And England’s Dreaming

Another German goal compounds England errors in 2010

Well, that season never happened. Roy Hodgson picked his England squad on Wednesday based on a selection of names that everybody would find hard to criticise. He took time out to ask Kenny Dalglish for a little background on how to get the best out of Andy Carroll when he really should have called Chris Hughton. Maybe it was a softener for the Liverpool manager, after all Roy was in Kenny’s position of rock and hard place not so long ago.

Unfortunately, Carroll was probably not the greatest surprise from that particular camp. That, of course, would be the inclusion of Stuart Downing who emerged from a successful season on the wing at Anfield with the total of 0 goals and 0 assists. Perfect. England love a 0-0.

Given Scott Parker’s injury, the potential of Jordan Henderson (the one who had a few decent games for Sunderland a while ago) boarding the plane and making John Henry’s impending decision on managerial affairs look less and less credible by the second, may soon be reality.

Daniel Comolli must be walking tall, England internationals cost treble the price. Summer just got a whole lot warmer.

John Terry emerged from the whole thing quite well. Of course we have to acknowledge that night in Barcelona and make sure everybody know that Terry and Gary Cahill held out to get to a Champions League final. The fact that the former did a ‘Joey Barton’ and the latter went off in the opening minutes is detail that just gets in the way.

Terry will have his fingers crossed he is welcomed with open arms by the whole group - his legs would also be better crossed given the amount of times Luis Suarez put the ball through them recently.

Across midfield we can only hope that the Germans don’t realise this is the same Gareth Barry they waltzed around in South Africa. This is the Gareth Barry who has been excellent with Ya Ya Toure all season. A little like Dennis Wise with Didier Deschamps, Phil Babb with Paul McGrath - a nice balance of great player and A.N.other.

There is some light at the end of the tunnel. Since Michael Owen there has not been a player willing to play the international game with an approach that so many of our rivals do. Cue the jumping off armchairs and pints spilled in pubs across the land when that Sergio Ramos takes the much maligned Ashley Young down in the box .... Altogether now.... INTENT!!!

The pace will be a welcome return to the squad. Aaron Lennon obviously not quick enough. Let’s just hope James Milner is not too tired from the Premier League campaign - he didn’t have a winter break you know.

England looks like England. When Jack Wilshire was injured and the pass and move momentum went with him - what did England do? Look to replace the little ball player with another like Mark Davies or Leon Osman - no. Instead they look for a way to get a few battlers in there and hope Gerrard and Frank Lampard can play together just once in the 8 years that have past since the world knew that they could not. And is it any wonder Paul Scholes made the decision back then to say ... y’know what - what a load of bollocks this England lark is.

And then the jounalists ate croissants and mused around a table on TV talking change. THE END.