HE IS NOBLE by name. By nature? We don’t yet know. What we do know is that Mark Noble certainly isn’t endearing himself to an Irish population already disconnected with the senior international team.
When they look for heroes, they hope for humility, the kind Paul McGrath had, Tony McCoy personifies and the kind that is seen on every GAA pitch from Donegal to Kerry.
What they don’t want is this: a Premier League footballer, deciding, simply because he has been ignored by England that he’d “think” about playing for Ireland.
This is how Mark Noble, a reasonable but by no means extraordinary player, reacted to Roy Hodgson’s decision to overlook him for the latest England squad.
“With the players retired – Gerrard and Lampard – you think you’re going to get a chance,” said Noble last Sunday. “I’m sure Jack Colback and Fabian Delph [who were called up] thought the same thing, though.
“My nan and grandad are full Irish. But I’ve captained the England under-21s. I’m just going to think about things and haven’t thought much about it [Ireland]. I was disappointed not to be called up for England.
"I’d find it strange to pull on the green jersey because I’ve captained the England under-21s but you never know, football is a strange game, and I’ll make a decision over the next couple of weeks.”
Aren’t we blessed?
In a couple of weeks we will know if Mark Noble suddenly feels Irish. We will know if he no longer considers it strange to pull on the green shirt. Is this what we have descended to, waiting around for a run-of-the-mill Premier League player to opt in or out?
With international football, certain rules have to apply. It isn’t any ordinary team. It isn’t a case of swallowing your pride to get a result. Pride is the essence of representing Ireland.
Pride brought results, compensated for technical limitations, for the years of FAI incompetence, managerial stupidity and bent referees.
Remove this aspect of representing Ireland and you essentially remove the whole point of international football. And Noble, by declaring that he was “disappointed” by Hodgson’s decision and will now “think” about the idea of playing for Ireland is essentially saying: “I’ll play for you lot because I’ve nothing else to do with my free time.”
Is this where we stand right now, as little else other than a fall-back option for other country’s rejects?
Surely we have to set higher standards for ourselves. Surely we can sacrifice results and qualifications to just pick men who care, men like Kevin Kilbane, Tony Grealish, Chris Hughton, Ray Houghton, Gary Breen, second generation Irishmen who didn’t see the green shirt as a second option worth considering but as an honour to wear.
Or perhaps we should think of David Forde. Since Shay Given’s retirement, he seized his chance and performed impressively for Ireland in the last World Cup campaign, realising a dream he had long held.
“I was a young man when I left England, 24, 25. People said I was finished. They said I’d get a year or two in League of Ireland football and would never come back. But I was determined to prove them wrong.
“I knew I could make it, knew I could break into the Irish squad. That was my dream, a dream based on growing up in Galway, out west, a place where you often get ignored as a soccer player.
“I followed the Irish teams. I supported them all the way. I always wanted to play for them but dreamt it would happen rather than expected it to.
“So get the chance at 30 was a dream come true. Then I got greedy. I got one cap. I wanted two. I got two and wanted three.
“I went to the Euros, third choice keeper, and loved it. We lost every game but I loved what I saw, the fans, the world’s best players, the stuff that goes on behind the scenes. It was unreal.
“And then, when Spain beat us 4-0, Ireland’s fans sang The Fields of Athenry, a Galway song, and I thought it was brilliant. I loved representing my country, representing all the people who make Irish football so special. Nothing, outside of family, could mean so much to me.”
Those are David Forde’s words, the words of a man who will lose his place to a 38-year-old coming out of retirement.
He will be unhappy to lose his place but he’ll see the bigger picture. An Ireland shirt is something you rent. You never own it. It is yours to pass onto the next man coming through.
And it is a shirt that the David Fordes and Shay Givens have to scrap for. If Noble wants to enter the fray, he could start by showing the green jersey a little more in the way of respect.
