KEVIN KILBANE HAS backed Ireland manager Mick McCarthy in his attempts to build his best team, but still harbours doubts over the country’s pursuit of striker Patrick Bamford.
McCarthy confirmed yesterday that the Leeds striker is intending to pledge his international allegiance to the Boys in Green, qualifying through his maternal grandparents.
However, Kilbane still has reservations about Bamford’s commitment given that he represented Ireland just once, at U18 level, before playing the remainder of his underage internationals with England.
“He’s available and Mick is quite right that when he says that he’s got a duty to put the best team available to him on the pitch, the best 11, the best 23,” Kilbane said today, speaking at Virgin Media’s launch of their Spectacular Week of Sport.
“Patrick Bamford does qualify for us, [but] his first choice was always England.
“He’s got to a stage where he’s not going to play for England and he’s been deemed not good enough, but who’s to say that if he’s 28 or 29 and scoring goals at a top-level that that wouldn’t be available to him?
Personally, I’d want to back myself to play for the country that I want to play for.”
Ipswich Town forward, Will Keane’s name has also entered the fray regarding a possible declaration for McCarthy’s men. But, in his case, Kilbane reckons Ireland are merely his “fallback” option.
His twin, Everton defender Michael, previous represented Ireland at U17 and U19 level, before going on to forge an U21 and senior career with the English.
“We’re always going to have names being thrown around, players that can play for us thrown to Mick. The amount of names that I’ve been told who can qualify for us, even when I was playing myself, there’s lads being put to you.
Look at Will Keane now, Will Keane all of sudden gets to the stage where he’s not going to progress to the English set-up and ‘that’s [Ireland] my fallback plan’.
“I don’t want to be the fallback plan. All of a sudden, we are the second option.”
Contrastingly, Kilbane has supported the inclusion of Pádraig Amond — the Newport County attacker who rose to prominence with his performances in this season’s FA Cup — for the first time.
“I’ve seen him on Instagram and Twitter, and I think you can tell that [his reaction] it’s not just fluff or rubbish that he wants to put out there,” Kilbane added.
“I’ve spoken to him and have a small kind of relationship with him, and I know what it means to him to play for us. That overriding joy for my first call-up to the U21s, it’s the little things that stick in your mind; that’s the ultimate joy that you can never replace.
“I’m not saying that Patrick Bamford won’t get that buzz or give his all if he comes in. If Patrick Bamford goes on to score 20 or 25 goals playing in an Irish shirt, of course, [I’m] 100% on board with him, 100% supportive of him.
“But, I’d slightly be leaning towards preferring Pádraig Amond playing. That’s my own personal preference.”
Kilbane was speaking at Virgin Media’s ‘Spectacular Week of Sport’ launch today — more than 40 hours of the biggest sporting events of the season, with exclusive coverage of Ireland v France in the Guinness Six Nations, all four days of the Cheltenham Festival, Man City v Schalke and Liverpool v Bayern Munich in the Uefa Champions League and Uefa Europa League ties featuring Arsenal and Chelsea
Andy Dunne joins Murray Kinsella and Ryan Bailey to discuss Joe Schmidt’s undroppables and how France might attack Ireland’s predictability in The42 Rugby Weekly.
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I could get over them having wanted to play for England if they were going in fully committed, but the way Bamford seems to be yanking McCarthy’s chain has me seriously questioning him. In or out ffs. We’ve always been technically weaker than other teams but team spirit and commitment has generally been what’s bridged that gap. It can’t be under-valued or taken for granted. If he’s this non-committal, odds are he’s not going to give 100% when he comes in. That’s not to say being born and raised in Ireland is any guarantee of this. Just compare Jon Walters and Stephen Ireland. Bamford really not endearing himself though by ignoring Mick’s calls and the like.
@ScewMadd: totally agree! Whether you like Bamford for not he does have links to Ireland but the “I’ll consider my options” stuff is getting really old.
@ScewMadd: he’s had serious injuries. If Leeds lost him now then it would be disastrous for their promotion bid. Bamford stalling for the moment makes perfect sense. Leeds fans would never forgive him if an injury for Ireland against Gibraltar cost them the promotion they crave
@Stanley Baggins: completely agree I don’t want him near that Ireland squad until the season is over for Leeds.
I agree with Kevin Kilbane that Patrick Bamford’s first choice was England, but Ireland aren’t in a position to be picky right now. He’d be a very good addition to the Ireland squad at the moment.
@James Clancy: Spot on,yesterday’s squad announcement showed the squad needs to be supplemented with quality.
@James Clancy: not buying it, your either Irish or English, not just Irish when your not good enough for England
@emmetnichol: reality is vast majority of players would pick England over Ireland if they’ve been born and raised there. Its a more natural choice and u have your agent in your ear telling you how many more zeros on your career earnings it’ll make. Kilbane is the exception. He was immersed in Irish culture since birth.
Clinton could have played for the mighty Jamacia but he decided on us..legend
Granny rule players used to declare for Ireland because it put them in the shop window. If they nutmegged Baggio in a game then that often resulted in a move to Liverpool or Everton a few weeks later.
Today players even in the championship are on such nice money that they don’t need International football anymore to retire wealthy…. So when a great player wants to play International football for us where we pay nothing to them in return, even if they only decided at 25 years old to join, then we should still welcome them with open arms.
Sweet god… do we ever learn. Laughing stock..
You can only laugh at the very small minority who knock granny rule players when we’ve just named a squad containing the likes of Glen Whelan and Padraig Amond. No disrespect to those two at all who are wonderful professionals but they’re hardly Aldridge, Townsend, Houghton etc
Another Clinton Morrison, albeit a lot more talented
@Seán Ó’Sionúir: The Clint did very well for us.
@Seán Ó’Sionúir: you should watch the sky YouTube interview of Clinton on playing for Ireland. He’s was 100% committed to the irish setup from the outset, unlike wasters Bamford, Rice, Grealish, Noble, Nolan etc
@Facundo: you should leave Noble out of that list, he was approached and did the honourable thing and said he felt English so he wouldn’t declare for us.
Absolutely nothing wrong with that.
@Panch Murphy: Yeah and he also went out of his way to have a whisper in rice’s ear about declaring for England, along with rats John Terry, gold and sullivan, swaying his decision. Beautiful human beings, all 4 of them
Quality will improve by picking Irish players over English players starting at under age level