Bleak times ahead for England

If you wanted to know the reasons that England are struggling at international level you only need to take a look at the current England squad for their friendly against Denmark on Wednesday.

Now that Steven Gerrard, Peter Crouch and Ben Foster have all been released because of injuries and Gabby Agbonlahor has not joined up with the party for personal reasons, the squad looks average at best.

Goalkeepers:

Joe Hart. Top young keeper with a long international future.
David Stockdale. Fulham reserve.
Robert Green. Surely no comments required!

Defenders:

Glen Johnson. Dubious international pedigree. Playing left back for Liverpool, right back for England.
John Terry. International class, but probably past his best and tried and failed at international level.
Gary Cahill. Untried.
Joleon Lescott. Manchester City reserve. Not good enough.
Ashley Cole. International class. 30 years old. Tried and failed at international level.
Michael Dawson. Potentially top class but 27 already and struggles with injury.
Leighton Baines. Good Premier League player but has failed to step up a level in the past.
Kyle Walker. Promising player but called up after just three or four Premier League games.

Midfield:

Gareth Barry. Capello must be the only man in England who thinks Barry is international class.
Stewart Downing. Been around the England squad for six years. Never quite been good enough and no better now than he ever was.
Frank Lampard. Too old and never fulfilled his international potential despite earning eighty-three caps.
James Milner. Manchester City reserve. No more than a journeyman.
Scott Parker. Great player for West Ham but 30 years old and not really deemed good enough before now.
Theo Walcott. In and out of the Arsenal side, but a genuinely good player. Has shown he can do it at international level.
Jack Wilshere. A very promising young player who deserves his chance.
Ashley Young. A fine Premier League player but hasn’t been able to reproduce it yet for England.

Strikers:

Darren Bent. Great Premier League striker but another who looks out of his depth in international football.
Carlton Cole. West Ham reserve.
Jermain Defoe. Has done it in internationals but in poor form.
Wayne Rooney. World class but woefully short of his best.
That may be a very harsh assessment of the squad, but I think it is realistic. There is very little in that group of players that fills me, as an England fan, with any optimism that the title winning drought is likely to end any time soon.
From the squad I would say that Joe Hart, Theo Walcott, Jack Wilshire and Wayne Rooney are the only ones who could take England to the top. I suppose you could add the potential of Gary Cahill and Kyle Walker, but that is far from clear and it stops there. Steven Gerrard would be worthy of a place in the team and Ashley Cole is probably still good enough to persevere with.
I fear that we could be in for a fairly bleak time at international level following the debacle of last Summer’s World Cup.