Declan Rice

Killer hopping mad over the fact that Rice has three senior caps for Ireland.

He does have a point. This is nearly unprecedented.....he was playing senior football for us against France 12 weeks ago and now he's talking about jumping ship. It's not as if he drifted out of the squad or something and a year or two passed. This is a current senior international who played for us a few weeks ago in our most recent game.

Dugs wrote: the point though, new agent since the summer.

Craig Snakespeare?

Liam Green wrote: I’m finding this even more disgusting that the Grealish saga.. hard to believe Rice has stooped even lower that Grealish.. it’s an absolute joke and so underhanded it’s hard to believe

Did you register just to come on and post that?! He is still a kid. He is also in a very difficult position. It's one that is very hard to appreciate from the outside. He was born and brought up in England. He has received most of his football education in England. However, he knows he has Irish heritage and has played underage for Ireland for years. That said, it's his grandparents who are Irish, not his parents. That is definitely relevant. It clearly has to have some impact on how he feels as to his nationality. I know his father was obviously proud but every father will be proud of their son playing international football. Rice may have played for Ireland underage because England didn't want him. He might have played for them because of parental influence. It's possible that he accepted the call ups from Ireland as a kid without really thinking about his national identity. It's a very real possibility that he has never truly considered his national identity and now wants to consider it properly. Maybe he considers himself more English than Irish and is now afraid of the long term consequences of nailing his colours to the mast.

Plus, you'd imagine he has grown up supporting England as well as Ireland. You'd imagine he looked on this summer and saw England reaching the semi finals and thinking he could be part of something like that. There's no doubt that England have realistic chances of winning international tournaments. Frankly, as a kid, who didn't run through the park and dream that the goals they were scoring were in the World Cup final? It's hard to overstate the impact something like England's performance in the World Cup could have had.

I don't necessarily buy into this being an anti-O'Neill decision. Rice may look at the football in Ireland and not like it. However, there are multiple reasons for it. Rice might look and think that it is simply a matter of resources. Ireland do not have the same population as England. They don't have the same calibre of player coming through. Certainly, they don't have as many. Rice may be one of them but there's no shame in not wanting to be a big fish in a small pond. There's certainly an argument that if he chose Ireland, it would belie a lack of ambition.

This is all leaving aside the potential for extra money over the course of his career. It is not really disputed that it is financially better to play for England. It's not even about transfer fees or wages. It goes way, way further than that. Any long running England international can make money off that fact even long after they've retired. Gareth Southgate made money off his missed penalty, and he's far from the only one who made money from international failure. It is simply a higher profile position in a bigger country. Gary Linekar, too, is a lot more famous because of his international exploits and parlayed that into a successful media career.

There are a load of reasons for Rice to consider that playing for England might be the right choice for him. It might be the right choice for him because he sees himself as genuinely more English than Irish. It might be the right choice for him because he wants the best chance at international success. It might be the right choice for him short and long term financial reasons.

I think each of those considerations are valid for a player in his position. The fact is, once he makes the decision now, he is stuck with it. If he chooses England, he's stuck with England. If he plays in a competitive game for Ireland, he's stuck with Ireland. The moment of reckoning has arrived. He's still only nineteen years of age. I don't envy his decision and I certainly won't criticise him for delaying it for a few months. I hope we see him in an Ireland shirt for the Euro 2020 qualifiers. If we don't, however, it will be disappointing - but I won't castigate him for deciding to play for England. It's a truly difficult decision. Without being in his position, I think it is difficult to appreciate everything he has to consider.

Probably that our MON hasn't tried to tap Smyth up since the pretend country across the boarder capped him at senior level 

SuperDave, I don’t often disagree with you but I do in this instance. I think your points might be valid if Rice hadn’t actually accepted the previous call ups and taken the 3 caps. We were preparing for competitive games and we were doing so with him being in our minds as a probable starter. He’s taken another lads place and exploited us for his own gain.