The International Break

Damn you international break, coming when West Ham are on a bit of a run of form!

How many people actually look forward to it the break? Over the years our players have been continually overlooked by the England manager or if they have been picked there is always the fear of an injury.

I particularly don’t like them. The games are generally one sided or bore fests throughout the qualifiers.

The only thing that makes me watch a game at this stage, is if a West Ham player is involved. I sat down last night and watched Ireland v Switzerland in the hope that Josh Cullen or Ajeti would get some game time. Cullen didn’t and Ajeti got a few minutes at the end.

To be fair, the game itself was actually quite good last night. Ireland grabbed a late equaliser to maintain their position at the top of the group.

Don’t get me wrong, I always enjoy the actual tournaments and would watch every Ireland and even Northern Ireland matches at these stages. Not that they ever progress very far.

I remember a time when a quarter of the Northern Ireland team was West Ham, with Keith Rowland, Michael Hughes and Iain Dowie all representing them.

Ireland too have had their fair share of Hammers during my time. Liam Brady, Chris Hughton, David Connolly, Robbie Keane, Joey O’Brien, Darren Randolph & of course Declan Rice.

I’ll not go into too much detail about my thoughts on Rice and his switch as I don’t want to get my keyboard all wet again from the tears or rekindle the feeling of having my heart ripped out of me!

Joking aside, I really did take this badly. Nothing was giving me greater pride than watching young Declan Rice come up through the underage setup of Ireland and even progressing to the first team all whilst wearing the claret and blue.

I bored people for years talking about how good a prospect he was and how he would captain my country one day. But alas it wasn’t to be. Rice switch allegiance.

Rice will be donning the England shirt tomorrow evening against Bulgaria. I’m pretty sure most of the English West Ham support will have the same pride watching Rice represent their country as I had.

I’m not sure if I will be able to watch it as I have another football match to go to. I just hope he comes through unscathed. We really can’t afford another Dean Ashton situation.

I can’t believe some people are calling him out regarding his comments this week about playing for Man United. It’s a non-story.

Yes, I understand more than most what happened with Ireland, but I believe, in this instance, he has simply made a comment in regard to his confidence in himself and his ambitions.

I’m hoping if things continue the way they are at West Ham, we will be the club that young players will mentioning when trying to show their ambitions. We are, after all, sitting above Man United in the league at the minute.

Hopefully, Declan Rice could be the captain of West Ham at that time and players will aspire to play alongside such a club legend as himself.

You know it makes sense Declan!

COYI!