Who knows, Jack could well be the next Wes.
Just about every Irish fan, who does not count Aston Villa as a main priority, thought ‘oh crap’ on Sunday, as Jack Grealish cantered around Wembley with all the freedom and grace of a claret and blue spinning top.
The teenage midfielder alerted English supporters to his precocious talent, in Villa’s 2-1 win, and TV camera turned to national team boss Roy Hodgson looking suitably impressed, on more than one occasion.
As it stands, Grealish, who won Ireland Under-21 player of the year back in March, has yet to decide on his international future. He was born in Birmingham in 1995 and can still declare for England should it take his fancy.
Former Ireland international, and RTE pundit, Eamon Dunphy plunged into the Ireland/England debate, on 2FM’s Game On, last night.
Dunphy believes Ireland have not been respectful to Grealish or his family – Roy Keane suggesting Grealish Sr. was turning his son’s head towards England – and that has been ‘ugly to watch’. Dunphy said:
‘Roy Keane made a cutting remark about Grealish’s father a couple of months ago, which is really dumb, and Martin O’Neill talked about the Scotland game being too big for him and didn’t seem too keen on him there on Thursday or Friday [last week],” said Dunphy
‘We’re really making a really stupid mistake. He’s going to be a really top class player; he is now. He’s a very a very good young player and we need him.
‘The fans deserve people responsible for decisions to be making good decisions. He should be in the Ireland squad for the Scotland game and he’s a contender to play. He played really well the other day.
‘If the semi-final of the FA Cup and the relegation matches he’s playing at Villa aren’t too big for him I don’t think the Scotland game will be too big for him. I’m not suggesting he should go straight in the side; we need to get him in the squad.’
Dunphy does not believe he is hyping the 19-year-old too much.
He continued, ‘I just think we need to be looking at all our best young players. And even if they’re not young and they’re not good you need to be respectful of people.
‘It seems to me that’s lacking. And that’s going to edge him towards maybe deciding to play for England.’
Although Dunphy wants Grealish in the senior squad, and believes Ireland missed a trick in not securing him a competitive cap to ward off English interests, once and for all.
‘We need to make sure that he is eligible to play for us. For example we could have played him in the friendly matches. We could have played him against Gibraltar when the result was assured. And he was our player then.
‘We didn’t do any of those things. So, whoever is responsible for that is not behaving very intelligently.’
While we are on the subject of respect, this is the same Eamon Dunphy that once said this about Glenn Whelan: ‘He’s a terrible player. He can’t run, he can’t pass, he can’t tackle. He doesn’t see anything. He was at fault… Bill, excuse me, he drives two Ferraris. I’m entitled… you get paid a lot of money these days. I’m entitled to say what I think.’ Dunphy has since apologised for those remarks.
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