No winners in the Rice blame game

Sometimes less really is more.

Nothing summed up Irish frustration and disappointment at Declan Rice’s decision to declare for England more acutely than Mick McCarthy’s first terse response to the news.

Initially relayed through an unadorned FAI press release — before a longer, more considered response emerged later in the day — you could almost hear the words being delivered through gritted teeth: “Declan rang me today and said he has decided to give it a go with England. Good luck to him.”

By contrast, Rice issued a lengthy statement explaining in some detail his reasons for the move, calling it an extremely difficult decision, expressing equal love and respect for his English roots and Irish heritage and insisting that his pride in wearing the green shirt — which he had done at under-age level and three times for the senior team — had been “100% genuine”.

When it came to the crunch, he said it was “a personal decision which I made with my heart and my head based on what I believe is best for my future.”

I, for one, am prepared to take him at his word when he says that, while a self-described “proud Englishman”, his “mixed nationality” made the decision anything but simple and clear-cut, especially with the competing claims and advice of rival managers, agents, friends, family, fellow players, supporters, and pundits ringing in his ears.

In his pursuit of the player, Martin O’Neill had invariably given the impression that Declan’s father Sean wanted him to continue playing for Ireland.

That can only have been a significant and complicating emotional factor in the whole process though, in the player’s statement yesterday, it was noticeable that Rice made the point that, when it came to making the final decision, he had done so with the “full support” of his family.

pic.twitter.com/L6Du9X8wNd

— Declan Rice (@_DeclanRice) February 13, 2019

Which is just as well since there are plenty of others who, while they will never come close to finding themselves in the same position, will be quick to condemn a 20-year-old for a decision whose consequences will shape his personal and professional life for years to come.

The scattershot blame game will doubtless hit a bunch of other targets closer to home too but, short of the dubious strategy of Martin O’Neill fielding Rice against Moldova in a World Cup qualifier back in October 2017 — which, since he didn’t feel he needed him on the night, would have effectively been an act of entrapment — the former Ireland manager seemed to do all in his power to retain the services of the player.

And he repeatedly insisted too, that none of the turbulence in the Irish camp last year had had any bearing whatsoever on the player getting cold feet before the game against Wales which would have secured his international future.

At the very least, O’Neill certainly did enough to keep the door open for his successor Mick McCarthy, who duly wasted no time in bringing Robbie Keane with him to pitch a fresh case to the rising star for staying green.

But we now know that all of it ultimately fell on deaf ears.

Rice has thrown in his lot with Gareth Southgate’s Three Lions and there can be no downplaying the magnitude of that transfer blow for McCarthy’s Euro 2020 plans.

As far back as last March, when he got the first of his three senior caps in a friendly in Turkey, Rice was the silver lining to the gathering cloud in Irish football, as O’Neill’s tenure failed to recover from the World Cup play-off mauling by Denmark.

Since then, the player’s reputation and value have only increased, his consistently starring roles for West Ham in the Premier League making him one of the hottest young prospects in English football.

Little wonder that Mick McCarthy had made no bones about his plans to build a team around the player.

Frustration, disappointment, anger, and dismay — yes, all are pretty understandable when you put the focus on what Ireland will lack without such calm assurance and precocious leadership at the base of the midfield. (And if you really want to deepen your gloom, imagine an Irish team with another one that got away, Jack Grealish, playing in front of Rice).

But, while I share in the disappointment — and all the more so because of the generally limited player options currently available — I don’t feel any uncontrollable urge to join in the abuse of Declan Rice.

Because of the FIFA eligibility rules, he was given the chance to play for a country with which, through his family background, he clearly had an affinity.

But as his footballing horizons have changed — primarily through his own talent and hard work, lest we forget — he has chosen to play for the country of his birth and upbringing.

He was, after all, “born and raised in London” as he reminded us.

Yes, statements he made in the past about his delight in playing for Ireland and his apparent dismissal of any other alternatives are bound to be hauled out and used against him but what else was he expected to say back when he was pulling on the green shirt and we in the press wanted our quota of upbeat nanny-goats?

I do think he is culpable, however, in allowing this process to drag on for longer than was necessary.

“Out of respect for the Republic of Ireland, I felt it was right to announce this decision now and put an end to the speculation,” he said in his statement released on Twitter yesterday, with little over a month to go before Mick McCarthy’s men start their Euro 2020 campaign away to Gibraltar.

The only consolation is that we’re unlikely to miss him in that one.