Mark Noble on Talksport

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 FiremanDan wrote:

Will always say it about anyone that is dubious about who they should play for, thanks but no thanks. McAteer made a very good point when it came to declaring for a country that you may not have necessarily had as your first choice as a kid and that was declaring from an early age. As soon as McAteer started to get some attention he nailed his colours to the mast and committed to Ireland. Granted he may have realised he would never play for England but this business of fannying around and plumping for Ireland simply because England haven't come knocking or there is a finals tournament in the offing is not what I want to see.

Would sooner let supposedly good players fall by the wayside than go looking for them cap in hand when they have exhausted their other more attractive options.

Fair enough, but I can remember McAteer many moons ago pictured in a magazine under a bunch of signposts: one said 'Republic of Ireland', one said 'Northern Ireland, and one said 'England'........it's things like this that make me think we should only cap players who are born/and bred here, and players who's parents were born and bred here - f**k the grannyrule and these players with weak/questionable links to the country(I now it's less common nowadays, TBF).......is that what we really want?