By Liam Mackey
Martin O’Neill has appealed to Irish supporters not to be too quick to judge Declan Rice after the manager revealed the player is weighing up his international future and, consequently, has not been included in the latest Ireland squad.
TheWest Ham defender/midfielder was the star turn of Ireland’s spring and summer friendlies but now, in the run-up to the Nations League game against Wales on Thursday week which would have cemented his future as an Irish pick, the London-born 19-year-old has asked for time to consider his options following a fresh approach from England manager Gareth Southgate.
In the face of the first stirrings of a backlash from disgruntled Irish fans on social media yesterday, Rice made his own Twitter account private.
“So that’s certainly what I’d be advising, just give him a little bit of time. He has thoroughly enjoyed playing for us, it’s been great, and (if he opted for England) it’d be a disappointment to me, more so than Jack (Grealish), because he (Rice) has played the games. Grealish didn’t play (at senior level), this is at a much further stage than Grealish ever got, absolutely. It’s disappointing at this moment but I’ll let him have a little think about it for a while.”
O’Neill insisted everything that could be done has been done to secure Rice’s allegiance. “In terms of selling it, I think the Republic of Ireland have done just about everything to sell the country to him,” he said.
“He was generally welcomed by the players and all the fans. I am not so sure what else we can do.
It’s an issue, the manager suggested, which can always arise in the case of a player with dual-eligibility.
“It would be nice if I was actually capping someone who was born in Kerry or Limerick or Dublin,” he said.
“But it just happens to be a very talented player, a young lad, 19 years of age, who is trying to make his way in the game at club level, who’s had senior caps for us and played well for us.
“To play a game at international level, albeit only a friendly, that’s certainly alerted someone. I’m not so sure what else we could do.”
O’Neill said he was “still hopeful” that Rice — who has been capped three times at senior level — would commit to Ireland and the manager certainly intends to keep the lines of communication open with the player.
But he also admitted there is a limit to his ability to influence the outcome.
“(The ball) would be mostly in his court,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any harm whatsoever in living on his doorstep. We have been incredibly keen in getting him on board, we want him and I think those things are incredibly important when somebody is making a decision on that.
Asked how long he would be prepared to await a final decision, O’Neill said: “I haven’t put a time limit on it but I don’t think that it will be forever and a day. I don’t think that it would be one of those.”
Pressed further, he agreed the start of Euro 2020 qualifying next March would offer “plenty of time” for the process to be resolved one way or another. O’Neill said that in his conversation with Rice he hadn’t felt the need to specifically highlight Jack Grealish’s failure to, thus far, gain an England cap, after the Aston Villa player had opted not to play for the Republic.
“I don’t think that you need to have that conversation, I think Declan is well aware of those situations,” he said. “Young Grealish is now starting to progress but he would have been involved with us in the Euros so he’s missed that experience, that whole thing and the qualification for the World Cup too. He’s starting to make inroads now and there’s no reason why he can’t end up playing for England. He’s got a bit of talent but so far it hasn’t happened for him.
“Declan has actually played for us at senior level. I think we would all say around here that he will play far more often for us than he might do for England, certainly in the earlier stages of his career.”
Among Rice’s most high-profile critics yesterday was former Irish international Kevin Kilbane who tweeted: “I’d rather be ranked 150th in the world and never qualify again than have someone who has played, but needs time to THINK whether they should play for us again. Well done to MON for transparency.”
Later on Newstalk’s Off The Ball, Kilbane referenced the fact that Rice had changed his agent this summer and amplified his criticism of player.
“You’ve got more value by playing for England, there’s probably better wages down the line, but playing international football is not about that and it never will be, in my mind.”
Irish legend Paul McGrath — a player Rice has already been compared to in some quarters — made his feelings pretty clear in a tweet last night. “I would have swam back to Ireland to represent my country #loyalty #irish&proud.”
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
