Who is Anna Patten? Reaction to Ireland WNT's squad announcement this morning

The Republic of Ireland WNT have been counting down the days to showcase their talents in Nations League A, and that time has finally come, with Eileen Gleeson naming her squad to kickstart their Euro 2025 campaign this morning, but leaving a lot of people questioning - Who is Anna Patten?

The Aston Villa defender is an outlier amongst the familiar names of the Girls in Green many have become familiar with, but, given other similar introductions in the recent past have yielded gems such as Celtic’s Caitlin Hayes, Manchester United’s Aoife Mannion and Wake Forest University’s Emily Murphy, the weight of expectation will surely loom large.

With two massive games in France and England looming on April 5th and April 9th respectively, there are plenty of talking points heading into Ireland’s first step on the road to qualify for the 2025 UEFA Women's European Championships.

Our WNT squad for April 🇮🇪👇#COYGIG | #OUTBELIEVE pic.twitter.com/VnW9Vojdx6

— Ireland Football ⚽️🇮🇪 (@IrelandFootball) March 28, 2024

Who is Anna Patten?

24-year-old Patten currently plays for Aston Villa in the English Women's Super League, and featured for Arsenal from 2017 to 2023.

She has played at underage international level for England, representing them at U15, U17, U19, U20 and U21 level, but qualifies for Ireland through her Donegal-born Grandfather and Galway-born Grandmother.

While she has been listed in Gleeson’s squad, Patten is yet to get the green light from FIFA for international clearance, which she will have to wait on to be declared eligible for Ireland’s two upcoming qualifiers.

Ireland WNT squad for France and England 🇮🇪

Call-up for Aston Villa’s Anna Patten.

No Sinead Farrelly. pic.twitter.com/2wdYr96rHy

— Emma Duffy (@emmaduffy_) March 28, 2024

Exclusions/injury woes?

Elsewhere it’s notable that midfielder Sinead Farrelly is absent from Gleeson’s squad, although that’s believed to be as a result of a quad injury.

Meanwhile, the recently ACL injury inflicted Jamie Finn has also been left out, while recent Manchester City signing Tara O'Hanlon is still working through return to play protocol and therefore also fails to feature.

In more positive news though, Denise O’Sullivan, Tyler Toland and Niamh Fahey all return to the team having missed the last camp’s games versus Italy and Wales, with the latter of whom being a particularly pleasant surprise to be named given her club manager, Liverpool’s Matt Beard, recently stated that she had picked up a calf injury.

Wow - Anna Patten called up to the Ireland squad (pending clearance) for the first time.

Previously with Arsenal and now Aston Villa.

Fahey in despite Beard confirming a calf injury for her https://t.co/9is4WkhfTg

— Kathleen McNamee (@kathleen_mcn) March 28, 2024

We’re in the big leagues now, that’s for sure!

While Ireland’s squad sure looks strong, you’d be underestimating the opposition if you were to say the likes of the squad announcements from England and France didn’t strike an air of trepidation.

With heavy hitters like Leah Williamson, Beth Mead, Mary Earps, Lucy Bronze and Lauren James all included for the Lionesses and France’s squad to be released today, there’s no disillusionment anymore, these are the big leagues for sure.

If Ireland are to go on and compete and this top level, they’ll have to prove they can do so against teams like these, and if the comments of Gleeson and her wider team are anything to go by, it looks as if they can barely wait to do so.

Here we go! 🤩

The #Lionesses selected for our upcoming #WEURO2025 qualifiers...

— Lionesses (@Lionesses) March 26, 2024

Full squad/Fixture details

FIXTURES
UEFA EURO 2025 Qualifier
Group A3
France v Ireland
Friday, April 5
Saint-Smyphorien Stadium, Metz
KO 20:10 (Irish Time)
LIVE on RTÉ2

UEFA EURO 2025 Qualifier
Group A3
Ireland v England
Tuesday, April 9
Aviva Stadium
KO 19:30
LIVE on RTÉ2

IRELAND WNT SQUAD
Goalkeepers: Courtney Brosnan (Everton), Grace Moloney (London City Lionesses), Sophie Whitehouse (Lewes).
Defenders: Jessie Stapleton (Reading - on loan from West Ham United), Diane Caldwell (FC Zurich), Louise Quinn (Birmingham City), Niamh Fahey (Liverpool), Aoife Mannion (Manchester United), Caitlin Hayes (Celtic), Anna Patten (Aston Villa), Megan Campbell (London City Lionesses).

Midfielders: Katie McCabe (Arsenal), Denise O'Sullivan (North Carolina Courage), Megan Connolly (Bristol City), Ruesha Littlejohn (London City Lionesses), Tyler Toland (Blackburn Rovers), Lily Agg (Birmingham City), Heather Payne (Everton), Jess Ziu (West Ham United), Lucy Quinn (Birmingham City), Izzy Atkinson (Crystal Palace).

Forwards: Kyra Carusa (San Diego Wave), Abbie Larkin (Crystal Palace), Amber Barrett (Standard Liege), Leanne Kiernan (Liverpool), Emily Murphy (Wake Forest University).

And in the latest edition of "Who is..." that will no doubt consume talking points around the Ireland WNT, Aston Villa's Anna Patten links up with Eileen Gleeson's squad.

They take on France on April 5th and England on April 9th.

Full squad for those fixtures below👇 https://t.co/yhTsShsVWV pic.twitter.com/gZ7VQOjnDJ

— Alanna Cunnane (@acunnane10) March 28, 2024

Introducing our WNT squad ☘️

April 5th v France
April 9th v England#COYGIG | #OUTBELIEVE pic.twitter.com/GVxAzOFTbZ

— Ireland Football ⚽️🇮🇪 (@IrelandFootball) March 28, 2024