Tonight is the night where England, The Three Lions re-enact one of Football’s old and great rivalries as they take on Germany in an international friendly at Wembley.
Usually playing for England entails two things.
1) Your the best in your position for your particular nationality
2) Sometimes in addition to the above (sometimes not) you are in the best form than any other national in your respective position.
Secondly, the word ‘International Friendly’ entails one thing, which is its an oppurtunity to give debuts to potential international regulars of the future, to be progressive, to see how they stand up to the pressures and diffuculties that come with playing in a game for your country.
Personally I think the under pressure Steve Mclaren has stuck two fingers up to all the above. I think in the position he finds himself in it would have done him the world of good to freshen things up and find ‘fresh meat’, new, young talent eager to impress.
The first name that springs to everybodies mind, and not just Evertonians, is Joleon Lescott. Now unless you’ve been up in space and are employed by NASA in their space station you’d have to be blind not to have noticed his excellent form over the past year. Now I don’t know where Mclaren has been, but its definetly not been the NASA space station, so I can only conclude that he has been in an Ivory tower perhaps?
The trouble is with England call ups is the tendency to only take players seriously who play for the big four – even dare I say the ones up north, and the only other way you can arguably get into the England squad if you don’t play for one of the big four is playing in London. No less than 12 players in the current England squad play for London teams.
I just genuinely cannot fathom or understand the logic of Steve Mclaren, in picking an admittedly in form but aging Sol Campbell, who he already knows a whole lot about, instead of an outstanding, in form prospect like Joleon Lescott who is bursting for international football. The man is a leader, reliable, will get you out of trouble, composed and as he did recently scores a far few goals for a central defender, and with so many players injured, what better a time to give him a chance to showcase how well he can cope with England duty.
I will join Joleon tonight in feeling sick to my stomach whilst watching my tv set as England take on Germany, that Steve Mclaren has wasted an oppurtunity to see justh how good a player Joleon Lescott is, instead of that, at everywhere except Everton, he remains wholey unapreciated.
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