England Football Team: The forgettable generation
Looking at Roy Hodgson’s squad for the underwhelming friendly against Norway tomorrow (3rd September), a few things come to mind. Firstly Roy has given call-ups to uncapped players Jack Colback, Callum Chambers, Danny Rose and Fabian Delph, showing that he clearly wants a fresh start after the dismal showing at the World Cup.
Former Southampton man Calum Chambers has impressed in his first few games for Arsenal, and has earned a place in Roy Hodgson’s squad
Secondly, Wayne Rooney seems to have been given the England captaincy because he is the last remaining golden child. Whether the Manchester United number 10 has the temperament and motivation techniques to be a captain remains to be seen.
The third question that needs to be asked is where have the ‘up and coming’ players, behind the so called golden generation, gone?
After Rooney, the most experienced England players still in contention to make the squad are Glen Johnson (54 caps), James Milner (48 caps) and Joe Hart (43 caps). Phil Jagielka, Gary Cahill, Leighton Baines and Danny Welbeck all have over 20 caps.
Rio Ferdinand (81 caps) and John Terry (78 caps) are still playing but have ruled themselves out of international contention. Terry may have been an option for England last season but age and reason means we can rule out an England comeback.
Many believe that John Terry could still be an important player for England
If you look at the most capped list and filter out those footballers still playing, it is a wasteland of unfulfilled ‘potential.’
Joe Cole, Jermain Defoe and Gareth Barry all have 50 plus international caps but have languished on their team’s benches before moving onto newer, less successful clubs. Along with Defoe, Peter Crouch (42 caps) was relatively successful for England but domestically both have struggled to find a club that could make best use of their skills. Owen Hargreaves (42 caps) was ravaged by injury and lost to the BT Sport couch.
When you look at the ‘30 Cap Club’, it’s awash with injuries and, to put it bluntly, average players. The likes of Shaun Wright-Phillips, Wayne Bridge, Stewart Downing, Michael Carrick and Ashley Young have all represented England with varying degrees of success. Theo Walcott looks to be the only player likely to continue as an England player should he fully recover from his cruciate ligament injury. The only player with 20 plus caps who is still playing and not in the squad is Joleon Lescott.
Theo Walcott’s return to full fitness has been eagerly anticipated by Arsenal and England fans alike
The pattern of this forgettable generation is this: they were all highly rated, bought for high prices, they failed to live up to the price tag and ended up warming the bench for ‘better’ foreign signings and finally moved on for a huge loss to a mid-table Premier League team (or Manchester United).
With an expected attendance of 35,000 at Wembley tomorrow and a squad full of under 25’s, this fixture feels more like a development team game. Let’s hope these younger players don’t follow the same pattern as the 25-30 year old English players who went missing in action on the field and will fall out of the consciousness of many football fans in the future.
Will England win tomorrow against Norway at Wembley? Are players like Calum Chambers, Fabian Delph and Jack Colback set to be future England stars?
Read more from Laura Jones here!
The Offside Rule 
Leave a comment