Zak Knight 'Irish' ?

[Lionel Ritchie]

A player being an England International still holds wait. Duff would have cost more than £17m if he played for In-gur-land whereas if Rio Ferdinand was Irish Man U would have paid a fraction of the £30m they forked out. Just my opinion.

An opinion that can be statistically backed up. You're bang on bowsy ...English players attract the oxygen of publicity from the tit'n'arse press which raises their profile and transfer values to stupendous levels. You'd never have heard of Beattie if he was an Irishman. He simply wouldn't register. Alan Smith would be (is) a rogue and a thug if he were Irish or Scots -not some warped embodyment of the bulldog spirit.

[Stuttgart88]

If we had a half Spanish or French player do this it wouldn't cause any real comment. Everybody has the right to be proud of every part of their heritage.

I'm not saying I believe Holland dreamed of playing for Ireland as a boy as I actually don't but I have no problem with that reported incident.

I agree with this. I was only pointing it out because it seems to be the source of a lot of the anti-Holland feeling.

[Stuttgart88]

An opinion that can be statistically backed up. You're bang on bowsy ...English players attract the oxygen of publicity from the tit'n'arse press which raises their profile and transfer values to stupendous levels. You'd never have heard of Beattie if he was an Irishman. He simply wouldn't register. Alan Smith would be (is) a rogue and a thug if he were Irish or Scots -not some warped embodyment of the bulldog spirit.

If Leon Best is having any doubts he need only look at the treatment of Beattie & Phillips by England. 30 goals a season and no caps. We cap people with no goals a season (well nearly).

I'd love to know how much mileage there is in this Best story anyway.

[eirebhoy]

I suspect this Leon Best guy is having pressure put on him by S'hampton as being "English" increases his transfer value. The same pressure was put on Morrisson by Palace.

And O'Brien by Bradford.

"I only played [for England U21s] against France because it was a friendly and there was pressure from the club's point of view because they think it's more prestigious to play for England than for Ireland."