Ireland legend discusses the current team
Ray Houghton feels Patrick Bamford is being "unwise" in postponing a decision on his international future.
Mick McCarthy has spoken to the in-form Leeds United player about declaring for Ireland. But Bamford has told the Ireland manager that he is concentrating on his club form for now.
"I won't be speaking to Patrick Bamford now, he wants to concentrate on his club career for the moment," said McCarthy at today's squad announcement.
"He's back in the team, he's scoring goals, Leeds are flying, and he doesn't want anything to distract him, so we just left it.
"We just parked it and I'll speak to him in the summer."
"Ireland's his best option"
Houghton joined us on Off The Ball to talk his former teams, Ireland and Liverpool.
"I think Patrick is unwise to do what he's doing at the moment," he said.
"Because he won't be getting an international career anywhere else. Ireland's his best option at the moment."
He added that he can understand why Bamford would want to focus on his club career. But the former midfielder believes McCarthy will want to "act now".
"Mick needs to act now. He needs players to come in who are really on-side and want to do well for the international team. But unfortunately we haven't got that depth of squad where we can rule anyone out."
Fellow Ireland legend John Giles also had his say on Bamford.
Meanwhile, Houghton also praised Liverpool's "excellent" showing in beating Bayern Munich on Wednesday.
"I think Liverpool did a number of them," he said of Bayern.
You can watch the full interview with Houghton on our video player above via our YouTube channel.
