Without pushing him, it sounds like Shay Given is trying to gently coerce Jack Grealish to select Ireland when the Aston Villa winger finally decides on his international future.
Much has been made over Grealish’s indecision over whether to represent England or Ireland and, after his stellar performance against Liverpool yesterday, the discussion has reached fever pitch.
Aston Villa teammate Shay Given believes that yesterday was Grealhish’s best game in a Villa shirt.
Speaking to Off The Ball, he said: “He’s started the last three games for us now and yesterday was such a big occasion. Jack’s only 19, of course, and maybe other managers might have thought it was too big a game for Jack and we’ll put him on the bench and give him the last ten or fifteen minutes. But the gaffer sees a great talent in Jack Grealish, as we all do.
“He was one of our best players yesterday and I said to Jack before the game ‘Forget about where we’re playing. Forget about everything. Forget about the occasion and just go and play how you do every day in training and forget about everything around you. Just enjoy how good you are at playing football and everything else will take care of itself.’
“Words are cheap and you have to go out and do it on the pitch. Jack yesterday proved to a lot of people how good a player he is and he’s only going to keep improving I think.”
In terms of his international future, Given is hopeful that Grealish will be performing in a green jersey in the coming years.
“We’d love him to come [to Ireland],” he said. “The good thing is, a few weeks back, that he was obviously over in Ireland to collect the U21 award, the young player of the year award, and I know his dad, mum and girlfriend were over and I think his gran was up from Kerry.
“I think the welcome and the interview he did afterwards was pretty positive.
“But the flip side of the coin is that he started our last three games and with such a big, high-profile game yesterday, the English FA will obviously be thinking ‘my God, we need to get this guy onto our books.’
“So it’s going to be a difficult decision. He’s played underage with Ireland and he’s enjoyed it. He said to me that he loved playing with Ireland and he’s loved coming across. He’s at a bit of a crossroads now, as we all know, and it’s hard for him to make that decision. He does have a strong connection with Ireland but, of course, he was born in England so he has that connection as well so it’s a tricky one.
“I’m in his ear all the time, not even trying to persuade him. I just think he’s probably a little bit confused because he is a very young man. It is such a big decision for his whole career, his whole life ahead of him, and to make it at such a young age.
“We are coaxing him along and hopefully he does come and play for us because he’d be a real star player for us.”
Speaking to the UK media today, Grealish’s father failed to give a concrete answer about which nation the winger will declare for but Given doesn’t think that he was ducking the question.
“To be honest, I think they’re just undecided,” Given said.
“Fans, players, Irish people in general all probably wanted to know yesterday so I really think that, deep down, he doesn’t actually know yet himself. This is a big decision and one of the biggest decisions he’ll make in his whole career.
“He’s so young but he could probably be in our squad now, the Irish senior squad, but maybe he wouldn’t be in the English squad.
“But in a couple of years he could be a regular in the English squad. You just don’t know.”
“All these emotions, thoughts and pluses/minuses going on in his head. It is a tough decision and we’ll not force him by backing him into a corner. I just hope he comes to that decision for everyone concerned, the sooner the better.”
“Martin O’Neill is a hugely experienced manager and he’s got players in that position already. Maybe it is too soon, too big of an ask, not for the England game obviously because that’s a friendly but the stakes are so high when we play Scotland.”
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