Jack Grealish

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Originally Posted by Olé Olé

It does smack of insecurity on the Irish football supporting public that after one good, high-profile performance we feel the need for Jack to come out and state the above yet again.

I guess it's like a girl accepting your proposal and, wow, now she's your fiancé and maybe you should wait a year for the wedding but she could do a runner before you get that ring on her finger. Crap.... who's that handsome b*stard flirting with your fiancé at the bar?

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Jeez, maybe OWC posters are correct. Maybe we are insecure, paranoid and irrational rats who can't quite handle our women! ;)

Had missed this piece by John Fallon the other week: http://www.independent.ie/sport/socc...-31156636.html

He's fairly critical of O'Neill's comments and handling of the situation.

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Originally Posted by John Fallon

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Officially, Grealish is off the market – be it to Ireland or England – until September but lest it not be forgotten that he’s represented the country of his grandparents since the age of 14 and rebuffed England’s overtures twice already.

Yet, were he to contact O’Neill this week and break his sabbatical for the pivotal qualifier, he would be wasting his time based upon the manager’s latest sentiments.

As well as discounting Grealish's ability for the big occasion, O’Neill made some other interesting remarks on the hot topic of the teen prodigy during his briefing with reporters from Sunday newspapers.

"I've been involved close to 18 months now, if he was available to us he would have quite surely. . . regardless of not getting starts at Aston Villa, we'd have had enough friendly games that he would have had an opportunity to make an impact at senior level, if he'd been with us from the start," he said.

Really? The date of 15 November 2013 was significant not alone for being O’Neill’s first game in charge against Latvia but so too for Grealish, as he netted his first goal for Ireland’s U-21s against Faroe Islands a few hours earlier in Sligo.

The following week, Grealish made light work of the monsoon-like conditions in Podgorica and cynical fouling by the Montenegrins during a scoreless draw to claim the man-of-the-match accolade. Afterwards, Ireland manager Noel King likened the individual display to one of Aiden McGeady’s better performances.

Five months later, in March 2014, Grealish was again on international duty but much closer to home at Tallaght Stadium on a Spring afternoon.

Montenegro were also the opposition in a make-or-break qualifier for the U-21s. Although the seniors were playing a friendly against Serbia that night, neither O’Neill nor his assistant Roy Keane came to watch any part of a game in which Grealish shone.

The playmaker was at the time playing his club football on loan with Notts County in the lower reaches of League One.

Two weeks later, O’Neill sent his goalkeeping coach Seamus McDonagh to watch Grealish play 90 minutes in the 4-1 win over Carlisle. On April 5, O’Neill himself fancied a gander and turned up at Brentford where the loanee was dropped as County went on the defensive against the division’s pacesetters. Grealish was introduced at half-time.

Throughout all this time, Grealish was very much “available” to O’Neill.

An inherent trait of any successful manager is their ability to spot potential.

For all his shortcomings, Stephen Staunton displayed enough conviction to call a 16-year-old, Terry Dixon, into his squad for a training camp and friendlies in May 2006 while, eight years prior, Mick McCarthy threw a 17-year-old Robbie Keane into the senior international set-up whilst the fresh-faced Dubliner was operating in the second tier of English football.

With four friendlies, including two in America, arranged for May/June 2014, latitude for experimentation was there for O’Neill to utilise in the lead-up to the Euro 2016 qualifiers commencing in September. Grealish wasn’t deemed worthy of being part of that process, even as a fringe player.

Rookie goalkeepers Aaron McCarey and Ian Lawlor were brought stateside in the past two summers respectively for “experience”, so why didn’t the same apply for a player clearly head and shoulders above his peers at U-21 level?

Another curious O’Neill observation was introduced to the rationale behind his current take on the situation.

He said: "This time last year, when I was having conversations with him and his father, I bet you he probably thought he was going to start between 15 and 22 games for Villa. And you know what? He hasn't.”

The first meeting between O’Neill, Grealish and his father, Kevin, took place on August 20 last. Also in attendance at the hotel in the Grealish’s neighbourhood of Solihull was Roy Keane, then double-jobbing at Villa.

This was exactly a week after Villa chief initiated contract talks with a player they risked losing for nothing in the summer amid interest from Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur. Genuine interest.

O’Neill later revealed that his suggestion of promoting Grealish to “train” with the senior squad had been politely declined, a stance he fully understood given the challenges he was dealing with at the time for club and country.

Fast-forward to April 2015 and Grealish seems to be further away from a senior Ireland cap than he was then. Whilst the Irish hierarchy continue to doubt him, similar showings by Grealish to Sunday in Villa's final six games of the campaign may convince England otherwise.

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That seems kind of flimsy to me. The whole article is centered around O'Neill saying this:

"I've been involved close to 18 months now, if he was available to us he would have quite surely. . . regardless of not getting starts at Aston Villa, we'd have had enough friendly games that he would have had an opportunity to make an impact at senior level, if he'd been with us from the start"

O'Neill may have meant that he would have probably got an opportunity in one of the friendlies during the period Grealish has been on his break from international duty. The fact that he says "regardless of not getting starts at Aston Villa" kind of proves this is the period he was talking about, not when he was on loan in League One or playing for our U21's. So basically the next six paragraphs are pointless, as O'Neill probably wasn't referring to that period. I know techincially Grealish was with us at the start, but he hasn't been with us from the start, which implies he's been there all the way through.

It does seem unfortunate that O'Neill and/or Keane don't attend the U21 games but I suppose they'd be extremely busy with the senior team more often than not on those dates?

He talks about Staunton calling up Terry Dixon as if Dixon has vindicated the decision by coming a world class player or something. Robbie Keane was a totally different scenario too, firstly it was an area we were short and secondly Keane was playing at a higher level than Grealish, and generally causing more of a stir than Grealish during his time in League One.

How does he know that the interest from Chelsea and Tottenham was "genuine interest", and so what anyway? Big clubs sign kids that turn out to do nothing all the time.

I think you're right. Grealish became officially unavailable as soon there was talk of him being promoted to the senior team. I took it to mean that he would always have been unavailable for a senior call-up; obviously, it only became apparent to us once the prospect arose. The fact his declaration of unavailability also coincided with contract negotiations and an effort to break into the Villa first team beclouded things, or provided him with a "get-out", but I certainly don't think it is fair to portray it as a case of him having been available for a senior call-up at one point in time but being then unwanted or ignored by the senior management. Or is it? If Martin had called him up for, say, the competitive Georgia game last September, would he have accepted the invitation?

Well I suppose it's an important distinction (and one I kind of forgot myself) that he wasn't really taking the time out to concentrate on his club career ahead of playing international football, but ahead of decided who he would prefer to play international football with. So, no, I don't think he would have accepted any call up from us, and certainly not one that was forever binding. O'Neill has been speaking to the guy, I find it a bit ridiculous that these journalists just fill in the gaps and come to their own conclusions about what he should and shouldn't be doing. Just like their English counterparts, none of them were too bothered before Grealish made the headlines at Wembley.

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Originally Posted by Jack Grealish

My father and I didn’t want to go into the meeting and Martin being like, ‘come on and play for Ireland’. He sat me down, treated me like a man and talked through everything.

It wasn’t just about football but growing up as a footballer and where my grandparents are from in Ireland. That’s what I wanted to hear from Martin because it is a big decision to make and one I want to take my time over.

Things have just happened very quickly for me this season and I need to put on my club future first before thinking about the international situation.

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Martin Samuel responds to some of the comments that were left under his article in the Daily Mail: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/foo...h-English.html

Not had any response from him to what I wrote myself, although I was assured it would be passed on to him.

Ouch.

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Originally Posted by back of the net

He says "hopefully next year ill be back playing for "(then Tony o Donoghue interruptes him before he says for who, although you would assume ireland u21s) .....
http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/irish...reland-set-up/




But in the below in the post awards interview - he says its an honour to have the choice of been able to choose between 2 countries, but he also says hopefully next year he "will be back in the green jersey" and "hopefully in september time I will be back playing for Ireland"
http://balls.ie/football/32423-video...reland-jersey/

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"Hopefully" is not a firm declaration of anything.

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Originally Posted by TheOneWhoKnocks

"Hopefully" is not a firm declaration of anything.

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Didnt think i implied it was

But agree - most certainly far from a definite

but please god he will be..........hopefully....

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Originally Posted by TheOneWhoKnocks

Ouch.

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Don't worry. I'm not losing any sleep, nor did I particularly expect him to respond to me personally anyway, just in case that's how you interpreted what I'd written. I was simply clarifying that I was informed by the Daily Mail's corrections department that they would pass what I wrote on to him. I had no further expectations beyond that.

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Originally Posted by TheOneWhoKnocks

"Hopefully" is not a firm declaration of anything.

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It wasn't a declaration of binding commitment, but it was a declaration of intent. That would naturally exclude other possible options (assuming he wasn't engaging in deceit). His father has also clarified that his plans to be back playing with us in September remain unchanged.

Grealish's assist for Cleverley versus West Ham yesterday:

http://c1.thejournal.ie/media/2015/0...ealish-gif.gif

Grealish was quality throughout the game. A real talent not even remotely phased by playing at a high level.

Was MOTM as well, think that's his first in the Premier League

Yes, but is it good news?

That is the question.

Bit like Macbeth.

"To be, or not to be, that is the question—"

Can't believe you wrote that....




You're supposed to call it The Scottish Play, in preparation for June. Or is that just in the theatre?:D

Interesting that Jack Grealishs football agency is Stellar Group, co-owned by a Jonathan Barnett. The same Barnett who said
“Why should we take any notice of comments from people who don’t know what they are talking about – and from people who have failed in management,”
during the week about another of his charges, Gareth Bale.

I'm thinking if Jack really wants to play for us he will accept a call-up for the game against Scotland. Would someone who supposedly wants to play for Ireland not give their right arm to be involved in such a match???

http://www.irishmirror.ie/sport/socc...ealish-5666008

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/socc...ment-1.2208382

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Originally Posted by Deckydee

http://www.irishmirror.ie/sport/socc...ealish-5666008

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/socc...ment-1.2208382

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I really hope Keane is on the bench for the Scotland game, unless he is fully fit for more than two weeks and shows something in the England friendly. He has been carted around enough lately without being half-fit at the same time. It's a great move going to the MLS at his age but he's been travelling halfway around the world for Intl. games for 3 or 4 years now and it's only viable for so long. It's taking its toll now.

So Dunphy now wades in http://foot.ie/threads/200872-RTE-Du...-Jack-Grealish

I thought he would use just the Hoolahan situation to batter O'Neill but now he has found another stick in Grealish. As ever, the new manager is initially praised by both D & G and then slowly but surely the poison is spread.