Martin O'Neill expects Jack Grealish to make clear his international intentions within a matter of weeks after having met with the player, his father, Kevin, and agent, Dave Manasseh, 10 days ago in order to make the case for the highly rated teenager to choose Ireland.

And if the player makes his call over the next couple of weeks and declares for Ireland then, O'Neill suggested as he named a preliminary squad of 37 for the forthcoming European championship qualifiers against Gibraltar and Georgia, he would, it seems, immediately add him to the group.

“I don’t see why not,” he said. “He’s got the talent, absolutely, to do it, and as you’ve seen we need somewhere along the way, a few extra players to be able to create something for us.

The manager described the meeting with the three men as “fruitful,” but said when pressed on the term: “Don’t get carried away with fruitful. I thought the meeting went well. I might come out of this in 10 minutes and find out he’s gone with England but I wouldn’t feel any worse about it.

Opportunity

“But I thought it was good. I think with his father, Jack and his agent there, it was an opportunity for me to really put our own particular viewpoint over and just add a drop of realism to it all ... He’s a talented lad, as we all know, and, with a bit of luck, he would play more often for us that he would for England. But who knows? I’m sure that they would love to know what

Roy Hodgson

must think of it all and over the course of time they may do but I could only put our case again and not just for now but maybe for the next 10 years.

‘Lingering’

“I think that, reading between the lines,” he continued, “both Jack and his father don’t want it lingering that much longer. It’s the start of a new season and he picked up a bit of an injury in the hamstring; then he might have come back a bit too quickly and hurt the other one but he’s back playing now, the other day at under-21 level [where he scored against Derby County].

“I think where it’s moved on from some months ago or maybe this time last year is that where he was trying to break into the Aston Villa side, I think that he feels that he’s made some sort of an impression there and that sort of hurdle has been overcome so I think it’s [now about] the next step.”

Grealish has indeed said that he wanted to take a break from international football in order to establish himself in the Villa side, something that was quickly achieved under new manager Tim Sherwood.

At the FAI’s international awards in March he said that he would play for the Irish Under-21s again in September, a commitment that appears to have been overtaken by events, but a final decision in his senior international future over the coming weeks would be in line with the spirit of that undertaking.

Having to court a young player like Grealish is clearly not ideal from the manager’s point of view but his enthusiasm for the Aston Villa midfielder and what he has the potential to contribute to the Irish team over the next decade or more is plain to see when O’Neill speaks about him.

Stephen Ireland’s availability, it is equally obvious, is not seen as any sort of priority really with O’Neill repeatedly describing the Corkman’s club career as “fitful” yesterday and implying that while he may or may not be worthy of a place in the international squad, he is not the sort to have done anything recently to suggest he would actually improve the team.

‘Brutal truth’

“The brutal truth is that Stephen Ireland is not the Stephen Ireland that played brilliantly for Manchester City quite some years ago,” he said. “I went to the Stoke City game and he didn’t start that game, Stoke and

Liverpool

at the start of the season. He’s come on (against Spurs) and made an impression. You can keep going on forever.” Asked if Ireland had failed to make the most of his talent over the last few years, O’Neill said that: “I think you’d have to ask him that.” But, he added “It’s been fitful.”

He went on to admit more than once that the squad could do with all the addition of new talent but said that the search for players had essentially been put to one side until the qualifying campaign is concluded.

“I think so yeah,” he said. “These games now, we’ll have to essentially focus on the squad that we have. All of these names, even some of the younger lads that I’ve brought in are all pretty well familiar to you. But believe me, if I thought there was somebody there that I thought could come up and change the course of affairs, then I’d do everything to try and make it happen.”