Ah here.

Force him to play.

At gunpoint if necessary.

Declan Rice needs time to decide international future, says Manuel Pellegrini (Sky Sports)

Pic: RTÉ

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28 thoughts on “Was It For This?

    1. Ollie Cromwell

      A sensible thought but not one which passes through the dense craniums of the inferiority complex-ridden muppets on here.

    2. scottser

      cos he’s played at junior level for ireland all of his career, including 3 senior friendlies?
      also, our need is arguably greater than theirs – if he got chosen for england he’d sit on the bench for the next 5 years.

          1. magic wand

            Incorrect BB, Saviola was a lovely, mazy dribbler, a scorer of great goals. Never quite lived up ro his potential.
            Jeffers was a “fox in the box’ who after a couple of toe pokes, was found out to be just merde

      1. realPolithicks

        Lets be honest here, most of these english lads only play for Ireland when they discover that england won’t be calling them up. There is nothing wrong with this but obviously rice has been given some kind of indication from southgate that he will be called up to the senior english side and would rather play with a team that has a resonable chance of qualifying for most tournament finals.

        1. Ollie Cromwell

          Nothing wrong in that.
          One of Ireland’s most successful sportsman is Eoin Morgan.
          Captain of the England one-day cricket side and earning a fortune playing tournament cricket around the world.
          Virtually ignored by the Irish media because he’s playing for England.

          1. Brother Barnabas

            virtually ignored by the media in ireland because he’s playing a ‘sport’ no one in Ireland has any interest in

          2. ReproButina

            That’s a bit harsh BB. There’s a growing interest in, and support for, cricket in Ireland.

        2. ReproButina

          Bang on. Despite what we may think, we’re a very small player in International Football and for a player that grew up abroad there may not necessarily be the same drive to represent Ireland. Or the drive to represent Ireland may not be as strong as the drive to play at tournament finals.

    3. jonsmoke

      possibly because he already has 3 ‘caps’ from playing for Ireland. One of them with the senior team.
      So, it’s not unrealistic to expect him to formally declare himself an Irish player.

  1. Ollie Cromwell

    Perhaps he doesn’t want to become part of a long line of ” Irish ” internationals speaking with a scouse or cockney accent ?

    1. Brother Barnabas

      a long line of “irish” players with english accents or a long line of “english” players with irish parents

    2. Topsy

      England – the home of football. LOL. Needed many foreign nationals to make up a team over the years. Terry Butcher, Rob Jones, John Barnes, Raheem Sterling, & the list goes on.

  2. dav

    I think the groundwork for this problem lies with the underage rules allowing a player to switch allegiances willy nilly as they would club teams and/or jerseys. Finally when it gets to some grown up decision making the player is suddenly faced with the gravity of the decision and they are unable to cope.

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