Ireland legend John Giles is very much in favour of Mark Noble's potential call up by the Boys in Green and disagrees with the views of ex-youth international Liam George.
George was on Off The Ball last night and passionately spelled out his reasons for not wanting Martin O'Neill to pursue the West Ham midfielder.
On tonight's show John told Adrian Barry why he disagrees with George and wants Noble to be called up if the English-born player chooses to declare for Ireland.
"I wouldn't agree with him at all. You have to go on experience of the players who have qualified for us and who weren't born in this country. Chris Hughton, Cascarino, Ray Houghton, Townsend, John Aldridge, all these great players I would say at one stage in their lives would have liked to qualify for Scotland or England. But the reality is that they weren't picked for those particular countries and they qualified for us," said John, who emphasised that those players gave great service to the green shirt.
He also gave the example of former team-mate Shay Brennan who had dreams of playing for England, but served Ireland for 19 caps from 1965 to 1970 and sees Noble as a potential "asset".
Mark Noble of England and John Joe O'Toole of Ireland during an U21 match in 2008 ©INPHO/Donall Farmer
"I can imagine Mark Noble wanting to play for England but now he's realized [that he's not getting a call up]. I wouldn't be too proud to take him because of that. If he can qualify for us and he can do us a service, which I'm sure he would, then the rules are the rules that he can qualify for us."
While the midfielder still resides in the will-he-won't-he category, John turned his attention to our current midfield ahead of the opening Euro 2016 qualifier against Georgia.
He believes that O'Neill should have played a stronger team against Oman to allow the main players to get some game-time ahead of the upcoming qualifier in Tbilisi on Sunday.
But he would like to see Everton midfielder James McCarthy taking on more responsibility in the engine room and dictate games.
"He has the ability but he has to have the responsibility to dictate," said John, who cited Italy's Andrea Pirlo as a player that McCarthy should learn from.
John also spoke about the honour of being granted the Freedom of the City of Dublin and what it means to him.
