James McCarthy

I know sociology isn't so simple and identy isn't static, maybe if Delap won 40 odd caps with his son growing up watching him his loyalties would be to us not England. But his time coincided with Kelly, Kenna, Carr and Finnan etc so only 11 caps and his son another generation away. As an Irishman settled in Stockport I'd be devastated if my son felt more English than Irish. But likes of Ireland, Westwood, Arter, Roy Keane etc. their commitment doesn't compare to what McCarthy put up with. Keane missing world cup cos he thought fai were inept and mick was a **** or James missing euros, biggest moment that would have been in his career to be at his grandad deathbed, the man he wanted to make proud in an Irish shirt.....who is the fraud? He committed at a young age, not like O'Hara or Will Keane who declared when they realised they wouldn't play for England. Or Grealish, Rice and Michael Keane who committed until England called. He is no O'Hara who committed too late and he is no Grealish who f**ked off when another country showed an interest. He stuck with us and took a lot of abuse, another man who takes lot of sh*t. No one is obliged to declare for us and if they dont want to play anymore they can retire with a bullsh*t excuse. McCarthy will be back. Even if like Roy Keane under Kerr picking and choosing to manage his fitness

This is a great post.

I was born and raised in Birmingham, not a chance I would ever considered picking anything other than Ireland, some players use it as an advance but when you have a genuine connection or love to a community, culture, place, people you cannot have players slated over stuff we just do not know about. Fair play to McCarthy & McGeady, it is the same reason supposedly stopping Mikey Johnston at Celtic declaring.

Apparently very close to his grandparents from Donegal, wants to do it for them, not sure where I read that now, maybe in the thread for him, or Celtic threads, if you Google his name or look at his Twitter photo, you would suspect there is absolutely something in it, and hence a reason he hasn't been called up for Scotland Snr yet

Can't see a turnaround on this so quickly but would be good enough to be in contention for 23 man squad for NL games surely? I think having Duff in the Celtic set up will only have enhanced our chances with him. Nothing Mick has to worry about anyway, think Kenny and his team need to reach out soon though. I think the same with Cal O' Hare at Villa, will be a player for AV next season, smashing it at Coventry

Having ruined a decent portion of his club career by turning up and ignoring club advice, getting injured with us and generally being committed to us - maybe he wanted to make a proper go at his last chance in the Premier League and then come back to us after putting together more than a few sub appearances. 

He has gotten into the Palace team, he is playing regularly. He should be given this chance to play. If he turns this chance down, at that point then I'd say fair enough, forget about him. But I think he will accept now, and he should certainly be brought straight into the starting 11, given he is our only starting central midfielder at premier league level (As Hendrick plays on the right)

Recently? 

Luka Modric would struggle to have an impact if he was playing in midfield for Ireland never mind Jeff Hendrick.

How anyone can expect our more advanced centre midfielders to go out and have any impact on a game is baffling.