We now live in world where instant comments get instantly recycled and attract instant criticism. Take England's very own little Jack Wilshere and the mini-media storm he created with his - "only English people should play for England" and "living here for five years doesn't make you English" remarks.
Of course, Little Jack got a whole bunch of Little Englander criticism, the oh-so self righteous Mr Kevin Pietersen leading the way. That in turn caused others to spring to his support but if he's not careful, he could also find himself being used as a potential poster boy for some of the unpleasant elements of national pride.
The truth here, is that to expect a 21-year footballer to speak rationally, coherently and intelligently off-the-cuff to a journalist on a topic that is highly emotive and complex - and is fraught with problems for even an experienced politician - is simply asking too much. He should not be put in the position and the FA should have seen this one coming.
Manager Roy Hodgson was on Match on the Day the proceeding Saturday and was gently asked about the same issue after the starring performance of Man Utd's talented young Albanian born, Belgian-raised, potentially England qualified Adnan Januzaj. Roy's response was measured - ruling nothing in and nothing out. Roy's answer was something along the lines of - "we'd have to look at it if the situation were to arise, but it would be a big decision to go down the residency route and we'd need to consider that carefully before doing it".
Roy didn't get many headlines, other than to say he did not rule out selecting young Adnan; but Roy wasn't looking for headlines - he was looking for a way out, and found it. Little Jack wasn't after headlines either, but he got them and it was all so predictable.
Maybe the FA did give Jack some advice on how to answer what was an obvious question, but it didn't seem like it and three or four days later the management were still trying to deal with the fall-out from an honest but ill-thought through response to something that was easy to see coming and relatively easy to deflect.
In the run-up to a couple of absolutely vital World Cup fixtures; I would have thought that the FA could have done without the distraction. I'm sure Jack Wilshere could have done without the attention - and the FA's PR team should have ensured that was the case.
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