If we take this guy back, the next thing we will have is guys who qualify for us, who will have about 12 caps retiring at 28 years of age.
https://mobile.twitter.com/Jayoconnor8
Interesting stuff here, looks like the one thing in our favour which wasn’t the case with Grealish is the family appear to want him to declare for Ireland, would be nice the WHU and the FA got the message and instead of focusing on this player why don’t they got I don’t know try get Ampadu to play for England...
If we take this guy back, the next thing we will have is guys who qualify for us, who will have about 12 caps retiring at 28 years of age.
I think you can only empathise with the guy, he's in a tight spot and outside influences at play. At his age, that's not easy to deal with.
However, on the flip side, if he came back into the squad now, how much respect would he have in the dressing room?
https://kesslereffect.bandcamp.com/album/kepler - New music. It's not that bad.
Well he has quite clearly said he want to play for ireland, so with that in mind it would be great if the English FA could take a hint and **** off.
I can stomach anyone leaving after underage appearances, we would be hypocrites to complain about that. ….But three senior caps... Jesus wept of the cross
The man has wiped his ass with our flag and has repeatedly lied when asked where his loyalties stood over the last few months. just google his quotes when his chairman suggested he would/could play for England
Cathal, Diggs, knock it off.
How much more financially lucrative would it be to be an Established England International both for the Player and for the Club if Selling .
Football is a Business .
Our national team is not a business. Our players arnt paid to play for Ireland. If he want money more than ireland Then why would we want him
My work with Stephen Ireland’s career trajectory is done. I’m redirecting all my ill will to Declan Rices career now!!! 🤔
its a shame but i wish him all the best he will have an excellent career and I see no reason he wont win 50 plus caps for england. Hopefully we can show some grace and thank him for his service to our underage sides and not repeat the embarressing backlash grealish got
Liam i have to say I appreciate your humility. But I really dont agree. We have been used here and he has lied repeatedly in relation to his commitment to our country
O'Neill did admit that Rice's father wants him to play for us. And Gold did say he wanted Rice to be an England international. There might be a hint of truth in those tweets. But he's handling this really badly. We can say that we don't want him to play for us if he's not sure but he'd be a great option to have and maybe social media and wider backlash isn't doing that cause any favour.
Look, it's the lad's decision. But I'm very disappointed it has come to this. Don't know who I'm most disappointed in.
fair enough but he has played numerous times for us since 17s and we owe him respect for that. Every player with Dual nationallity has this option we know this when we bring them on board as 16 year olds. We enter into it with our eyes open so I dont feel we can complain when It goes sour for us.
In our under 15s last season we allowed 2 lads to go over and back between playing for us and england and did the same with 2 different lads at under16. We do It in the hope that some of them will "choose" Us. Its like letting your missus ride your better looking wealtier sworn enemy for years cause you hope she will eventually want to marry you and then going off crying when she shacks up with him fulltime.
if we dont want this issue we need to Stop picking dual players underage and leave It until We are in position to offer them a senior competitive cap and let them come on board then or not .
Likely his blistering start to the season has caught the attention of the English FA.
That is a gag right?
It seems to me that a system designed to avoid abuse is being used in an abusive way itself, and needs to be overhauled because of unintended consequences.
IIRC, a lot of the impetus for allowing switches of nationality came because, amongst others but principally, France were single-capping promising youngsters eligible for African countries in friendlies. The change allowed players who were subsequently never called up again to escape from being cap-tied, and put an end to cynical and strategic call-ups. Rightly so.
What we have here, however, is a young player who has appeared three times in a single season and for whom not being called into the next squad would have been controversial and unexpected. There is no question of his having being discarded, or of the caps he has won being exploitative: he has graduated from being an under-age international to a senior one seamlessly, along a path that is entirely normal.
He has had his head turned. It seems no more complicated than that. If this was a club versus club situation, we’d call it tapping up. It’s not allowed in club football: it shouldn’t be allowed in international.
The rules need to be rebalanced and at the very least, there needs to be
- a minimum period after the last cap has been won (perhaps a full calendar year); and/or
- a minimum number of squads for which a player has not been called up for which they were fit and available (perhaps 5 to 7); and
- a set number of caps, even if all friendlies, within a given period (perhaps 3 to 5 over 1 to 2 calendar years) at or above which a switch cannot be made because the nation has demonstrated a reasonable commitment to the player
to prevent players, their clubs and agents cynically exploiting a loop hole.
I’ll be honest, I think O’Neill has been far too soft too many times and I’m mad as hell with him. Whatever about Kelly and Grealish they weren’t senior players (though we may yet regret his softly softly approach), and Alex Bruce and Sean Scannell were never likely to make another squad. O’Neill needed to show some balls in this case and protect the integrity of the squad: call Rice up and force both his and Southgate’s hand. The more he lets prospects pull out with no consequences the more it’s going to keep happening.
Hello, hello? What's going on? What's all this shouting, we'll have no trouble here!
- E Tattsyrup.
In March this year Rice said.
"There’s no decision to be made. I have not had a call from the FA and England have never wanted me at under-age level — it’s always been Ireland.
“I’m here with Ireland and I’ve been called up by Martin. I’m really looking forward to this week and I’m looking forward to getting to know the boys better.
“No [I wouldn’t meet with Southgate], not at all. I’m fully focused on Ireland.”
There was a discussion earlier in the year on Off The Ball, and they mentioned what happened to Grealish. When he was coming through at underage levels, and even when he first appeared on loan at Notts County, there was no real calls for him to play for England, but when he started appearing, and scoring, in the Premier League, Southgate started to be asked why this English player wasn't in the English team, forcing his hand a little. I just wonder if something similar has happened here.
I don't get the criticism toward O'Neill regarding going too softly here. I don't think he has a choice. If he antagonizes Rice we will have 0% chance of holding on to him. Pragmatism is the name of the game here. Rice is passionate about playing for Ireland but he will naturally have a love of England too. He is half English and has been raised there, probably has mainly English friends.
It's not looking good that he will play for us now but I am hopeful he has opted out of this Nations League match to ward off the pressure from West Ham to at least show them he's had a good think about it -- and then perhaps he can link up with us next time out.
I'm sure my post will be seen as naïve in the extreme but some suggestions here about a more hard nosed approach or simply saying thanks but no thanks if Rice eventually sticks with us don't make sense to me.
Anyway all of this is a real shame as I was looking forward to seeing him in the green for campaigns to come.
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