"Jack Grealish has been called up to the England squad"
Thank God I thought he would never **** off
Hopefully he gets his cap now.
Yeah, his cap is inevitable. The volume of caps is uncertain. He clearly is down the pecking order. He will have to do something incredible in a team that plays him in a wide forward role to get into the squad based on Southgate's rationale for excluding him in the first place.
He could have been a superstar for us. Instead he's never likely to be more of a peripheral squad player for England considering the amount of young talent they have coming through the ranks.Originally Posted by Olé Olé
On the plus side for him a couple of England caps will probably double his transfer fee.
He was never Irish anyway like most of the granny rule blow ins so good luck to him playing for his home country. I dream our upcoming golden generation knock him and his England team out of a major tournament in the future and the tears of both him and Rice flow like Gazza in full swing.
Last edited by youngirish; 31/08/2020 at 6:15 PM.
Interesting to see that Stephen Mallon turned down a late call up to the Under 21 training camp and has decided to switch to the Northern Ireland setup. A fairly pragmatic decision given his career trajectory you'd have to say.
Then again, maybe a rant about how he has taken up valuable underage squad spaces in the Ireland setup and prevented some other player's development pathway might be appropriate after some of the wailing up north last week about Sykes.
I think we'll see more of this with the new rule changes if anything encouraging these kind of switches. Might we even reach the stage where a player who grew up in the Republic of Ireland switches to the north to gain an international career?
It will also be interesting to see how Mallon is received by the NI fans given that he has openly stated in an interview that he's an Ireland fan first and NI are his second choice. Then again, Niall McGinn has said similar before and they seemed to accept it without too much fuss.
Although that said, I see one of the first comments on twitter linking to the news article about Mallon from an NI fan simply reads "how about you **** right off".
Last edited by Eirambler; 01/09/2020 at 9:41 AM.
That's a pity. Particularly if he's an Ireland fan- has he stated this previously? He's very young to be deciding that he might never make it.
https://www.derryjournal.com/sport/f...reland-2957667
Quotes from Mallon here.
This can only happen if they have family links to the North though which is obviously common enough around the border area. The frequency of switches won't be the same going there way though as every player born on the island is eligible for us but not vice versa.
It’s a funny one, watching him play for Derry, I saw the potential I didn’t see in Toulon. He genuinely looked like a prospect, albeit a very raw one.
There’s really not a huge amount of wingers coming through for us at underage level. Elbouzedi and Farrugia while at Waterford and UCD were important for us. There’s a lot of guys who can play there but aren’t really wingers: Barrett, Kilkenny, Scully. James McClean is obviously a good example of how a true winger can blossom a little late.
He’s right that there is a clearer pathway but I wouldn’t have said he was really that far away. I mean given he was involved in the 21s squad last summer and he was called up to the current squad but rejected it.
Under the current rules, Darragh Burns is playing for the north simply because if he makes the change to us, he’s tied down and if he ultimately doesn’t make it, then he can’t change back. He qualifies through a parent I believe and the north called him up when he didn’t make an irish underage squad
Interesting - didn't know about Burns.
On wingers - Will Ferry is probably the highest rated out and out winger we have at the moment.
He is on a Promise from Northern Ireland ! But how do you make them Honour the Promise !
There is great shenanigans going on behind the scenes with these dual / multi qualified players. Ah, sure we win a few and we lose a few !
If playing international football is about playing for whoever will give him more game rather than who he grew up following time then best of luck to him. I'd rather not have that attitude in the Republic squad
Folding my way into the big money!!!
It also a career for guys. Playing international football can increase a players profile which could lead to a few extra quid in paycheck.
Mallon has to look at whats best for his career if hes not going to get many games for us. I think its slightly different to jumping ship to a "better" option once your profile increases.... but that might be me being hypocritical
At least he's being honest about it I suppose
Southgate is clever, he is gonna throw him in for 20 minutes and get rid of him, he is no way better than the rest, and he is a bit of show-off and big-headed. The guy is mutiny. Im iinterested in bringing Nathan Redmond, his mother is irish born and a big supporter of Ireland and Mikey to the irish team. Plus Crowley and the Johansson guy at Sevilla.
Daniel O'Shaughnessy made his competitive debut for Finland tonight (4th cap overall), so is now ineligible...
To be fair, there are genuine cases when people follow more than one country as a kid. If your father is from the one country and your mother from the other, sure why wouldn't you.
CJ Hamilton scored for Blackpool v Liverpool today. Does he qualify for Ireland?
He seems to have grown up in Ireland and lived here for at least 10 years, so potentially eligible. A bit of a journeyman pro though, unlikely to ever get the call I would say.
Keane O'Shea Given Best Smallbone
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