Declan Rice

I'd take him in a moment - he looks like a player, a real Ferna replacement - and of course, young, English (now) and is decent on the ball, get him in the summer as far as I am concerned
 
With Rice now being English lol his price tag will now go up to daft money. 50 Million plus if he was to have stayed with Ireland he would only cost 30 million tops.
West ham wouldnt let him go for less than £60 mill , English or Irish.
 
Would be my first pick this summer. The fact that he will now be an English international is the cherry on the cake. He still has a way to go in terms of development, but he would be in the perfect place with Pep managing him and Fernandinho still playing at a high level. I've been very, very impressed with him and think he's a more natural fit in the DM role than Ndombele is (who I still think will be a great option).

I think Rice may be hesitant to move at this point in his career though. Can see him staying at West Ham for another season or two after this and I think that's where we may struggle to get him if we already have another £70m DM in front of him (i.e Ndombele), as we can't mess around and miss out on a target this summer. The draw for him right now is that there's a clear path for him to become a starter with Fern being 34 when the season has begun.

Would love for us to have a good English core in this team. Pick up Chillwell and Rice in the summer and we could have Stones, Chillwell, Walker, Rice, Sterling and Foden lining up for us.
 
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People choosing which country to play for, via grandparents like in Rice's case or residency like what happens in Rugby is frankly just wrong. Changing your mind after you have played is crazy.

I don't know. The nature of these islands is that lots of people are torn as to where their affiliation is. A friend of mine has a Norwegian father, Scottish mother, was born in England and supports Scotland. I can get that. Perfectly possible that Rice is being entirely truthful about feeling emotionally pulled by two nations.

As for the rules, I guess you've got to have the cut off somewhere. Competitive matches doesn't seem so unreasonable to me.
 
I don't know. The nature of these islands is that lots of people are torn as to where their affiliation is. A friend of mine has a Norwegian father, Scottish mother, was born in England and supports Scotland. I can get that. Perfectly possible that Rice is being entirely truthful about feeling emotionally pulled by two nations.

As for the rules, I guess you've got to have the cut off somewhere. Competitive matches doesn't seem so unreasonable to me.
Alternatively how about you play for your country that you were born in? Crazy idea i know but everyone is born somewhere. This business of people choosing their national team in whatever sport seems much more common these days than it was 30 years ago. Final point on Rice, I am not so sure he was so emotionally torn as he thinks. Possible Southgate has been in his ear and said you are good enough to play for England and we got to the world cup semi final. You are less likely to get that chance playing for the republic. A couple of decades back the ROI team were jokingly refereed to as England B. Not all of them but i suspect many players who thought they wernt good enough to be picked in the England side still wanted to play internationals and suddenly found a grand parent. There are loads of them.
 
Alternatively how about you play for your country that you were born in? Crazy idea i know but everyone is born somewhere. This business of people choosing their national team in whatever sport seems much more common these days than it was 30 years ago. Final point on Rice, I am not so sure he was so emotionally torn as he thinks. Possible Southgate has been in his ear and said you are good enough to play for England and we got to the world cup semi final. You are less likely to get that chance playing for the republic. A couple of decades back the ROI team were jokingly refereed to as England B. Not all of them but i suspect many players who thought they wernt good enough to be picked in the England side still wanted to play internationals and suddenly found a grand parent. There are loads of them.
Does it matter that much, I dont know if most people care that much. My son was born in Scotland his parents are both English but neither of us are bothered whether given the chance he would choose to play for England or Scotland. His sister was born in England and supports Scotland at the Rugby.
 

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