ROSES ARE RED, VIOLETS ARE BLUE, NOW DEC’S MADE HIS BED, I THINK WE SHOULD TOO
Valentine’s eve smacker will leave a mark but real questions must be of ourselves
ONLY a louser would dump his squeeze on Valentine’s Day.
So at least Declan Rice had the presence of mind to do the dastardly deed a day in advance.
It was a decision he allowed to drag on for six long months after all – although one suspects his mind was actually made up in August.
At their pre-christmas meeting, Mick Mccarthy told Rice, 20, that he would build the Irish team around him.
Over the phone yesterday, Rice told the new Ireland boss ‘thanks, but no thanks’.
Rice moves on to something sexier with a touch of the ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ about him, leaving Ireland to pine for the one that got away.
His decision yesterday to side with England is a meaty smack in the chops for Irish football.
It’s a bunch of fives for Ireland’s Euro 2020 hopes when Aviva Stadium throws open its doors for the finals.
But Rice is not the first player to flip his allegiance away from the green shirt and he certainly won’t be the last.
The disappointment lies in the fact that a diamond has slipped through our grasp as Rice is the best we’ve seen in an Irish shirt in a long, long time.
He would have succeeded Seamus Coleman as captain en route to winning 100+ caps but such is life.
Ireland happily exploit eligibility rules when it suits them. The relentless pursuit of ‘granny-rulers’ borders on unhealthy at times.
You can’t have it every which way and while aspects of Rice’s carry on since August grate, there’s little to be gained wasting any more time on it.
Will Ireland fans be similarly outraged when striker Will Keane (below) slaps on an Irish shirt this year? As a top prospect for Manchester United, he only had eyes for England. Now rock bottom of the Championship with Ipswich Town, his career has nose-dived after injury and he has submitted his papers to play for Ireland.
Patrick Bamford (centre) said no to Irish advances in the past. But Mccarthy wants the Leeds United man on board, along with Southampton’s Nathan Redmond (right).
There won’t be a hint of revolt against anyone who maximises the same eligibility rules that London-born Rice availed of yesterday. Ireland cannot afford to turn their back on Irish-eligible players that might add value to the cause.
But nor can England, who have been quietly stepping up efforts behind the scenes to prevent players like Rice slipping through their grasp to countries like ours.
Whether he wins anywhere near the number of caps he would have got with Ireland remains to be seen as Gareth Southgate apparently views him as a centre-back. But he will make a small fortune as an England international and good luck to him.
It’s wrong that a player can make three senior appearances for a country and then have a change of heart, even if the jilted lover is one he has a genuine affection for.
But Rice doesn’t make the rules and footballers are not professional patriots. He’s putting his own interests first.
Much has been made of his badge kissing antics with the U21s and at how emotional he got singing the anthem in Antalya on his senior debut in Turkey almost a year ago.
“It brought a little bit of a tear to my eye singing it and thinking of my nana and grandad. It was a special moment,” he said that night. “I loved every minute of it. I’ve loved being around the team and at the moment I’m fully focused on playing with Ireland.”
But ‘At the moment’ was the interesting phrase. And even more so now as it suggests that even then, on his debut, he wasn’t entirely at ease in his own mind.