Admin
Admin
Posts : 10
Points : 33
Reputation : 0
Join date : 2010-05-31
Age : 27
Location : Planet Earth
 |  Subject: World Cup 2010: if Theo Walcott's the biggest fall guy England have then we're in trouble  Wed Jun 02, 2010 7:25 am | |
| 
Four years ago people raised quizzical eyebrows at Theo Walcott’s inclusion in England’s World Cup squad. Today the same facial contortions are being made in some quarters at his ‘shock’ exclusion. That’s progress of a sort I suppose.
Just not enough. Walcott himself admits he wasn’t ready to be part of Sven Goran Eriksson’s squad in Germany. A conclusion the Swede himself swiftly came to after a couple of training sessions in Baden-Baden. An unused substitute in 2006, Walcott won’t even see bench time in South Africa.
He can’t say he didn’t get his chance. A starter in all of England’s warm up matches this year, Walcott was uniformly unconvincing. Unfortunately for the Arsenal flier, his replacements – particularly Shaun Wright-Phillips against Egypt and Japan – stated their own case with greater urgency, if not complete conviction. Fabio Capello’s patience with a player he started in every qualifying match, fitness allowing, finally ran out.
Walcott is a bright, personable, intelligent man but his shortcomings are well documented. Pace and poise but little penetration and product. The “lack of a footballing brain” as Chris Waddle perhaps unfairly observed.
An unfortunate string of injuries – he played just 15 times for Arsenal last season due to a variety of ailments – has hampered his development of late but on the balance of what he offers to Capello few can quibble with the Italian’s decision.
Yet some have. Public opinion seems to be split on the most contentious issue of Capello’s fairly predictable selection. Many subscribe to the view of Walcott being more promise than fulfilment, little more prepared for a World Cup now than he was four years ago.
Others, however, bemoan Capello’s pragmatism, suggesting Walcott’s electrifying pace is a weapon not to be so casually discarded when the collective arsenal is largely more pea shooter than bazooka.
And that is perhaps the most telling and revelatory aspect of Walcott’s personal tragedy. For the second World Cup squad announcement in succession, Walcott is the story. The only story. The gnashing of teeth over the inclusion or exclusion of a 21-year-old struggling to find his way at a top Premier League side is the highest drama England’s squad cull can generate.
Those trying to make something out of Stephen Warnock getting the nod over Leighton Baines, or Emile Heskey being deemed England’s fourth best striker rather than Darren Campbell are likely to be left with bloody fingers from all their barrel scrapping.
The paucity of England’s squad depth is laid bare by the most cursory of comparisons to the other teams heading to South Africa with genuine aspirations on becoming world champions and their own selection dilemmas.
Spain retain their favourites’ mantle without the services of Marcos Senna, a man integral to their 2008 European Championship victory. Brazil left out Alexandre Pato and Ronaldinho. The Dutch find no room for Ruud van Nistelrooy.
Even France, a team blighted by an eccentric and unpopular coach and a worrying run of form, discarded Smir Nasri and Karim Benzema without people taking to the streets in frenzied protest.
In the run up to Diego Maradona’s final cut there was much debate in Argentina over the possibility of Sergio Aguero or Diego Milito missing out. That’s a player who helped Atletico Madrid to win the Europa League and a man whose goals lit up a dank, dark Champions League final. As Hobson’s choices go, Bent versus Emile Heskey it is not (and in the end the problem was solved by including five strikers and taking them both).
In truth Capello’s squad virtually picked itself; or, rather, trimmed itself down. Scott Parker can perhaps consider himself unlucky not to have been auditioned for the Gareth Barry role, even if it is to be available only for opening night against USA. But other than that there was little drama. Walcott/Wright-Phillips, Wright-Phillips/Walcott. That decision is never likely to haunt Capello, whichever way he had erred.
At least now the phoney, civil war is over. The casualties have been wrought. The chosen few assembled for the final push. Any internecine squabbling can be forgotten. The time now is to face the world and compare what we have to what they hold.
And at first glance, judging by the brutality of squad selection elsewhere when compared to the parochial blood letting on these shores, that’s quite a lot.
Tags: england, fabio capello, shaun wright-phillips, South Africa, squad, Theo Walcott, World Cup 2010 | |
|
Nero
Posts : 2
Points : 4
Reputation : 0
Join date : 2010-06-01
Age : 27
Location : Impact-Universe
| | Subject: Re: World Cup 2010: if Theo Walcott's the biggest fall guy England have then we're in trouble Sun Jun 06, 2010 7:46 am | |
| Lol and rio ferdinand To is injured leg injurey..  | |
|
