We have lads on here who wanted the borders closed yet players forced to represent us nationally.
He started playing Ireland under 17. He was let go by Chelsea when he was 15 I think.
Ireland were used as a shop window.
That’s the long and short off it.
The demark games were the ones alright but he was 17 and had barely any senior football.
He started with the u16s
Rice chose to play for us initially because he was Irish qualified by family background and clearly felt some affinity to the country, and Ireland are much harder up for players so the route to international football is easier. As a young lad starting out in the game, when nothing is guaranteed, when you don’t know if you’re going to make it as a professional, the chance of international football anywhere is a very tempting prospect and you’re likely going to take it.
He then decided to play for England because his club career started to rise meteorically and he came under England’s notice, and also because he’s actually English.
I have no animus towards Grealish or Rice. They played the system to their benefit and fair play to them.
Ferguson clearly feels more of an affinity to Ireland and it’s also easier to get capped by Ireland so there wasn’t much of a decision to be made.
[quote=“Cheasty, post:105, topic:38023, full:true”]
Lol.
Had he even been to Ireland? It was one grand parent who was Irish.
He got let go by Chelsea and they used Ireland as a shop window.
His father apparently hated him playing for Ireland and was adamant he switched.
Don’t do that. The problem is winning this game would make it less likely for Ireland to qualify, i) because it would make it more likely for Greece to get the second automatic qualification spot and thus push Ireland out of the play-offs, and ii) because it would mean the manager would remain in situ.
He must have been in the summer 2017 squad. Possibly it was just the extended squad for that 1-1 draw with Austria where Shane Duffy had the ball (and keeper) in the net at the end but it was disallowed. I thought he was in the squad for the Moldova (H) and Wales (A) doubleheader in October 2017 but didn’t appear to be. That squad is arguably worse than the one we currently have.
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And obviously I’d get stung
There’s parts of London and Birmingham and to a lesser extent, Liverpool where there are essentially Irish families. Their whole heritage is Irish, they play GAA their kids do Irish dancing, they just have English accents.
Forget about it lads.
They didn’t want to play for us, leave them off.
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The Dutch won’t like the rain
I’ll give you Grealish, he stated very early he wanted to play for England, and that’s fair enough, but they still stopped 2 Irish lads who wanted to be developed and play from missing out on that. The FAI invested in them and got fuck all return on their investment.
Yes for two friendlies.
ONeill and Keane stayed on too long, again another fuck up by the FAI and the situatuon got very toxic.
They’re an absolute shambles of an organisation.
In any sport most managers end up staying too long that we’re successful. It’s very tricky to get right.
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Conversely, the Irish supporters singing about low lying fields will make them feel right at home.
Athenry is basically a part of the pays bas
Id say there was a huge difference in lads born from outside of Ireland turning up for international duties under Jack Charlton and Mick McCarthy, especially Charlton. They were allowed go on the gargle and had a ball on the break from their leagues. Thats has all changed now.
If Rice and Grealish were in the squad now there is no fucking way they would have been in France or Dublin tonight. That said we would have the back bone of a serious squad with those two and Evan Ferguson.
Its not that way and we have to move on. That starts with a new Manager.
Imagine Kenny rocking up to a young lad in england that is eligible and asking would he like to join the squad, he’d run a mile whether he thought he’d ever get an ingerland call up or not.
Didn’t Aldridge tell Charlton there was another fella at Oxford with him that qualified to play for Ireland and he was then brought into the squad. No one would do that under this cabbage we have managing us.
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Little different to Ciaran Kilkenny and Cormac Costello playing minor hurling for Dublin and then giving it up to play football.
They stopped lads who would have loved to play for the Dublin minor hurlers getting a game, but then again the team probably wouldn’t have reached an All-Ireland final.
Competitive sport is a tough oul’ business and nothing is fair.