FAI...June 2024 Friendlies v Hungary and Portugal

[Ranga]

It's ok, we can replace him with Stephen Ireland.  He'll have a similar career.

[Tony Baloney]

Will he be an England international though? (an established international I mean)  I have no problem with him declaring for England if he feels English. If it's for commercial reasons, it might backfire though.

Not sure if purely commercial reasons is the answer. Even if he was a squad player his chances of being involved in a major tournament are much higher with England than Ireland. Any top player should want to play in the top competitions.

[foxcommander]

It's all about the money.
A player with an England international cap will earn higher wages and be more sought after. One big move next summer will set him up for life.

He'll have to work pretty hard to keep villa from going down.

[From the Bunker]

At least Grealish got this out of the way before Irelands final games. I'm sure MON will be glad of that at least. As this side show was not the distraction he needed. More than likely Hodgson will give him a 10 minute Cap in one of their remaining nothing games. He must have been promised at least that for throwing in his lot with England. And if he does not progress as a player to England standard - his international options are gone. He'll then be snookered. It's probably a chance worth taking, but he is struggling to get into an average Villa side and he could well end up in International Limbo.

[JPGJOHNNYG]

Its nothing to do with international football and everything to do with chasing a bigger club salary. From a footballing choice its a bad move. I cant see too many caps for him with the likes of Walcott, wilshire, sterling, Barclay, oxlade Chamberlain etc etc all young and better. I don't blame him but I do have an issue wIth Mon. When he came into the job he moaned about the dearth of talent and yet he has managed to let one of his better youth players leave. Should have capped him 18 mths ago and saved him months of begging and pleading to no avail. Since taking over he has recruited arter and Christie, OK players but  no better than what we've got meanwhile the likes of bamford, Redmond, Wilson all Irish qualified a million miles from the English team and yet Mon and Keane cant sway them hmm something not right there. Noble also couldn't be tempted and no-one bothered to try Kane before it was too late, so no marks there on the recruitment front.

[michaelg]

Its nothing to do with international football and everything to do with chasing a bigger club salary. From a footballing choice its a bad move. I cant see too many caps for him with the likes of Walcott, wilshire, sterling, Barclay, oxlade Chamberlain etc etc all young and better. I don't blame him but I do have an issue wIth Mon. When he came into the job he moaned about the dearth of talent and yet he has managed to let one of his better youth players leave. Should have capped him 18 mths ago and saved him months of begging and pleading to no avail. Since taking over he has recruited arter and Christie, OK players but  no better than what we've got meanwhile the likes of bamford, Redmond, Wilson all Irish qualified a million miles from the English team and yet Mon and Keane cant sway them hmm something not right there. Noble also couldn't be tempted and no-one bothered to try Kane before it was too late, so no marks there on the recruitment front.

MON also doesn't seem to be tapping up players from NI, as was the case in recent years.

[From the Bunker]

Its nothing to do with international football and everything to do with chasing a bigger club salary. From a footballing choice its a bad move. I cant see too many caps for him with the likes of Walcott, wilshire, sterling, Barclay, oxlade Chamberlain etc etc all young and better. I don't blame him but I do have an issue wIth Mon. When he came into the job he moaned about the dearth of talent and yet he has managed to let one of his better youth players leave. Should have capped him 18 mths ago and saved him months of begging and pleading to no avail. Since taking over he has recruited arter and Christie, OK players but  no better than what we've got meanwhile the likes of bamford, Redmond, Wilson all Irish qualified a million miles from the English team and yet Mon and Keane cant sway them hmm something not right there. Noble also couldn't be tempted and no-one bothered to try Kane before it was too late, so no marks there on the recruitment front.

MON also doesn't seem to be tapping up players from NI, as was the case in recent years.

He is after all one fundamentally of them (Northern Irish) so it might be tough stepping on some old mates feet? That and Northern Ireland are not a pub team any longer.

[michaelg]

Its nothing to do with international football and everything to do with chasing a bigger club salary. From a footballing choice its a bad move. I cant see too many caps for him with the likes of Walcott, wilshire, sterling, Barclay, oxlade Chamberlain etc etc all young and better. I don't blame him but I do have an issue wIth Mon. When he came into the job he moaned about the dearth of talent and yet he has managed to let one of his better youth players leave. Should have capped him 18 mths ago and saved him months of begging and pleading to no avail. Since taking over he has recruited arter and Christie, OK players but  no better than what we've got meanwhile the likes of bamford, Redmond, Wilson all Irish qualified a million miles from the English team and yet Mon and Keane cant sway them hmm something not right there. Noble also couldn't be tempted and no-one bothered to try Kane before it was too late, so no marks there on the recruitment front.

MON also doesn't seem to be tapping up players from NI, as was the case in recent years.

He is after all one fundamentally of them (Northern Irish) so it might be tough stepping on some old mates feet? That and Northern Ireland are not a pub team any longer.

Maybe he doesn't agree with it (Probably for some of the reasons mentioned on this thread to date re Jack Grealish).  As a NI fan, sadly we are never too far from the pub team label being levelled at us.

[illdecide]

Kevin Kilbane commented on Grealish's decision to opt for England instead of ROI

'I'd rather have one cap for Ireland than 100 caps for England'
Kevin Kilbane says he's "disappointed" with Aston Villa midfielder Jack Grealish's decision to play for England rather than the Republic of Ireland.

The former Everton midfielder Kilbane explains why playing for the Republic of Ireland was the obvious decision for him, despite being born in Preston.

Alongside Mark Chapman, former Leicester striker Steve Claridge and the BBC's senior football reporter Ian Dennis, Kilbane says he turned down the chance to play for England at youth level, and says he would've traded "100 caps for England" if it meant he would play for Ireland.

"I might never have played for England at senior level," said Kilbane. "But that is how I felt at age 16 and 17. That was always going to be my decision."

[Applesisapples]

Best quote I saw on Joe.ie was "I see Jack Grealish has retired from International Football." His situation though is not like nationalists in NI declaring for the ROI, we are brought up supporting the team as our national team and now have the right under the GFA to choose it's as it should be. Good luck to Grealish but I suspect if he had have been good enough he'd have been in the English schoolboy setup...time will tell.

[Bord na Mona man]

Grealish was set to play for Ireland over a year ago and would be tied to us now if he had.
I wonder has there been many English players who committed to Eire when they were young and regretted it later?

[JPGJOHNNYG]

Grealish was set to play for Ireland over a year ago and would be tied to us now if he had.
I wonder has there been many English players who committed to Eire when they were young and regretted it later?

Cant think of anyone who declared for Ireland that would have had a long England career apart from maybe lawrenson. The likes of Rooney, Gerard, scholes and carragher knew they were good enough for England early on so didn't even consider ireland. Steve Bruce has admitted regret playing a b international for England that blocked him playing for the North - crazy such a talented player didn't have an international career.

[michaelg]

Best quote I saw on Joe.ie was "I see Jack Grealish has retired from International Football." His situation though is not like nationalists in NI declaring for the ROI, we are brought up supporting the team as our national team and now have the right under the GFA to choose it's as it should be. Good luck to Grealish but I suspect if he had have been good enough he'd have been in the English schoolboy setup...time will tell.

I'm afraid there are very clear parallels between the 2 situations. i.e. One Association spending time and money to develop a player, only for said player to opt for another international team.

[Main Street]

Grealish was set to play for Ireland over a year ago and would be tied to us now if he had.
I wonder has there been many English players who committed to Eire when they were young and regretted it later?

Cant think of anyone who declared for Ireland that would have had a long England career apart from maybe lawrenson. The likes of Rooney, Gerard, scholes and carragher knew they were good enough for England early on so didn't even consider ireland. Steve Bruce has admitted regret playing a b international for England that blocked him playing for the North - crazy such a talented player didn't have an international career.

Steve Heighway was more than good enough to play for England.
Both Heighway and Lawrenson declared for Ireland before their career had really kicked off, nevertheless, both did not regret doing so.
Townsend was good enough for England and it's a football crime how Scotland totally ignored Ray Houghton.
But probably the players who would have chosen Ireland first over an English invite, are few and far between.

When Grealish was ready to be considered to play for the senior side, he deferred, therefore it is idle talk to speculate about that he should have been capped in a competitive game in order to tie him to the FAI. The eligibility statutes for dual nationals are about choice and the power is with the player to decide where he wants to go. Talk about an association aborting that choice by capping a player prematurely is not in the player's interest nor in the interest of the game. A dual national player owes little to the association who has capped him at underage, he has the right to consider and reconsider his options until he is capped competitively at senior level 

[JPGJOHNNYG]

Agree about Houghton although don't forget he was playing for Oxford in the mid eighties and the Scottish midfield at the time was full of stars like mcstay, Strahan, souness, mcavennie, aitken. Certainly mcgeady and mccarthy have had it worst. The English lads who declare for Ireland by and large wouldn't get near the England team but both these lads would be regulars for Scotland and then you have the added nasty sectarian dimension which unfortunately both the lads have been subjected to. I know both these guys haven't shown their true potential plying for Ireland but we must not forget the difficult decision they had to make and abuse they suffered to wear the green shirt as opposed to a number of english lads who wont admit that Ireland is their plan b. Just to add though I don't care if Ireland wasn't their preferred choice just as long as they are fully committed now.