Heimir Hallgrimsson will hope for better against Greece as Ireland were no match for England at the Aviva
I know it’s old news now, but what those two lads did to Ireland was not right on so many levels, as pulling on a green jersey is a privilege and they showed us all a massive lack of respect.
I’m in the perfect position to talk about this as I was born in England and could have tried to get into their squad when I was on my way up the football ladder.
Yet when Jack Charlton offered me a chance to play for Ireland, I jumped at the chance as it was always my dream to pull on the green shirt.
Once you get that first Ireland cap and kiss that badge, as Rice did, you can’t turn around and play for England a few months later.
Grealish is a little different as he only played at underage level for Ireland, but I still feel you should not be allowed to switch international teams.
Seeing those two score for England reminded us of what might have been as Ireland could have built their team around them for the last few years and instead, our new manager Heimir Hallgrimsson was given a quick insight into the task he has taken on.
An Ireland team will always give their all, but every one of the England players at the Aviva Stadium yesterday were a few levels above their Irish counterparts, there is no getting away from that.
In fact, their second or third team would probably be too strong for Ireland right now and that’s hard to accept.
This was not a game to judge Hallgrimsson as the bigger challenge will come for him in the World Cup qualifiers next year, but what can any manager do with these players?
He can change his formation and maybe go more direct than we were under Stephen Kenny, but we just don’t have the quality going forward to hurt top international sides.
The gulf in class between Ireland and England was evident from first to last and after those two first half goals for Rice and Grealish, I feared we might get a battering.
It almost felt as if England took their foot off the pedal in the second half as they knew the game was won and to our credit, we had a bit of a go at them.
Caoimhín Kelleher was outstanding in goal for us and I like the look of Chiedozie Ogbene, as he gives us a bit of pace and threat on the wing.
Yet there was always a feeling that England could flick the switch and go to the next level if they needed to.
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It’s also hard to maintain your level of intensity when you know the opposition can’t touch you and it felt like England slipped into that mode after the break.
Anthony Gordon caught the eye for England and always looked a threat on the break and begrudgingly, you have to say Rice was excellent in midfield for them.
This is a team that has got to the final of the last two European Championships so we should not be surprised they are a very good team, with Lee Carsley very lucky to get the job of managing England if it comes his way.
At this point, we should also address the other elephant in the room and that was Carsley standing on the touchline at the Aviva in an England tracksuit.
The big talking point prior to the match evolved around Carsley’s refusal to sing their national anthem, but I come at this from a different perspective.
He didn’t sing the Irish anthem when he played for us, so why would he sing the England anthem now that he is working for them?
The English media have hammered him for not singing God Save The King, but he was showing some respect for his Irish heritage with that decision.
Like me, Carlsey was born in England and was honoured to play for Ireland.
He gave his all for us when he pulled on the green shirt and now he is looking to get into management and this opportunity with England has come his way.
You could say I’m showing double standards moaning about Rice and Grealish swapping from Ireland to England and then saying it’s okay for Carsley to do it as their manager, but there is a difference.
Sven-Goran Eriksson and Fabio Capello managed England in recent years and they didn’t sing their anthem prior to matches.
Also, Jack Charlton was a proud Englishman who won their World Cup with them in 1966 and he didn’t sing any anthems when he managed Ireland.
There is a difference between someone like Rice kissing the badge and telling the nation he is proud to be Irish and someone like Carsley getting a chance to manage at the highest level of international level football and taking on the challenge.
Lee seems like a nice lad and I wish him all the best if he gets the England job, but he might have second thoughts about taking it after all the abuse he got over the anthem nonsense.
Where can Ireland go from here?
Hallgrimsson and his assistant John O’Shea should get more of a chance to see what the players can do in the game against Greece on Tuesday, as they had no chance of competing with England yesterday.
Watching Ireland has been tough in recent years and sadly, I don’t think it’s going to get any easier any time soon.
Yeats was an Anfield legend
IT was horrible to hear the news about the sad passing of Liverpool legend Ron Yeats yesterday.
One of the great privileges of playing for my childhood club was I got a chance to get to know some of the legends who were my heroes when I was growing up.
Ron was one of them and he actually scouted me when I was playing for Oxford and recommended Liverpool should sign me.
I will always be grateful to him for that and there is a funny story around that transfer that Ron was indirectly involved in.
A surprise party was thrown for me when I got my dream move to Liverpool, but it all got a little out of hand and fights broke out, and it felt like World War III was breaking out.
I was taken out of the room to make sure I didn’t get involved, but I was raging that my special day had been ruined and ended up punching a door that had a little square window in it.
When I smashed the window, my hand went into a brick wall and I ended up breaking my hand.
They took me off to the hospital and put a big plaster on it, but I had the press conference the next day to announce my arrival and didn’t want to do it with this big cast on my hand – so I ripped it off and put a light bandage on instead.
Then I turned up at Anfield for the unveiling and the first person I see is Ron, who put his hand out to offer me his congratulations for joining Liverpool.
I didn’t want to do any handshakes due to the pain I was in, but I had to bite my tongue and offer this limp hand to Ron!
We often laughed about it and I was honoured to get to know a great man, a true Liverpool giant.
Rest in peace, Ron Yeats. It was an honour to get to know you.