England squad farce certainly confuses me

How many more chances?

Fabio Capello names his twenty-three man squad and no sooner has he done so than keeper Paul Robinson and defender Wes Brown have both withdrawn from the squad and from international football as a whole.

Surprised

Then, at the Community Shield game on Sunday, it was clear that Capello was surprised that Michael Carrick was playing as he had left him out due to injury. It really would seem that the communication between the England management and the players leaves a little to be desired.

You have to look at the reasons that Robinson and Brown were called up in the first place and then at the reasons why they have withdrawn. Robinson says he doesn’t want to be third or fourth choice keeper and Brown says he wants to move aside to let a younger player take his place.

Future

Paul Robinson is thirty years old, has forty-one England caps and has been playing at the top level for twelve years. Just a few weeks ago Fabio Capello rated David James, Robert Green and Joe Hart above Robinson. If Capello has decided to discard Green and James then I fully support him in that, but what is the point in recalling Robinson now? Surely this is the time to look to the future, not the past.

Likewise, Wes Brown is also thirty years old. He has twenty-three England caps and has also been at the top for twelve years. An ageing and slowing Jamie Carragher was hauled out of retirement rather than Brown being selected a few weeks ago yet Capello now thinks he is the man to take England forward?

Fiasco

After the fiasco in South Africa Capello has to create a new team now that he can guide and nurture towards the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. They need to gel quickly and gather the experience of four years at international level together and playing in the Euros, before tackling the big one.

You have to support the selection of Joe Hart, Ben Foster, Gary Cahill, Michael Dawson, Kieran Gibbs, Glen Johnson, Phil Jagielka, Adam Johnson, James Milner, Ashley Young, Theo Walcott, Jack Wilshire, Carlton Cole, Darren Bent and Wayne Rooney. That is fifteen players who deserve a chance and are young enough to play on for several years.

Nothing

Also in the squad however are Ashley Cole 29, John Terry 29, Gareth Barry 29, Steve Gerrard 30 and Frank Lampard 32. That is five players who will be in their mid-thirties come the next World Cup who have three hundred and fifty-one caps between them and have won or come close to winning absolutely nothing. Surely it is a fair question to ask what they are still doing there?

As for Bobby Zamora, well he deserves his chance but at twenty-nine years old and with twenty-six goals in eighty-five games for Fulham it is also doubtful as to whether he is the future of English football.

Argument

I know there is a strong argument to say that you need to keep experienced players in alongside the younger ones, but these are experienced players who have experienced nothing but failure at international level. If the younger players are played every game from now on they will be experienced and young come the next World Cup. It worked for Germany!

I just fail to understand why players like Joe Cole and Aaron Lennon have been discarded without having much of a chance to show what they could do, yet players who have had every chance and blown it are still getting picked.

Can anybody help?