Tom Cannon

What is to stop a player whose parents are born in Ireland to “abuse” the rules as you say under your rules.  

It’s funny that you say rules are rules I.e the players would

Just have to accept them (under your system). But you are not prepared to do the same and accept the current rules.  Double standards.  

The rules currently in place are the same for every nation are also aligned with our rules around citizenship.   If you change the rules it will change for every nation and it will also mean they are not aligned with citizenship.  I.e. a person could get an Irish passport and be an Irish citizen but couldn’t play for Ireland under your rules as they wouldn’t be deemed Irish enough for you. Not a very clever situation to have.   You are just coming across as an angry man shouting at a cloud to be honest just because a few players game the situation for their own benefit.  Also you are putting words in my mouth.  You use the word mercenaries and you are of the view the team is full of mercenaries.  That’s not my view so you associating your view of the world with me is a classic straw man tactic.  

I would find that approach quite refreshing. 

If we have a new manager before February, I'd love to see this rolled out:

"Hi Tom, We really like the look of you and would like to get you involved in March. Take a couple of weeks to think about whether you want to play for us and let us know by X date as we'll be naming the squad a week or two later. If you're not sure or would prefer to hold off on a decision then thats no problem but I wont be in a position to consider you for selection in my tenure as I need to forward plan to build a squad with committed players. If you want to have a chat to discuss then I'm more than happy to accommodate but lets do it sooner rather than later. "

The rules are the rules it’s a as simple as that every nation is governed by the same set of rules,

We like every nation should use them to the best of our advantage anything other than this is pie in the sky.

We should of course with our limited playing pool be exploiting every option available to us.

Spot on. Exactly how it should should be put by the next manager by leaving the door open without making us look needy and puts the onus on the player not to string us along. 

Which is the influence coming from the agent no doubt. "Look at Grealish and Rice, 100m players within a a few years of switching to England". 

This would be the situation where you tell them right it's the last time we are asking you. 

Why would I be devastated? The lad is English born of both Irish and Israeli heritage. It seems he has the choice of 3 nations. If he has a sense of Irishness as part of his mixed heritage, welcome aboard!