Bullard for England. Capello gets it right with that one. What about the rest?

Fabio Capello has named his England squad for the two World Cup qualifiers against Andorra and Croatia. With Steve Gerrard, Owen Hargreaves and Michael Carrick all injured it was interesting to see who would get the midfield call up.

The answer was Fulham’s Jimmy Bullard and I was absolutely thrilled. Bullard is twenty-nine and he certainly doesn’t represent the future of English football or anything like that. He is a good, honest pro who is one of the nicest men in the game. Always ready to have a laugh and a joke, he is one of the very rare players in today’s game who plays with a smile on his face.

He is a talented player and deserves this recognition. Two years ago it looked like Bullard’s career might be over when he suffered an horrendous cruciate ligament injury. He missed fifteen months before returning to be one of the main reasons behind Fulham’s remarkable escape from relegation at the end of last season.

It is always nice to see the good guys succeed and Bullard is undoubtedly one of the good guys. He certainly won’t let England down if he does get a chance to win his first cap. He has that rare habit for an England player of passing the ball to someone in the same coloured shirt. Of course, that might confuse the others!

Looking at the rest of the squad there aren’t too many surprises. A few people will feel themselves a little unlucky not to be included and some may be wondering what exactly they have done to earn a call up. We will all have different opinions about whether some of these fringe players should or should not be in the squad but not many of us would argue about the main nucleus he has picked.

Those not included who would have many supporters saying they should be include Michael Owen, Peter Crouch, Jonathan Woodgate and Micah Richards.

Those included who might raise a few eyebrows include Paul Robinson, Wayne Bridge, Matthew Upson, Jermaine Jenas and Emile Heskey.

Owen is clearly nowhere near being the player he used to be and he hasn’t produced his top form for some time. Having said that, he is a name that opponents fear when he appears on the team sheet and these are not fantastic times for the country in terms of quality strikers. Capello watched him play on Saturday and then didn’t select him. He must fear that what has been a wonderful international career might be over.

Peter Crouch must wonder what he has got to do to get a place in the England squad. He isn’t everyone’s idea of an international striker but he does keep scoring goals and causing problems for the opposition. He is now playing regularly and, not for the first time, he has a right to feel hard done by.

Jonathan Woodgate has done little wrong and is in his longest period of continuous fitness for a long time. He would have expected to be included.

Micah Richards burst onto the international scene under Sven Goran-Eriksson but hasn’t managed to impress the new manager quite as much. He will be an England player in the future and he may well wonder why he isn’t one now.

I’m not entirely sure that Paul Robinson has yet done enough to suggest that he has justified a recall to the squad and Wayne Bridge just doesn’t play. Surely their must be a left back who plays first team football who could be called up?

I have nothing against Matthew Upson who performs admirably for West Ham but I cannot see him as an international footballer. Jermaine Jenas is a regular now. We all have different opinions but I must be watching a very different player to the one that Capello keeps selecting! I like Emile Heskey, but come on Fabio, I think he has had a chance or two before.

Basically, Capello has picked a squad that is alright and not much more. He couldn’t have picked a much better one because their aren’t many better players available to him. I would have Richards instead of Wes Brown, Woodgate for Upson, Shorey for Bridge, Crouch for Heskey, Owen for Walcott and absolutely anybody else for Robinson or Jenas.

Having said that, I would be surprised if the actual starting line-ups are very different to those that nearly all of us would pick. You can only do the best with what you have got at your disposal. Mr Capello is paid quite a few million pounds each year to do just that. He is already under-fire from sections of the English media and failure to produce the goods in these two crucial games could lead to turbulent times ahead.

Overall, it is not a bad squad and the players selected should be capable of taking at least four points from the two games. I hope that they do and I hope that Jimmy Bullard earns an England cap.

The squad in full is as follows;

Robinson (Blackburn), James (Portsmouth), Green (West Ham); Lescott (Everton), Bridge (Chelsea), A Cole (Chelsea), Terry (Chelsea), Brown (Manchester United), Ferdinand (Manchester United), Johnson (Portsmouth), Upson (West Ham); Barry (Aston Villa), J Cole (Chelsea), Lampard (Chelsea), Bullard (Fulham), Beckham (Los Angeles Galaxy), Downing (Middlesbrough), Bentley (Tottenham), Jenas (Tottenham); Walcott (Arsenal), Rooney (Manchester United), Defoe (Portsmouth), Heskey (Wigan).