Giles: I’d take Rice back
JOHN GILES would welcome back Declan Rice into the Republic of Ireland fold and put him straight into the team for the Nations League games next month. The former Ireland player-manager understands the predicament Rice finds himself in but believes the West Ham teenager should be given time to make up his mind. ‘I would take him back tomorrow,’ insisted Giles. ‘The young lad is only 19. He’s entitled to do what he is doing. He has got to do what it best for his future. Of course, we are not happy when he is turning us down. But, if you had a son in his position, you would have to take everything into consideration. ‘I don’t blame him for doing that. I hope, like everybody else, that he comes and plays for us because he’s a terrific player.’ Meanwhile, Giles reckons manager Martin O’Neill doens’t have ‘very much credit in the bank’ after successive heavy competitive defeats. ‘It can go quickly but it can change quickly,’ said Giles. ‘I’m not going to say that the end game is upon us... the results can also go well and that changes things. ‘You are better to be in a position where you can afford to lose a few games.’ Asked if he felt Roy Keane overstepped the mark with Harry Arter in the summer, Giles said, ‘I think it would be only common sense to say that, of course, he did.’ ‘If Arter has said that he does not want to be picked because of the clash that he had worth Roy Keane, well that cannot be good.’