Declan Rice

**tetsujin1979** · 30/08/2018, 8:43 PM

Originally Posted by liamoo11

will he be in the 21s squad for our next games? Best chance We have had to qualify for As long as I can remember.one Last hurrah for old times sake?

I thought I saw a tweet from Dan McDonnell on this after the press conference on Monday saying that he would not be in the U21 squad, but I can't find it now.

**Fixer82** · 30/08/2018, 9:00 PM

Ah my head is fried with all this Rice talk.

**Diggs246** · 30/08/2018, 9:03 PM

[QUOTE=tetsujin1979;1973499]I thought I saw a tweet from Dan McDonnell on this after the press conference on Monday saying that he would not be in the U21 squad, but I can't find it now.[/QUOT

If he turns up for the U21s then we are dealing with the biggest sociopath in the history of the state. He might as well run for Fianna Fail in the next election and then open an Irish school in the gaeltacht, whilst representing England in football of course

**tetsujin1979** · 30/08/2018, 9:32 PM

Hyperbole is literally the worst thing to ever happen to humanity

**Diggs246** · 30/08/2018, 9:41 PM

Originally Posted by tetsujin1979

Hyperbole is literally the worst thing to ever happen to humanity

What about reality tv

**tetsujin1979** · 30/08/2018, 10:19 PM

I stand by my pithy observation

**Fixer82** · 31/08/2018, 12:14 AM

Originally Posted by tetsujin1979

Hyperbole is literally the worst thing to ever happen to humanity

Nice work

**tricky_colour** · 31/08/2018, 7:31 AM

Southgate call for a Rice take-away.

**ForzaForth** · 31/08/2018, 8:45 AM

I think we've been mullered.

**Real ale Madrid** · 31/08/2018, 8:50 AM

Originally Posted by ForzaForth

I think we've been mullered.

It's a Semolina-l moment for the country.

**seanfhear** · 31/08/2018, 11:58 AM

We have to Rice above it !

**SkStu** · 31/08/2018, 2:57 PM

Usually Rice has no problem being found in a field of paddies.

**seanfhear** · 31/08/2018, 3:15 PM

It doesn’t look like he is going to be a Staple for us .

**Closed Account** · 31/08/2018, 3:40 PM

Originally Posted by seanfhear

It doesn’t look like he is going to be a Staple for us .

Are you saying it's unlikely he'll line out on the paddy field of Lansdowne Road again?

edit: I see it's been done.

**SkStu** · 31/08/2018, 5:06 PM

Ris otto know by now who he wants to play for.

(Apologies for the typos)

**Closed Account 2** · 31/08/2018, 5:50 PM

Originally Posted by tetsujin1979

For all the people saying we should follow the Wales model and cap our most promising dual nationality players, do you think it would it be worth it to do this, and sacrifice any success at underage level?

Yes... I'm not even sure why there is a debate about this. We get a guarantee that the player won't switch and suddenly stop playing for us* (or even play against us). We can start thinking about building the squad accordingly. We know Rice can play anywhere across the back and midfield but he probably stronger centrally. We could look at pairing him up with other young players in the U21s we could look at getting Roy Keane to try and mould him into a defensive shielding midfielder.

Rice and Grealish are the types of players we could build a next generation defence / midfield around and if we knew we had them for the next 15 years we could start doing that now.

All we have to do is play them in injury time during a competitive full international. We talking seconds to lock them down, not an entire match. I think they could conceivably play in U21 matches during the same international fixture break anyway. I don't see how it hampers the U21 squad.

You could argue keeping players (who may opt out of the senior squad) in the U21s stagnates Irish football. Grealish and Rice's places in the underage squads might have served Irish football better had they gone to players who wouldn't wander off the scene. We could have found out their sentiment earlier had we tried to cap tie them.

*I appreciate they could retire prematurely but I think that is unlikely and is a general risk with any player

**ForzaForth** · 03/09/2018, 12:08 PM

Sus hi still doesn't know who he wants to play for yet.

**zero** · 03/09/2018, 3:59 PM

Of course it's all still speculation, so maybe i'll get rapped on the knuckles somewhat, but is there a sense in the last few days that he's more likely to side with us after all?

Maybe not featuring for West Ham (bar league cup) has swung things back in our favour, or maybe he just really did need to take a little time to think about it. Comments like these from O'Neill are the basis for my thoughts:

https://www.independent.ie/sport/soc...-37277970.html

**jbyrne** · 03/09/2018, 4:12 PM

Originally Posted by zero

Of course it's all still speculation, so maybe i'll get rapped on the knuckles somewhat, but is there a sense in the last few days that he's more likely to side with us after all?

Maybe not featuring for West Ham (bar league cup) has swung things back in our favour

i doubt he would be so fickle as to have his decision made on the back of being left out of a few WHU games in the same way I doubt he would be so fickle to be affected by anything james mcclean or kevin kilbane tweet.