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Republic of Ireland Golden Generation

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Ireland when they have to rely on Irish players and not people from Dudley.


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Neiler said:
Culturally we are seeing a shift, we are seeing the vanguard of our eastern European and African communities come to the fore and this will contrive and continue to grow and become more diverse.
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A great point, look at where Irish athletics is going at the moment from a traditionally low base, the odd remarkableindividual aside, football is probably 5 or 6 years behind in terms of what the impact could be.
 
Neiler said:
Need to take the last few and next few qualifiers on the chin. It has and needed to start at ground zero. Many wont know about the history of the FAI and how resources were used, it essentially was burned to the ground 3 years ago and its only in that short time resources have been used properly. We wont see the benefit of that for a decade to come in my opinion.

That said we are still producing lads like Ferguson, Grealish and Rice. lol Its gone full circle now England's top players like to the afore mentioned and Kane and Bellignham are essentially Paddies for the want of errand boat ride. Prior to that we were taking who they didnt want.

Culturally we are seeing a shift, we are seeing the vanguard of our eastern European and African communities come to the fore and this will contrive and continue to grow and become more diverse.

Ultimately though international football is a bit of fix in my opinion. Its hardly like for like and a level playing field. I think of it like leagues, we are country of five million people, France have close to 70 mill, i mean they should be stuffing us and shouldn't really be in the group in all honesty. We are in a league with the likes of Scotland, Wales, Norway, Croatia population wise granted we are awful, but France Gernamay, Italy, Spain and England - should be judged on their competitive success against each other given their populations - we arent in that sphere - its not judging like for like. Uefa anf FIfa are corrupt in my opinion, they give those countries fairly easy routes to make finals, so the big population markets get to the finals - so they can sell Big Macs, Carlsberg advertising to the biggest markets. Its not really about competitive sport any more - its more about advertising. If i was about growing football, they seed the groups based on populations and equality of resources - each country playing like for like.

To be honest historically we do pretty well with what we produce, our population and the fact that Football wouldn't be the national sport here like it would say in the likes of the UK - considering that, no way we should we be doing what we did in the likes of 88, 90 and 94 - against teams with 20 times our population. Pound for pound we punch harder then some who should be winning major titles - who never do. We are at a transitional low base at the mo, but for countries like us its cyclical given the population.

Same with Rugby to really, unreal we are the top ranked side in the world - what is it the fourth most popular sport here.
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Grealish and Rice by the English academy system TBF mate.
 

Neiler said:
Came up through our international age groups though with us mate.

Jack actually was a handy Gaelic footballer, (even for a Meath man).

Bellingham has an Irish passport.

This is him shortly before he signed for Madrid:

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Rice also played represetative GAA for London (I think) might have been another county at schools level. There is a picture of him in a team line up playimg at Croker
 
dublinbluenose said:
Rice also played represetative GAA for London (I think) might have been another county at schools level. There is a picture of him in a team line up playimg at Croker
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Really, never knew that mate - sad the way its turned out for the two lads, you couldn't help but have sympathy for them. lol

Callum Wilson and Harry Maguire could also play, but wouldn't be as Irish as say Kane, his family are still in Athenry.
 
To be fair international football is a bit of a fix. How can nations like Ireland, Denmark, Uruguay and Croatia be expected to compete with teams with populations like China, Russia, India, DR Congo, the USA and Canada? The game is clearly rigged in favour of these teams.
 

Billy Dean said:
I think for those dual players, if they're born and raised in England, it's a tall order for them to turn the call of England down.
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Think its more about commercialism mate, England's a big market and its better for their profile in terms of marketability, commercial opportunities, endorsements, profile and career progression , their agents convince them.

I doubt Rice or Grealish would have went for £100 mill + if they continued to play for Ireland. Say Ferguson if he was English would go for more then if he was Irish when he does go - probably on the basis of him going on and playing in World Cups and Euros etc - he may never with Ireland. Thats real money in pockets.

That said im not wholly convinced that the likes of Rice and Grealish, that their hearts are really in England, i dont mean that as a slight on England, but its a good opportunity for their careers as opposed to them being like die hard Terry Butcher blood on the shirt types. How that translates to success on the field for England is interesting. There are a good few duel nationality/citizenship lads.

You could say the same for the English lads who play for Ireland really - i sometimes question the Englash lads for Ireland thing and level of commitment.

The romance goes out of it a bit - International football has lost its sheen for me in the last decade or so - its just unequitable and i think FIfa and Uefa are corrupt and its full of nuances like Rice and Grealish.
 
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