John Rooney

[Serb]

AFAIR he claimed he had a grandparent from Cork, can't remember if it turned out to be a great-grandparent or a great-great-grandparent. Last I heard he was looking to declare for England through residency.

Yeah, he had an Irish Great Grandparent, rather than Grandparent, so he didn't qualify. Would have been the first person to play for Ireland whose first language was not English (though Stan is making claims for that record himself). I think he needs to give up the ghost at this stage, he's not a bad player, but would Capello really pick Quedrue ahead of Bridge and A. Cole? There are probably a bunch of other English left-backs better than him too.

[paul_oshea]

nickey shorey?!

[Guidedbyvoices]

nickey shorey?!

Who is This bloke? Its Nicky Shorey Yes!

[Wangball]

Saw in the Star this morning that Wayne Rooney's cousin, Tommy Amos - on the books at Wigan, has made himself available for selection also...as well as QPR's winger Hogan Ephraim....it seems Trappatoni taking over has caused a bit of a surge in declarations!

[Deckydee]

Hogan Ephraim?????????

No way!! Cool!

This is the link about Hogan - http://qprreport.blogspot.com/2008/0...ambitions.html

This is the link on Tommy Amos - http://www.irishpost.co.uk/news/stor...qlql&cat=sport

[geysir]

When you read about Tommy's granny you would less inclined to make a joke about the Irish Granny connection

“My mum (the granny) has said since he was a baby that one day when he is a big lad he will play for Ireland.”
“My maiden name is Geraghty,” she told me. “I have lived in Liverpool for a long time but I am from Carnlough Road, Cabra west in Dublin. I would love to see Thomas play for Ireland, that would make me so proud".
I would love to go back and watch him play for Ireland. I would be a very proud grandmother.”

[Paulie]

Hogan Ephraim?????????

[/URL]

This guy was quoted in the Star this morning as saying that his dream was to play for England but that he would keep his options open. I don't want him next or near our team. Before anyone brings up players that have played for us in the past who would have had similar allegiances to your man, before eventually deciding to play for us, I would have said the exact same thing about any of them before they opted to play for us. Once they played for us and were unable to play for any other team I supported them the same as I would anybody else on the team. So as much as I don't want this guy to play for us, if he chooses to play for us I will support him, as if people were to pick out people like him to give abuse to, it would just be detrimental to the squad as a whole.

[boovidge]

Great to hear about that lad Amos

Hogan on the other hand can get on his bike. If you can't sound even mildly enthusiastic about playing for Ireland in an interview then don't bother.

[theworm2345]

Hogan Ephraim is a decent player, used to be at West Ham and is now at QPR I believe. Made a few gaffes though if I recall correctly

[Razors left peg]

This guy was quoted in the Star this morning as saying that his dream was to play for England but that he would keep his options open. I don't want him next or near our team. Before anyone brings up players that have played for us in the past who would have had similar allegiances to your man, before eventually deciding to play for us, I would have said the exact same thing about any of them before they opted to play for us. Once they played for us and were unable to play for any other team I supported them the same as I would anybody else on the team. So as much as I don't want this guy to play for us, if he chooses to play for us I will support him, as if people were to pick out people like him to give abuse to, it would just be detrimental to the squad as a whole.

As long as he is committed once he has the jersey on him it doesnt make a difference who he wanted to play for growing up.Cant blame the kid for wanting to play for the country he was born in but if hes a good player and we manage to grab him then great

[Paulie]

Call me old fashioned but I just prefer those who play for us to want to play for us above any other team. We should not diminish the importance of the jersey by letting someone who openly states that they would prefer to play for someone else, just opt for us out of their own necessity.

[Razors left peg]

Call me old fashioned but I just prefer those who play for us to want to play for us above any other team. We should not diminish the importance of the jersey by letting someone who openly states that they would prefer to play for someone else, just opt for us out of their own necessity.

In an ideal world yeah it would be great if we were everyones first and only choice but we are a small nation and even countries like Holland and France have no problem in choosing players born in other countries. I suppose its the closest thing in international football to the transfer system for clubs

[Wangball]

I don't like his comments about wanting to play for England either but one would suspect that if he were to play fr us and he ended up scoring the winner against Italy those comments would be soon forgotten, football is fickle like that

[Paulie]

I have no problem with 2nd or 3rd generation Irish people playing for us once we are their first choice as opposed to it being a career move.

[tetsujin1979]

Sky News, little behind the times on this one: http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/...312932,00.html

[Wolfie]

Provided the commitment was there and it's a genuine interest in playing as opposed to a cynical move in raising the profile (Never!!!) - I'd have no major issue with John Rooney declaring.

Not sure about Tori Amos though - I thought her cover version of "Smells like Teen Spirit" was very annoying.

[Stuttgart88]

Apologies if already mentioned on this thread, been away and have only glanced at the previous 5 pages.

Pat Walker's kids in Sweden are another example. One has captained Swden's U21s I think, the other wants to play for us.

[geysir]

Never noticed you were away Stutts until somebody got a bit fed up with youngirish in another thread and mourned your departure

Shall we starting a thread in Other Sports about your exploits?

[stiofain]

Wayne would most likely have played for Ireland if the FAI had taken the inititive early on and called him up. Once again though, typical FAI imcompetance. Not sure about John, but I'm pretty excited about the Amos kid. Hopefully he will get the call-up sooner rather than later!
Posted by Cormac from Dublin

Jesus, i find these sort of comments so embarrassing. Wayne Rooney has a huge St George's flag tattooed on his arm, with the wording 'English and Proud', ffs.

[Plastic Paddy]

No offence meant mate, only a turn of phrase. I just found it galling to see him bigging up the whole Dublin / Ireland thing, wearing Dubs colours one day and then swanning around in the flag of St George the next. If he does 'regard himself as English' then he was taking the **** playing the Irish card so heavilly on television. I appreciate he may well be sound away from the whole reality TV / Heat magazine bull**** but by the very act of going onto Big Brother, cracking a sly one off under a quilt on live tv and proving himself to be hopeless at handling his beer and turning into an agressive fool after a couple of shandies (he must be English actually) he was leading people to my original conclusion! Difference between a public and private persona I guess.....

No offence taken D69. I suppose the nearest I can come to explaining Ray's Dublin-English dichotomy is that I am a proud London-Irishman. Same but different, see? For what it's worth, my nickname for him is the Union Jackeen. He just calls me a plastic paddy b*****d.

He wasn't the only one at QPR. I met the mother of another one, one night in September 1994 and she was p*ssed off her son was forced into opting for England or having his youth terms terminated under Francis. Forgotten his name but I know Plastic Paddy knows him. He ended up in the non leagues quite shortly.

That would be Trevor Challis and I claim my £5.

PP