Post by QPR Report on Feb 9, 2009 7:29:25 GMT
Oliver Kay/The Times
England’s lost generation provides concern for 2010Oliver Kay, Football Correspondent
There is a well-known tendency for players to split into cliques when they join up on international duty and, historically, the England squad is certainly no different. Over breakfast at their hotel in Hertfordshire this morning, the Aston Villa trio of James Milner, Ashley Young and Gabriel Agbonlahor will no doubt stick together, although in this instance it may have less to do with club ties than with the unspoken generation gap that exists within the squad.
It is not that they are particularly young; Milner and Young are 23 and Agbonlahor is 22, an age when Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen were well on their way to a half-century of caps. But with the exception of Joe Hart, the 21-year-old goalkeeper, the Villa trio are the youngest players in the squad named by Fabio Capello on Saturday.
There are Stewart Downing and Glen Johnson (both 24), Carlton Cole (25), Phil Jagielka (26) and then a host of players who have either left their mid-twenties behind or are the “wrong” side of 30. Fifteen of the 23 players are aged 27 or over — and this as England build towards a tournament that is 16 months away.
It is, to be blunt, not a young squad. Admittedly the average age would be brought down if Rooney and Theo Walcott were available or if Micah Richards and Aaron Lennon, after dips in form at club level, had not been sent to continue their education in the under-21 team, but it would not be dramatically so. Four of Capello’s most important players — David James, Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard and Emile Heskey — are in their thirties, as is David Beckham, and, by the time the World Cup finals get under way in South Africa in 2010, they will have been joined by Wes Brown and Steven Gerrard. John Terry, Ashley Cole and Gareth Barry will be 29. Even Shaun Wright-Phillips and Joe Cole will be only a few months from their 29th birthdays.
Capello is aware of this and looking to Walcott, Young, Milner and Agbonlahor — and, if they can recover their form, to Richards and Lennon — to rejuvenate the team over the next 16 months, but there remains a generation gap in the England squad, one that cannot be bridged by the call-ups of Jagielka and Carlton Cole, no matter how well they have been playing at club level. Neither player could realistically hope to be in Capello’s starting line-up if the manager had a fully fit squad to choose from.
It is sometimes said that a potential world-class footballer is born every minute, but, of all those born in England between Joe Cole on November 11, 1981, and Walcott on March 16, 1989, almost 7½ years later, only one player has staked an irrefutable claim for a place in England’s starting line-up. Rooney, for it is he, is an exceptional talent in more ways than one.
Call it the lost generation, one that includes Jermain Defoe, Jermaine Jenas, David Bentley, Tom Huddlestone, Lennon, Downing and Johnson, none of whom is established as a first-choice player for England and all of whom either play for or, in the cases of Downing and Johnson, seem destined to play for Tottenham Hotspur. In other words, they do not quite seem to have what it takes to play at the very highest level.
Harry Redknapp, the Tottenham manager, made some intriguing comments about the young generation of English footballers in The Times on Saturday, talking of their apparent lack of hunger, in comparison with players from poorer parts of the world, and of their reliance on agents.
He was not talking specifically about Tottenham players, but White Hart Lane, as perhaps he would acknowledge, has become home to underachieving young English footballers. (Villa Park, for now, is home to the upwardly mobile.)
There is a belief within the FA that the next batch of England youngsters — led by Hart, Walcott, Young, Agbonlahor and Richards, with players such as Michael Mancienne, Jack Wilshere, Fabian Delph, Adam Johnson and Danny Welbeck hopefully not too far behind them — will prove more successful than the lost generation, but there are no guarantees. Mancienne, at 21, has yet to make a first-team appearance for Chelsea, while Hart, disappointingly, seems destined to spend the rest of the season as reserve goalkeeper at Manchester City after Shay Given’s arrival.
For now, Capello has little alternative but to place his trust in the members of the once-maligned “golden generation”, whose time was thought to have passed. Interestingly, he volunteered over the weekend that Gary Neville, 34 next week, had been considered for the match against Spain on Wednesday — in which case the Manchester United captain, having not played for his country for two years, may be disappointed that Johnson and Luke Young were called up as the two right backs — and it would not take a huge leap of faith to suggest that Paul Scholes, 34, and Jamie Carragher, 31, would be in Capello’s thoughts had they not retired from international football.
If ever there was a time for the next generation to step forward, though, it is now. For the young Villa trio, opportunity knocks in Seville as they look to advance their careers to the next level — and that means trying to nail down a place in the England starting line-up and not getting their agents to line up a move to Tottenham.
Fabio Capello entitled to expect help from the club managers?
By his own admission, Fabio Capello feels that he has done Sir Alex Ferguson a favour by leaving a half-fit Wayne Rooney out of the England squad for the friendly match against Spain on Wednesday. Capello has also made clear that he hopes and expects this act to be reciprocated a little farther down the line. Fair enough, but, leaving aside that many of his predecessors have been let down in the past — not just by Ferguson but by all the leading clubs — does Capello have the right to expect a two-way relationship with the club managers? This is a genuine question.
To take part in this week's debate, click here timesonline.typepad.com/thegame/2009/02/is-fabio-capell.html
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/international/article5688573.ece
England’s lost generation provides concern for 2010Oliver Kay, Football Correspondent
There is a well-known tendency for players to split into cliques when they join up on international duty and, historically, the England squad is certainly no different. Over breakfast at their hotel in Hertfordshire this morning, the Aston Villa trio of James Milner, Ashley Young and Gabriel Agbonlahor will no doubt stick together, although in this instance it may have less to do with club ties than with the unspoken generation gap that exists within the squad.
It is not that they are particularly young; Milner and Young are 23 and Agbonlahor is 22, an age when Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen were well on their way to a half-century of caps. But with the exception of Joe Hart, the 21-year-old goalkeeper, the Villa trio are the youngest players in the squad named by Fabio Capello on Saturday.
There are Stewart Downing and Glen Johnson (both 24), Carlton Cole (25), Phil Jagielka (26) and then a host of players who have either left their mid-twenties behind or are the “wrong” side of 30. Fifteen of the 23 players are aged 27 or over — and this as England build towards a tournament that is 16 months away.
It is, to be blunt, not a young squad. Admittedly the average age would be brought down if Rooney and Theo Walcott were available or if Micah Richards and Aaron Lennon, after dips in form at club level, had not been sent to continue their education in the under-21 team, but it would not be dramatically so. Four of Capello’s most important players — David James, Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard and Emile Heskey — are in their thirties, as is David Beckham, and, by the time the World Cup finals get under way in South Africa in 2010, they will have been joined by Wes Brown and Steven Gerrard. John Terry, Ashley Cole and Gareth Barry will be 29. Even Shaun Wright-Phillips and Joe Cole will be only a few months from their 29th birthdays.
Capello is aware of this and looking to Walcott, Young, Milner and Agbonlahor — and, if they can recover their form, to Richards and Lennon — to rejuvenate the team over the next 16 months, but there remains a generation gap in the England squad, one that cannot be bridged by the call-ups of Jagielka and Carlton Cole, no matter how well they have been playing at club level. Neither player could realistically hope to be in Capello’s starting line-up if the manager had a fully fit squad to choose from.
It is sometimes said that a potential world-class footballer is born every minute, but, of all those born in England between Joe Cole on November 11, 1981, and Walcott on March 16, 1989, almost 7½ years later, only one player has staked an irrefutable claim for a place in England’s starting line-up. Rooney, for it is he, is an exceptional talent in more ways than one.
Call it the lost generation, one that includes Jermain Defoe, Jermaine Jenas, David Bentley, Tom Huddlestone, Lennon, Downing and Johnson, none of whom is established as a first-choice player for England and all of whom either play for or, in the cases of Downing and Johnson, seem destined to play for Tottenham Hotspur. In other words, they do not quite seem to have what it takes to play at the very highest level.
Harry Redknapp, the Tottenham manager, made some intriguing comments about the young generation of English footballers in The Times on Saturday, talking of their apparent lack of hunger, in comparison with players from poorer parts of the world, and of their reliance on agents.
He was not talking specifically about Tottenham players, but White Hart Lane, as perhaps he would acknowledge, has become home to underachieving young English footballers. (Villa Park, for now, is home to the upwardly mobile.)
There is a belief within the FA that the next batch of England youngsters — led by Hart, Walcott, Young, Agbonlahor and Richards, with players such as Michael Mancienne, Jack Wilshere, Fabian Delph, Adam Johnson and Danny Welbeck hopefully not too far behind them — will prove more successful than the lost generation, but there are no guarantees. Mancienne, at 21, has yet to make a first-team appearance for Chelsea, while Hart, disappointingly, seems destined to spend the rest of the season as reserve goalkeeper at Manchester City after Shay Given’s arrival.
For now, Capello has little alternative but to place his trust in the members of the once-maligned “golden generation”, whose time was thought to have passed. Interestingly, he volunteered over the weekend that Gary Neville, 34 next week, had been considered for the match against Spain on Wednesday — in which case the Manchester United captain, having not played for his country for two years, may be disappointed that Johnson and Luke Young were called up as the two right backs — and it would not take a huge leap of faith to suggest that Paul Scholes, 34, and Jamie Carragher, 31, would be in Capello’s thoughts had they not retired from international football.
If ever there was a time for the next generation to step forward, though, it is now. For the young Villa trio, opportunity knocks in Seville as they look to advance their careers to the next level — and that means trying to nail down a place in the England starting line-up and not getting their agents to line up a move to Tottenham.
Fabio Capello entitled to expect help from the club managers?
By his own admission, Fabio Capello feels that he has done Sir Alex Ferguson a favour by leaving a half-fit Wayne Rooney out of the England squad for the friendly match against Spain on Wednesday. Capello has also made clear that he hopes and expects this act to be reciprocated a little farther down the line. Fair enough, but, leaving aside that many of his predecessors have been let down in the past — not just by Ferguson but by all the leading clubs — does Capello have the right to expect a two-way relationship with the club managers? This is a genuine question.
To take part in this week's debate, click here timesonline.typepad.com/thegame/2009/02/is-fabio-capell.html
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/international/article5688573.ece