Portsmouth's Ronan Curtis needs to play Championship football to establish himself with Republic of Ireland

But the Pompey winger’s omission from Stephen Kenny’s first squad as Eire boss won’t prompt him to seek a move from Fratton Park in this transfer window.

That’s the view of Blues writer Will Rooney in the latest edition of Pompey Talk, which you can download HERE.

Curtis was left out of the squad for Nations League games against Finland and Bulgaria as Kenny opts for players operating in the top two tiers.

And Rooney feels the 24-year-old may have to follow suit if he wants to feature regularly in the international set-up.

He said: ‘In fairness to Curtis if you look at the forwards who are ahead of him, Callum Robinson, Aaron Connolly, Troy Parrott, Shane Long and Eddie McGoldrick, players of that quality, I don’t think Curtis can complain about being left out of the team.

‘They are all playing Premier League/Championship and he’s playing League One football. If he was playing Championship football might he have a look in?

‘Then there are lads like Kieran Sadlier who’s gone to Rotherham now. If he does well at Rotherham in the Championship and fires them in, you’d think he’d go ahead of him in the pecking order.

‘If Curtis wants to be a regular Ireland international - or a regular in the squad - he’s probably got to be thinking he needs to be playing Championship football.

‘It’s just because Ireland aren’t short of forwards. If they were short of forwards and saw players in League One getting ahead of him you’d be thinking “what’s going on there?”.

‘But he can’t complain at the moment because of the quality of the forwards.’

Despite his view Robinson may need to play in the Championship to establish himself for Ireland, Rooney doesn’t feel the Pompey man will be agitating for an exit before the October 16 deadline.

He added: ‘Will it force his hand in this transfer window? I don’t think so.

‘He’s settled in the area, albeit not too pleased his car was broken into the other day, but that can happen anywhere.

‘I think he’s settled and from what (mum) Marie puts on Twitter he likes it here.

‘I think he quite likes being the main man here and the talisman of the team.

‘If he went somewhere else would he have that moniker? Probably not.

‘So I think he’s settled, but if gets to January, he’s flying here and not looking like getting in the squad for the Euros he might think he has to move.

‘But that’s for the future, and right now I think he’d be settled and looking to start the season how he finished last term.’

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