Rice decision reflects our lowly ranking
Ireland can’t turn its back on diaspora until we invest properly in developing our native talent
CONVINCING alternatives to the circumstances that turned Declan Rice into a target for many of this country’s most foolish citizens, are not obvious. What else could have been done to keep him in green? That question resists the easy solutions offered by those who say Rice was indulged and should never have been allowed to drag out making a decision on his future as an international.
Were Martin O’Neill and Mick McCarthy wrong to try and convince a player with the potential to become one of the best midfielders in Europe?
To answer yes is to assume national identity is an uncomplicated choice settled by passion, to insist that hesitation on Rice’s part was nothing more than disrespect. This case indicates otherwise. There were undoubtedly some pragmatic factors that directed him towards England, the country of his birth, but then players born in the North currently represent Ireland after years spent in another country’s underage system.
Sport is a hard and calculating business. Rice is gifted. He looks the player best suited to replacing the imperious Fernandinho as the deep-set midfielder in the Manchester City team. His career will pass in a rush of big matches, and by deciding to play for England, he is guaranteeing himself high-calibre games as an international, too, because England will qualify for major tournaments.
Ireland, mostly, will not. Had Rice remained an Irish player, his international duty would have been a series of futile mercy missions, the sporting equivalent of those celebrities who used to get photographed cleaning the oil off stricken seagulls following a maritime disaster.
He would have brought glamour to unending futility. His decision, however, will not trigger a drastic change in Ireland’s relationship with its diaspora, and nor should it. There are not enough good players available to an Irish manager to allow him prioritise natives, or those deemed sufficiently ‘committed’.
McCarthy will need English-born soccer players to fortify his team, as will Stephen Kenny and the managers that succeed him as well.
Reducing Ireland’s exposure to situations such as the one that has just come to an exhaustive conclusion would be ideal – but it is utterly unrealistic. And that gets to the unavoidable truth of the Rice affair, and of Ireland’s need to course players eligible for more than one country.
It is a hazardous, unreliable way of sourcing talent, but there is no plausible alternative yet, and no sign of one emerging, either.
Niall Quinn has been ridiculed for his plans to reboot the production of players within the Irish system.
Some of them seem dubious, others daft; tax breaks and the suggestion of passports in return for investment make for uncomfortable echoes of chaotic days in this country’s past. He has been criticised by some League of Ireland fans because he is not a regular attendee at games. If a devotion to the domestic product is necessary for input into this debate, then it will be an intimate gathering indeed.
Quinn is at least identifying a problem, and his long interview with Marian Finucane at the end of last year contained some insights.
One was his account of a conversation with Brian Marwood, a former Arsenal team-mate and now an executive at Manchester City. According to Quinn, Marwood told him that ‘We just don’t trust the Irish system anymore’.
English clubs with the wealth to identify and pursue talents all over the world do not need Irish players as they once did, because they can sign players from a more technically sophisticated culture as easily.
Developing the best young talent within this country, before they try for a career in England’s big leagues when sufficiently coached and educated, is a dream shared by Quinn and others.
It makes sense, but enormous amounts of money would be required to realise that ambition.
Attracting the necessary investment is Quinn’s plan, and he should be credited for at least trying to summon answers to the plaintive cries for change.
The dismal truth is that nothing will change quickly. Quinn’s plans are grand but unconvincing, let alone palatable to the FAI.
And soccer in Ireland as currently constituted does not have the resources or the support to provide an adequate supply line to the national team. That is why players like Declan Rice must continue to be identified and encouraged to represent this country.
He is an exceptional talent, and soccer players less gifted than him will have to be flattered and cajoled to represent the land of their forebears, too.
It is a humbling fact. This is now our place in the world.