England Squad

McClaren has announced his team for Germany next week:-

Robinson (Tottenham), James (Portsmouth), Carson (Liverpool, on loan at Aston Villa), Richards (Manchester City), Brown (Manchester United), Ferdinand (Manchester United), Terry (Chelsea), Ashley Cole (Chelsea), Campbell (Portsmouth), Taylor (Newcastle), Neville (Everton), Shorey (Reading), Beckham (LA Galaxy), Gerrard (Liverpool), Lampard (Chelsea), Joe Cole (Chelsea), Wright-Phillips (Chelsea), Carrick (Manchester United), Barry (Aston Villa), Downing (Middlesbrough), Dyer (West Ham), Hargreaves (Manchester United), Smith (Newcastle), Owen (Newcastle), Crouch (Liverpool), Bent (Tottenham), Johnson (Everton), Defoe (Tottenham).

I'm glad to see Carragher has not re joined the squad and that show's the guy has principle, but why McClaren decided to undermine the honour of playing for your country by going and begging him to play I don't know. its also good to see James and Campbell back in the squad, two players who have never turned their backs on England despite some pretty cruel treatment at times by the media. James is still the best keeper in the country, when he puts his mind to it.

I am also gratified the Bently has been punished for the shoddy way he treated the U21's. The European Championships were possibly the only International tournament that he would play in during his career but he shunned it, but worse than that he turned the place down after the door had closed for new players to be included, so the england squad was effectively one player less than the other squads, because one little darling felt that he was too tired to play. It must be something about Blackburn, because I think it was during his time there that chris Sutton refused to play in a B International because he was too good for B Internationals, well it did wonders for is International career.

Despite the faltering start to their season Spurs have Defoe and Robinson, plus Darren in the team. You just know that Darren is not going to get a look in. I firmly believe that Bents progress has been hindered by his frequent non playing call ups to the England squad, apart from the sapping of morale as he flies to dressing rooms all around Europe and Svens crazy decision to leave him out of Germany, he could have gained more experience by playing for the U21's while able to experiencing playing against different styles in foreign lands.

Hollywood is represented by an inured David Beckham, I mean WTF is he doing flying over here,when he flew to USA the altitude or plane pressure affected his ankle and having hyped up his arrival on the american scene, he should now be concentrating on getting his ankle better and putting on a few performances of 90 minutes on the field in US of A, not attending meaningless friendlies over here.

Carson is also in the squad and Ben Foster is not, justifying Carsons insistence on going out on loan, interestingly enough Wigans ex Liverpool accident prone keeper is not in the squad, injured again or Just a lost cause.

I can't really see myself spending too much time watching the Germany game.