Inclusion of injured players will make England training camp look like a clinic
LAST UPDATED 9:54 AM, MAY 12, 2010
England manager Fabio Capello released the preliminary England squad list of 30 players last night, an announcement somewhat overshadowed by his controversial launch on Monday of the Capello Index.
By Tuesday afternoon, he had performed a swift U-turn under pressure from the FA, postponing the Index until after South Africa, to avoid having to rate his own players less than two hours after they had played in their World Cup matches. But the damage was done and Capello was no longer Mr Perfecto when he came out with his squad. There are surprise inclusions - notably Liverpool's Jamie Carragher and Chelsea's Joe Cole and the uncapped Michael Dawson and Adam Johnson– but whether they will survive the eventual trimming of the squad to 23 remains to be seen.
Carragher retired from international football in 2007, but decided to throw his hat into the ring. Joe Cole's inclusion seems to be based on a half hour cameo in Sunday's match against Wigan. As recently as February, he was described by Capello as "no longer the Joe Cole I remember".
The big issue is the inclusion of players such as Gareth Barry and Aaron Lennon who are either injured or have barely returned from injury – not to mention Ledley King will need the constant attention of physios. The complete squad is listed below the media comments.
WHAT THEY ARE SAYING:
Oliver Kay, the Times: "Experience and character have clearly been huge considerations for Capello. Why else would he have called up Carragher and tried to tempt Scholes back into the fold? Why else would he have called up King, another whose fitness issues had seemed to consign him to the international wilderness. And in each of those cases, the instinct is to say it was the right choice, even if it has shown a glaring lack of faith in those such as Phil Jagielka, Gary Cahill and Jermaine Jenas."
Kevin McCarra, the Guardian: "The manager can no longer talk, as he once did, about taking only fully fit players to the World Cup finals. Standards have to be compromised when significant players carry some affliction or other. The base near Rustenburg may resemble a clinic as much as a training ground."
Henry Winter, the Telegraph: "It will take more than one foolish foray into online gambling for England fans to forget the rout of Croatia in Zagreb, the smooth qualifying passage to the World Cup or the reality that Capello attempts to sculpt something special out of imperfect clay."
Ian Herbert, the Independent: "It is a squad of compromises from a manager who has always preached a mantra of using the players who are fit and who have performed for him, but the injuries which have damaged the build-up have clearly changed all that."
Shaun Custis, the Sun: "The calm air around Capello has got a little blustery. The move to talk Jamie Carragher into playing again was surprising enough but the last-ditch attempt to get Paul Scholes to pull on a Three Lions shirt again after six years in exile was astonishing."
Phil McNulty, BBC online: "Capello openly betrays his uncertainty about England's defensive resources by picking Tottenham captain Ledley King... And even more so by the renewed courting of Jamie Carragher, who is being tempted out of self-imposed England exile and into the same circumstances that forced him there in the first place."
THE ENGLAND SQUAD – PRELIMINARY LIST:
Goalkeepers: Joe Hart (Man City), David James (Portsmouth), Robert Green (West Ham)
Defenders: Leighton Baines (Everton), Jamie Carragher (Liverpool), Ashley Cole (Chelsea), Michael Dawson (Spurs), Rio Ferdinand (Man Utd), Glen Johnson (Liverpool), Ledley King (Spurs), John Terry (Chelsea), Matthew Upson (West Ham), Stephen Warnock (Aston Villa)
Midfielders: Gareth Barry (Man City), Michael Carrick (Man Utd), Joe Cole (Chelsea), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Tom Huddlestone (Spurs), Adam Johnson (Man City), Frank Lampard (Chelsea), Aaron Lennon (Spurs), James Milner (Aston Villa), Scott Parker (West Ham), Theo Walcott (Arsenal), Shaun Wright-Phillips (Man City)
Forwards: Darren Bent (Sunderland), Peter Crouch (Spurs), Jermain Defoe (Spurs), Emile Heskey (Aston Villa), Wayne Rooney (Man Utd)
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