The Insider: Pompey target has potential to play in Championship
We spoke to sports reporter Simon Collins, from the Derry Journal, who gave us the insider track on Pompey-linked Ronan Curtis.
Derry City boss Kenny Shiels would tend to play him on the left-hand side of a three-man attack.
He has plenty of pace and is a big, strong lad.
Curtis is also decent with both feet and his improvement has been fantastic this season.
He’s broken into the Republic of Ireland under-21 squad and is highly-rated.
Curtis was over at Ostersunds, in Sweden, at the end of last season but he didn’t move because of the wages he was offered – they weren’t much better than what he’s on at Derry.
But he is a quality. From the tail end of last campaign and the start of this term he’s really got his head down and has come on leaps and bounds.
Curtis has always had a lot of potential.
He started off as an out-and-out striker. But since Shiels has come on board as Derry boss he’s really taken Curtis under his wing and improved him as a player in his three seasons as manager at the Brandywell.
He’s definitely one of the better prospects currently in the team.
It was a bit of a surprise he was called up to the Ireland under-21s squad. There’s not a lot of home-grown players who get called up – especially at under-21 level.
For a long time, Curtis was the only one who was called up from the League of Ireland by manager Noel King.
There’s now three from Derry in the under-21 side, but Curtis was the one who broke the mould.
He starts every game and is one of King’s better prospects, definitely, and there are hopes he can become a full international given the rate of his improvement.
I also think a move away would benefit him.
Meanwhile, he’s the type of guy who doesn’t shirk away from a challenge.
The League of Ireland has improved dramatically in the past few years.
It’s a lot more technical than people would think and there seems to be a lot of players from England coming over on loan who have been playing under-23 and under-21 football.
There are lads coming over from Charlton and Birmingham because it’s more technical and physical than what they’re used to.
So I think League One would be around Curtis’ standard at this moment in time.
And he definitely has the potential to make the standard in the Championship in the future, without a doubt.