For English Football, The Future Is Now

On the eve of England’s match with the best football team in the world, Spain, David Drewery takes a look at the future of the England team, with some – possibly drastic – proposals.

For all of my England watching life I have never felt any sense of ‘future’ about the team or any sense of a plan emanating from the FA. Instead they have been characterised by immediacy, “the next game is the important one”, and futile attempts to sate the media, a small section of baying fans and the true powers of English football, the elite clubs.

For English Football, The Future Is Now

How many of these English players would play a role in a youthful squad?

What has this reactionary model wrought? No success, no development and campaign after campaign of bickering and underachievement. I’m not talking about England’s failure to win a trophy; I don’t expect that from them. Instead I am referring to England’s failure to achieve their potential.

To replicate a semblance of their club form for the national team, to build a cohesive team instead of a collection of individuals, and the ability to see beyond the end of their noses when it comes to team selection.

When it comes to the England camp the press is often full of tales of woe and damning reports of failure, but at the same time they seem fixated on the importance of ‘international experience’ and the importance of the long serving players.

What good is international experience if that experience is of underachievement and infighting? John Terry, for example, has been part of four dreadful campaigns for the national team, what are they hoping for; fifth time’s the charm?

This is not to diminish the service that some of these players have given to the team but there must surely come a time when the FA, and crucially the manager, needs to be proactive. They need to look beyond the current campaign and try to build for a brighter future and once again they have a great opportunity to do that now.

It’s important to recognise that England is not the Premier League. The standing enjoyed by the league as one of the world’s best is not shared in international football, nor has it been earned. Realistically England has no chance of winning the European Championships unless they, with all due respect to the Hellenic world, “do a Greece” (older readers can insert “Denmark” if they like).

They do, however, have a chance to come home with some pride, with a sense of hope and a sense of moving forward rather than the usual stagnation. It all begins with the squad selection.

After the débâcle in South Africa I had high hopes that the England hierarchy might finally see the light in terms of formation, tactics and selection. In fairness to him the recent qualifying campaign has seen Capello dipping his toe into 21st Century football, but it all still feels so familiar.

It’s (long since) time to stop testing the water and just get wet. Whether they would sink or swim remains to be seen but my team for Euro 2012 would be as follows:
Hart, Amos, Smithies, Richards, Walker, Cahill, Jagielka, Jones, Smalling, Cole, Gibbs, Parker, Wilshere, Rodwell, Gerrard, Milner, Young, A. Johnson, Walcott, Rooney, Bent, Welbeck, Sturridge.

All of these players are young enough to stand a chance of playing a role in the next World Cup both in qualifying and in the tournament itself, with no one being older than 31. In fact the average age of this squad today is only 23.9. That should not count against them as, contrary to popular reporting, age is not a synonym for football experience and with the exception of the two reserve goalkeepers (who will almost certainly not feature) this team has played a surprisingly large amount of top flight football.

Those two players aside the squad averages 151.6 top flight games, that’s practically four full seasons. In fact the only two outfield players who have played in less than 38 Premier League games are Walker and Gibbs who, like the two reserve goalkeepers, would be back ups and would be going for their potential rather than their immediate quality, and this really is the key point.

I don’t believe that list is the best 23 English footballers right now; Lampard for example is better than Rodwell, Baines is better than Gibbs, but the England team shouldn’t be about choosing the best 23 individuals, it should be about building a squad, for now and for the future.

With that in mind I would immediately call time on the international careers of Terry, Ferdinand, Lampard, Barry, Crouch, Baines, Zamora, Carrick and Defoe. Their time has passed and it is now time to not select people out of habit or out of gratitude for years served, but to select people for what they could achieve together.

Watching England shouldn’t have to be a dull procession of familiar faces followed by the same feeling of apathy. England aren’t Spain (or lots of other countries for that matter) and of course they don’t have their quality in the first team or their strength in depth – but wouldn’t it be nice to watch England make the most of what they do have?

Wouldn’t it be good to have a bit of vibrancy and optimism injected into the team? There is nothing better than seeing a young player come up through the ranks and with the likes of Hoillet, McEachran, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Wickham, Kelly, Sinclair and Bertrand developing at club level the process doesn’t have to end with these European Championships.

The time has come to go with the cubs in the hope that they will one day grow into lions.

Who would you have in your England squad? Who are the players that have been overlooked or cruelly dumped? Let us know in the comments below.