be brought back to north London or the club could cash in and sell him at a premium. Celtic and Sunderland have been sniffing round for weeks — Roy Keane is believed to have watched him at least twice — but Arsenal are unlikely to want him off their books completely. Their “fox-in-the-box” experiment with Francis Jeffers may have failed, but so too this season has Arsene Wenger’s 4-5-1 formation been a noticeable flop and with Thierry Henry still absent through injury, the Frenchman will undoubtedly be tempted to bring him back.

Sources at Arsenal were, however, tentatively suggesting last week that Stokes is still not ready to step up to the plate at the Emirates Stadium. Wenger will no doubt listen closely to the counsel of the head of youth development at Arsenal, Liam Brady, and may decide to farm out Stokes to a bigger club for a second loan period. Celtic would surely be interested in such a proposal — they had no compunction for instance about taking Craig Bellamy on loan from Newcastle — and Sunderland would also be interested. Here Niall Quinn’s Arsenal connection will come in useful, even if he must still be cringing at having rejected Stokes’ services, offered when he was Sunderland manager at the beginning of the season.

The former Arsenal and Republic of Ireland player Graham Barrett will be one player who’ll be eyeing Stokes’ next move carefully. Barrett was signed by Falkirk in the summer from Coventry City and still hasn’t played a game for 14 months, but Hughes has been incredibly patient with the player who needed a third operation back in October on a dislocated knee cap. The 25-year-old striker is on a two-year deal at Falkirk and should play his first game for the club imminently, though Hughes is sounding a cautious note. “Graham has just started back,” Hughes said. “He was in at training complaining about having sore arms and shoulders because he has been doing a lot of work in the swimming pool. We would not put a timescale on when he will be ready to play after that type of injury, but you can see his work ethic.”

Stokes’ dramatic introduction to Scottish football has overshadowed the exploits of another Dublin striker, Richie Foran of Motherwell, but six goals in his last five games have also put Foran in an enviable position going into January. Foran has been offered a new two-and-a-half year contract with the club, but is pondering a move down south, with Southend one of the clubs showing the most interest.

The Championship club are also reported to be tracking Cork City striker Roy O’Donovan, though Damien Richardson denies a formal offer of €300,000 has been received. Ipswich Town, who have already offered a contract to George O’Callaghan but are baulking at the £100,000 transfer fee being demanded by Cork City, are also interested in O’Donovan, though Jim Magilton, the manager at Portman Road, didn’t hide the fact that there were severe stumbling blocks.

“If we had been able to pinch Roy early then that would have been lovely as nobody had heard of him outside Ireland,” Magilton said. “We asked to have him on trial but they aren’t budging. To be fair, I don’t blame them. Their attitude is, ‘You watch him, you like him, you buy him’.”

O’Donovan has already had an unsuccessful spell in England, at Coventry City, and was playing it cool about a possible return when contacted on Friday. “All I’m doing is concentrating on my training in preparation for the new season,” he said. “I’m sure Damien Richardson and the chairman will do what’s in the best interests of the club.”

Other Irish strikers in the frame as the window opens include the under-21 international Andy Keogh, who’s prolific goalscoring partnership with Billy Sharp at Scunthorpe United have helped lift the Irons to second in League One and brought the Wolves manager Mick McCarthy calling to the door at Glanford Park.

That all ignores the biggest name of them all, Robbie Keane, whose impending move to Aston Villa has been one of the most persistent transfer-window stories. Martin O’Neill has done nothing to play down a story circulating for weeks, an understandable silence given the failure of Juan Pablo Angel and Milan Baros to deliver on any consistent basis. Keane’s valuation is now down to £3m, which makes him worth quite a bit less than Kevin Doyle, himself linked with Blackburn Rovers. Doyle moving, though, would be the biggest shock of all.

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