Cathal O'Sullivan needs to do what is best for his career and that is move to a different club in a different country

One year ago the name Cathal O’Sullivan wouldn’t have meant much to many League of Ireland supporters. 

However, such has been the impact that the 17-year-old has made in his debut season in league of Ireland football, that he is now one of the hottest properties in the country. 

It seems inevitable that O’Sullivan will leave City and the only question is when? 

At 17, he is unable to make the switch to the UK this summer, but should he take the chance and wait until next year to seal his move to the UK or should he push to leave the club this summer? 

From what I’m led to believe is that he is in no rush to leave the club, and although I would like to see more of O’Sullivan at City, if I were advising the player, I would be telling him to push for a move this summer.

Although O'Sullivan may be content at the club now, he has to have ambitions to further his career in the future. 

Playing in the League of Ireland provides a living whereas playing in the UK provides an opportunity to have a comfortable life. 

What I mean by that is that in the League of Ireland, players aren’t going to earn enough money that will allow them to buy the best house or car, and when they retire they won't have the luxury of taking a lot of time off to figure out what they want to do with their lives because they won’t have earned enough money. 

Whereas in England, even if you don’t make it to the very top, playing in the Championship can provide players with a salary that means they can have a wonderful home and drive a luxury car, and even more important, they can save up enough money that they don’t have to worry about finance for a number of years after they retire. 

I’m sure the same would apply to players playing in all top leagues around Europe.

O’Sullivan might feel that it is better to wait a year and gain more experience by playing first team football and then seal a move to England. 

Yes ideally it is probably better to end up in England because it is close to home and it is one of the wealthiest leagues in the world, but if the opportunity arose that O’Sullivan could go to a team in Holland or Italy this summer, I think he would be foolish not to pursue it. 

A year is a long time in football. Anything could happen. He could lose his form, or worse, suffer a serious injury. 

Another young talent could emerge in the league that clubs in England become more interested in. Potential suitors could run into financial difficulties and mightn’t have the finance to sign O’Sullivan.

O’Sullivan is contracted until the end of the 2025 season, meaning it’s likely City are trying to get him to sign a new deal because they will not want to lose their player on the cheap. 

Since the club have stated in the past contracts will no longer include buy-out clauses then another bit of advice I would be telling O’Sullivan is not to sign anything.

The club would be foolish not to be pressurising O’Sullivan into signing a new deal and considering he is only 17, it would be tough for him to keep stalling City without it causing some friction. 

Because even though it would damage his own career by signing a new deal, the club will feel he owes them a little considering how they have developed him as a player. 

They would probably be right but O’Sullivan has to look after himself because football is a selfish game.

Again it would be difficult for O’Sullivan to keep saying no to his manager every time he called him into the office to get him to sign a new deal. It’s times like that when an agent becomes of worth because O’Sullivan can simply say that his agent’s job is to deal with everything off the pitch whereas O’Sullivan just wants to concentrate on playing. 

That way he isn’t the one saying no all the time to his manager, his agent is.

O’Sullivan is by no means the finished article. He still has to improve in areas if he wants to make a life out of football. 

In saying that, he is a very good player, and would improve if he were to move, which is inevitable.