Ireland are the predators here...Rice is no turncoat

THE word ‘transfer’ appears twice in Declan Rice’s diplomatically worded statement regarding his switch of international allegiance.

No money has changed hands, but that is how it feels. Like a club deal, as if a promising young player has enhanced his career prospects with a move. Rice will no doubt do that one day when he leaves West Ham, too. But international football is supposed to be different.

Rice will walk into Gareth southgate’s England squad, and quite possibly his team. He is the player southgate has been missing, the central defensive midfielder with world- class potential.

Given the evidence of his first Premier League season, he could be better there than Jordan Henderson or Eric Dier. He breaks up play, reads the game intelligently, passes well — 86 per cent accuracy for West Ham this season — if not with huge ambition as yet. He has excelled this season against the elite teams. He could be the missing link.

The terseness of Mick McCarthy’s statement suggests the Republic of Ireland manager feels let down, but whose fault is that? Ireland have been gaming the system for many years now but are beginning to experience the backlash.

Rice is just the latest of their young English-born recruits to desert after Jack Grealish and Michael Keane. The department set up to tempt teenagers with Irish heritage are talent catchers, not talent keepers.

Ireland have been used much like an academy, to give these players international experience before their heads are turned by a better offer.

Rice performed somersaults to avoid offending the nation of his grandparents but this drama wasn’t his fault. If Ireland insist on making teenagers choose nationalities before they have picked their GCsE subjects, what do they expect?

Footballers’ grannies were once used to give opportunity to those who were stuck in a dead end. It was perfectly obvious that Maidstoneborn Andy Townsend wasn’t going to be picked by England when he elected to become Irish at 25. It was the only way he could play international football. That wasn’t necessarily true of Rice.

Townsend suffered an absence of choice until Ireland came along, Rice was simply offered more choices. It is the difference between opportunity and opportunism.

Mark O’Toole is the Football Association of Ireland’s most successful English-based scout with a specific remit to monitor those with dual nationality. He gets in early, he maintains contact outside international duty, he is very good at his job.

Rice has been involved with Ireland since the Under 16 age group and in 2017 felt committed enough to refer to O’Toole as a ‘father figure’.

so, what happened? success happened. Rice has been outstanding in his first Premier League season and intelligent voices have been predicting an elite future. With international rules so fluid and open to exploi- tation, young players can now not only move to a bigger club, but a bigger country.

Rice is English, as are his parents. He may have Gaelic allegiances culturally but if Ireland use nationality as a convenience, it can hardly be surprising when players do, too.

There will be some in McCarthy’s squad who are wedded to green but Rice will not feel that way.

HIs international career has been the product of opportunism, so why would he not think opportunistically, too? Those still smarting at his decision compare Rice to Grealish and Keane: one still waiting for an international debut, the other with just five full England caps. They are different entirely. Grealish is still an Under 21 player, Keane has never been a leading centre back in England — and neither were ever among the outstanding performers in a season.

Rice is a level up again. He is almost certainly West Ham’s Player of the Year and a contender for the PFA Young Player, too. He operates in a position in which southgate is short. The career path is right there for him. And, even if it wasn’t, he is English.

It is Ireland that were the predators here, not Rice the turncoat.