THERE HAS BEEN much debate about the international future of Jack Grealish of late, with a series of impressive recent performances for Aston Villa intensifying interest as to whether he plays for England or Ireland.
One player who has some idea of how he might be feeling is Bournemouth’s Harry Arter. Like Grealish, the midfielder has represented Ireland at underage level, despite being born in London.
However, unlike the Aston Villa starlet, Arter has already been called up to the senior squad, and may well make his debut in one of the Irish team’s upcoming summer matches, as they prepare to face England, Northern Ireland and Scotland.
Yet while Arter has always been enthusiastic when asked about representing the Boys in Green at senior level, the midfielder says he can also empathise with Grealish’s situation.
“I’m sure it must be quite a difficult situation for Jack,” he tells The42. “He’s got a big decision to make and I’m sure his family and friends will help him make that decision. Whatever he feels is the best thing to do in the end is going to be the best thing.
“If he wants to play for England, then there’s no point in him choosing Ireland just because he feels he has to. He’s got to choose what he feels is right. I don’t know Jack, I haven’t got a clue what he is thinking, but I’m sure he’ll do what he thinks is right.”
Ipswich midfielder Stephen Hunt suggested in a recent Sunday Independent column that Grealish’s current ambiguous stance could create tension and resentment within the squad — as a similar situation involving Stephen Ireland did before him — but Arter says the Irish team would welcome a player of the Aston Villa man’s calibre.
“At such a young age to be playing in the Premier League and performing really well makes him a top talent.
“I haven’t seen a great deal of him, to be honest. I’ve seen snippets on Match of the Day and little things like that, but he seems like a great player, and if he chooses Ireland, he’d be a massive coup for the future.”
In addition, the Bournemouth midfielder acknowledges that the vital upcoming Euro 2016 qualifier with Scotland in June is effectively a must-win clash:
“Most of the games are now,” he says. “For the Poland game, it was important not to get beaten and right at the end, we showed good character.
“The Scotland game will be quite similar. I watched the first game. It was a real tough game and obviously, Scotland came out on top that day, so we’ll be looking to get the three points and I think it probably is the most important game at the moment to make sure we win. So we have to go in there with confidence and aim for three points.”
Not really working out for Neymar at PSG is it?
@An Observer: 10 goals in 11 games isn’t to bad to be fair.
Second rate league, nobody gives a shite about it really if truth be told!@!
@Hotshot Hamish: maybe those 50 million French people and all the TV stations around the world are interested.
@Ciaran Rice: Football is now all about branding and the Premiership for all its failing have it down to a tee.
Granted as you say the French obviously are into it, but not a whole lot more after that.
PSG have spme limelight at the moment but that will possibly fizzle out as the worldwide interest is just not there.
Just an opinion and i stand corrected if its otherwise…
Please tell me that you made up the term Le Classique ! And nobody in France or anywhere else actually refers to it as that.
@Mr Nimziki: yes it absolutely is called Le Classique by many many people. What a moronic comment. Did you just type that comment for the sake of it? Not the brightest are you?
@Mr Nimziki: what person with any interest in football doesn’t know this fixture is called Le Classique?
I suppose if you only read the Sun and watch sky sports news you wouldn’t know anything about football outside the top 4 in England.
@Brian: you are a terrible angry little man . Did I cause you some serious butt hurt in a past life or something. Personally I’ve never heard it been called that before, just seems like they what to build it up to be like the Spanish ties between Barca and Madrid, which it is far from both in interest and in skill.
@Mr Nimziki: this game was huge in the 90′s. You had Waddle, Papin & Voeller on one team against the likes of Weah, Djorkieff & Ginola on the other. Obviously Marseille not as competitive now but didn’t Barca go years without being competitive too – was still called el classico.
@Mr Nimziki: says the angry “little” fella who felt the need to comment and contradict the article without having a clue what he’s on about.
@Brian: go to specsavers little man cause there’s no anger or aggression in my comments
@Brian: is asking a question or being surprised about something now called not having a clue? You have just accused someone of contradicting a headline but you spend your time on here doing that with people’s views with a smart ass approach. I just wonder do you suffer from high blood pressure also as you seem to attack people for little or no reason. You should get it checked it out , it can be dangerous
@thatsnotme: you should get it checked out otherwise your next comment could be your last
@Ardmore02: yes I remember all those players but I have generally never heard of a game in France being referred to as that. You learn something new every day I guess.
Blatant dive from Cavani for free kick to level it