The ‘madness’ of Ledley King’s selection

Ledley King was selected by Fabio Capello for his current England squad. He has now left the England set up and returned to Tottenham saying that he is likely to retire from international football. He returned to his club after the England medical staff assessed his injury.

Row

The Club v Country row has been going on in England for as long as I can remember. As an England fan I am always disheartened by the withdrawal of top players with very dodgy sounding injuries that are nearly always healed sufficiently for the player to play for his club in the next game.

Having said that, as a club fan, I would be most upset if one of our top players was injured representing his country in a basically meaningless friendly game. (Not likely to happen being a Watford supporter, but I can imagine!)

Withdrew

I could understand why Fabio Capello wanted Steve Gerrard to travel to London after he withdrew from the last squad, just to ensure that the injury was one that would prevent him from playing, but I could equally understand why Liverpool would have been furious that their injured prize asset was treated in that way.

The whole situation needs a bit of give and take on both sides, which is why I absolutely fail to understand Fabio Capello’s selection of Tottenham’s Ledley King in his latest squad.

Loss

King is an exceptional player of that there is no doubt. He would have played many more than nineteen internationals if he had managed to remain injury free. He is a class act and his injuries have been a huge loss to England over the years.

King is twenty-eight years old and has nothing to prove as a player. England have Phil Jagielka, Joleon Lescott, Matthew Upson, Rio Ferdinand and John Terry alongside him in the squad. Add the likes of Micah Richards, Michael Dawson, Jonathan Woodgate, Ryan Shawcross, Steven Taylor and Curtis Davies and you can see that centre-half is not a problem position for Capello.

Injury

We all know that King doesn’t train with the rest of the Tottenham team because of a knee injury. He only joins his team-mates the day before a game so that he can be aware of tactics, set plays and other important match day information.

Any physical exercise causes his knee to become painful and swollen meaning that he can never play more than one game a week and sometimes even less than that. To say that Tottenham have to wrap him up in cotton wool to get any service from him is an understatement.

Veteran

So what could Fabio Capello have been thinking of when he selected him in the squad? He doesn’t need to see if the twenty-eight year old veteran of over two hundred Tottenham performances and nineteen internationals is good enough surely? He certainly must have known that there was no way he could play on Saturday and then again in midweek. He also must have known that he wouldn’t get more than one training session out of him.

So, did Capello think that Tottenham were lying about him? Was this another message to club managers not to mess with Fabio?

Madness

Whatever it was, I’m pretty sure that it will make Harry Redknapp less happy and willing to bend over backwards to help the England manager in the future. When the selection was announced Harry Redknapp described it as ‘madness’. His protestations appear to have been listened to and accepted, but I do not understand why he was forced to make them.

The original selection makes absolutely no sense unless Capello was unaware of the basic facts that any football fan in England and probably around the world would know.

Knowledge

So was it a lack of knowledge, lack of trust, lack of thought, deliberate annoyance or trying to send a message to the clubs?

Whichever one of those it was I don’t think I particularly like it. It now appears to have backfired on Capello and he will have caused damage to the crucial relationship he has to have with the Premier League managers.