Blog Archives
England’s Goalkeepers
Goalkeeper is a position traditionally regarded as one of England’s strongest, spawning such greats of the game as Gordon Banks, Peter Shilton and David Seaman. In recent years however the selection of England’s last line of defence has been a source of much debate and indecision. With the flamboyant David James’ international career now resigned to the history books, in the first of our week-long series, we look at the new pretenders to the crown and assess who is best placed to bring the much needed stability and longevity to the England rearguard.
Whilst Capello and the press look like hypocrites, Terry emerges as the only credible alternative
Fabio Capello is today set to reappoint John Terry as England Captain, at the expense of Rio Ferdinand and Steven Gerrard, both injured for the upcoming European Championship Qualifying match against Wales. If the reports are to be believed – and Capello seemed quite forthright on the subject in interviews yesterday – then such a decision would be a major about turn for the England manager. Capello however, is not the only one to be performing a swift about-face on the England captaincy. The national press, so scathing a little over a year ago when Terry was exposed as having partaken in an affair with a former team-mate’s girlfriend are, with a few notable exceptions, championing his decision to hand it back, as the right and proper thing to do. Martin Samuel of the Daily Mail, who last year urged Terry to fall on his sword before Capello got there first, today called Terry “England’s natural leader” now leads the praise for Capello’s actions. However, is it the right decision to give the philandering Chelsea skipper the armband for a second time and why are the press so eager to conveniently forget their condemnation of little more than a year ago?
A defence under attack
In the last three international finals for which England have qualified, the Three Lions were undermined by injuries to the players tasked with producing the spark of creativity to settle the tightest of matches against the top sides.
