NATURALLY, IRISH FOOTBALL fans want Jack Grealish to choose Ireland when he finally makes a decision on which country he wants to play international football for.
There has been a lot of hype around the Aston Villa midfielder in the last few months but since Tim Sherwood took over as Villa boss the youngster has started to reach his potential more and more.
But while supporters obviously hope he ends up playing in green, RTE pundit Richie Sadlier has given an interesting dissenting view in his Sunday Independent column today.
He advocates for the devil by saying that if you remove the Irish interest from the equation, Grealish would be better off playing for England.
“Given his potential and his place of birth, England fans would naturally see declaring for England as his best option,” Sadlier said.
“And given everything we know about Grealish, I’d have to say I’m on that side of the argument also. When you remove Ireland’s self-interest and look objectively at the options he has, the obvious conclusion is to pick England if they want him to play. Nobody covering this story can know how his career will develop. He may never reach a level where either the Ireland or England manager would want him to play at senior level. On the off-chance he does, though, wouldn’t it be better to be eligible to play for England? Ireland seldom qualify for international tournaments, England rarely don’t. Every player claims playing at a World Cup is a childhood dream. Grealish would best serve that ambition by choosing the country of his birth.”
Irish fans likely won’t agree with him but Sadlier certainly raises some interesting talking points. This saga likely won’t end any time soon either, with the Villa midfielder reluctant to commit to either country at the moment.
For now, Irish fans will need to continue to monitor the amount of shamrocks tweeted by Grealish to gauge his interest levels.
